Business Immigration
Business immigration encompasses the areas of investor and employment visas. As such, our firm’s initial objective is to properly identify your goals and understand your needs in order to effectively design a plan that gleans success. We start by analyzing the reasons why our clients desire to start a business or seek employment in the United States, which includes understanding their family, financial, and professional motives, both short and long term.
This process and our analysis are crucial in selecting the appropriate visa given your circumstances. For investors and companies, for example, we conduct an in-depth analysis of the amount and source of investment capital, advise our client on the best business structures to receive their investment, and guide on matters of tax planning, among many other issues. We likewise conduct similar analyses for our intracompany transferee or employee clients, focusing especially on their unique abilities and expertise.
Our multidisciplinary approach to the planning and ultimate drafting of your visa petition is crucial to persuading an immigration or consular officer that your application was sent with merit; the goal is to present a petition that is clear, concise, and accurately conveys the facts. In pursuit of this goal, we make available to you and your advisors our own team of learned professionals such as our business and tax attorney, business and real estate brokers, CPAs, and others, all of whom have experience with foreign nationals seeking temporary or permanent residence in the U.S.
We counsel clients from a diverse array of cultures and countries and aim to make their transition to the U.S. as smooth as possible by making our attorneys and staff available to them before, during, and after their journey to the United States.
E-2 – Treaty Investors
The E-2 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country (a country with which the United States maintains a treaty of commerce and navigation) to be admitted to the United States when investing a substantial amount of capital in a U.S. business.
EB-5 – Immigrant Investor Program
USCIS administers the EB-5 Program. Under this program, entrepreneurs (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for a Green Card (permanent residence) if they:
- Make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States
- Plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers
E-1 – Treaty Traders
The E-1 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country (a country with which the United States maintains a treaty of commerce and navigation) to be admitted to the United States solely to engage in international trade on his or her own behalf.
E-3 – Certain Specialty Occupation Professionals from Australia
The E-3 classification applies only to nationals of Australia. You must be coming to the United States solely to perform services in a specialty occupation.
L-1 – Intracompany Transferee (Executives, Managers, or Specialized Knowledge)
The L-1A nonimmigrant classification enables a U.S. employer to transfer an executive or manager from one of its affiliated foreign offices to one of its offices in the United States. This classification also enables a foreign company which does not yet have an affiliated U.S. office to send an executive or manager to the United States with the purpose of establishing one.
O-1 – Individuals with Extraordinary Ability or Achievement
The O-1 nonimmigrant visa is for the individual who possesses extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated record of extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industry and has been recognized nationally or internationally for those achievements.
H-1B – Specialty and Professional Occupations and Fashion Models
This visa category applies to people who wish to perform services in a specialty occupation, services of exceptional merit and ability relating to a Department of Defense (DOD) cooperative research and development project, or services as a fashion model of distinguished merit or ability.
EB-1 – Extraordinary Ability, Outstanding Professors and Researchers, or Multinational Executive or Manager
You may be eligible for an employment-based, first-preference visa if you have an extraordinary ability, are an outstanding professor or researcher, or are a multinational executive or manager.
EB-2 – Advanced Degree, Exceptional Ability or National Interest Waiver
You may be eligible for an employment-based, second preference visa if you are a member of the professions holding an advanced degree or its equivalent, or a foreign national who has exceptional ability.
EB-5 – Immigrant Investor Program
USCIS administers the EB-5 Program. Under this program, entrepreneurs (and their spouses and unmarried children under 21) are eligible to apply for a Green Card (permanent residence) if they:
- Make the necessary investment in a commercial enterprise in the United States
- Plan to create or preserve 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualified U.S. workers
K-3 – Spouse of a U.S. Citizen awaiting approval of an I-130 immigrant petition
This is the first step for your spouse and his or her children to obtain a visa to come to the United States while you wait for USCIS to make a decision on the Form I-130. Historically, you and your family members might have been separated for some time while waiting for a decision on your Form I-130. Congress sought to resolve this problem by creating K-3 and K-4 nonimmigrant visas to shorten the time your family would need to spend apart.
K-1– Fiancé(e) to marry U.S. Citizen and live in the U.S.
If you are a U.S. citizen who wants to bring your foreign fiancé(e) to the United States in order to get married, obtaining the K-1 non immigrant visa for your fiancé is the first step.
Spouse of a U.S. Citizen
In order to bring your spouse (husband or wife) to live in the United States as a green card holder (permanent resident), you must be either a U.S. citizen or green card holder.
Certain Family Members of U.S. Citizens (children and parents)
Regarding children, the age and marital status of your children are important factors in the immigration process. For immigration purposes, a “child” is defined as being unmarried and under 21, whereas if a person is married and/or over 21, that person is defined as a “son” or “daughter”.
Regarding parents, you must be a U.S. citizen and at least 21 years old. Green card holders (permanent residents) may not petition to bring parents to live permanently in the United States.
Certain Family Members of Lawful Permanent Residents
As a Green Card holder (permanent resident), you may petition for certain family members to immigrate to the United States as permanent residents.