Talking Expat Taxes #11

Alex. Excited to be here today.

so I'm an investor myself, right? So. owned a successful business in Europe, right. Sold that. Wasn't sure what I wanted to do when I grew up. then when, when we're dealing with this last great recession in 2008, uh, decided to become a real estate investor and that went really well. Great timing. Uh, bought some properties right after that and I. Uh, found that that market was becoming saturated and just kind of in 2010 was connected to someone in the franchising world decided that I wanted to become a franchisee myself. Right. Or a franchisor as well. So I bought the rights to Houston for an office cleaning master franchise, I had that business for eight and a half years until someone gave me. An unsolicited offer on my business. Uh, that was pretty, uh, that was a pretty great deal. Uh, and so kind of stumbled into franchise coaching and consulting. what I've realized recently is that, or actually not only recently, but with doing this now for eight plus years, one of my biggest lines of people of interested in franchises or people that are looking to immigrate to the United States through an E two, it's about 25 to 30% of my business.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and look, Alex, I mean, let's talk about some of these minimum requirements, right? So. One of the minimum requirements that we have is you gotta speak English, right?

Uh, and there is a a dollar requirement for this. One of the things that's very attractive, I've had people that have been approved for E two for businesses that are under a hundred K, but that's

the norm. That was, uh, before the pandemic, we're looking at at least $125,000 all

EBEB five, EB five. or, and don't, don't forget, golden, right? Golden's 5 million now, right? $5

has $5 million in their pillowcase, right? Ready to invest in something like this.

a million plus, but one of the big disadvantages of it. Is that it's not immediate. It's like here it's years, uh, waiting list to get the EB five,

so, uh, and there are other obscure visas, right? Um, especially if you're from, from India, that's not an E two treaty country, by the way. There are a hundred plus countries that are treaty countries. But what's exciting about this, Alex, is that literally I've never had anyone not approved.

And I, I just think that this, I want to like shout from the rooftops. Do you wanna come to United States? Right? Do you want to extend your visa? Are you a previous H one B and don't want to be beholden to one company anymore? Uh, do you want your kids to have an American education? Get this visa? I mean, just the thought that it's $125,000 and I'm in is amazing.

I'm talking, I'm talking about the H one B, sorry, that's different. H one B. I'm talking more about you're working for one employer

and, uh, and you're beholden to them. You're probably getting paid less than market rates.

only work for them. Maybe you want to work for yourself or have other flexibility and you're ready to kind of move on, but still stay in the United States.

That's an, that's an option with E two.

I'm, I'm, I'm, so, I'm, I'm so glad you even asked what a franchise is, right? Because there's some misconception. A franchise is very simple. It's a situation where you get a business model or a system and a brand, right? Think McDonald's and Hamburger University, right? In exchange for payments in the form of royalty payments and franchise fees.

And look, 95% of the time it's a brand new business. Every once in a while people are buying existing businesses. That's possible through an E two as well, right?

experience is finding that amazing resale is finding a u is like you finding a unicorn, right? And the reason why is you can overpay for a business, right?

uh, it might be doing great, but you might be buying it at the, uh, at the peak, which means that you're not getting a good value. And overpaying.

be buying a failing business. I don't care what amount of money you're paying for that. You don't wanna buy a failing business, right? Because you have lawsuits and, and, um, the analogy is a, a dog with fleas on it.

No one wants a dog with fleas. Uh, and then you have something in, in between, right? Where you have a, some sort of an owner. Uh, that needs to sell somehow. And, and maybe it's a, some sort of a personal issue and, and it's a great business that you kind of get the right price. But that's really the, uh, that in my opinion, that's kind of the exception to the rule.

Sure.

I am here. Yes, absolutely. So

you wanna ask the question again?

Your question is how do, how do you start the franchise? How does, is it from, do you pay a fee? I mean, what, how do you get

is the question.

single, every, okay. Let's talk about, first, let's even start at the very beginning, right? So look, you people have two options, right? The first option is they can go to franchise brands directly, right? And then kind of even see if they're. E too friendly or not, and that's very time consuming, right? Second way to do this is to, is to go through me. It's a free service, right? Um, and what I do is I go ahead and I narrow it down to the top three brands for you based on, uh, survey and based on, uh, in-depth conversation and a model that I create for you. if you decide to invest in a franchise. Right. You pay a franchise fee, which is anywhere from $50,000 and up, and that's kind of the analogy is that's ip, right? That's kind of the amount that you need to spend in order to get into the system and to get this whole secret sauce, this hamburger university, wherever that might be. Now, I, I don't mean to be talking too much about McDonald's, but that's kinda what people know about.

I work with brands that are pre-screened in 75 industries.

So, such a great question. I have not every brand accepts E two candidates. Right?

well, the way that they're connected

So what happens is, and this, these are great questions. When you're going to the consulate Canada

or in Germany, you come to them and you say, Hey, look, here is my franchise that I've signed my agreement. Here's my first client.

me a visa. Here's the, here's the, uh, place that I've signed a lease, uh, at a shared office space or whatever space it is. Please gimme a visa. That's, that's the connection, meaning you are getting. actual, uh, visa through the franchise and the vast majority of my franchisors that are E two Friendly are ones that allow you, even though I've never had anyone not approved, they, the money is not due until that Visa is approved

fee.

That's correct.

correct. You won't be you, you, you, it's, it's like, it's like you need the visa to get the franchise and you need the franchise to get the visa. It's like what comes first? The chicken or the egg? Or the

look, I, I'm, I'm not an attorney when it comes to e twos. I, my understanding is that you can actually even get this E two Visa,

yeah.

Without having an LLC ahead of time. However, I strongly recommend that, and you're, you're the expert on this. That people get their LLC first, right? Meaning, uh, because you don't want to have, uh, personal liability if you're starting a business, right?

So it's, and, and in many, uh, states, especially ones that are more business friendly, it's so easy to get an LLC up and running.

Let's, let's to go more in depth. Step one is I have a 15 minute free consultation with anyone. Right, just to kind of see where they're at and if I could potentially help them. And then after this, this chat, I send them a survey that takes five to 10 minutes. And really the purpose of that survey, Alex, is for me to just be prepared when we speak more in depth later on. and then after we have this, uh, this, this survey, and we, we have a more in depth conversation with them and anyone else involved in this decision because let's talk about my average candidate. Many times it's a family, right? Uh, big motivation is for their kids to be at school in the United States.

we, uh, we go ahead and we write this two page letter or model, kind of digging down into the ideal business type, which we can discuss a little bit later, which ones are, are more E two friendly than others. And then I go ahead and connect them with these top three brands and wherever they want to move to the United States.

And then they start their investigations directly with the franchise brand with my help.

Okay, I got you. So there's a direct connection, so you're requesting that. I guess that connection through you, like requesting the, the, the franchise and I guess, I guess the franchisor is gonna have their own application process that you go through depending on,

A absolutely. And look, just to be clear, I know we talked about this earlier, my service is totally free for candidates. Meaning if I

a successful match, it's the franchise brand that pays me a commission,

a commission, not not the candidate.

This is a such a great question here. So it's more a dating agency. I think of myself as eHarmony or match.com. Uh, and, uh, and, and so it's not just one factor, it's many different factors. But when it comes to E two, really big issue is, is resources, right? Many people, uh, you can't get any sort of American financing like an SBA loan, um, because you're coming into the United States and you're not, you're actually using your own funds in order to invest in the American economy and hire people, right?

So this is a cash transaction.

candidates are typically quite, um. Quite limited when it comes to funds, right? And that really eliminates, uh, many of my more expensive brands, right? Not everyone, but, um, many people don't have the funds to invest in McDonald's unless they have this golden visa, right?

That's over a million dollars for a McDonald's. but if there, what I would say is the average type of franchise brand. And I'm not gonna talk about specific brands, but let's talk about industries. Things that work are very unglamorous. Businesses that are typically service companies and non brick and mortar, the candidate can come directly to a consular and say, Hey, I. at me. Uh, I have this amazing service company. I have this wonderful, uh, home cleaning business. Just as an example. Here is my lease. I already have my first house that I'm cleaning. Please give me the E two Visa and allow my family to come in with me.

a, that's a, that's an amazing type business. Not very glamorous, but recurring revenue.

mean, uh, there's just, just things that aren't things you might've thought of before, but it's just kind of like a, a business that has predictable revenue. And, uh, look, if I'm someone from outside of the United States too, there's a nuance.

If you're not from Canada or someplace else, even if you're from Europe and having a brand that has really strong systems. Is really key, right? Because uh, if you have other people that are walking the same path as you immigrating here, and, uh, these cultural norms and they have like this playbook or this system that's really powerful and really robust and

team members that are helping you in your success, that's a really powerful value proposition for you.

Absolutely, and, and look, I'm a huge believer in the power of the immigrant. Right. I mean, if you look at all these things that happen in the United States, even in 2025, and even with all this buzz around the Trump administration, and I don't think the Trump administration is anti-immigrant, I think they're pro-immigrant, right?

They're just

the right type of person coming to the United States.

I, I think that if you give this, give the new, the new immigrant to the United States, the right tools, uh, then they typically do really, really well.

I've seen zero negative impact at all. If anything, more positive impact because. This is the same administration that implemented a golden visa. This is kinda like a golden visa light, right? Meaning, uh, golden visa. Whole idea behind it. The reason why the Trump administration went ahead and implemented is they said, Hey, we want more money into our economy.

We want people that are going to pay money to be here and create jobs. That's why we're implementing this. This is the same situation, the same value proposition. Come in, invest, uh, create American jobs, and we welcome you.

my understanding is there's no sort of quote on an E two.

Let, let's, let's kind of talk about a little bit further, dig into E two because you, you can get an E two outside of a franchise business. It's not like the

you get an E two is through franchising.

I'm finding right, frankly, is if you go to a consulate, I. In Canada or somewhere else and you say, Hey look, you know, I'm an I or in Pakistan, and you say I'm an IT professional and I'm gonna create this amazing business in the United States. And they, they come to you and they kind of drill down. I mean, my understanding is the Pakistani consulate is more, uh, onerous in other places.

And you say, Hey look, you know, I've never hired anyone before and I've never owned my own business. I might be an IT consultant. They're gonna shoot you down and reject you, right? Because, but if you come there with an established franchise brand that's been there for 40 years.

it has even has a hundred people that have been franchisees and you say, Hey, this is the system I'm buying in and this is the proven method. I, again, I have never had one of these not approved before.

Absolutely.

Well, look, what I hear about E two is it's not a direct path to citizenship. And again, I'm not an attorney, right?

So a way to get into the United States and for, and, uh, for families to get in. And, um, and actually by the way, it is renewable. So every, my understanding is every two years you have to prove that your business is a going concern.

So some people have this long-term vision of coming to the states. But they neglect the business. Right. And then they come in and then all of a sudden, two years later, they're scrambling because they haven't necessarily done what needs to be done in the business. Right. But I, I've actually heard of other people that have been able to renew the E two for upwards of 10 or 20 years on a two year basis through this.

I, my thing is that on the E two side, I don't see any issues with people starting, right.

what I can tell you is if you're coming to a different continent and you're starting from scratch, that's challenging, right?

about, we're about thriving, about, about being in the top. Every single franchise brand has. Quadrants, right? Like the top people, or we'll call them thirds,

people over performers. Average performers under performers. If you're coming from outside of the United States and trying to get this thing going. By nature, it might be harder than normal for you to kind of get in the flow and to hire and to really succeed.

So what I find is that, uh, the hardest time for my candidates are, is at the very beginning, right? They tend to actually overperform other franchisees in year one or year two, or by the end of year one or year two. But it's just the beginning's harder.

So certain things are negotiable inside a franchise agreement. Certain things aren't right. Uh, franchise fees are not because if they went ahead and gave you some sort of a, an abatement on that, they'd have to give it to every other franchisee,

Um, things that are negotiable are things such as territory, uh, meaning, uh, let's say that you want an extra region of, of, uh, mobile Al Alabama.

They would, might go ahead and give you additional zip codes, Alex, that that might be

understand the disclosure document. Right. And,

And, uh, I, I totally, I'm here to educate my candidates.

what I can tell you is that great franchise brands protect you from a territory perspective where no one else can compete with you in a, within a

one of the best things about this, about this visa, right? My understanding is that, again, not an attorney,

it's the kind of thing where you can get your whole family in. Uh, and I, it's a, it's a strategy that my candidates have in that one person is, is doing the E two visa themself, right?

They're the primary, but then you have a secondary, and my understanding is that the secondary, the spouse and the kids. They have amazing, uh, flexibility, meaning they might get a green card. I mean, that's one of the big benefits of this, that it's not just you, it's your whole family that comes in as well.

absolutely and, and look, I'm glad you bring, you're bringing these tax implications up because I wanna specifically, I'm not sure if you work with a lot of people from India or not.

Okay. Okay. So what I want to say is this, that, um, India, for whatever reason is not an E two treaty country,

But one of the things that I'm finding is that for people in India that have a company, in India or or somehow have access to a family business,

way for them to come to the United States is to potentially have an L one visa. what that, what the L one means is that somehow that company. Um, is actually doing business in the United States and potentially what they do is they buy a franchise business under an L one Visa, not an E two. So in many ways it's kinda like a substitute E two for, for people from

Yes. So it could be a situation where someone has a restaurant in India, right. That's

They don't wanna create the new restaurant in the United States, but they want their kids to. Go to school in Dallas or in Houston.

co, they buy an American franchise restaurant on an L one Visa and that is an acceptable, uh, visa plan with the consulate in New Delhi.

interesting too, something a big buzz in the E two community as well, Alex, is that. Um, Portugal is a relatively new, uh, entrant to the E two Visa game,

means is that people from Brazil are now able to come in

many Brazilians have, um, Portuguese citizenship as well.

Argentina is part of the E two. There are over a hundred countries, right? So

India unique in that it's one of these really amazing countries with over a billion 0.4 people, but not an E two,

the way, ha. Um, my understanding is that Taiwan and I believe Hong Kong are both treaty countries.

to go to my website, franchise visa.net. Book a time for a, for a free consultation. That's about 10 minutes, and I promise to let you know if I think we're a fit or not.

Thank you so much, Alex.