civilservant

Hence why I said 'you need to aware' rather than 'this visa is not the one for you since....'

Sometimes splitting hairs for splitting hairs sake is counter productive, and having another piece of information, even if not 100% relevant at that moment, is never a bad thing for future planning.

S Folinsky

As an aside, business people commonly complain about lawyers being naysayers. Many times the complaint may be legitimate. A good lawyer will chart available paths to the goal rather than a flat "you can't do it."

I've observed that many posters here are naysayers. Nothing wrong with that. But it can obscure legitimate paths to the desired goal.

ukadventurer

thanks for the tip!

Awesome Welles

For what it's worth, I established 2 US businesses - the 1st utilizing and L-1A and the second, an E1 (with a B1, beforehand).

I am not an attorney, but can share anecdotal experience if that might help.

I should caveat this by making it clear that in my own experience, the 'numbers' were significantly more substantial than those you have stated in this thread - i.e. the L1 business was a subsidiary of a UK company that had a GBP multi-million turnover and could demonstrate that the money was available to support the US start-up, until it got on it's feet. We also delivered around $350k worth of inventory to our work premises (8000ft leased office/warehouse space) and employed 8 USC's within one month of opening the doors.

That level of financial commitment made the petition fairly easy to say 'yes' to - and today, that company is US market leader, by a massive margin and employs over 200 USCs.

The "E" business, was (is) in the same industry and involved a UK competitor of the "L" company, with whom I'd had a rather serious 'falling-out' with. My parachute was the B1 visa that kept me in legal status, while the new company was being established.

This time, I jointly owned the company that was a US entity that bought product from it's UK Treaty Trader partner. Again, the 'at risk' investment was a lot bigger than the figures you are mentioning. Likewise, we leased premises, imported around $250k worth of stock and employed a handful of USCs from the get-go.

That company is still doing well after I sold my interest in it to an E2 investor who was also connected with the industry.

I would always defer to legal professionals (and used them whenever I felt out of my comfort-zone), but I do wonder if your financials would pass the red-face test at the consulate. Arguably, the cost to keep you alive and housed in the US would be greater than the revenues you have shared here.

I'd also be concerned that anything that is 'internet-based', rather than bricks, mortar and real, tangible inventory is a harder sell.

I'm happy to share my experience if you think it might help...