Visas & Advice Detail
Understanding the E-2 visa
Pat Sawyer of Take One Media emigrated to the US under the E-2 visa. Here, she gives prospective emigrants her top tips on how to cope with the business of emigration
The decision to put in the application for an E-2 visa is not to be taken lightly. There are inherent risks from day one. There is the move away from home, family, friends and familiarity to consider. There is also the not insignificant management of the transitional phase, when you need to access the cash in order to pay for the business in the US. For some there may well be enough resources for that to not be an issue; for many of us, the sale of property or businesses in the UK is precisely what makes the new life in the US a possibility.
Once the decision is made and you are firmly committed, the next stage is to find the optimal business that will meet the requirements of your visa application. That is the exciting part, as is the taking over of the business. Then the drudge starts: the gathering of information and paperwork to support the application. Maybe you are well organised and have everything on hand ready to simply hand over. I know for me it was a long, up-hill, seemingly never ending process of sorting, gathering and sending. Finally the application goes in. You let out a deep breath of relief and settle back to wait, and wait, and wait. In my case, it was a total of 12 months – with eight of those on an enforced stay in the UK. And then that magical day comes when they accept you and you get that piece of paper stuck in your passport. The worst of it is over. But, of course, in the cold light of day, that is not necessarily true. All that has changed is that you have a piece of paper in your passport that gives you permission to stay in the US to run your business for two years. If you have a long enforced absence from the business, you are arriving back to a situation that you have only had the smallest of contacts with. You might well arrive to find lots of wonderful surprises, but you could just as easily arrive to find that the whole place is less that how you left it. The latter was certainly my experience.
So what are the pointers that I would suggest to others doing the same thing?
1. Be realistic about the business and how that business will operate under different ownership. How much business was because of a local owner? This actually worked to my benefit, as the local owner did not have the best of reputations for being either a positive employee or someone who cared about good service. He had his friends, all of whom appeared to expect huge discounts even with the business under new ownership.
2. Get the paperwork together as soon as you can. Do not put any of this off for a better day – there isn't one. It's just something to do and the sooner you do it the sooner the application is lodged. Be thorough. And be prepared to challenge your solicitor. I have heard many stories about applications being refused because of a mistake on the part of the solicitor, My only complaint (at the time) was the slowness in checking that all the information was in order. I now really appreciate the thoroughness with which VisaPlus went through my application.
3. Manage your financial and emotional state while you are waiting for the application to be accepted. It is a challenging time for anyone and there is really very little to be done other than wait. Keep in daily contact with the business and just do what you need to do to keep it alive and thriving.
4. Don't get carried away with the cash. I look back in horror at the cash that I went through in the first year of my ownership of the business. I was still emotionally in the mind set of a UK to US. It sounds so obvious now, but then it was party time. Keep a check on spending in the business – but also personally, because you might need it later. I certainly did!
5. Be realistic about expectations. Again, it will depend a great deal on your special circumstances, but when I look back on my arrival to finally take over the business, my expectations were that I would coast for a few months and then pick up the reins and start guiding, prodding, changing direction and all the other good things that one does as a business owner. What I had not factored in was a series of challenges involving equipment and staffing that started within three weeks of my arriving back, and continued through to the point when the recession really began to bite in November of 2007. I do believe that the issues that I encountered were rather extreme in their manifestation, but the main issue that I had was with my frame of mind. I felt somehow like I deserved a break. I had been in the UK for eight months through no fault of my own, had managed all of that pretty well, and now, when I finally get back, I get hit time and time again with things that were not to be predicted. Now there was some reality in this. In a business based on technology, to have a computer every month for five consecutive months break down and need replacing was somewhat extreme (that was five out of a total of nine). And that was only the half of it. But when I look back, my biggest enemy was my frame of mind while all of this was happening.
6. Look into banks. The whole financial situation is very different from the UK. In the UK, it was easy to arrange a regular payments for services and, in the main, once it was organised, you could be reasonably certain that it would happen month after month as directed. Or at least that was my experience.
Here, it is rather different. You organise for payments to be taken and it might or might not happen. Oh, and then there is the occasional situation where they get a little over enthusiastic and take out too much.
A certain telephone company over here that I had an account with when I first arrived not only charged me for services that did not exist (it was a bogus company that sold some vague service that no-one could ever explain to me), they also provided completely unreadable invoices and once took out a chunk of money from my account that I did not owe and then agreed that I did not owe but they would not return it. I never got it back and simply let it go.
Take care about giving anyone your financial details and, if you do, make sure you carefully check every month against what should be taken out and act promptly if there is a discrepancy.
7. Know your taxes. You are employing staff, so will have the taxes relating to their employment to deal with on a monthly basis and then the extra hit that you get quarterly. Sales tax can hit hard, especially if you are in a quiet month after a busy one. And then there is the one that, to me, beats all taxes: Property Tax. This is the one that necessitates paying tax every year on everything that you own in the building – every chair, computer, table. And then there are the annual taxes and any other tax that your particular state might dream up.
8. Be patient with getting your social scene established. You may know people in the area, which will obviously help. Having children always seems to be a passport into getting to know people. If you are like me – I came to an area where I knew no-one and on my own as well (maybe there is no-one else quite that crazy!) – it takes time to find your way around and to establish contacts. Even though I am very familiar with the US from countless visits and I have many good, dear friends scattered around the country, living here was still a huge culture shock that has taken time to get used to.
9. Think about licences. I live in Florida and each state has its own rules regarding driving licences. Here, I have to renew my licence every year, unlike Americans who renew theirs every ten years. It's no big deal, and costs me $15 a year and a little hassle, but it's something that I needed to factor in. The Social Security (SS) number is good for the length of your visa, then needs to be renewed as the visa is renewed. Check in with the laws of your state, they are all different. I had not fully realised that until I got here.
10. Watch out for officialdom! Probably more or a pain than anything else is the level of officialdom that exists in this wonderful country. Without that SS number, doors are often firmly closed. You need to play to the rules, but as long as you know them and play them fair, I find that the doors will often open. I have heard some British people saying that it is difficult for them because they are British. Well maybe that is so in some areas, but in my experience the individuals that you meet in any situation will always do their best to do what they can for you. I could quote a number of examples where individuals have gone out of their way to try to be helpful and to assist me in achieving what I need to achieve and, sometimes, that extra help has come because I am British!
So much of what I have written I write with a tinge of embarrassment, as most of it sounds so obvious and simple, especially to anyone coming from running a business in one country to running a business in another. But obvious and simple is great in hindsight and is not always too much in abundance when the stress levels are running high.
Register for your FREE emigration starter pack