 August
15th 2008
Immigration issues frustrate owners from overseas
Tampa Bay Business Journal - by Margie Manning Senior Staff Writer
PALM HARBOR — A visa program designed to encourage the American dream of
business ownership has turned into a nightmare for a businesswoman from
the United Kingdom.
Sue Fern, the owner of the business development firm Event Pro-ssss,
said she is trapped in the United States, unable to return to England to
see her family under provisions of an E-2 visa she acquired 10 years ago
in order to start her business. If she leaves the United States, there’s
no guarantee she’ll be allowed to return, she said.
She has to extend her status every two years, costing thousands of
dollars in legal fees. When she decides to retire or sell the business,
she faces deportation.
Fern cannot apply to become a permanent U.S. resident without
transitioning to a different visa program that would require a hefty
upfront investment.
“We love living here,” Fern said. She and her husband were recruited to
the United States by their then-employers in 1993. “I want to continue
working and living here, but I’m trapped. I’m a hostage to the system.”
Walking away
The E-2 investor visa was designed to attract persons who could invest
“a substantial amount of capital” in a business in the United States,
according to the Congressional Research Service. The investor’s
enterprise has to be deemed capable of making a “significant economic
impact” within five years.
But there’s been a tightening of restrictions on E-2 visa holders since
the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, said Fern and others familiar with
the visa process.
Stephen Parnell, managing member of Ireeco LLC, a Boca Raton firm that
specializes in visa issues, attributes the change to a groundswell of
political pressure against any kind of immigration, legal or otherwise,
and a general distrust of foreigners investing in America.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not
respond to a request for comment on E-2 visa restrictions.
Fern said she is “too ornery” to give up her business and go back to
England, but David Crowther and Christine Crowther, a British couple who
moved here on E-2 visas in 2003 to buy a custom framing business, made a
different decision.
The Crowthers faced the same problems as Fern. They weren’t allowed to
work outside the shop to supplement their income. They couldn’t get a
homestead exemption because they were not permanent U.S. residents, and
they could only get temporary driver’s licenses. On Aug. 1, they walked
away from their shop, Gallery 2 at The Shoppes at Boot Ranch in Palm
Harbor, where they had employed one part-time worker, to return to
Europe.
“We reluctantly came to the conclusion that if America doesn’t want two
honest, law-abiding, taxpaying people in the country then we will go and
live somewhere else that does,” David Crowther wrote in an e-mail.
Reform proposals
There are thousands of business owners in the United States on E-2 visas
with the same dilemma, Parnell said.
“It’s something we hear about over and over again,” said Chandra
Mitchell-Hancz, Fern’s attorney and an associate handling employment
immigration at Neil F. Lewis PA, a law firm in Tampa.
“There haven’t been new immigration laws in eight years. The lines are
getting longer, and people are getting frustrated,” Mitchell-Hancz said.
“These are educated people. People we want here. We need immigration
reform.”
Several proposals related to investor visas surfaced during the current
session of Congress, including legislation that would allow up to 3,000
E-2 visa holders annually to qualify for permanent U.S. residency after
five years, provided they invest at least $200,000 in an enterprise and
create at least two full-time jobs. The measure was introduced last year
but stalled in a House committee.
Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, is reviewing several legislative proposals
for immigration reform, according to a spokeswoman for her office. Calls
were not returned from the press offices of Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., or
Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla.
Parnell, who came to the United States in 1991 on an E-2 visa, now calls
the E-2 “a very dangerous way to come to the States.”
His company runs a Web site, everyvisa.com, that instead promotes the
EB-5 visa, which he called “the visa of choice” for those with $1
million to invest or $500,000 if the investment is in a “targeted
employment area” with high unemployment.
There are no TEAs in the Tampa Bay area.
The program requires the investor to create at least 10 new jobs. It
allows EB-5 visa holders to become permanent residents of the United
States after five years.
Only 800 EB-5 visas were issued out of a possible 10,000 in 2007,
Parnell said. The number of EB-5 visas issued this year is expected to
be higher, as investors act before the scheduled Sept. 30 sunset of the
legislative authorization for the program. An extension has been
approved in the House and is awaiting action in the Senate after it
returns from recess on Sept. 5, Parnell said.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill HR 5569 to extend the EB-5
program for five years
This bill was finally considered by the House of Representatives by
voice vote with very little debate.
The next stage is consideration in the Senate. The Senate has already
approved the extension language in a previous funding bill ( however the
extension was stripped out of that bill by the House of Representatives
), it looks as though it could be more favorable for HR5569 the stand
alone bill. The President then has the final say.
Legislative Update. All
immigration provisions have unfortunately been cut from the Iraq war
funding bill, including the EB-5 regional center extension. However, a
stand-alone bill (HR 5569) is still proceeding nicely in the House of
Representatives. It is hoped that the House will approve HR 5569 in
early June and that final enactment of an EB-5 extension for five years
will occur before the sunset date of September 30, 2008.
New Immigration-Related
Amendments Added to War Supplemental Bill
The Senate Appropriations Committee added a range of amendments to the
war supplemental bill. A number of these amendments were related to
immigration. These amendments include a smaller-scale version of AgJobs,
introduced by Senators Craig (R-ID) and Feinstein (D-CA); a three-year
returning worker extension for the H-2B temporary worker, program,
introduced by Senator Mikulski (D-MD); an amendment that proposes to
recapture employment-based immigrants visas and provide for early
adjustment filing, introduced by Senators Gregg (R-NH) and Murray
(D-WA); reauthorization of the EB-5 investor visa program, introduced by
Senator Leahy (D-VT); and a funding program for border security,
introduced by Senator Hutchison (R-TX).
Pundits note that many of these introduced
amendments may not make it past a full debate in the Senate. However,
the introduction of these various measures shows the Appropriations
Committee’s interest in reformulating a range of immigration
legislations.
The Los Angeles Film Center, will expressly target investments in the
motion picture and television industry in Los Angeles County,
California. it is intended to benefit the Los Angeles film industry as
well as give EB-5 investors an exciting new investment opportunity to
obtain EB-5 visa status
There are a number of recent key
issues that may be of interest if you are planning to go through the EB5
regional centre route to relocate, retire or work in The United States.
No firm news yet from the USCIS on extension of the program once it
sunsets in September; the information we have been given, after talking
to various Attorneys and Regional Centers, seems to focus on the
difficulty of anything to do with immigration issues in this U.S.
election year.
Given the significant increase in immigrants taking the EB-5 route due
to the success and popularity of the program, and the fact that it
officially expires in September, there are growing concerns about the
implications regarding timing of the effective closing date. The limited
resources at the U.S. government service centers seem to be an issue.
Re: News from the Programs
Regional Centre Northwest – The current program has filled up faster
than expected and it’s not presently known if there will be another
available once this one is filled; this may depend on the likelihood or
otherwise of the renewal of the EB5 pilot program.
Regional Centre East Coast Metropolis - This centre has been focusing on
providing places for those who are ready to go. Places are very limited
and it is important to have all necessary documentation in place if you
want to invest in this Regional Centre.
Regional Centre Vermont– Changes in ownership may have necessitated the
rewriting of key documents causing some delays.
There are issues with the other regional centers which we can cover with
you if it would be of help.
|
