E2 Basics Instagram Live

Angie: Hi everybody. In case you’re joining as early, we’re actually right on time. Natalia should be joining us here in a moment. So welcome, thanks for being here.

Hi there, hi everybody. Thanks so much for joining. Hello, just a few minutes we’re gonna get going in just a second. I wanted to make sure that we have a little bit of time for everybody to join, so we’ll get started here in just a moment. We’re going to have Natalia join us as well today, which is very exciting. Thanks everybody for joining. We’re going to get started here in just a moment.

Thanks for joining everyone, I am so happy that you’re all here, this is really impressive and amazing so I’m really thankful that everybody showed up today. We´re going to go over some of the basics of the E2 visa today. I am going to give everybody another 30 seconds or so and then we’ll get started but thanks everybody for joining and I really really appreciate it. So, let’s see…Hi Natalia, I see you’re here…

Angie: Hi there.

Natalia: Hi

Angie:  Hi, great to see you. We’ve got quite a group today! So I’m really excited to be speaking about the E-2 Visa. So, let’s get started everybody. Everybody’s had a little bit of time to login. So, I will introduce myself. My name is Angie Rupert. I am the founder of Rupert Law Group. We focus on E-2 visas for people all over the world wanting to come to the United States, so we’re thrilled to be speaking with you. And, this is Natalia Ropero and she also works with lots of E-2 visa applicants from all over the world so thanks so much Natalia. I’m excited to be doing our first instagram live!

Natalia: Yeah, It’s amazing. Thank you all for being here.

Angie: It is amazing, it’s amazing that I got it to work. So thanks so much for Tatiana for helping me understand what it is what I am doing. But, anyway let’s talk about something that I definitely know what I’m doing, the E-2 visa.

So, today we´re going to go over some of the basics and there’s a lot that we’re not going to be able to cover today. But join us again, we’re going to be doing these lives on occasion and going focusing really on a lot of specific topics and specific questions that we get all the time. But for  today let’s talk a little bit about what is the E-2 Visa and who is it for? I can say that the majority of our clients, well, let’s back up. Anyone that wants an E-2 Visa is someone that says I want to start or buy a business in the United States or I’ve already started or bought a business in the United States and I want to send some employees over to work in that business. So those are the two types of people who really want an E-2 visa and who is right for the E-2 visa, but Natalia, tells us a little bit… You also, obviously, we work with people together all the time… What type of person or what would be a good characteristic of someone who would be a good applicant for the e2 visa?

Natalia: Bueno, voy a hablar yo en español. Un buen aplicante para una visa seria una persona que actualmente tiene un negocio en su país de origen. Entonces, en este caso, una mediana, pequeña o grande empresa y que quiere expandir esa empresa a los Estados Unidos. Entonces, se van a los Estados Unidos precisamente para empezar este negocio y para expandir sus conocimientos a un nuevo país.

Angie: Yes, what she said. Everybody, Natalia is our resident Spanish speaker. I am a resident english speaker but Natalia also speaks english too so she is twice as good as I am.

So, great, so anybody that wants to start or buy a business in the U.S. or it’s already done so and wants to send employees over. These are the types of people that we can help get Visas to come to the United States. So let’s go over the requirements a little bit. I would say one of the most important requirements right off the top if you have to have a passport from a treaty country. The great news is there are about 80 treaty countries, those would include some of the most common would be Canada, the UK, Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Chile… Lets see jesss(Jesus)  Natalia, we help people from all over! I’m trying to think of all of the countries. But, let’s talk about some of these spanish speaking countries, we have Spain, Colombia, Mexico… What am I missing?

Natalia:  Argentina .

Angie: Argentina, Chile, Panama… that’s a lot!

Natalia: Venezuela.

Angie: No Venezuela. No, no Venezuela. But, there are a lot, especially in Central and South America, a lot of Spanish-speaking countries and a lot of visas issued down there. So that’s the great news. So, there are, as I mention, probably 80 treaty countries or so. So, that’s going to be the important part. Now, if you don’t have a passport from a treaty country, there are opportunities to get them, we can talk about that in another Instagram live. But there are passports out there that you can apply for through a variety of different ways and potentially get one in order to get the E-2 Visa and that is common too. We´ll talk about that in another live.

So, the other one is the investment amount, so this is not for the employees of the company but obviously for the person that starts the company. So, I normally tell people it’s about $100,000 or so.. Natalia, let’s talk a little bit more about that.

Natalia: El mínimo de inversión que recomendamos para empezar estas empresas, es un mínimo de $100.000, para todo lo que es equipos, arrendamiento, empleados. Entonces si, el recomendado siempre va a ser $100.000.

Angie: Right. But, there is no minimum amount right?

Natalia: No, el gobierno de Estados Unidos dice que tiene que ser una inversión sustancial. Esto depende del tipo de negocio, puede ser más, puede ser menos, dependiendo de los equipos que necesiten para operar. Pero no dice que tiene que ser una inversión fija o exacta. Simplemente, sustancial.

Angie: Right, and I think..probably what you said, if I heard a couple of the words correctly is sometimes you need to spend much more than $100,000 that depends a lot on what type of business that you start or buy. Usually we don’t see people invest less than a hundred thousand. It’s usually right around that mark so keep that in mind if this is something that interests you and you’re an investor meaning that you are the person that wants to buy or  start the business. (Not the employee) Then, you’re going to need probably about $100,000 at least and maybe more depending on the type of business, right?

Natalia: Exacto. Depende del tipo de negocio que vayas a hacer.

Angie: So, then let’s talk about another important question that we get all the time.

Is how long does this take? and what is the timeline? and what else is involved?.

So, I’ll start in the most simplest terms, what I tell people and probably, what you tell people as well. Natalia is “There’s three kinds of sections to an E-2 Visa application.

Section number one the great news is that is going to be completely up to you, you will be gathering a lot of documents with our guidance. Section number two is we put the application together and section number three we sent it to the government and they reviewed and set up an interview for you.

So, section number one, this is where we let you know all of the documents that we’re going to need and then we speak with your regular intervals helping you all along the way while you gather all these documents, and it takes most people about 3 or 4 months to get all of those documents together. And then once all of the documents are there, it takes us about two weeks to put in an application together and then we send it off to the U.S. Consulate or Embassy in your home country, wherever you live and they review. So, each consulate handles the review a little bit differently. If this were 2019 I would tell you it takes between 4 and 6 weeks typically to get an interview sometimes a little bit longer sometimes a little bit less, now that we are still in covid-19 it is  taking a little bit longer but I anticipate that those kind of barriers and those timelines will decrease with time. So, Natalia, let’s talk a little bit about the document gathering process. What kind of timelines do you see typically?

Natalia: Digamos que el proceso depende mucho de la inversión, de la persona. Pero normalmente lo primero que hacemos es pedir todos los documentos, se pueden demorar de 1 a 4 meses, dependiendo de la persona, dependiendo de la inversión. Pero nosotros siempre los guiamos en todos los documentos que son necesarios  para la aplicación. Después de esto necesitamos por lo menos un mínimo de 2 semanas para poner la aplicación junta,todos los documentos. ¡Que quede perfecta! Y después de esto se manda a la embajada de Estados Unidos o el consulado en el país de origen.  Ellos se pueden demorar normalmente, antes de covid-19, de 4 a 6 semanas, en este momento las fechas varían por el covid-19, entonces, se pueden demorar de 1 a 2 meses. Dependiendo del consulado o la embajada del país.

Angie: Right. So, a lot of it is going to depend on the country that you’re from, right? and how that consulate is handling covid and how long it takes there. But that’s the process. So, normally if someone were to start the E-2 Visa process today I would tell them it’s probably about 6 months or so until you get your interview, just based on averages. Sometimes it takes longer, sometimes it is a bit shorter. But, you know, with covid-19 we´ve had to add some time on so, I tell people it’s probably going to be about 9 months but again hopefully within the coming months in the following winter we can start seeing those timelines on the government end sped up. Natalia…

Natalia: El tiempo total es por lo menos 6 meses, esto como les dije depende del inversionista, depende de cuanto demore en conseguir los documentos. Pero, una vez se manda, son por lo menos 6 meses en completo.

Angie: Yeah, great. So, those are kind of the topics that I really wanted to cover today. I think those are some of the important topics. But, I’m not sure, there might be a few questions out there…Lets see… Now, you’re testing my Instagram skills! This is the scary part. Okay, and Natalia you don’t see any of these questions, let’s see..Okay… So we have a question… We have a question again about the invest or actually, sorry, let me actually back up. So we have a question about the type of business, right? So what type of business is best for an E-2 visa? And the reality is you can do anything you want. We have a lot of people  that start their own businesses and then we have others that buy already existing businesses or franchises. And we have had successful applications with both of those options. Natalia, let’s talk a little bit about some of our most recent applicants, what type of businesses… I mean, we have a wide variety.. Let’s talk about….Jess…We filed one in probation?? recently we have a few pending in Canada, some in the UK, we have some in Mexico. Let’s talk a little bit about those types of businesses.

Natalia: Bueno, de nuestros clientes recientes hemos tenido cualquier tipo de negocio. Hemos tenido empresas de marketing, hemos tenido franquicias que compran y montan su negocio en Estados Unidos. Hemos tenido clientes que compran y llevan un negocio existente. Hemos tenido empresas de transporte de carga, donde compran camiones. Hemos tenido consultoras, hemos tenido restaurantes… Cualquier tipo de  negocio que se pueda montar lo hemos tenido en nuestros clientes. Y si, cualquiera es posible dependiendo de la inversión.

Angie: Yes. Ok. Fantastic. So, a lot of different variety. I would say the one thing that I cautioned people against, and this one’s pretty obvious, but the business needs to be legal. Other than that there are not a lot of requirements as far of the type of business.  So, think about that. You know, the great news about the E-2 visa is it really is for people who want to follow that American dream of opening a business, running your own business, being in charge of your own life…pick something you enjoy, pick something you like, pick something you want to do. You do not have to do any certain type of business, okay?

I have another question here.. Can I apply as a UK citizen but not living in the UK? So Martin,  I have bad news for you. The UK is literally the only country in the entire world that states that you must live on the British Isles of the UK in order to apply at the US Consulate or Embassy rather in London. However, I have had people that have lived outside of the UK and they come back to the UK for two to three months before the application so we can see they are currently residing and living in the UK. So, it really is a matter of strategy for those in the UK.

Now, for someone from, let’s say Mexico or Australia or France, you could be living anywhere and have that passport. We also have people that have dual passports, right? and so, maybe one is not a treaty country but one is a treaty country. For example, a recent client who is a South African, a passport holder and lived his whole life in South Africa. But, also had this Grenada passport and never lived in Grenada. But can still apply using the grenade a passport even though he’s never lived there. That is how most of the world works with the exception of the UK but again, you can do it by living in the UK for two to three months before the application process, showing that you have a place to live there, showing bank statements that you’ve been spending in and around you know, England Wales Scotland what have you. That should satisfy that requirement.

Lets see, now here is a question in spanish and I do not dare read it.

Natalia: They are asking to translate the questions. I was going to say. With Colombia it happens the same. You have to prove the residence in here in order to apply.

Angie: Right, which is not technically a requirement, they are just a little ornery about it. And so, they want to see that you’re reciting there but that is not technically a requirement.  The UK is the only one in the regulations that have that requirement. But, you’re right, and maybe we can talk a little bit about that, so it’s not legally a requirement and you can still apply in Colombia but the issue is you’re going to get kicked to the back of the line, right?

Natalia: Entonces, en Colombia no es un requerimiento oficial o digamos que escrito. Pero si piden tener una prueba de residencia por el último año. Esto se hace con un certificado de movimientos migratorios. Entonces, no es obligación mostrar este certificado pero, siempre es preferible mostrar estas.. Digamos que pequeños documentos que pueden sumar puntos a tu aplicación.

Angie: Great! So, I actually, I just got another question.  This was an interesting one. An existing E-2 application… So, the only way… actually, sorry. You all can’t read my mind can you?

Does an existing E-2 application show on travel documents and potentially complicate travel to the United States?

So, it really depends where your visa is in the process. And it shouldn’t complicate things. But if you´re still working with your attorney, gathering documents, or your attorney is putting your application together or something like that. No government honor??? has any idea you´re doing anything, is still between you and the attorney. So there’s nothing pending. Now, if it’s actually at already, the embassy or the consulate and it’s pending. That shouldn’t complicate things because everyone knows… particularly, particularly within the year of covid-19, things are taking so long to the government that a lot of people do have things that are pending.

The one thing you really want to be careful of, is that you’re not working in the United States until you’ve been approved and that you don’t take money from anybody at a U.S. business or anything like that. So, I would definitely talk to your attorney about that. If you have something pending about traveling to the United States. Generally speaking you should be okay but there are a few things to watch out for, so keep that in mind.

So… yes. I believe, we are kind of at the end of our questions. But here’s the great news! Everybody. You can feel free to reach out anytime, we routinely speak with people all over the world, right Natalia?

Natalia: Yeah, all day.

Angie: All the time! We get calls, we get emails, we set up consultations, we usually speak to anyone for 10 or 15 minutes just kind of about the basics of the E-2. From there if you feel like you want to set up a full hour consultation we can do that as well. But, feel free to reach out either via WhatsApp, so my WhatsApp number is (323) 434-4385 Or you can email us to arupert@rupertlawgroup.com. email any questions that may be outstanding at the end of this call or at the end of this instagram live.

Natalia, I think we´re going to be doing some more of these with more specific topics. Right?

Natalia: Yeah, for sure. O me pueden también escribir a mi en español, +57 (317) 440-8310 o a mi correo nropero@rupertlawgroup.com.

Angie: Ok, fantastic. Thanks everyone, please join us again we´ll be doing more specific topics, and if you have any other questions. Again, please reach out via email, whatsapp. We are here for you, anytime you need any answers about the E-2 Visa. Thanks so much Natalia and thanks everyone for joining us.

Natalia: Gracias! Chao.