pinkcat

Again, having a temporary working visa with time limits is not the same as investing in a business. It can't be compared to E2 because E2 can be renewed indefinitely, provided visa conditions are not breached. Lots of people come to the US on temp. working visas for a limited time. They go back home without having lost huge amounts of money.

Those on E2 can stay as long as they like, but if they want to sell or retire they must leave.

Why are you so desperate argue about this? Please stop looking for analagies and try to see how much unnecessary suffering is caused by the E2restrictions. If they can be changed, then everyone wins - the investor and his family, the investors employees and their families, and the US economy. Why be so anti?

scrubbedexpat099

I think we are back to a low cost EB5.

Bob

Really not getting the whole thing are you?

If you want change, make it attractive to the US government, by getting other countries to change their own equivalent, if those other countries like the UK do so, then the US will follow suit as it gives them further incentive to tax US citizens earning even more money whilst aboard.

You ranting that it's unfair for Brits in the US isn't going to help your course because really at the end of the day, generally it's small potatoes and you all knew the limitations of the visa and yet still decided to go ahead with it.

It's not like it wasn't an unknown that this visa isn't particularly good for people with families or anyone close to retirement.

Bob

Get a bigger business loan?...keep the business going....like I said, this wasn't designed for families to come over on the cheap.

ian-mstm

You keep saying this. You do realize, don't you, that many of the people who post here are not British?

Ian

MsElui

YES - I would be more than happy to support legislation to put these unscrupulous people out of business. (And campaign to stop Eastenders making it seem like its just a matter of buying a ticket to come here for a new life setting the expectations of so many so wrongly!)

Change the E2 legislation - NO - I dont think its the right thing to do. If the US did it then so would the UK have to. The US (and any country you care to mention) are perfectly entitled to limit the number of immigrants to their country by any means they see fit. Just because you want something doesnt mean you are allowed to do it. There are lots of devastated people who come and post on here when theyfind they have no means to do ANY VISA to the US at all. Life isnt fair. Im on an L2 - but if my husbands company wont do a green card for us or wants to make redundancies etc then at the end of the visa my only option is to go home! I cant even pay to extend indefinatly.

This forum tries to make any potential E2 candidate WELL aware of its limitations - thats a good thing for the forum to do and is something that will no doubt continue into the future. If people decide they have to come to the US at any cost then they must at least be made aware of these limitations.

and whilst I know you think im snide etc etc - havent you clicked that you are flogging a dead horse here? All you are managing to do is pull more and more people into the post who dont agree with you. Maybe the lack of E2 respondees is down to the fact that they well knew what they signed up for and understand the likely hood of it changing and have decided to get on with it.

AdobePinon

Well, pinkcat, you're not paying us for happy talk, so you should expect to hear what people really think. You might want to work a little on your PR skills.

Being a 'fellow Brit', were I still considering myself that way, would not be an adequate persuasion. We're not talking about defending Britain from invaders - we're all out here for our own reasons.

As has been said repeatedly, you chose your own poison. Now you have to deal with the side effects. Yes, it is unfair by some measures, but no it is not discriminatory. Even as a non-lawyer, you annoy me with that argument.

So, in summary, you have managed to make one person (me) who was a Brit, is now a US citizen, and a voter (meaning I actually have a true Representative), move from not knowing much about the issue to not wanting to sign your petition.

That's not progress.

christmasoompa

It's NOT 'unneccessary' suffering - they had a choice and simply could have stayed in the UK or gone elsewhere! I find it ridiculous that you are stating that those on a visa that they knew had limitations now consider those limitations to be causing 'unnecessary suffering'.

Those affected by wars, famine, disabilities, etc, face 'unnecessary suffering', not those who have chosen to put their own family in a situation that could have been avoided.

Anyway, I shall leave this now as I think we're going to have to beg to differ. I have two children and would never put them in that kind of situation in the first place regardless of my own wishes and desires. Perhaps that's why I fail to comprehend how anybody that is facing their children leaving the country at age 21 can blame the US visa system for their own mistake?

As I said in my first post, I do wish you luck with your endeavours but won't be signing the petition myself.

pinkcat

[QUOTE=christmasoompa;6871218]It's NOT 'unneccessary' suffering - they had a choice and simply could have stayed in the UK or gone elsewhere! I find it ridiculous that you are stating that those on a visa that they knew had limitations now consider those limitations to be causing 'unnecessary suffering'.

Thousand of E2ers have been here for many years and now find they cannot sell their businesses. Were they supposed to forsee the resession?

For many, when they came, the limitations of the visa were not really problematic, but times have changed and many are now suffering financially. That suffering could be relieved if those investors could become permanent residents and not have to live in uncertainty and with the constant cost of renewals.

For those on here who are so fond of analogies - what would you say to people who get divorced - you knew what you were getting into, so you have to stay married? No one knows what the future holds and how circumstances may change. Things have changed for E2 investors and many are now in trouble.

Signing the petition would not cost you anything, and it may well help people in distress. I don't understand your stance.

pinkcat

[QUOTE=AdobePinon;6871182]
As has been said repeatedly, you chose your own poison. Now you have to deal with the side effects
QUOTE]

You haven't been paying attention, have you? I don't need to deal with the side effects, my future is secure. My concern is for those families who are not so lucky.

Try to keep up.

pinkcat

I don't know a single E2 investor who came here "on the cheap". Most invested a considerable amount of money and forked out plenty for immigration attorneys, fees etc. They continue to fork out plenty for renewals of visas and I-94s.

The L-1 visa was not designed for small investors with questionable businesses in the UK to 'expand' to the US, but that's exactly what's happened, thanks to a loophole, as you know.

pinkcat

Why, when this is a site for British expats? What could possibly be their interest?

Folinskyinla

Nina:

Please get that chip off your shoulder. It is pretty clear what you want to accomplish. However, you analytical skills appear to be in need of improvement. In my opinion, you are demonstrating that you may very well be your own worst enemy.

On the "discrimination" front -- you are not very clear about that and in some of your postings, you even admit that the law discriminates in favor of E-2 non-immigrants.

In one post you suggest that investors are discriminated against because people fleeing other countries for their lives are favored. Yes, they are favored -- in fact, many of the restrictions on both immigrants and non-immigrants are loosened for refugees. That is the point that you lost and offended me. I'm sorry, my grandparents came to this country to escape being murdered in pogroms and had they survived sticking around, would have been caught up in the Holocaust. Your flippant discount of events like that will probably annoy other people.

You argue that people who have been here a long time and have something to contribute to the USA should be allowed to stay -- you conveniently forget that in 1996 that that idea was shot out of the law in a decisive manner. There are lot of people who would like to change that one. But, no, you seem to have a selfish contempt for others suffering the same way.

I have not heard one word of perhaps amending section 249 of the Act which has been there since 1952 and updated only once in 1986. Is a fixed date on that one reasonable? I think not.

If you want the type of "reform" that will help you, you might want to look at your skills of persuasion -- you sure have alienated me -- and I happen to work to help aliens stay here and have a lot of sympathy, if not outright empathy. You have resources and allies -- don't work so hard to alienate them.

Bob

Pissing people off and being snide about it certainly isn't helping you out any either.

Personally if I were you, I'd have just posted the link, asked people to look at it and left it at that rather than keep digging your own hole.

Also, the divorce analogy doesn't work, because you always knew you wouldn't be able to get a greencard and would have to leave when it comes to retirement, unless you were young and single and could potentially marry a local, so you really should have considered an exit plan for all outcomes.

Bob

Like I said, it's a viable way for people to come on the cheap because your not pursuing the EB5.

L1, that doesn't happen all that much, because it's bloody hard for anyone in the UK with a small business to do just that.