Cayenne Consulting

Succeeding as an Immigrant Entrepreneur

You are about to make a big, life-changing decision. You are about to decide to move to another country and see how your business skills match up with local investors, competitors, and customers.

You are not alone. Each year, thousands of entrepreneurs and experienced business executives decide to move to another country for any number of reasons – for example:

Having made the decision, now the immigration process begins. It is critical that, from the start, you realize this is not an easy process. Governments establish strict guidelines for all types of immigrants, including investor immigrants, and it is the duty of the immigration authorities to ensure that in granting investor visas, those guidelines are carefully and clearly followed. In an earlier post, we provided a summary of investor visa requirements for many countries. For investors and entrepreneurs wishing to come to the U.S., the two most often used programs are the E-2 Treaty Investor visa and the L-1 visa.

Suggestions for Successful Visa Adjudication

Patrick Klauss, an immigration attorney with Berd & Klauss, PLLC in New York City, offers some excellent tips for making the immigration process less stressful and less time-consuming. Here are some of his suggestions:

Importance of a Professional Business Plan

In our experience, the heart of any successful investor/entrepreneur visa application is the business plan.

Seeking a visa is very similar to going into a bank to get a business loan. The loan officer will want to know what the business is about, the characteristics of the market it operates in, what competition it faces, management’s qualifications to run and grow the business, and any other factors that will influence whether or not the business is likely to succeed and repay the loan within the next few years.

In the immigration context, the applicant is not seeking a loan, but rather the right to do business in the new country. But the criterion for approval is still the same: demonstrating to the immigration adjudicator that this business will succeed financially and make a healthy profit after it has paid all expenses (including the salary of the owner/investor).

The old expression, “do it right the first time” has never been more critical than in navigating the complex process of applying for and receiving an investor/entrepreneur visa. As early in the process as possible, we suggest that you get help (perhaps from somebody like us), be organized, follow the rules, and embrace the process.

Welcome to your new country and good luck.

Additional Immigrant Entrepreneur Visa Resources

We have produced several articles relating to immigrating to the United States by obtaining a work visa. They are:

We also offer business plan services specifically for those considering applying for an immigration/investor visa.

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