Move to U.S. (E2 visa) Anyone done it??

Real

Hi All

My GF and I are thinking of moving to the US (Florida) to set up a business (and home eventually). We have been told that the E1 or E2 Visa (investors visa) is the way to go. This means that we can set up a business in the US and as long as the business goes well and over the following 6-18 months we employ a few US citizens then the Green Card looks like a strong possability.That is what we have been told!!!

But, saying and doing are really two very different things particularly when it comes to red tape and US visas.

My questions are to anyone out there that have actually moved to the US and set up business there.
How much money does 'invest' actually mean?
Will we need to both apply seperatly and have our own investment money each?
What should we do first? How did you do it step by step?
We have the money to open the business but again have been told the we will need to show we have considerably more money available to us. Can equity in our home here be classed as money available to us?

What about getting a loan from our bank here then submitting evidence of that money on our visa applications then paying it back to the bank straight away?

Basically I have a million questions but any solid advice from people that have done it would be really appreciated. Also any short cuts / rule bending or ways of making it look like we have more money to invest than we actually have would be great.

I understand that to application process is all on paper so 'on paper' we need to look like we have quite a lot of funds.

We are both in the service industry and are fairly sure the business will do guite well, our main hurdle will be getting the visa in the first place.

Real

Dub13

There is another way of getting in,you could buy a business that is allready setup.When we were over there I looked into this,apparently their are companies in Florida who specialise in setting up companies then they run them for a year and sell them to people looking for a Visa

Real

Thanks for the info Dub

Can you tell me more?
How can I find them?
What kind of costs are we talking about?
Did you or do you know someone who has bought one?
Are they legit businesses or 'Don Corleone' types?

Thanks

Lex_Diamonds

I've no experience in this but maybe you could set up a franchise? Would be easier than starting a business from scratch presumably.

por

Is this what youa re looking for http://uscis.gov/graphics/services/residency/investment.htm

Real

The link above does give the outlining info , but like almost all other sites ive found gives very little detail on exactly how much is needed and what the specifics are etc etc.

Thats why I need the advice of someone that has actually gone through the process

Real

idontknowmyname

My friend is going over with his family to set up an importing business (he;s chinese and already has an extemely successful import business here), he was in the states a few months ago looking into setting up over there and he was told it would cost him in the region of €30,000 to secure a visa for that purpose

raver_richie

I'd f*cking hate to live in that country

Dub13

Real wrote:

Thanks for the info Dub

Can you tell me more?
How can I find them?
What kind of costs are we talking about?
Did you or do you know someone who has bought one?
Are they legit businesses or 'Don Corleone' types?

Thanks

From what I remember.....

They seem fine and not 'Don Corleone' types ,it seem like a big industry (building up companies to seel on to people looking for a visa)

As for finding them it should be easy as they had magazine's all over the place,and adds in property magazine's

The cost depends on what kind of business you were looking for,I think it ranged from 30KUSD to well anything.The lower end business (which I was intrested in) were things like pool maintenance's company's