There are many reasons that people choose to move from the locations of their birth to make a life in a foreign land. People move to new lands to explore, to escape persecution, or to seek new opportunities for themselves and their families. As people who are not enslaved, we have freedom to move from one place to another, however, the right to migrate is not without limitation. Sovereign nations also have a right to control their borders and restrict the immigration of people who are not citizens of their countries. Those who wish to move from a country where they hold the rights of citizenship to another country where they do not, must meet the immigration requirements of those other countries.
Not all people seeking citizenship of another country desire to leave their own countries. For such people, the draw of another country’s citizenship is the access it provides to other parts of the world; travel convenience. Asset allocation is also another reason that people seek citizenship in other countries. Some countries just protect your wealth better than others.
The Politics of Immigration
Immigration has become a hot-button political issue in the United States. Discussions around immigration tether on the balance between those who believe that the United States’s greatness lies in its diversity, and those who believe that immigrants are a burden on Americans and the American social and economic structures. I hate to say that the United States is a land of immigrants because this land called the United States was already inhabited land before the Europeans laid claim to it. There were people indigenous to this land. And unless your lineage leads back to the indigenous people of what is today the United States of America, you are an immigrant. But every nation has a right to define its citizenship and choose how to allow or deny immigrants to reside in and become citizens of that nation. Over the years, the United States’s immigration stance has shifted from the hospitable words of Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” to the hostility of, “America First.” Hostility of immigration policies does not and will not quench the human instincts that drive immigration. While the United States may be setting up hard borders, countries like Canada, and Dominica in the Caribbean, and communities like the EU are creating more flexible paths to residency and citizenship.
Business Immigration
There are so many different kinds of immigration provisions depending on an individual’s purpose for immigration. For example, there are visas for students seeking to immigrate for an education and when the purpose for immigration expires, so does the visa. There are also work visas for people with exceptional skills, for example, who immigrate to fill an employment position that requires their skills. Business immigration is the area of immigration targeted at people who wish to work, invest or do business in a particular country. Business immigration is constantly evolving as nations strive to attract the best and brightest people, and investments to grow their economies. While business immigration provides a great opportunity for people who want to migrate, the rules can be very complex, which is why it is advisable to use a professional who understands the rules as well as the challenges and how to work around them.
Investor Immigration
Investor immigration is a type of business immigration that gives investors an opportunity to acquire residency status in a country in exchange for an investment in the country. Different countries have different investment thresholds of investment and benefits attached to investments. Some countries are more generous than others in the benefits they offer individuals in exchange for their investment. Some countries offer family-inclusive options where dependents of an investor are included in their applications. In some countries, their investor immigration options have a short (within a year), clear, uncomplicated, path to citizenship. While investor immigration is available in the United States, it doesn’t top the list of countries offering investor immigration visas in terms of ease of qualification.
Investor Immigration Options in the United States
The United States offers investor visas and to find out more about these visas, I had an extensive chat with Aaron Labreque, a business immigration lawyer based in Florida. He helps foreign nationals who are interested in coming to work and live in the United States to do so and either open their own business, invest in an existing business, or start a franchise business. Labreque and I spoke about three types of investor visas – E-1, E-2, and EB-5 – and one recently announced investor programme – International Entrepreneur Rule (IER), which he is very excited about.
E-1 Visa
The E-1 visa is an international trade treaty-based visa that allows nationals of countries who conduct trade between their country and the United States, to live and work in the United States to facilitate their business between the two countries. Although there is no minimum investment requirement for the E-1 visa, this visa requires that the investor maintains substantial trade between the United States and the treaty country.
E-2 Visa
The E-2 visa, which is a favourite of Labreque’s, requires an investor to set up a small business in the United States. Although there is no stated minimum amount to invest, the investment must be substantial, in Labreque’s estimate, the investment should be in the low to mid hundred thousands in dollars. What is substantial will depend on the business that an individual is investing in. For instance, the dollar amount that is considered substantial for investing in a food truck is miles apart from the dollar amount required for investment in a fast-food franchise.
EB-5 Visa
The EB-5 visa according to Labreque is the “Big Daddy” visa. It is an employment-based visa that grants a conditional green card (permanent residence status) to individuals who invest in a commercial enterprise that creates or preserves ten or more permanent full-time jobs. It is the only investment-based category with a path to citizenship by naturalization.
There are two levels of investment that qualify for an EB-5 investor visa. One is an investment in a targeted employment area (TEA) which requires a minimum investment of $900,000. TEAs are communities that have been identified as being under-invested in, are below 150% of the poverty line. In each TEA, the government approves programmes called regional centres which have their own rules and investment criteria. Labreque warns that these investments can be very expensive because in addition to the $900,000 minimum investment, there is an additional membership fee to sign up, which can run from as low as $30,000 to as high as $70,000 depending on where in the country the programme is located. Further adding to the risk, as Labreque points out, is the fact that although the government identifies these programmes, there is inherent risk in any business. The government regularly analyses the performance of these programmes, and their findings may impact the status of an investor’s visa.
The second option is an investment of $1,800,000 which allows an individual to invest in a commercial investment anywhere in the United States. Apart from the freedom to invest anywhere in the United States, another difference between the $900,000 investment and the $1,800,000 investment is that for the $1,800,000 investment requires that the investment creates ten or more direct jobs, while the $900,000 investment accommodates indirect jobs to make up the required ten or more.
Investors must maintain their level of investment and meet all the criteria for their visa programme for the two years that they hold the conditional green card in order to remove the attached conditions and hold the green card towards naturalization.
International Entrepreneur Rule (IER)
The International Entrepreneur Rule (IER) is an Obama-era programme which grants foreign entrepreneurs parole to stay in the United States if their stay will provide a significant public benefit through their business. This programme was paused by the Trump Administration and was revived by the Biden Administration in May 2021.
Labreque’s Top Tips for Investors Interested in a United States Investor Visa
- Be Realistic. Investors must be realistic about their business plans in the United States. Whatever business ideas you have must be well-researched and planned so that you can convince the US embassy officials in your home country that you have a viable business plan. US embassies have specialists who are trained in assessing business details so potential investors should be prepared to answer hard questions about their business.
- Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Help. Labreque’s advice to investors is that even after they are granted an investor visa, they need a number of professionals around them who can support them. Investors need a business advisor who can help them with the strategic details around growing and sustaining their business; a CPA who understands their business and can help them navigate tax issues; and a business immigration lawyer to keep them on track with the requirements of their visa.
How to Contact Aaron Labreque
If you are interested in a United States Investor Visa or know someone who is, you can book a consultation with Labreque by clicking here.
You can also send an email to aaron@labrequelaw.com.
Labreque is also on social media.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alabreque/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labreque_law/
Clubhouse: https://joinclubhouse.com/@alabreque
