Permanent Residence (Green Card) Options for Investors

Permanent Residence Option for Investors

For some investors and entrepeneurs, the immigration objective is simply to gain a U.S. work visa to enable them to come to the U.S. for a temporary period of years to direct the initial development of the U.S. Company. Once it is established and they have a groomed an executive or manager to shepherd it through its subsequent corporate life, the investor or entrepreneur may return to his or her native land and simply monitor it from afar, perhaps with a periodic business trip to check on its welfare.

However, other investors or entrepreneurs may ultimately decide that they wish to take up permanent residence in the United States. This requires them to seek permanent resident (green card) status. There are a myriad of ways to secure U.S. permanent resident status for investors, including but not limited to the following:

Multinational Managers and Executive Immigrant Category;
Extraordinary Ability Immigrant Category;
EB-5 Investor Immigrant Category;
National Interest Waiver Immigrant Category;
PERM-based based EB2 or EB3 Immigrant Category; and
Family-based Immigrant Category (when the investor has a close relationship to a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent spouse, child or parent who is willing and able to sponsor them).

For information about the Extraordinary Ability or NIW categories, please see our law firm’s website at myeb1visa.com.

Investors or entrepreneurs who have a majority stake in the company are not likely to be able to proceed with a PERM-based case. Other employees are often able to navigate such PERM based process through the sponsorship of the employer.

EB-5 cases take a extremely substantial investment of $1 Million or $500,000 in an economically depressed area and creation or maintenance of 10 jobs for U.S. workers. This category has been fraught with problems since inception and many of our clients find the EB1 Multinational Manager and Executive category to be less restrictive in terms of the magnitude of the investment and the amount of time, effort, money and legal fees to navigate the process.

We can discuss any of the above categories with a prospective client, but this website focuses on the most popular category – the Multinational Executive and Manager category.

Advantages:

If U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) approves an I-140 Immigrant Petition based upon Multinational Executive/Manager classification, it is not necessary to secure a PERM labor certification from the U.S. Department of Labor;
The category is in the Employment-Based First (EB1) category which usually has no backlog under the Immigrant Quota System. If there is no backlog, then the beneficiary (and his/her family) can simultaneously file a permanent residence application with CIS. If there is a backlog, the beneficiary can concurrently file for permanent residence as soon as the quota permits. The EB1 category is usually the fastest moving employment-based green card category;
An L-1A Approval is a solid underpinning for an I-140 Multinational Manager/Executive case, although, unlike the situation in the L-1A category, the petitioner must also prove that the foreign qualifying job was managerial and/or executive in nature; and
The U.S. petitioning organization must have been in business in the United States for at least one year before filing an I-140 petition.

Key Requirements:

The Multinational Executive/Manager I-140 Immigrant Petition category features the following criteria:

The beneficiary must have one year of continuous full-time employment as an executive and/or manager with a properly related foreign employer during the three years prior to I-140 case filing or the beneficiary’s U.S. entry on a work visa such as an L-1;
The U.S. job that is the subject of the petition must be managerial and/or executive in nature;
The foreign employer and the U.S. employer must be commonly owned and controlled and meet one of the definitions of a “qualifying organization” (such as parent/branch, affiliate, subsidiary or joint venture); and
The employer must have the ability to pay the offered wage as proven by an audited financial statement, federal tax return, annual report or other means acceptable to CIS.

Possible Challenge Triggers:

CIS is more likely to challenge cases with the following profiles:

Possible Triggers for Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny Attacks on the Beneficiary Portion of the Case

Possible Triggers for Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny Attacks on the Beneficiary Portion of the Case

younger beneficiary;
beneficiary did not complete college (albeit completing college is NOT a requirement and we have secured green cards for MANY non-degreed owners and other workers);
the beneficiary’s foreign experience is not progressive (i.e., there are not many stops in the career that led to the management job);
the salary is modest and not necessarily reflective of managerial or executive standing;
the job duties of the foreign and U.S. jobs do not strongly suggest a dominant portion of daily time spent on managerial and executive job duties; and
the foreign and U.S. job charts are relatively flat.

Possible Triggers for Request for Evidence or Notice of Intent to Deny Attacks on the Company Portion of the Case

a smaller company whose staff size may call into question the need for a full-time executive and manager, and whether the beneficiary will be spending over half his or her time on managerial and/or executive job duties;
the U.S. company has not been existence for more than a year or two;
the U.S. company’s office space is very small or shared;
there are many managers or executives in relation to total staff size;
the company revenue and net income are modest and the net income is near to or less than the salary of the I-140 beneficiary; and
the last year of financial documentation shows little or no positive net income (the larger the company, the less relevant this is).

The secret to building a case that offers the highest odds possible is proactively including solid evidence regarding the company, its history, its structure and finances, and the beneficiary’s credentials and experience, and anticipates and addresses any potential areas that CIS may be inclined to challenge in a head-on fashion.

EB-5 “SUPERINVESTOR” GREEN CARD CASES

EB-5 permanent resident cases take a extremely substantial investment of $1 Million or $500,000 in an economically depressed area and creation or maintenance of 10 jobs for U.S. workers. This category has often been fraught with problems since inception and many of our clients find the EB1 Multinational Manager and Executive category to be less restrictive in terms of the magnitude of the investment and the amount of time, effort, money and legal fees to navigate the process.

But some clients who already are making a personal investment of over $1 Million (or a lesser amount in an economically disadvantaged area) that creates or saves jobs for 10 U.S. workers may find it to be an appealing option if they do not qualify for the EB-1 Multinational Manager and Executive category. We would be happy to consult with you about this possibility if you reach out to us.

OTHER GREEN CARD CASE SOLUTIONS

In some cases, the above permanent resident options are not a good fit, but there many be other pathways available, such as a PERM labor market test based solution (though this may not be a solution if the applicant is a significant shareholder) or a family-based permanent residence case. We can consult with you about any of these other opportunities since we handle all of them.

Consultations

This site covers these topics in some detail, but you are also welcome to request a free immigration consultation with Lisa M. Galvan, Esq. by sending an email to lisa.galvan@hammondlawgroup.com or calling her office at (513) 287-6865.

Experienced

Lisa M. Galvan has over two decades of experience guiding companies ranging from foreign entrepreneurs who have a U.S. business idea they want to develop to small family-owned businesses to mid-sized private multinational companies to name-recognizable, large publicly-traded companies in navigating the visa and permanent residence process.