Help with opening an office in the US

[sb85]

I apologize if I've missed this question/answer already, but I've spent weeks searching the net and I'm even more confused than when I first looked into this!

I'm a partner in an existing UK travel company, and we're currently considering expanding our business. But in order to do this, we would need to have an office in Florida. This office wouldn't make any money, however we would need to hire several staff to get it going, therefore, paying them but from the revenue made in Europe, since the work required to be done in the US would be paperwork, representative work, housekeeping, and maintenence to name but a few (there are many more catagories but I won't list them all)
From what I've read and I believe I've understood, we would need to make an investment and hire a minimum of 10 US authorized staff to qualify, however I may have completely misunderstood this, since I've looked at endless websites and too much information for my own good!

So, 10-15 staff would need to be hired to run office - no revenue made from office.

Now, from what I think I've found on the US embassy's website, the capital needed is $1,000,000. However, my partner and I have looked over the figures and can't find out where this money would go to. Yes, paying the employees, office rental, bills etc. Is there a time period over which this money would need to be accummalated? Or would this all need to be covered in the start up costs?

Secondly, could we use our own company to sponsor ourselves for green cards should we eventually wish to relocate?

Thank you in advance for assistance. Expanding in Europe is so easy in comparison to even considering the US!

 

[sb85]

Thanks for your response. I've inquired about my situation more, and have read up on a few different case studies.

From what I've been informed, Even if there are only two of us working for the company at the moment (the other employees are not in managerial or supervisory roles) one of us qualifies for the L1A visa in order to set up the new office. Because we'd be setting up the office, it would only be valid for one year, but if at the end of the year, the business is doing well, we can have the visa entended in increments of 3 years up to a maximum of 7 years, but at the same time, can also start application process for the green card.

The company is owned 49%/51%, with both parties taking equal executive/managerial roles.

One of the case studies I was provided with was a man who owned a Real Estate company in the UK, employed one member of staff, and then he went to the US to open up a branch office there and followed the guidelines listed above.

Have I yet again gotten things muddled up?! haha Because it seems to be perfect to my companies needs and my personal ones. A bit too perfect.