
You may be an entrepreneur who primarily conducts business in countries outside of the United States. However, if you become more eager to expand your business scope, you may be interested in penetrating the U.S. market soon enough. Well, you may be happy to hear that the U.S. may actually welcome your business. That is, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offers investor visas (i.e., E-1 and E-2 visas) to allow business owners like yourself to bring themselves and their employees to this country. With that being said, please read on to discover how to apply for a U.S. investor visa and how a seasoned E-1 & E-2 investor visa attorney in Milwaukee, WI, at Sesini Law Group, S.C. can work to ensure this visa type is effectively granted to you.
What is the purpose of a U.S. investor visa?
Essentially, an E-1 or E-2 investor visa may grant temporary resident status to foreign investors who satisfy certain criteria. Specifically, such criteria are as follows:
- A foreign investor must be a citizen of a country with which the U.S. has a treaty of commerce or navigation.
- A foreign investor must plan for a business with at least 50 percent owned by nationals of the treaty country.
- A foreign investor must be involved in substantial trade, especially between the U.S. and the treaty country.
- A foreign investor must be invested or plan to invest a substantial amount of capital in the business.
- A foreign investor must be employed in a managerial or supervisory role in the business.
With this visa type, a foreign investor may become self-employed in the U.S. for up to two years; and this may be renewed and extended for additional two-year increments so long as said eligibility criteria are continually met. Further, a foreign investor’s spouse and unmarried children below the age of 21 may also receive a green card at this time. With this, they may be eligible for employment authorization.
How can I approach applying for a U.S. investor visa?
When attempting to obtain an E-1 or E-2 visa, you must start by filling out and filing Form DS-160, Online Nonimmigrant Application. You may access this form on the Consular Electronic Application Center’s website. Importantly, when submitting this form, you must also pay the required $1,015 fee. This is not to mention the subsequent investment costs that inevitably come with this visa approval. Namely, there is the cost of starting a new business, buying a franchise, purchasing an existing business, etc. All of this to say, please ensure you have the financial capability to pursue this visa application before you follow through with it.
Soon after filing, you may get an interview schedule with the U.S. embassy or consulate in your home country. You must bring the required and relevant documents to the interview, along with properly preparing for the questions you might be posed. Hopefully, within two to three months, you may get word that your petition for an investor visa has been approved.
We hope that this blog offers the insight you were searching for. For more information, we encourage you to contact one of the competent Wisconsin immigration attorneys from Sesini Law Group, S.C. today.