Independent US immigration attorneys do
- Prepare and sign the petitions and visa applications.
- Represent you before USCIS and the consulate.
- Work under their own engagement terms, with their own invoices, visible to you.
Finding your route
There is no entrepreneur visa. There are routes.
America has no visa called the entrepreneur visa. It has routes, and each one asks you a different question. Who is sending you? What are you investing? Do you want to stay for good? Answer those in the right order and the route usually picks itself.
The visa follows the business, never the other way round. The most expensive mistake we see is choosing a visa from a video or a neighbor's story before the US business has a shape. Some routes need the American company to look a particular way, or to have done particular things first. If the business plan and the visa plan are made separately, one of them has to be done twice.
Some cases are clean paperwork. When a large company sends an engineer to its US plant for two years, the story is simple. When an owner moves with a family to build a business, everything is connected: who owns what, how the company is built, how much goes in, what you will actually do every day, and the order of the steps. That is the part we plan with you, from the first conversation to the day you land.
Three questions that sort almost every case
Start with your situation, not with a visa you have heard of.
Who sends you?
You have worked for one continuous year, within the last three, for a business abroad that has a US company or is opening one. Look at the L-1 first.
The L-1 visa →What do you invest?
You put your own capital into a US business you run yourself, and your passport is from a treaty country. That is the E-2.
The E-2 visa →Do you want to stay for good?
A visa is temporary. A green card is the right to live and work in the US permanently. If the green card is the goal from day one, the EB-5 is the investment route to it.
The EB-5 green card →Your company sends you
L-1: the transfer from your own company
If your business at home can send you to a related US company, the L-1 is the better route wherever you qualify: faster, simpler to evidence, and it carries dual intent, so you may pursue a green card while you hold it. Your passport does not decide it. What decides it is the relationship between the two companies (parent, branch, subsidiary or affiliate) and one continuous year of work for the company abroad within the three years before you enter the US. If there is no US office yet, the L-1 can send you to open one.
What the L-1 asks of you and the companiesMore →Opening a new US officeMore →From the L-1 to a green cardMore →L-1 or E-2More →
Read the L-1 page →
You invest and run it
E-2: investing in a business you run yourself
The E-2 is for nationals of a treaty country who invest in a US business and come to develop and direct it. Most European countries have the treaty and several do not, so the passport question comes first. The investment has to be substantial in relation to the cost of the business, at risk, and placed in a real, operating enterprise that you control. The status lasts as long as the business qualifies, renewable in steps of up to two years with no limit on the number of extensions.
Which European nationalities qualifyMore →What the investment has to beMore →Spouse and children on the E-2More →E-2 or L-1More →
Read the E-2 page →
Capital for a green card
EB-5: the green card through investment
The EB-5 leads straight to a green card for you, your spouse and your unmarried children under 21. Congress writes the investment amounts into the statute, the capital must be at risk in a new commercial enterprise, and that enterprise has to create at least ten full-time jobs for qualifying US workers. You invest directly in a business or through a regional center designated by USCIS. The first green card is conditional for two years.
The amounts in the statuteMore →Direct investment or regional centerMore →From petition to permanent green cardMore →
Read the EB-5 page →
The three routes side by side
The rules as the agencies state them. Which route is open to you is the first thing we work out together.
| Route | For whom | What it rests on | Length of stay | Family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L-1 (L-1A, L-1B) | Executives and managers (L-1A) and specialized knowledge employees (L-1B) of a business abroad | A qualifying relationship between the companies, and one continuous year of work abroad within the three years before entry | Up to three years at first, one year for a new office; extensions of up to two years each; seven years in total on the L-1A, five on the L-1B | Spouse and unmarried children under 21 on L-2; the spouse is authorized to work |
| E-2 | Nationals of a treaty country who develop and direct a business they have invested in | Treaty nationality, a substantial investment at risk in a real enterprise, and at least 50% ownership or operational control | Up to two years at first; extensions of up to two years each, with no limit on their number | Spouse and unmarried children under 21, of any nationality; the spouse is authorized to work |
| EB-5 | Investors who want permanent residence | Capital at risk in a new commercial enterprise that creates at least ten full-time jobs | A green card, conditional for the first two years, then permanent once the conditions are removed | Spouse and unmarried children under 21 receive green cards through the investor's petition |
Sources: USCIS, L-1A and L-1B Intracompany Transferee pages (updated 31 August 2026); USCIS, E-2 Treaty Investors (updated 20 August 2026); USCIS, About the EB-5 Visa Classification and EB-5 Immigrant Investor Process (updated 18 November 2025). Read 25 October 2026.
The order the steps come in
On paper the road to America runs straight. In practice two clocks run at the same time: one in the US (structure, bank account, visa, entry) and one at home (shares, the business you leave behind, tax, deregistration). Almost every expensive mistake we see is a timing mistake, not a thinking mistake. With twelve to 24 months of lead time you shape things. With three months you pay for them.
- 01
Clarity first
Three questions come before anything else, and the first has nothing to do with tax. What does the US business earn its money from on day one? Who comes, and what does that person need to be happy there? And when does it all have to be in place, counted back from the school year, the end of a contract or a planned sale? A first conversation that ends with not yet is a good first conversation.
- 02
The route that carries you
There is no best route into the US, only the one you qualify for. If a company at home can send you, look at the L-1. If not, the E-2 is the route for a different starting point, not a worse one. If the green card itself is the aim, look at the EB-5.
- 03
A structure that fits the route
Legal structure and state are part of the visa application, not paperwork after it. The L-1 needs a US company in a qualifying relationship with yours. The E-2 needs a US business into which your investment demonstrably went, at least half owned by nationals of your treaty country. Build the structure with the route in mind and you build it once. More on choosing a state.
- 04
A business an officer believes
A company on paper is quick. A business that a USCIS or consular officer believes is real takes longer: a tax number, a bank account with movement on it, premises where the plan needs them, signed customer contracts, a hiring plan that matches the numbers. Applications are decided here, long before anyone sits in an interview.
- 05
The application and the day at the window
For the L-1 the US employer files a petition with USCIS, and with the approval you apply for the visa at the consulate. For the E-2 you apply directly at the US embassy or consulate responsible for where you live, with no USCIS petition first. For the EB-5 the petition goes to USCIS, and the weight sits on a complete record of where your money came from. In every case the file wins or loses the case, not the conversation.
- 06
Leaving home cleanly
Your home country has its own rules for leaving, and some of them reach company shares and investments. The order of selling and leaving is often the most expensive single decision of the whole project. It is settled with your adviser at home before the move, never after, and we make sure the US side fits it.
- 07
Arriving
The first weeks do not decide your business. They decide whether your family is still happy there a year later: a Social Security number, health insurance before anything happens, a driver's license, schools, a car, everyday banking, and a credit history that starts at zero however much you built at home. We almost always suggest renting for the first year. More on the first weeks.
- 08
The first tax year, and staying
You can become a US tax resident in the year you arrive, through the day count of the substantial presence test or by holding a green card, and from then the US taxes your worldwide income. Later comes the question of staying. From the L-1A the green card often runs through the EB-1C category for multinational managers and executives. The E-2 renews as long as the business qualifies but leads nowhere by itself. With the EB-5 the green card is the goal. More on personal tax.
Family
Your family comes too
On all three routes your spouse and your unmarried children under 21 can come with you. What they may do once they are here depends on the route.
With the L-1 they hold L-2 status, with the E-2 they hold E-2 dependent status, and on both your spouse is authorized to work incident to that status, without having to apply for a separate work permit. Since 30 January 2022 the I-94 record shows it with the code L-2S or E-2S. On the E-2 your family does not need to share your nationality. With the EB-5 your spouse and children receive green cards through your petition.
Children count as children only until their 21st birthday. If one of yours is close to it, that belongs in the first planning round, because it can change the order of everything else.
Then the household: schools that rarely follow the corporate timetable, health insurance that does not work the way it does at home, a landlord who asks about a credit history you do not have yet. We plan that alongside the visa. Read more about moving with your family.
One plan, one point of contact
We hold the business timetable and the family timetable in one plan, because they collide. We work with independent US immigration attorneys on the filing.
We do
- Work out which route is open to you, and which is not worth discussing.
- Align the US structure with the route, so the company carries the visa.
- Build the schedule and the evidence file, and tell you early which documents only you can produce.
- Coordinate with your adviser at home on leaving, and take care of the US tax side from the first year.
- Handle the practical side of landing: banking, insurance, the paperwork of the first weeks.
Questions we hear
Which visa is right for me?
It depends on three things: whether a company abroad can send you, whether you will invest in and run a US business yourself, and whether you want to stay permanently. Working that out takes a conversation, not a web form. Anyone naming a route before hearing the facts is guessing.
Is the L-1 better than the E-2?
If you qualify for both, the L-1 is usually the faster and simpler route, with dual intent and a natural path to a green card. Most people arrive at the E-2 not because the L-1 is difficult, but because there is no company abroad that can send them. That is a question of eligibility, not of difficulty, and an E-2 prepared with care works.
How early should we start?
Before anything is committed. A signed lease, an announced start date or a promised hire narrows the options and raises the cost of every remaining one. Twelve to 24 months of lead time lets you shape the move. Three months mostly lets you react to it.
Can my spouse work in the US?
On the L-1 and the E-2, yes: spouses are authorized to work incident to their status. With a green card through the EB-5, your spouse and children hold green cards of their own.
How long does it take?
USCIS and the consulates set the pace, and their times change. We do not quote figures of our own. We show you the processing and waiting times the agencies publish on the day, with the date.
Can you guarantee the visa?
No one can. The decision belongs to USCIS and the consulate. What you control is the choice of route, the order of the steps and the quality of the file.
We already started with someone else. Can you take over?
Yes. Bring what has been filed and what has come back, and we will tell you where the matter actually stands before proposing anything.
Free potential analysis
Not sure which door is yours?
Tell us who is going, what they will do in the US and when. In a short conversation we establish what you want to achieve and whether we are the right practice for it.
Request the potential analysis →Plan the move before you commit to it.
Tell us who is going, what they will do in the USA, and when it needs to happen. We will tell you which routes are realistic and what the schedule looks like.