When people think about investor visas to the United States, they usually think that the foreign investor must either invest USD $50,000.00 or USD $1.0 million. This is not correct.

In our opinion, these two categories of visas are the most misunderstood categories there are. Even immigration lawyers fotentimes use the wrong standard to determine whether an investment is sufficient for immigration pruporses.

E-2 Nonimmigrant Visas

Most people think that a foreign national must invest at least USD $50,000.00 in order to qualify for an E-2 visa. This is not correct. The confusion lies in the fact that U.S. State Department regulations uses a USD $50,00.00 investment as an example of a significant investment. Because of this, most people think that this is the minimum investment required.

The actual standard (simplfied) is: "Sufficient funds to make it likely that the investment will succed within five years". Depending upon the type of investment, this could be a very small amount. For example, if an investor purchases a retail business, then the investment is the cost of the business. However, if the investor sets up a service-based company, such as a design company or software development company, then the costs associated with starting this type of company can be minimal. This is because the "hard costs" assocaited with purchasing equipment, etc., is minimal.

This is also why even recent college graduates can obtain an E-2 investor visa when there are no standard work visas available.

Because of this, we believe that the E-2 visa category is one of the most flexible business visas available. This visa can be used by anyone from 76 different countries who wish to invest in the United States by opening a business. Some of the benefits of this visa include:

• The E-2 visa can be used by individuals or multinational corporations.
• For corporations, the E-2 visa is more flexible with regard to bringing in employees than the L-1B intra-company transfer visa.
• Contrary to common belief, the investment can be minimal so long as the investment is in an active, operating company (i.e., you cannot use an E-2 visa for passive investments, such as real estate investments).
• Recent college students can use the E-2 visa to open a company and remain in the United States. This is essential if the number of H-1B work visas runs out as they have for the last several years.
• You can continue to renew your visa and remain in the United States for as long as your investment remains economically viable. As such, there is no limit on how long you can remain in the United States on an E-2 visa. In many respects, an E-2 visa givees a foreign national all of the benefits of permanent residency.
• The actual investor can operate the business themselves (i.e., the investor need not hire U.S. workers to run the business).

For more information on the E-2 visa category, please refer to the white papers included at the bottom of this page.

EB-5 “Million Dollar” Immigrant Visas (or Green Cards)

The second type of investor visa to the United States actually provides a direct avenue to permanent residency (i.e., a green card). Under this visa category, the investor recieves a 2-year “conditional green card” as soon as they make their initial investment. If, after two years, the investment has been fully made and has created (or in some cases saved) ten full time jobs, then the conditional status of the investor's green card is removed, and they become “permanent” permanent residents.

iThe basic requirements for this type of visa is that the investor must make an investment of at least USD $500,000.00 (a USD $1.0 million investment is not always required); and the investment must generate ten new full time jobs (or save ten full time jobs in a “troubled business”).

Most foreign investors invest in what are called “Regional Centers”. These are investment areas that have been “pre-certified” by the U.S. government as being located in an area where only a USD $500,000.00 investment is required. However, just becuase the investment area is pre-certified, this does not mean that the investment area will automatically result in a successful investment. If the Regional Center cannot deoonstrate that ten full time jobs were either created or saved, then the investor's conditional green card will not become permanent.