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esprit
10-06-2003, 22:04
I know a fair bit about applying for these two visas through experience so would be willing to answer questions as best I can.

sarahjk
11-08-2003, 02:30
Hi julie

We have been looking at emmigrating to US for a while and have looked at the various avenues over and over E2 looks like the best one to go for but still a bit confused on the amounts required to purchase a buisness that allows you to go on the visa and the total cost involved for solicitors and such

We are not looking at going for another couple of years we want to be sure we and the kids are ready first

Can you help

mumsey
30-09-2003, 17:42
hello, we have spoken to an attorney in the states because we want to move to Florida, he has suggested the L1 visa would be the way to go. But we want to set up our own management company and look after other people holiday homes.
at the moment i own a small swimming club, and my husband works for transco, formally british gas. he has been in the same job for 24 years and now we both want a better way of life.
we feel let down with this country and goverment, and feel that we could make a better life for us and our children in florida. we have bought a house in Crescent Lakes due for compleation end of October.
now the attorney has said that because i own a small swimming club we could use this for the L1 visa. we could not afford to have a large swimming pool built and a builiding and everything else that goes with it, although i think that learning to swim is the best thing that children can be tought.
does anyone have any ideas on the best way of getting a permanant residency visa and a "green card"?:D

esprit
30-09-2003, 20:18
L1 is for people who have a sizeable business back in the UK which will continue to trade whilst you are in Florida. It must have bona fide employees left behind ( not just family members) and be turning over a substantial amount of money. We were told that the £80,000 my husband was turning over as a computer consultant was not enough for us to get a L1 and we had to go E2 so how much does the swimnming club make a year?? I have to say though that getting an L1 for an initial 12 months is not the problem, it is getting it renewed after that. Because you can apply for a green card after renewal, they are considerably pickier when investigating your UK business ( which has to still be trading at the same level 12 months on) upon renewal. We know of some people who ended up back in the UK with a house and trucks still here.

Be careful with attorneys, you will always be able to find someone who will tell you what you want to hear because they want the business. Check with 5 or 6, both in the UK and the US. If they all say it is feasable, go for it. Be very wary of attorneys who want paying a substantial amount up front for applying for a visa for you.

You can now get a visa for management on an E2 as well as an L1 as long as it is a proper trading company and not a number of accounts purchased. However it is not the easiest route to get an E2. It is difficult to get a green card on E2, much easier on L1. L1 is definitely the better route but it has to be a "kosher" L1 or you have the sword of Damocles hanging over your head. Since 9/11, getting an L1 is consideranly more difficult. It used to be that you could just get some business cards and stationery printed and say you are a business. That doesnt work now!!!

Sorry I missed replying to the previous post on E2. The investment has to be substantial and the owner benefit substantial. There is no definition of this but the figures usually used are $100,000 plus investment making $60,000-70,000 in owner benefit. I have known people get in with less if it appears to be a good business. And you also need at least one preferably more American employee.

chrizzy100
30-09-2003, 21:30
quote:Originally posted by mumsey

hello, we have spoken to an attorney in the states because we want to move to Florida, he has suggested the L1 visa would be the way to go. But we want to set up our own management company and look after other people holiday homes.
at the moment i own a small swimming club, and my husband works for transco, formally british gas. he has been in the same job for 24 years and now we both want a better way of life.
we feel let down with this country and goverment, and feel that we could make a better life for us and our children in florida. we have bought a house in Crescent Lakes due for compleation end of October.
now the attorney has said that because i own a small swimming club we could use this for the L1 visa. we could not afford to have a large swimming pool built and a builiding and everything else that goes with it, although i think that learning to swim is the best thing that children can be tought.
does anyone have any ideas on the best way of getting a permanant residency visa and a "green card"?:D


One important thing is the age of your children......they have to be under 21 to come over on yours or your husbands visa.......and they need to be still under 21 or at school if you want them to stay and you all don't have your greencards...my daughter got her card just a few months before her 21st after our attorney noticed she would time out in a few years and we'd not even started getting our greencard.....most companies like you to work for them around 3 years first....we had been here a few months.......lucky everyone went to work quick....

esprit
30-09-2003, 23:12
While we are on the subjects of kids on visas, get a load of this. They can stay with you until 21 provided they are in US eduction, otherwise they can be sent back at 18. This happened to a management agent who had been here for 12 years we heard through the grapevine. Her son aged 18 had been here from the age of 6 years old and must be as American as apple pie and hardly able to remember the UK. There is no flexibility, leniency or common sense attached to it. Moreover a UK child on a visa going to University is classed as an international student for fees purposes not as a resident. The fees per annum for a Florida resident US citizen or green card holder are around $2,500 per annum, for a International student around $12,000 so six times as much. My son now just turned 18 wants to be a physiotherapist which is a four year course as it is a post grad qualification here. We think he will train as a nurse ( a 2 year associate degree course) and work for a while to get a green card, before going on to do the final two years in plysical therapy hopefully at green card holders fee rates. Bringing a child with you to live in Florida takes some real thinking about.

chrizzy100
30-09-2003, 23:20
quote:Originally posted by esprit

While we are on the subjects of kids on visas, get a load of this. They can stay with you until 21 provided they are in US eduction, otherwise they can be sent back at 18. This happened to a management agent who had been here for 12 years we heard through the grapevine. Her son aged 18 had been here from the age of 6 years old and must be as American as apple pie and hardly able to remember the UK. There is no flexibility, leniency or common sense attached to it. Moreover a UK child on a visa going to University is classed as an international student for fees purposes not as a resident. The fees per annum for a Florida resident US citizen or green card holder are around $2,500 per annum, for a International student around $12,000 so six times as much. My son now just turned 18 wants to be a physiotherapist which is a four year course as it is a post grad qualification here. We think he will train as a nurse ( a 2 year associate degree course) and work for a while to get a green card, before going on to do the final two years in plysical therapy hopefully at green card holders fee rates. Bringing a child with you to live in Florida takes some real thinking about.


That must be new..or it was a time for a visa renewal for him..my daughter came over with us at 18.....she was not at school or work for the first 3 years nearly..till her greencard came.....about 6 months before her 21st......I would never tell anyone it was a good idea to move here without a greencard in the offering years before your oldest child was 18 if thats now the case.....

esprit
01-10-2003, 05:09
They had a renewal just as he turned 18, Chrizzy. He was not renewed and given notice to leave. It was just unfortunate timing. If they could have got through the renewal when he was seventeen, I guess he would have been OK for a while but you cant apply more than three months early.

mumsey
02-10-2003, 16:12
my swimming club unfortunately doesn't turnover that amount, i wish it did!!!! my children are 11, 5 and 2.
my husband works for Transco a sub of British Gas. he has been in the same job for 24years, and i am wondering if there are companies that anyone knows of in Kissimmee, that do the sort of things that Transo do, ie, repairing meters, plumbing etc etc.
i am losing so much faith in ever moving to Florida.
what i cannot understand is why people in N. Ireland (part of the UK) can apply for the lottery. whereas people living in England cannot.
we have worked hard, we do not sponge of the state and yet because we are not amazingly rich we cannot get in.
we have the same goals and same ideas as the Americans, we goto war side by side we are allies, but still the US goverment do not want us in their country.
i would prefer to sponsor an American citizen than somebody from any other country. Is my sentiments in the majority.
i have even emailed Jeb Bush without much success. And when i emailed President Bush on the subject i just got an automated reply.
CRAZY WORLD WE LIVE IN

blott
02-10-2003, 16:55
I just have to say this and that is not everyone from the Middle East (or anywhere else for that matter) is a trouble maker. Every country (including the UK) probably has its own extremists of some sort but they are usually in a minority so I am not in favour of 'blacklisting' entire populations out of hand. The US runs its own country according to its own rules, in much the same way as we do in the UK and that includes immigration issues.

Anyway, back to immigration to the US. US companies have to make a case for employing an 'alien' and go through mounds of paperwork to prove that there is no-one in the US who could do a job before offering it to someone, for instance from the UK. Can't blame them for that I guess as their unemployed come before immigrants. So, basically, you or your partner need to be highly qualified in some specialist field in order to gain local employment and be accepted for immigration, ie nursing.

Northern Ireland residents are able to apply for the lottery as the US treats this as part of Ireland (not the UK) and the reason the UK can't apply is because there are the 50,000 quota of immigrants from the UK each year.

If you have a home in the UK you could sell this to raise the money to purchase a business in the US and apply for an E2 visa for you and your husband to work in the business. At the moment, this looks like your only possible way of emigration to US.

esprit
02-10-2003, 18:15
There are very few people in the UK who cannot raise the $100,000 ( $62,500) needed to invest in a business here to get E2 by selling uo their UK home. That is the nature of the British property market. It is what everyone here has done. With kids the age of yours, if they go right through the US education process, onto college and out into graduate jobs, they will almost certainly eventually get green cards and be able to sponsor you. It is a long haul, but it is one which all E2 people have to face. I know of some eminent management agents who have been here for years sho are still on E2.
I do agree about the lottery ( it galls me too every time I look at it, although I know the reasons why) but it is only about a one in 50 chance anyway so not that much of a loss.
That reminds me, Roger?? Did yours get drawn yet?

chrizzy100
02-10-2003, 21:38
quote:Originally posted by mumsey

my swimming club unfortunately doesn't turnover that amount, i wish it did!!!! my children are 11, 5 and 2.
my husband works for Transco a sub of British Gas. he has been in the same job for 24years, and i am wondering if there are companies that anyone knows of in Kissimmee, that do the sort of things that Transo do, ie, repairing meters, plumbing etc etc.
i am losing so much faith in ever moving to Florida.
what i cannot understand is why people in N. Ireland (part of the UK) can apply for the lottery. whereas people living in England cannot.
we have worked hard, we do not sponge of the state and yet because we are not amazingly rich we cannot get in.
we have the same goals and same ideas as the Americans, we goto war side by side we are allies, but still the US goverment do not want us in their country.
i would prefer to sponsor an American citizen than somebody from any other country. Is my sentiments in the majority.
i have even emailed Jeb Bush without much success. And when i emailed President Bush on the subject i just got an automated reply.
CRAZY WORLD WE LIVE IN


Your kids are all a great age to move over to here.....my young son was 11...and he's a little yank now at 15....
The IT field is the only one I know about......there will be companies in the gas field but the way its done in England and the way its done in the USA may mean that your husbands 24 years in the job would not count for anything.....but its worth a try.....look online......if I get time I'll also look.....there is a Man Power employment company down in FL.....I think I have the number.....it could be worth a ring......



www.manpowerprofessionals.com/orlando

407-857-6161

If you make out a CV.....and put it online...make sure you add a letter saying that you can pay your own way over......that is if you can....its hard to get a company to move you from one State to another...I'm not sure anyone would pay for you to move over here anymore.....unless you hit lucky.....

Lets just say...we never thought we would get here.....my husband has no degree or anything....he was 40.....but we're here.....so keep trying I'm really not sure if Manpower would be of any help....but they may point you somewhere else.....