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US IMMIGRATION MADE EASY FOR INTERNATIONAL REAL ESTATE CLIENTS
How to make your international clients your friends for life By Barry Gleen, Esq. Each year, our membership is faced with the same dilemma; a client from Sweden, or Venezuela, or Japan has visited South Florida and comes to you to find the perfect house where he can safely ensconced his or her family for life. One spouse goes gaga over the golf courses; the other spouse has discovered Worth Avenue or Atlantic Avenue in Delray Beach; the kids have discovered surfing. You may even not have the good fortune to have the clients in front of your office; you may just get a call. The reality of the political situation in certain parties of the world may bring about circumstances where a family had decided on the spur of the moment to settle in the United States; you are their first call. What do you do? More often than not, particularly with clients from Europe, where their country is member of the European Community, visas do not exist. That big house on Palm beach Island will not do your clients any good if they are not able to live and work here. You are their first line of inquiry, where you can go from a real estate agent to family counselor, suggesting how to keep families safe and happy. The purpose of this article (and subsequent articles), is to show just how easy it is to obtain work visas and permanent residency in the United States This article will deal with temporary professional level positions; subsequent articles will deal with permanent solutions to your clients needs, or the famous “Green cards”. PROCEDURE First, let’s get the procedure out of the way. In most circumstances your client’s US employer will have to file a petition with the proper fee (in some cases, over $3500 per employee!) with the office of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (“USCIS”) , which will then approve the case and send your client an approval notice on a form I797. Your client merely make anb appointment with and take the form into the American Embassy where he or she lives, pay a fee , and submit an on line visa application. The US Embassy will mail back the visa in a few days and voila, your client is on the plane. In some cases, like the E visa, and the TN visa, this procedure can be skipped entirely and the visa can be applied for directly at the US Embassy or the border. Now, to the actual visas themselves and how your clients may qualify. VISA TYPES There are several visa types for professionals to choose from, and most of them are available on a year round basis. 1. The H-1B visa- this is the only professional level visa on a quota, so you must always check with an attorney or the USCIS to see if there are any left when your client wants to come to the US. As of this writing (December, 2010), 52,000 of the 65,000 H-1b visas have been issued, so there are only a few more to go around for this fiscal year. The H-1B visas are for professionals with the equivalent of sa a US Bachelor’s degree that relates to their US job and who are coming to the US to perform work that requires such a degree In other words, your computer tech people, your teaching pros, your accountants, and your hotel managers will qualify. We are fortunate to live in an area with an USCIS office that understands the of the business world, so if the client’s degree relates to the job in anyway, the petition will be approved.. If the client has not finished a four year program, then the USCIS will substitute three years work experience for every year of college the candidate lacks, so in reality, even if a person NEVER attended college, as long as he or she has 12 years of relevant experience that person can qualify for an H visa. The H visa is issued for a total of six years (three at a time), and can be extended if a green card is filed for one year before the end of the sixth year. 2. The TN visa- this visa is available to Canadian and Mexican nationals only. Not only is there never any quota for these visas, meaning your client can get them anytime during the year, but Canadian nationals can apply for these visas directly at the border and Mexican nationals directly at the US Embassy or consulate in Mexico. There is NO lengthy petition as you have with the H visa above. These visas are issued pursuant to the North American Free Trade agreement, which has its own set of rules as to what will or will not be accepted. Therefore, while the TN visa is available to most of the same professionals the H is, occupations like Management Consultants, Hotel Mangers, and Graphic Designers have their own requirements. The TN visa is also attractive because it is issued for three years at a time but unlike the H visa, it can be renewed ad infinitum. Legal counsel should be contacted if a person on a TN visa wishes to apply for lawful permanent residency, as there are some travel restrictions. 3. The O – this visa will fit your leaders of industry, famous fashion designers, sports figures or golf pros perfectly. If the prospective employee has achieved extraordinary ability in his or her field, meaning a person who has “acheived a high level of skill at the very top of his field” can qualify for an O visa. One would need to submit awards, evidence of the person’s participation as a judge in a competition, and/or membership in an organization where very few people are admitted, as evidence of this recognition. In addition reference letters from professionals in the field are also attached to the petition. Like the TN visa, the O visa can be renewed ad infinitum, and can be a precursor to an expedited green card. 4. The L visa and the E visa- if your client is a national of any number of European Countries, Japan, or Korea, he or she may also consider these visas for your professional staff. The L visa is for corporate transferees from one unit of a company abroad to an affiliate unit in the United States. If the sponsoring company is foreign owned, the employee does not have to have been employed abroad , as long as the employee is the same nationality as the ultimate owner than that employee is eligible for an E visa. In the case of Melia, for example, if the employee carries a Spanish passport, he would be eligible for an E-2 visa, even if he never worked for Melia before. Neither one of these visas are on quotas; in most cases, the L visa applicant must first get the approval of the USCIS before the employee can apply for the visa, while E visas are applied for directly at the Embassy In addition, if your client is from one of the countries that are eligible for E visas, he or she can open his own company in the United States, sometimes with a minimal investment of $30,000 or $40,000, and get a work visa that way. Well, there you have it. Five quick and easy suggestions on how to get clients working in the United States in a very short amount of time. The trick behind any of these visas is that preparation is required to prepare the paperwork and of course, the longer prep time one has to prepare the application the better it is. As you can see, if you as a real estate professional and can spot immigration issues during the first conversation you have with a client, that client will be your friend for life, as you have given him or her a solution to keep his or her family safe and happy for a very long time. . As promised, the next article in the series deals with permanent residency, the famous green card. You will be surprised to discover that some clients may obtain a green card in as little as six months after arrival in the United States. Barry Gleen, Esq. has over twenty five years of experience in the practice of immigration law. He has served as Head of the Corporate Practice Committee of the New York American Immigration Lawyers’ Association for two years and was named for 2010 and 2011 to New York Magazine’s Best Lawyers’ in New York edition. His firm, Abrams, Fensterman represents many major entertainment, health care facilities, hospitality, and manufacturing conglomerates and is in the process of opening its first office in Boca Raton. Mr. Gleen may be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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