Visas & Advice Detail
E-2 visa: A cautionary tale
In the March 2006 edition of Emigrate America Pat Sawyer chronicled the highs and lows of her E-2 visa application
Now, some months on, she is still waiting as her application stutters its way through the US embassy. In an update of her situation, Pat explains how she is beating the E-2 blues
In June 2005 Pat Sawyer invested in a media production business in Florida's Bradenton. In December of the same year she submitted her E-2 application and made a final trip to the US on a visa waiver to take care of the business whilst she waited on the Embassy decision. Now, over nine months since she made her submission, she is back in England still awaiting a decision and sweating on the survival of her business. Here, Pat tells her story.
It was in the early months of 2006 when a stern but ultimately fair immigration officer agreed to let me back into the States for my third three-month stay within the previous 12-month period with the clear instruction that I was then no longer welcome without the E-2 Visa that I had applied for. Having purchased my business in September 2005, the application was presented to the Embassy mid-December of the same year. I left America for the last time at the end of March 2006…just three months and two weeks after the application was lodged. I returned to the UK believing that I was here for a month, maybe two and that I was soon to be returning to the country of my choice complete with visa. How wrong I was! I write this in mid July with still no news.
So how has it been for me? How is life in this limbo state? Well, you may not believe it but the answer to that is that I am actually pretty good, although I have to say that it has not always been that way. When I first arrived in the UK, my mind was set on it being a relatively brief visit so I dashed around seeing people I wanted to see and doing things that I needed to do in preparation for my 'final' departure. Once I had done everything that I had set out to do, I began to get very restless, very bored and very depressed. I began to make up stories about how maybe I didn't really want to go and live in America after all. I was on the verge of throwing the towel in and giving up on the whole affair when reason started to surface. I had started this process of going to live in America in the full knowledge that it was not going to be easy. I had jumped obediently through the beaucratic hoops that had been set in my path for one reason and one reason only. That was – I love living in America, it feels like home to me in a way that no other country does. And, once I re-connected with that fact, the process became a whole world easier. Instead of fighting the system, I decided to work with it. Instead of wasting energy on events that I had no control over, I decided to focus on what I could actually do. I decided to stop making excuses to myself, to stop playing the victim role and start to create a way of making the most of the situation as it was, not as I wanted it to be.
The Business
I believed that I had left the business in the hands of two loyal and competent but very young employees. I had employed a friend to work part-time for the first two months to deal with the admin and to keep a general eye on things for me. But I felt very detached from it all. I felt that I could do little to support the business from such a huge geographical distance so tended to distance myself from the reality of what was happening. I know my two staff members, I know their strengths and I know their weaknesses. I was getting snippets of information that supported my deepest fears that things were not running as I would like them to be.
Not knowing what to do and feeling pretty helpless, I chose to do nothing. All of which added to my miserable state. After I had understood and accepted what was happening, my focus shifted, I began to look at how I could be more pro-active with my time in Europe and my business in America. Instead of putting my energy into what I could not have and could not do, I began to focus my energy on what I did have and what I could do. The key thing was to stabilise the business and the only way to do that was to engage a manager with whom I could work closely. So I rallied the troops, called on my various US contacts for support and set out to find a manager. It was an interesting process doing interviews from England but I did it nonetheless. I now have my manager. She was recommended to me by a long-standing friend who I trust and respect. We got on together very well, she had the right qualifications and a great attitude. Before I made my offer to her, I contacted two other friends in the town where she lived and asked them to do a face to face interview with her. Wow, what a difference a decision makes. It is now the start of August (still no news from the Embassy yet) and my new manager has been in post for four weeks. When she started, it soon became evident that my worst fears about the state of the business were true. Projects were not being completed, checks not banked, calls not returned… the full list of misdemeanours is still being uncovered on a daily basis. So we said goodbye to that particular staff member, engaged a new one and have seen phenomenal growth both personally and professionally in the other existing staff member (who incidentally has chosen to work for us full time now because of the changes that we are making). We have also gathered a waiting list of people who want to come and work for us in the near future. And all without any effort at all… it's all coming to us!
The most exciting thing from my perspective is that I now have daily contact with the business and am as involved as the geographical distance allows. This is made possible by the willingness of my staff but also through the wonder of technology. Through my Skype connection, I have free phone calls and an instant chat line. At the start of business in Florida, we open the chat line at the UK and the US ends and leave it open throughout the day. Any staff can use it if they want to talk to me about anything as it comes to them. We even held our first staff meeting this week courtesy of Skype. I am taking a risk but then, is it risky to sell up your home in England to buy a business thousands of miles away and to start a new life on the fragility of getting a visa to give you permission to stay and run that business? I would say a resounding yes.
Friends
I am making this move to America on my own. An advantage of that is that I have no-one to be concerned about or to have to consider in my decision. The disadvantage is that I have no-one to share the burden with when things get tough. After the initial flurry of activity to see people in the first couple of months, I somewhat isolated myself in the UK. I found it very depressing to be asked to explain time and again what was happening (or rather not happening). So I chose to isolate myself and to talk to less and less people. The few friends that I maintained have been true friends in offering practical and emotional support to help me to manage my stay here. The support that I have received from my American friends has been equally tremendous. There have been the ones who have been of practical help: doing interviews and organising things for me. But the most valuable support from my US buddies has been the hand of hope that they have extended across the water. They have stated again and again how important it is that I stick with the process and not to give in. To be told again and again, 'we want you here' has held my resolve together in the bad times and has served to remind me of how I want so much to be there.
Pioneering
Anyone who goes down this route is a pioneer, an adventurer, an innovator, a visionary – take your pick. By doing what we are doing, we are people who are prepared to take risks. I lost that for a time. I was looking for certainty and security and had lost the adventure.
Would I like the adventure without all the paperwork, mystery and pregnant silences that emanate from the US Embassy in London? Yes, a thousand times yes. But if they are the rules of the game and I have no current power to change those rules, why not adapt to them and make them work the best way that they can. These days, I am pretty philosophical about the situation. I am enjoying my life again. I have stopped fighting the immovable object. I have a mantra that I repeat daily, many times a day and that is, 'it is not going to be too much longer. I will be going home very soon!'
And in the mean time, having taken my head out of the sand, taken action and found a way to keep such close contact, life has purpose and direction again. And while it doesn't take away the yearning to go home, it does mean that I'm enjoying life here while contributing to my future life in Florida. I guess I will just have to wait for as long as it takes!
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