Hi , I am William
Let me show you how Franchising works in the USA
For the starters:
Now, many first time entrepreneurs consider opening up franchises, which is really a solid idea. Franchise businesses allow you to run your own business while still having the support of the franchise over and having a recipe for your success. For US citizens that want to open up a franchise, the process is fairly straightforward. You look at some options, you decide which one suits you the best, and you select one. For foreign nationals who want to open up a franchise business in the US, the process becomes a little bit more difficult and it becomes more difficult because of visa issues.
- Trusted
- Experienced
- Professional
In few words,
You have to be able to find a suitable visa that will allow you to come into the country and run your franchise business. Now, for many foreign nationals who are from a country that has an E2 treaty with the United States, the E2 visa is typically the first visa that’s considered. But the E2 visa has particular requirements that you’ll have to keep in mind while you’re going through this process of finding a suitable franchise business. So here are five tips that you can use to help you find amazing E2 visa businesses that will help you accomplish your immigration goals as well as your financial goals.
Why to invest in a franchise for E2 Visa?
- If you achieve your goal of setting up this business, it’s probably going to be something that you’re going to do for a long time. And if you’re going to be doing it for a long time, you want to really enjoy it.
- Look for franchises that allow you to put the franchise fee in escrow. So let me explain this a little bit. So for the E2 visa, you have to make a committed investment to the business and you have to make that committed investment before you apply.
- You are putting money at risk before you know if you will be able to get an E2 visa to come into the United States to run your business.
- Now the good news is there is something you can do to mitigate your risk. If it’s properly structured, the US government will consider funds that are placed in escrow to be at risk. The US government will consider funds that are placed in escrow to be at risk, even though that money will be returned to you in the event that the E2 visa application is unsuccessful.
- Now, as a franchise fee, one of your major expenses is going to be the actual franchise fee itself. So ideally you will find a franchise that will allow you to place this franchise fee into escrow and agree that if the E2 lead is issued, that money is released to the franchise, or if the E2 lead application is denied, the money is returned to the franchisee.
- Finding a franchise who will allow you to do this is going to reduce your stress and make the whole process a little bit less scary.
- Consider job creation.
- Now, the relevant E2 visa requirement here is that your business cannot be marginal.Marginal businesses do not qualify for an E2 visa. So what does marginal mean? Marginal means that your business will only support yourself and your family. So initially when you apply, you will make personnel projections. You will tell the US government, here are the number of workers I think that I will need to run this business.
- The nice thing about the initial application is that the US government will likely take your word for that. For example, they’ll see, this person plans on hiring five US workers by the end of year two. That sounds great. This person will be in the United States creating jobs. Why would we issue them an e two visa?
So that’s great. They sort of look at your projections, they sort of take your word for it. You don’t have to prove that you actually already created jobs. It’s better they will generally accept your projections as long as they seem reasonable. But here’s the problem.
Let’s say you fast forward into the future and your business is running, but it’s time for renewal and you don’t have employees. At that point, you could be in trouble because the US government will say, you’ve been running this business for a while. Where are the US workers? It’s just you, maybe your family in the business and that’s not enough.
So think about this future problem. At the time that you are actually looking for the franchise business, try to select a business that’s going to employ US workers. There isn’t a set number of employees that are required. They can be part time employees. But you have to actually find a business that is at least going to give you the opportunity to employ others down the road.
- Find a franchise business that’s going to give you control over the operations. There are certain franchises that essentially allow you to purchase a long term job. Some franchises take your investment, train you as, say, like a manager and then allow you to sort of operate within the organization. But the franchise is actually calling all the shots.
- They’re deciding on the direction of the business. They’re making all the important decisions. So you want to stay away from any franchise or that is going to limit your ability to actually control the enterprise, which is one of the requirements of the E2 visa. You can’t come to the United States as a passive investor. You have to actually be in charge.
- You have to be here to control and advance the enterprise.
- Work with a franchise consultant. Here’s how this works. So you have this list, you have a wish list of things that you want in your franchise business and you can take that list to a franchise consultant. Some of them may relate to immigration, others relate to just your personal preferences. And you can say as a franchise consultant, find me businesses that meet these criteria and the franchise consultant is going to do an amazing job of finding options for you that fit your criteria. And here’s the beauty of it. If they find something that works, they’re going to end up getting paid by the franchise, not you. If they don’t find something that you like, you just move on.
We are experts in investment visas and our immigration experts bring along years of experience in franchise and other investment options. Contact us now and schedule a free consultation with Visa to America!
