Approved..E-2 Self Filing

[mrsoze00]

I filed my H1B to E-2 change of status without a lawyer at the beginning of october and I jut got the approval email. I think I read every E-2 posting on this board before I filed.

-Söze

[kirtida8]

Congratulations Soze.

[Craney]

Well done

[Callie]

Congratulations you must be feeling really proud of yourself and quite right too!!

[JulieC]

Congratulations. I did my own E2 also. It isnt hard when you get down to it, the guidelines are all there, yet people pay such large sums of money out to get it done for them.

[peter gold]

Congrast but why did you go to E-2 from H1B

[InnVic]

Congrast but why did you go to E-2 from H1B

we did this in another thread :-) check on his other posts

[peter gold]

Read previous posts
As I thought she went to an EB-2 status not an E-2 status and that can lead to permanent residence

[InnVic]

Read previous posts
As I thought she went to an EB-2 status not an E-2 status and that can lead to permanent residence

Curious how you come to the assumption he/she went to EB-2 - it is clearly stated in almost every post that it is E2 INVESTOR visa and this visa was chosen because H1B has a maximum of 6 years which Op had already done.

http://expatsvoice.org/forum/showpost.php?p=74627&postcount=5

[peter gold]

I am emplyed by a seven year old small company under an H1B for 6 years, and I plan to change my status to E2. I was told by my H1B lawyer that the reason my H1B was approved was because I have a top-5 MBA and the company, though small, got a few blue chip clients.

I have lots of support documents from the company's H1B filings, and I am pretty sure I can address the E2-specific questions in my cover letter. I am a majority shareholder, and the business has generated over half a million in sales over the last 7 years. I am hired in a specialized managerial role...etc.
My I-94 expires in the next few weeks, so I plan to e-file a few days before the expiration date and then send the supporting documents.

My question is, us there any major disadvantage to self-filing my H1B to E2 change of status without an attorney? My company needs to save some cash.

Are ther any other weaknesses you can see?

[InnVic]

I am changing status from an H-1B to E-2. I purchased the equity of the H-1B company and I am filing as an E-2 investor at the California Service Center. I already have all the documents assembled and a draft of the covering letter that they ask for explaining your entire case. Should I have a Director of the company sign the i-129 and the covering letter? or should i sign them myself?

Thanks -

________________

I called the second guy at the number posted on his profile link and he suggested i look at an O-visa, extraordianry ability or something, and he went through the possibilies. I had a free consultation with him. It was informative, but i stuck with my original plan.

-Söze

Peter it doen't say EB-2 - your making assumptions.

[peter gold]

Well if he/she did not then they made a gross error of judgment as they were eligible for EB-2 status from which there is a path to a green card
FYI an EB-2 is a type of investor visa

[mrsoze00]

A foreign company is one that is majority owned by a foreign citizen, and therefore is not eligible to sponsor greencards, and certainly not for the owners themselves. If you want a greencard all you need is a job offer with sponsorship from an american owned company. An EB-2 would be pretty easy for me in that case, its an advanced degree employee based greencard category. The EB-5 is the investor category greencard, and it requires 500K to $1M.

You dont take a risk like I took without finding out the basics. LOL. Imagine the flood of greencards that would get filed if they suddenly allowed regular foreign owners to sponsor themselves. My old lawyer was one of the best, and he always said that if CIS wants to keep you in the country, and you dont qualify for another visa, they allow you to use the E-2.

-Söze

[peter gold]

A little knowledge is dangerous!

[Susie]

A little knowledge is dangerous!

Well I for one am b--dy dangerous, lol :hug::hug:

[Ray10]

I know a gentleman who just got his GC after doing an EB-5 by himself ...His comments on lawyers is not one of praise

[florida]

hello folks

i see, you are saying you filed yourself, so your company can save some money.

could i ask how much you paid to buy into the company, as we never know, what is a acceptable figure

regards

florida

[mrsoze00]

A lot of people think CIS looks at all investments the same, and they want a certian number 75K or 100K or something like that for the investment or else they just deny it without looking at anything else. They dont, they look at the type of business and the required capital. I acquired the equity several years ago really cheap, but it's a consulting company, so the E-2 "rules" are very different than say a franchise or manufacturing business.

It doesnt require a whole lot of capital to start a consulting company, but on the other hand, CIS wants large blue chip clients and high revenue. They mainly look at employees, leases (to determine funds at risk), clients, revenues, profit etc. In the years between 2004 to 2008 we had over 900K in revenue, and a few fortune 500 clients. Our best year was 280K and our worst year was 125K. I had signed all the leases for our office ,so they could see I'm on the hook if we should fail.

-Söze