Wrapping up business and estate before moving to the USA

G

gazza

New Member
Hi all,

We are from South Africa and we have applied to the DV lottery. We plan to sell our business and assests before heading to the USA, should we recieve our GC's.

Naturally a few questions come up:

1.) if we are granted a GC, I understand we have 6 months to arrive in the USA. However selling our business is a requirement before leaving. Should we not sell within the 6 month time frame, is it acceptable to go to te USA to get the green card then come back to south Africa to try sell the business? I understand that once you get a GC you may not be out of the USA for more than 12 months.... So does this mean that we could, theoretically visit the USA once every 12 months while trying to sell the business?

2.) does owning property in the USA ease the above situation?

3.) my parents wish to retire in the USA and will apply for a DV lottery GC too. Chances are slim we all get our GC's at the same time. Should we be granted a GC before my parents, is there any way of getting them to the USA without waiting 5years to become a citizen and then sponsoring them a GC?

4.) we are 7 months pregnant now, any advice about the baby with regards to the GC and the DV lotto?

Thank you!

Gary
 
1. Once every 12 months? That's very risky if you do that repeatedly. Do that once to sell your business should be OK, then move back to the US for good.

3. You can't petition for their green cards until you're a citizen. If they want to move to the US before that, they'll need some other means independent of you, like employer sponsorship (or the DV lottery like you mentioned).

4. Add the baby in accordance with the DV lottery instructions.
 
Thanx for the response. What would your advice be if we were granted the GC before we sold the business? Do we decline it and apply again later once the business is sold? Little reluctant to do that as I understand these GC's are hard to come by.
 
First you should use up 3-5 months of the 6 months they allow for your initial entry, in order to reduce the time you need to spend outside the US after GC approval.

Then after entering the US, apply for a reentry permit. It will allow you to stay outside the US for as much as 2 years. You have to be inside the US when applying for it, and you must be in the US for a few weeks to complete the formalities, then you can leave again and don't need to return for 2 years. While the reentry permit will preserve your green card for those 2 years, the extended time you spend outisde the US during that time probably will not count towards the 5 years you need for citizenship, especially if you spend over 6 months outside the US.

But don't place too much hope on this though. Only 50,000 lottery green cards are given per year out of the over 10 million who apply. You might have better prospects pursuing an employment-based green card (if you have at least a bachelor's degree) or investor green card (if you have at least a half million US dollars to invest).
 
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