Join us Friday, August 13 @ 8:30AM PT/ 11:30AM ET/ 4:30PM UK for a special live stream on U.S. visa processing.
At Visa Franchise, we have seen a significant demand for the E-2 visa from nationals who do not qualify for U.S. visa free travel (ESTA) and have an expired B-1/B-2 visa.
Many consulates especially in Latin America are not currently taking interviews for some visa categories including the B-1 visa. Clients have complained of estimated wait times of 2+ years!!
The B-1 visa is for those participating in business activities of a commercial or professional nature in the United States, including, but not limited to:
-Consulting with business associates
-Traveling for a scientific, educational, professional or business convention, or a conference on specific dates
-Settling an estate
-Negotiating a contract
-Participating in short-term training
-Transiting through the United States: certain persons may transit the United States with a B-1 visa
The E-2 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country to be admitted to the United States when investing a substantial amount of capital in a U.S. business.
Watch our video to learn more about the E-2 visa and processing times for E-2 and B-1/B-2 visas.
Learn more here:
#E2visa #VisaFranchise #B1Visa #B2Visa #InvestorVisa #TouristVisa #BusinessVisa
00:00 Introduction
00:49 E-2 Visa alternative
01:23 Visa waiver conutry review
02:49 E-2 Visa Wating times examples
07:22 Conclusion
Patrick Findaro here, managing partner at Visa Franchise. Today, I just wanted to give an update on an alternative for those that are frustrated with the really long wait time to get a B1 B2 visa. We’ve had a few clients now engage our services because it was gonna take one, two, potentially even more years to get a standard B-1/B-2 visa to the U.S.
We’ve had a lot of clients, a couple of clients I should say, that have business interests in the United States where their B-1 visa has expired and they’re no longer able to just renew it via mail or other means in the consulates that they’ve reached out to through their immigration attorney. They’ve identified the E-2 visa as a better alternative for them to come to the U.S. in a month, two months, six months instead of waiting, could be two years depending on where you live.
I think this could be a good opportunity for those nationals that don’t have a Visa Waiver Program with the United States.
You can see there’s many countries like Albania, Argentina, Romania, they don’t have a visa waiver with the U.S. That means they have to get essentially a B-1/B-2 visa to even visit the United States or some other U.S. visa category to legally enter the United States. Countries like Australia, Austria, their citizens are part of ESTA. Canada has their own Visa Waiver Program that’s unique to Canada.
This opportunity is more for those E-2 countries that are all listed here, where you can see on my screen it’s marked N where there’s not ESTA, no visa waiver.
Going through a couple of examples. Chile has ESTA but that’s an opportunity where it’s taking 70 days roughly to get an E-2 visa interview while other visa categories it’s taking significantly more time. But if we go to say Mexico, which is now by the way a 48-month visa that they grant for E-2 visa investors.
I wanna show you how long it’s taking for a Mexican national to get an E-2 visa interview. And we’ve had clients recently from Mexico apply in Mexico City, as well as Ciudad Juarez. Mexico City. I believe, just for the past year or so has been accepting E-2 visa applicants. So, taking a look, this is the U.S. State Department website.
I’ll send a link to everyone here. I’ll post it in the comment now. And you can check how long it takes to get a visa appointment at any consulate. There’s hundreds of consulates around the world. And we’ll show you for a few different categories.
Let’s just zoom in here. So, if you’re a Mexican national applying or you’re a resident of Mexico applying out of Mexico City, you wanna get a visitor visa. They’re not even providing the service. You have to have an emergency case. Could be life or death that would warrant you needing to get a visitor visa to the U.S.
All other non-immigrant visas which would include the E-2 visa, 23 days. So, if you’re a Mexican national that your B-1/B-2 visa’s expired, or it’s gonna expire in the next year, and you have the capital to invest in a U.S. business. If you’re able to actually physically move here and work in a day to day, $100k, maybe more.
If you need to have a full-time manager because you’re gonna be traveling back and forth, it’s gonna take $200,000 or more to have the margin for that full-time manager…..
Learn more here:
source