Immigrate to the United States by investing in real estate
April 18, 2009 by Peter Baumbach
Filed under Quick
Citizens of treaty nations with the United States may be able to get a visa and then Green Card for residency in the United States by investing in real estate. It is difficult to get permission to enter the US as an immigrant, but this looks like a strategy that people are using successfully. You would definitely want to get advice from an immigration lawyer before trying this. But here is the strategy as I understand it:
- Buy at least $100,000 of investment real estate in the United States
- Get an E-2 investor visa
- Travel to the US to manage your real estate investment
- You can continue to renew the E2 visa without limit.
But you cannot get a Green Card with an E-2 visa. There is more to the strategy, however, to solve that:
- While in the US with the E2 visa, open a company abroad and become an executive of that company
- Apply for a change of status to change your visa to an L-1 visa
- Wait a year
- Apply for an EB-1 Green Card as a manager of your company
There are technical requirements and restrictions that have to be met to make this work. Read more about this strategy at us-immigration-explained.com. If you want to hire an immigration attorney for advice, you can try immigration-investor-visa.com.
E-2 visa Treaty Country List
- Albania
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Australia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Bahrain
- Bangladesh
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Bosnia & Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Canada
- Chile
- China (Taiwan)
- Colombia
- Congo (Brazzaville)
- Congo (Kinshasa)
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Ecuador
- Egypt
- Estonia
- Ethiopia
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Grenada
- Honduras
- Iran
- Ireland
- Italy
- Jamaica
- Japan
- Jordan
- Kazakhstan
- Korea (South)
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Liberia
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Macedonia
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Philippines
- Poland
- Romania
- Senegal
- Singapore
- Slovak Republic
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Suriname
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- Thailand
- Togo
- Trinidad & Tobago
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- United Kingdom
- Yugoslavia
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Nina Mold on Mon, 20th Apr 2009 2:21 pm
An L-1A transfer requires that the beneficiary (transferee) worked in a senior management capacity for the foreign affiliate at least one of the three years immediately preceding the application. I don’t know how one would manage his E2 company in the US while working as CEO of the foreign affiliate. An active, successful business operation with employees, which is managed by the transferee, is a pre-requisite.
I also don’t know how the $100,000 real estate investment qualifies for an E-2, unless one is in the construction business and has hired contractors.
Peter Baumbach on Mon, 20th Apr 2009 6:03 pm
Nina,
You may be right. Anything like this that deals with government is probably never a simple process. The site I linked is where I read about this strategy. A little more searching shows $100,000 may not be enough of an investment. solutionsinlaw.com says “An investment of at least $1,000,000 automatically qualifies” and “The estimated income generated by the business must be sufficient to support the E-2 visa beneficiary and his/her family”. This would not be a passive investment. I would think buying and managing a rental property would satisfy this criteria.
Next you will have to make time to start your foreign business. Maybe buying a business already running is the time efficient way of doing this. If the business already has US customers, then managing from the US may be workable.
Nothing is easy. What I suggest will take a substantial amount of money. Ask the experts for advice before attempting anything like this. I thought my readers would find this possibility interesting. And I tend not to take your first “no it can’t be done” as final. But even if you are stubborn, “no” may be the correct answer.
Thank you for your comment.