In this video, we will be answering frequently asked questions about the E2 Visa. For more information about the E2 Visa visit our website.

Frequently Asked Questions of the E2 Visa

Attorney Menchaca, can you answer some frequently asked questions about the E2 Visa?

Sure absolutely please.

So what exactly is an E2 visa?

The E2 visa, is an investor visa issued by the United States government to people who come to the United States to start their own business.

Does the investment that I have to make for this E2 visa come directly from my bank account or is it through a company?

You can do it both ways, you could invest directly in your own business from your own personal bank account.

But what lawyers usually recommend, myself included, is that first you create a company in the United States and in my law firm we can create that company for you, corporation or limited liability company and then you are the owner of that company, and then instead of investing directly from your bank account into the business you’re going to invest from your personal bank account into the company’s bank account and then you’re going to spend the money into the expenditures of the business.

Ok, so you’re gonna do it indirectly through a company that you own.

And let’s say that I would want to bring somebody to help me out in my business, let’s say somebody from my home country, is that possible with this visa?

Sure, and this is a common scenario.

So suppose you have bakeries you know outside of the United States, and you have one of your workers who is very good at making bread and they know the recipes, and the formulas and you want to bring that person to help operate the bakeries in the United States, so you can certainly apply for that person’s visa, if that person has the same nationality as you, we can apply for them to get an E2 visa.

If that person does not have the same nationality as you then we have to look at other work visa options.

But yes there is flexibility for you to attract talent from outside the United States to help work in your business.

That’s excellent, let’s say that I am here in the United States, and I want to apply for an E2 visa, does that mean I have to go out of the United States in order to apply?

Sort of, let me explain.

There’s two ways to have the benefit to the E2, one you can apply for the E2 visa, which is means going outside of the United States to an embassy or consulate and applying for the visa and then they put that on your passport

However, there’s another way of getting the same benefits if you’re already in the United States.

You can apply to change your status from whatever status you have right now, so let’s just say you came to the United States as a visitor, and then once you’re here, you decided you want to start a business.

So, we can switch you from visitor status to E2 status even though you don’t have the stamp on your passport, by changing your status here in the United States you get all the benefits of the two was well.

That’s great, so that means that I don’t have to leave the US.

Correct, that’s the short answer to your question.

Thank you attorney Menchaca.

My pleasure.

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