gwensvilla

If someone is on an E2 and sells his llc is the visa defunct...
Or can the proceeds be put into a new e2 visa situation, without being landlocked?? Thanks

Nutmegger

I understood that an E-2 is given to the business, not the individual. So if the asset of the LLC is the business for which you were awarded the E-2, then once you sell it, you are back to square one and need to apply for a new visa.

gwensvilla

That was my understanding too. But I've been told that someone had experience of purchasing another business before the first one closed and the visa continued...I am wondering if they kept the llc and sold a dba (doing business as/fictitious named business) and replaced that...

Pulaski

You can't give a visa to a business - my understanding is that the visa is given to an individual for a specific business, so the effect is the same, if the business is sold, or folds, the visa is void.

Nutmegger

Badly phrased on my part -- it is indeed given to the individual to be applied to a specific business, can't be used for just any endeavor.

Pulaski

Well that would become a murky area. What happens if you buy, say, a hotel and run it on an E-2, it does well, and you buy another hotel. I suspect that is probably still OK. What happens if you sell the first hotel? .... I think the visa would be voided.

Certainly an LLC can sell the assets of a business without the LLC legal entity being sold. So you obtain an E-2 to buy a hotel held in an LLC. The LLC sells the hotel, and buys a florists shop. .... I suspect that the E-2 would be voided when the hotel was sold.

This is all arcane stuff, and I would strongly recommend obtaining the counsel of an experienced immigrant attorney.