L1 visa for self-employed (sole trader)
Hi Guys,
I am planning on some structure and was researching the net on L1 for a good attorney where I found this forum and decided to join in.
I am from the UK and putting a structure together for myself as a “sole trader” and wonder if L1 will work for me!
I am also hoping a good lawyer sees this and joins in!
Basically, I too know people who have started L1 and got through their green card through L1 very much along your scenario. For L1 to work though one needs to have been employed by a foreign affiliate for a year who hen starts a US operation and applies for L1 for its CEO under EB1 category, no labour cert! Why? In my mind, because this is foreign money being invested, if the INS insisted on employing somebody else then the foreign corporation will pull its investment!
Imagine this scenario:
1. Foreign corporation capitalised by the applicant, pays the applicant salary for a year.
2. Then the foreign corporation starts a US corporation say for a capital of $250k
3. The US corporation being a one man band makes a profit of say $10k per annum, so after 5/6 years it has $300k in the pot before wages
4. This means this US corporation can afford to pay a salary of $50 p.a. to its employee (the sole trader) over 6 years duration of L1
I want to ask you guys, this is foreign money coming to US and being distributed to the L1 employee who has to pay income tax on distributing his own capital! I don’t see why the INS should have any ground to object to this set up. The questions regarding turnover and number of employees are commercially irrelevant unless the US or its parent company were financially unstable.
Another point referred to in this topic is what about the offshore parent company. It obviously can’t trade much because the sole trader is in the US under his L1. Some lawyers argue that it is enough for the offshore company to be in existence to control its subsidiary, it does not have to trade much if at all! If any lawyer reads this, I like to hear their views.
Finally, I have found L1 the least regulated of the visa categories (no doubt to attract foreign investment to the US) but it has made this visa full of fright for me, so many “IFs and BUTs”!
Love to hear from anybody with practical experience or opinions.
Kind Regards,
Freddie