E2 process

[johnandmariauk]

Has anybody come accross the new E2 procedure at the London Embassy? It would appear that the embassy has stopped doing the 'pre-qualifaication' whereby you lined up a business subject to E2, got the visa and then completed the business purchase. I tried to get an interview date but was told they don't do them now. It seems that now you have to buy the business and then hope that you get an E2 afterwards. Not a very comfortable prospect - what happens if you buy the business and then don't get the E2? Scary, or what?

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by johnandmariauk
Has anybody come accross the new E2 procedure at the London Embassy? It would appear that the embassy has stopped doing the "pre-qualifaication" whereby you lined up a business subject to E2, got the visa and then completed the business purchase. I tried to get an interview date but was told they don't do them now. It seems that now you have to buy the business and then hope that you get an E2 afterwards. Not a very comfortable prospect - what happens if you buy the business and then don't get the E2? Scary, or what?

[/quote]

You have to buy the business subject to getting your visa.......

[esprit]

Too scary!!! Buying the business subject to getting the visa, we have always done but are you saying you have to close on it before getting the visa as previously you put your money in ecrow but it was refundable and you didnt close unless you were successful?? Closing before getting the visa is too risky. If you close and dont get the visa, what chance is there of the seller taking it back off you. None!! And if you buy the business and there is a delay in processing the visa, your staff will be here rudderless unless you are lucky enough to have a seller who will stay on for transition. You could well arrive to NO business with your staff having lost you the contracts or even worse have pinched your contracts.

This is yet another example of how difficult the E2 visa is. Now on renewal of E2 visa, apparently you cannot do it here in Texas any more but have to go back to the London embassy. They interview you and then mail your passport back to you. Firstly few people on E2 renewal still have a UK address, secondly it could take a week or more. Someones business could go to rack and ruin in that time. This is yet another example of total disregard by immigration for the realities of life on a business visa. And is yet another example of how they dont care, because people on an E2 are just tolerated. Sorry off the soapbox now. Most of you know I am on an E2 and not a great fan of it.

[steph_goodrum]

". Firstly few people on E2 renewal still have a UK address, secondly it could take a week or more. "

Presumably though Julie you would have to have either a relatives address where you are staying or an hotel because you wouldn't be able to go back to the States (or anywhere else) until they had sent your passport back as you wouldn't be able travel out of the country.

[esprit]

You are right, Steph. It would need to be sent back to a hotel which means staying in the Holiday Inn or wherever until it arrives and you wouldnt even know when it was going to arrive. And how could you book return flights?? . How sensible is that?

[johnandmariauk]

I just phoned the embassy again to try and get some clarification. It seems that the way they want us to go is that we get the business into escrow, then submit the paperwork to the embassy. They then scrutinise the package, which can take 12 to 16 weeks or more, and then, if they think the business is suitable for E2, they ask us in for an interview. I am not sure how many people selling a business would be willing to wait that long. I tried to make an appointment for an interview, as was the system, but they flatly refused.
Its nice to feel wanted!

[blott]

That's just exactly the whole point, they don't want you and make life as difficult as they can to get there. It gets worse once you get there as life is double difficult as you're still classed as a non-resident alien.

Just remember, when buying a business, to make the contract subject to getting a visa and, apart from that, it doesn't really sound as if much has changed in the process.

[chrizzy100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by blott
That's just exactly the whole point, they don't want you and make life as difficult as they can to get there. It gets worse once you get there as life is double difficult as you're still classed as a non-resident alien.

Just remember, when buying a business, to make the contract subject to getting a visa and, apart from that, it doesn't really sound as if much has changed in the process.
[/quote]
The last few years have been hard on a lot of middle class Americans.....they see Tech jobs going to places like India.......and they see people still coming in and getting jobs they could do......I think its just going to get harder and harder to get a visa of any sort in the future......

[Seminole]

Absolutely true Chrizzy. Three million white collar jobs lost in the US since Bush went into the White House. Personal bankruptcies among Floridians at an all-time high. The real estate training schools are jammed with Americans who have lost middle management jobs, computer programming etc positions.

The painful truth is that people with the "anywhere but the UK" view will have a terrible time in Florida. If you were not entreprenuerial and successful in business in the UK, don't think that things will be different by moving 4000 miles to a foreign country and setting up a business there. Points to consider:

1. Many E2 visa holders are buying businesses in fields already saturated with UK owners. Pool companies, maintenance and management firms, lawn services etc - there are literally hundreds of them in the Disney tourist corridor. Dee O'Bryan of the state licensing agency estimates something close to 700 management companies alone. Unlike Spain, there are only approximately 14,000 vacation properties owned in the area, mostly by UK owners. The competition is intense.

2. UK business owners do not form the kind of tight trade associations or groups marked by other groups such as Vietnamese-Americans or Korean-Americans. These other groups have members who actively help eachother and work to see that they survive and thrive. So you do not have that kind of social safety net.

3. Many UK owners actually had a reasonably comfortable life at home. As odd as this may sound, that puts you at a disadvantage. Many UK owners talk about wanting the sun, to have a "better lifestyle" and then go over to open a restaurant only to find that the two other competiting restaurants nearby are run by immigrants from El Salvador or Korea and who had absolutely nothing in their home countries and think nothing of working 16 hour days, seven days a week. It matters not to them whether it is raining or sunny outside. I've a friend originally from Blackpool, quite educated, who bought a Kissimmee management company and who said to me that if someone had told him that he would be cleaning toilets for the first five years of his Florida stay, he doubted he would have purchased the business.

Can you make a go of it? Of course. Many UK owners have. But it takes a lot of stamina and a very special drive to succeed and to overcome the many obstacles to success that will be in your way.

[esprit]

The process you describe is how it always had been John and Maria and is what I did. It is no different. You have to do it that way or you wont get E2. Most sellers know the score and will wait.

SEMINOLE, FANTASTIC REPLY!!!! Just glad that you penned it not me. I could have said the same thing but am seen as a killjoy on here. So it is great to have back up. Everything you said is ABSOLUTELY TRUE. With some exceptions ( and I have a few good friends here), far from setting up social groups or trade associations the Brits are often the ones who stab each other in the back. That is because we are all going after the same work. And what Seminole says is true about the intense competition, often from people more suited to the work than we are. In lawncare, the Mexicans have it sown up. They will work and work out in the sun, no problem, when the Brits wilt away. Same with hispanics in cleaning, willing to graft 24/7/ And Asians in the 7/11s.

Real estate schools. Florida is producing 150 realtors a week, all looking to make a quick killing. Many of them ex man cos and poolcare people who discover they can make as much on selling one house as in six month cleaning toilets or pools. But there aint enough homes to go around all the new realtors!

And what you say about a comfortable lifetsyle at home is true. My husband was a compouter consultant in the UK. I was a volunteer welfare rights advisor. I now clean toilets and Terry cleans pools, paints decks and unblocks toilets. It is a huge lifestyle change. If you want a business here, look to something you would have wanted to do in the UK not just to what will get you a visa because you may end up doing it for life.