Podcasts

Talking Expat Taxes #7

Investing Your Way to America: A Guide to US Investment Visas

Join Alex McGowin as he welcomes immigration attorney Alfredo Lozano to explore the various visa options for foreign investors and business professionals looking to enter the US market. From E-2 investor visas to EB-5 programs, discover the key requirements, application processes, and strategic considerations for successful immigration through investment. Whether you're considering international expansion or planning to invest in the US, this episode provides essential insights into navigating the complex world of US business immigration.

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Show Notes

Immigration wants you to see you've already invested this money... The monies must be at risk. (On E-2 visa requirements)

Takeaways

  • E-2 Investment Requirements

    E-2 investor visas typically require $100,000+ investment with most approvals coming at this level or higher

  • E-5 Path to Permanent Residency

    EB-5 visas require $800,000 investment but provide a direct path to permanent residency status

  • Processing Timelines

    Visa processing times vary significantly by embassy location, ranging from 1-5 months depending on the country, premium processing can help speed this up.

  • Compliance is key

    Criminal activity or unauthorized business changes can jeopardize visa status - maintaining compliance is critical

If you're looking at one of these visas coming in, talk to a tax professional before you move because the IRS can be a difficult administration to deal with. There's a lot of things we can do on the front end before you get here to make your life a lot easier and more efficient from a tax perspective

Today's Guest
Alfredo Lozano

Alfredo Lozano

Alfredo Lozano is the founder and principal attorney at Lozano Law Firm, specializing exclusively in immigration law. As a first-generation American and son of Mexican immigrants, Alfredo brings both personal experience and professional expertise to immigration law. After serving in the United States Marine Corps, he earned his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Texas San Antonio and his Juris Doctor from Texas Southern University. His unique perspective includes international legal education in Mexico and experience at the Mexican Consulate in Houston. Board-Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, Alfredo serves clients throughout South Texas, focusing on business and family-based immigration. His firm handles everything from investor visas to complex immigration matters, drawing on over two decades of specialized experience and a deep understanding of both sides of the immigration journey.abogadolozano.com

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00:00:00Alex

Welcome back to another podcast. This is again, talking expat taxes. And today I have a really special guest with me to talk not so much about expat taxes, which is kind of our bread and butter, but talk more about, and I've been getting a lot of questions about, you know, people moving to the U S what are some of the visa complications that they have, you know, transferring from companies investing in the U.S.

00:00:22Alex

So today I have Alfredo Lozano, who's going to who specializes in that sort of thing and he's going to kind of talk us through what he's seeing out in the marketplace and then we'll kind of, we'll get into some of the weeds of, of the technical, the technical pieces of that. So, welcome, welcome on board here, Alfredo.

00:00:39Alex

Excited to have you. Maybe you could give us just a little bit of background on what you do, what your firm does, and then we can get going.

Three types of immigration to the United States

00:00:44Alfredo

Yeah, perfect. Thank you, Alex. I appreciate the invitation. So my firm's is out of San Antonio, Texas, and we operate nationwide and we do only immigration law. So So I handle two sides. There's three buckets of immigration. you've got deportation, you've got family base and you've got employment base.

00:01:09Alfredo

Right now we focus on the family base and the employment base. So for your audience, I think for those that are looking to invest in the U S or maybe they work with a multinational company and they want to come to the U S. So we're probably looking at. E 2 visas, E 1 visas, L 1, even EB-5 for those that want to come and invest in a regional center to get their green card, 800, 000 investment. So yeah, those are the people that I normally work with.

00:01:43Alex

Yeah. So maybe if you could just give a broad. Explanation, because I think those are the three big ones that I see. And I think most people would see is that, yeah, the L1, and then the H, what is the HB5, HB?

Understanding the E-2 Investor Visa

00:01:56Alfredo

Yeah, the EB-5. yeah, let's start with the E 2. E 2 is the most common one. It's the E 2, it's the investor visa. basically, what's immigration or the Department of State looking for in order to be able to give you this visa, issue this visa? the regulation state, you have to invest a substantial amount in the U.S. there is not a number. They don't say, oh, it has to be 50,000 or a hundred thousand, or 200,000

00:02:26Alex

Just the typical undefined term that they throw in...

00:02:31Alfredo

Yeah. And typically, in practice we see a hundred and above, right? 120, a hundred thousand. I've done it with 70,000. I've even done it with 60,000. Anything below 70,000. It really depends on the type of business and it, there's a bunch of other factors, but I think if you, if any investor says a hundred and above.

00:02:51Alfredo

Really high probability of getting approved. the amount of investment, it has to be an investment that you're going to direct and operate. I'll give you an example. I've got an investor. He says, hey, I'm going to buy five homes. I'm going to rent them. And each home was 100, 000. Will they give me the visa? Most likely not. Because What are you going to say? Oh, I have to go there once a month to pick up the rent money. So had that investor invested 500, 000, it may be into a bunch of Airbnbs or a small hotel where there's a daily, weekly, yeah, now it's a daily operating business. It's much easier to prove it up.

00:03:39Alfredo

So a month investment it has to be. And then the last one is It has to be profitable. You have to demonstrate that at the end of the week, at the end of the quarter, at the end of the year, you're going to walk away with a profit. We know that some businesses eat money the first year, two years, right?

00:03:57Alfredo

Immigration is aware of that, but normally they want to see before the fifth year, you better start showing, profitability.

00:04:05Alex

Okay. Interesting. All right. So it has to be so substantial investment, you know, 100, 000 is a good rule of thumb and you have to manage it and it has to be profitable. So how are they like that initial investment? How are you proving that? Is it going? You have to show bank records or how does that -

00:04:24Alfredo

Yeah, what I like to do is demonstrate the E, A, B, C, D, E, you sold, you're in your home country. Let's assume you're in Germany. You sold your house or you've, worked as an executive and making two, 300, 000 a year. You save this money up over the last couple of years.

00:04:46Alfredo

That money was wired transferred to your LLC in the United States or your corporation, from one bank to the other bank.

00:05:03Alex

you're showing this movement.

00:05:05Alfredo

yeah, and I apologize. That's a great point that you're bringing up, Alex. In order for you to get the visa, The monies must be at risk.

00:05:15Alfredo

So immigration wants you to see you've already invested this

00:05:21Alex

Okay. How far in advance can you do that? Cause I mean, I work with a lot of non non residents that invest in the U S I help them set up LLCs and, and get bank accounts. And so they're starting business here already. So, Yeah, I mean, I guess at that point you could apply at any point, right?

00:05:40Alex

Depending on profitability, management and, and substantialness.

00:05:44Alfredo

Yeah. as long as the business is doing business, you're open to the public or whatever the, format, but if you're operating that business already, yeah, you can apply for the investor visa.

00:05:57Alex

Okay. You just can't, you can't say I'm planning on putting money into this company or, you know, they have to, you have to actually do it. It has to already be at risk. And then, yeah. Okay. So. Easy way is, hey, here's a contract. It's a construction company. I bought the bulldozer, it costed me 150,000. I bought the crane and it costed me $200,000. maybe you didn't pay cash a hundred percent. Maybe they did financing, but each one of those, you put in 20, 30, 40, 60, 80,000, a hundred thousand dollars in five, seven pieces of equipment, and then the rest, you got loans, right?

00:06:35Alfredo

For the next two, three years. you've already committed to it.

00:06:40Alex

Right. Yeah. Clearly you're planning on, yeah, you, you have a substantial investment in this business and you're committed to doing business as you've

00:06:47Alfredo

Correct.

00:06:48Alex

So there, so what do you, what's the certification process year on year? So you said they have to, you need to be able to prove profitability. So there's an initial application and then each year you have to file something with them or how does

00:07:00Alfredo

No, it depends the country. no. it's the, you have to do a business plan, a five year business plan. you have to, obviously set up the business. You have to have all the evidence that this business has been set up, right? And I apologize if you see people walking behind me. I'm actually at a conference.

00:07:25Alfredo

For law firm owners on how to successfully operate your law firm, right? So how to hire the right team how to hire the right team members how to Do your finances how to? you know the six seven parts of a business so I love investor visas because I get to speak to investors about their businesses And sometimes I get to share what i'm learning That easily transfers from my business running a law firm And I'll show them my ideas to help the investor become successful in their American business, right?

00:08:05Alfredo

going back to your original question, your question was how to set, no, what we need to demonstrate, is that correct?

00:08:11Alex

Well, yeah, it was kind of, yeah, the, the initial application and demonstration, then year on year, if there's

00:08:17Alfredo

Yeah, there is no year on year requirement. What they'll do is they'll give you a four year or five year visa depending what country you're coming from. Okay. Some countries are two years, some are four, some are

00:08:30Alex

So then to renew it, you'd need to be able to show

00:08:32Alfredo

Exactly.

Understanding the E-5 Investor Visa

00:08:34Alex

That makes sense. So that's a really common one. So I'm curious and I may be way off here - the EB-5, that's also an investor type visa, right?

00:08:45Alfredo

It is, but obviously you're talking about an 800, 000 investment, and that one actually leads to your legal permanent residency.

00:08:55Alex

Okay. So that's the difference is the E one or is the E one and E two. Just to be clear. Is that like the E one is the main one? You have like a spouse or something on the E two or there's totally different pieces.

00:09:06Alfredo

No, the E 2 is the investor. Okay, you invested X amount to get that visa. The E 1 is, you already have a history of either exporting or importing into the U. S. Right, so let's assume you're in, I don't know, you're in France. and you export, oils or something. You export something to U. S. And you've been doing it for 6 months, 12 months, 30, 60 thousand dollars every month.

00:09:39Alfredo

You're sending your product from France to the U. S., that's an E1. Or, let's assume, you're in, X country and you're importing something from the U. S. to your home country. And every month you're buying some type of material, that's the E1.

00:09:59Alex

I see. Okay. So there I was way off there. I thought they were. I thought they were connected. They're really two totally separate pieces. They both have to do with business in the U. S. But the E two is your investor visa.

00:10:10Alfredo

Correct. So you've got the E2, you've got the E1, and then EB5. That's a great visa. the EB5 is, I call it for those that don't want to work in the U. S., but they want to become legal permanent residents, right? You invest 800, 000, into a regional center. and, You eventually get your legal permanent residency.

00:10:37Alfredo

Right now, that's taking about three to five years. However, I do not recommend that for what I call multinational executives. Let's assume that outside the U. S. you have a, you have your own business and you've got 50, 100 employees and you decide to come into the U. S. and either, Do a similar business or totally something different, but you're going to grow and you're going to have 20, 30, 40 employees.

00:11:06Alfredo

So you've got your business in your country. You've got a business in the U S right there. You're, considered a multinational executive.

00:11:15Alex

Yeah.

00:11:16Alfredo

And you could do this with the E2 visa. Now, with that format, you can then petition for yourself to become a legal permanent resident. Okay. that's called an EB1C. we do those all the time.

00:11:33Alfredo

but let's assume you're an executive for a big company in your home country and you're 55, 65 and you're like, You know what? I retired, but I do want to live in the U. S. I want to become a permanent resident. That's where the EB-5 would really help out.

00:11:48Alex

Gotcha. Okay. And yeah, and I told you we talked about this before we started recording, but kind of the political climate and how that changes things going forward. I'm really curious to hear how, especially I would think the EB fives and E twos, like what is, you know, what is the Trump administration or the, the potential, like, murmurings, you know, of things to happen with the Trump administration.

00:12:11Alex

Like, how has that affected so far? And we've already seen this, right? So like, how did it affect last time? And what are we expecting this time?

00:12:18Alfredo

Yeah, so last time, especially with the E 2s, we had this hire Americans, buy America, right? what they did last time is, part of your business plan, you had to demonstrate how you were going to hire Americans as an investor. You're coming to the US, how are you going to grow the qualification process

00:12:39Alex

Yeah, they didn't touch very much the EB-5. in fact, I think they're going to be very friendly to the EB-5 industry. And I would suspect that this time around they're going to continue being friendly for the, to the E 2 visa as well. I think the new administration is really focused more on, persons that are in the U. S., that, have, maybe they had a Deportation order, they had court and they never left. immigrants with criminal records. immigrants that, or foreigners that don't have legal status in the U. S. I think that's where their main focus is going to be. And I, I hope, that the new administration fixes the H-1B visa or that, yeah.

00:13:37Alfredo

That, part of the immigration system. So we'll see, I think as far as business wise for investors, for EB5, I think there's going to be a lot of, opportunity for the next four or five years.

00:13:52Alex

So that may even go up the investor and business side of it.

How the immigration process has changed in the US.

00:13:56Alex

I mean, like administratively, because I mean, I mean, I deal with the government and its own sector every day. And it's, it's a slow moving train, you know, and a lot of cases. So, I mean, if you're applying for an, E2, like, what is the time period?

00:14:13Alex

And have you seen that change much? Like, over the last couple of administrations?

00:14:17Alfredo

I think that what created a delay was actually COVID, right? Now, getting the visa at the actual embassies or at the consulates, depending where you're at and what part of the world. normally they're taking anywhere, for example, in London, the American embassy in London. They take anywhere between one month to three months.

00:14:44Alfredo

in Mexico, if I send them to the embassy in Mexico City, they're taking anywhere between three to five months to get an interview.

00:14:50Alex

Okay. So it just depends on where you're applying from really, as far, it's not so much the U. S. as it is the particular embassy and consulate that you're working with.

00:15:02Alfredo

it's the, a

00:15:03Alex

I guess it's

00:15:04Alfredo

MPC constantly,

00:15:05Alex

getting the appointment and then it's the application process. That's

00:15:10Alex

right. much volume do they have, right? it's very, The, Mexico is right next to us, their neighboring country, right? So there's a lot of investors that come from Mexico. So they have a lot of visa appointments, much less in London, much less in Germany, much less in Korea, Japan. So those other countries, it's gonna be probably a lot faster.

00:15:34Alex

Right. But what about on the U. S. side? Like, let's once you get the application in, what is that looking like? Generally? Okay,

00:15:45Alfredo

doing it inside the U. S., there's a service that Immigration offers called Premium Processing. So you pay an additional fee of 2, 805. And what they guarantee is that they will process your application within 30 to 45 days. so we're getting, you will get notified, right away.

00:16:08Alfredo

In fact, I just filed one. I think in November, and they processed it within 10 days. It was approved in 10 days.

00:16:17Alex

and so you're good to go in that 10 days after that

00:16:19Alex

10 days processed, you're good to go. You can. Okay.

00:16:22Alfredo

Yeah, you can start working, right? you can now legally start running your business.

00:16:27Alex

And is there like a threshold that the, the, the U S government has as to how many they let in, in a given year, I'm sure, or it is

00:16:35Alfredo

Not for the E2s, E1s, and, or EB5s. For other visa types, yes.

00:16:42Alex

others I see. Okay. And you mentioned the, what was it? The H-1B.

00:16:47Alfredo

Yeah, the H-1B is, for employees of companies, right? we heard, Microsoft, Apple, a lot of the, engineering. It doesn't have to be engineering. It could be doctors as well. There's, it does require that you do have a degree for the H-1B. Okay. From, from anywhere. It doesn't matter where it's from.

00:17:11Alfredo

Correct. As long, No, it does not have to be from the U.

00:17:15Alfredo

S., but it has to be the equivalent of a bachelor's degree. Okay.

00:17:18Alfredo

and now those are subject to a cap. That's the only issue with those. So if you're from, for example, if you're from Canada or Mexico, there's another visa called a TN, Treaty National, Treaty Trader, visa, for NAFTA. So H1B is for everybody else.

00:17:39Alex

I see. Okay. And that one, you mentioned that you hope they fix some stuff with that one. So what, what are the issues that you see with that one? Is it that

00:17:46Alfredo

Yeah, the cap. you've got 300, 000 applications and only 60, 000 are being issued.

00:17:55Alex

per year,

00:17:56Alfredo

per year.

00:17:57Alex

60, 000. Okay. And these are like, when you hear about. The tech working the tech industry bringing in people from outside the U. S. That's the H-1B visa. I mean, then shoot some of these companies have hundreds of thousands of tech workers, you know,

00:18:13Alfredo

Correct.

00:18:15Alex

yeah,

00:18:16Alfredo

Now, once they get it, brand new, then can, they can continue extending it. So the cap doesn't imply to the extension, it's only the new visas.

00:18:25Alex

Okay, yeah, and parse that out, like, by companies or who knows how they do that.

00:18:31Alfredo

It's, right now it's on a lottery system. that's why I'm saying, I, that's

00:18:36Alex

so, like, if I wanted to hire somebody for my business. On an H-1B probably not happening. I mean, or is it just or do I have the do I have an equal chance as someone else based on the lottery

00:18:48Alfredo

you have, it's a lottery. You have the equal chance like everybody

00:18:53Alex

The equal unlikely chance as everyone else All right, very interesting. All right, cool. So yeah, the I mean, Yeah, that explains like the two the two investor visas and that's what I see the most and obviously on my side I'm always dealing with the tax side of it So just a quick plug for what I do, you know, if you're looking at one of these visas coming in, talk to a tax professional before you move because the IRS, the IRS can be a difficult administration to, to deal with.

00:19:28Alex

And there's a lot of things we can do on the front end before you get here to make your life a lot easier and more efficient from a tax perspective. But, but yeah, so on the immigration side. I'm just curious, you know, kind of last point here, is there, are there, especially investor type visas, people coming in, like an E 2, what, do you have any particular things you would recommend that you, you know, issues you see people run into that they should look out for before they come in?

00:19:57Alfredo

there's a lot of myths out there. I think the first thing you need to do is do a consultation with an attorney that specializes in E2s. Just so we can get those myths out of the way, right? And a good attorney will give you a strategy and kind of explain the 30, 000 foot view, the 15, 000.

00:20:20Alfredo

and then the day to day, right? They should be able to explain all of that because that's what you need to understand in order to then start working and executing to start with step one, step two. and step one and step two is obviously speaking to your CPA, speaking to your tax specialist, right?

00:20:41Alfredo

Speaking to a corporate attorney, right? Thinking about, hey, I'm a foreigner in the U. S. that I'm about to invest two, three hundred thousand dollars. what if I die? What happens with that, right? How is that handled, Are there any tax consequences, right? so understanding all that, understanding, partnerships.

00:21:08Alfredo

If you're going to get into a partnership with a U. S. citizen or permanent resident, how does that play out? and what about your family? Can your family come with you? Can they work? what about their schooling? what if I'm coming with a child that's 18 years old versus 22? Do both of them qualify?

00:21:27Alfredo

So I think having a good understanding and being honest with, not, honest, being forthcoming with the attorney about what's your one year plan, your three year plan, and your five year plan. I personally always ask about the family and where do you want to be five years from now. And then I try to engineer it backwards so we can meet their goal, whatever their goal is five years from now if they want to become a permanent resident.

00:21:57Alfredo

What do we need to do today, so you can get to that point five years from now?

00:22:01Alex

right, yeah, that makes sense. Hey, and one, I have one last question I just thought about. Yeah. Yeah. What, I mean, let's say you're on the E 2 visa, what are some, and you get qualified for four to five years, what are some things that could get you in trouble during that four to five years, like to, to where you might lose that visa?

00:22:21Alfredo

Criminal obviously if you get arrested for something that's very serious you could they can revoke your visa

00:22:28Alex

What if you start, for example, cause I, I, you know, I've heard of people, you start working for other companies, like you set up a company and you start working for other companies and maybe that's allowed, I don't know, but I was just curious if there's things you need to be careful of. during that visa period to not cross a line with your E2 visa that could get you in trouble.

00:22:49Alfredo

Yeah, I think the most common is where they close down the company because they didn't go well and they open up a new company With a new tax ID number and they don't let immigration know You

00:23:02Alex

Right.

00:23:03Alfredo

an issue.

00:23:04Alex

That makes sense. Okay. All right, cool. Well, hey, Alfredo, I really appreciate it. This has been good stuff. I learned a lot for sure. We'll let you get back to your, to your conference, learn how to do the business of, of lawyering.

00:23:18Alfredo

Yes.

00:23:19Alex

need some training in there, I think.

00:23:21Alfredo

Yeah, and I love it because it's practical advice that, I love talking to investors. I love talking about their businesses. I want to know, about their businesses. And I've been doing this for 20 years, so sometimes they'll want to get into an industry in the U. S. that maybe they don't know very much about.

00:23:43Alfredo

Yeah. But they see potential. So I can always direct them to specialists or other professionals in that industry, or at least I try my best. So they can start off on the right foot.

Thanks for your interest! 🎙️

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