gracezilla

Hello,

I'll keep it brief. My husband (27) and I (25) have two sons - 3 years and 7 months. We own are home here in the Uk. I have an honours degree in a science based field, and my husband has around 6 years of experience as a logistics manager - managing a warehouse, around 21 employees, and the day to day running of a franchised parcel business owned by his parents. We were married in Florida two years ago and we are seriously considering to move there.

I understand it's very tricky, almost like finding hen's teeth. But just wondered how likely we'd be granted a visa via this route -

We start an online business based in Florida, running it from our home in the UK to a point where it could provide enough income to allow us to move to Florida.

So firstly - would this be a possible route?
Secondly - what credentials would we need to start a business based over there? Bank accounts? Accountant? Solicitor? Where would we stand with tax?

Any help or information would be appreciated.

Thanks

civilservant

I can't answer the second one, but as to the first - it's not really viable, since employment based visas are for those with degrees (and job that require them) or for those that have worked for a company based abroad for a year before moving (with that UK based operation continuing).

The only way I could see you getting to move to the states is the E2 (treaty investor) which is a nightmare to renew and has no route to Permeant Residence, or the EB-5, which would require you to sink $500k into 'buying' a Green Card.

Flabound oneday

opening a business is fairly easy,a good cpa (accountant) can guide you through the process.
again opening bank accounts isn't difficult, proof of identity, address etc

the Patriot Act which involves all 'aliens' makes things a bit stricter but not insurmountable.

depending how you register the company will determine how tax is assessed but yes you will pay it !!

as for the visa I tend to agree with CS, it doesn't look good.
This wouldn't swing for an L1
I doubt it would for an E2 either and there is the big uncertainty factor
the EB5 looks like the only route

Pulaski

You may be able to swing an E2 visa, but as for "enough income", I wonder if you've allowed enough for $1,500 or more of medical insurance and expenses (copays and deductibles) a month for a family of four? Car insurance is going to start out at about $2,000 a year for you. And the self employed have to pay employer taxes in addition to regular income tax.

Also how much have you allowed for house rental? There can be a huge difference in the "character" of neighborhoods between apparently cheap/bargain housing and areas that are attractive and safe to live in. The quality of schools in lower income neighborhoods can be highly questionable. And then there's utilities: air conditioning is expensive to run, even in a modest sized house you should plan on having $250/mth electricity bills for half the year.

Also, if you were to obtain an E2 visa, your sons will "age out" at 21, and have to leave the country, unless they were able to obtain their own visa. If they attend university they'll be charged "out of state" rates - think around $20,000/yr! If your sons are forced to return to the UK, they'll be returning as foreigners to a country they never remember living in.

FWIW I would estimate that you'd need approximately $120,000 before-tax annual income to make it worth transplanting your family from the UK, and that would be just enough to "get by" comfortably. A few months ago threw some numbers out (post #8) for a guy considering bring his family over to Virginia, and came to the conclusion that $50k was barely survivable and would not support the sort of lifestyle that is mostly taken for granted in the UK, and even on a "bare bones living" basis wouldn't leave enough income to buy airline tickets back to the UK once a year, .... or even once every five years! Since my early post, I have also learned the the "deductibles" (amount that you have to pay before the insurance pays anything) on the new government promoted "Affordable Care Act" insurance plans are much higher than I'd previously realised, unless you are poor.

Awesome Welles

Your E2 business has to do more than provide enough for you to make a living.

Anything with 'on-line', or 'virtual' in it's description is going to be a very tough sell.

Steve_

It's not E-2 it's E-1. US business is part of your supply chain. Treaty trader, not treaty investor.

It's a pretty common thing for Canadians to do.

How you do it depends on how big of a footprint you have in the US. If you've got a UK corporation it would have to file an 1120-F in the US to establish the trading basis in the US, however if you have a warehouse in the US then you have a "permanent establishment", you can still use 1120-F but at that point it would make probably more sense to have a subsidiary in the US, so then you start up a C-corp and it files an 1120 and you make it a wholly owned subsidiary of the UK company.

If it gets to that point you could use L-1A. There's another L-1 category that is hardly ever used by anyone other than Canadians called "L-1 intermittent" which allows entry up to 183 days a year, for people to come in and do some work and then go home. The advantage being it can be renewed indefinitely.

However a website alone is pretty weak, because you don't physically need to be in the US, if you ship to the US though there are immediate tax implications because you have US-source income. If there's no permanent establishment in the US though it's pretty easy to comply with, usually a W-8ECI or W-8BEN (depending) and maybe a protective 1120-F or 1040NR.

RICH

You need a manager based in Florida to set up and run your business. You can come over often, to check up on me, but you can't do it yourself.