B-1 VISA APPROVAL ALLOWS BUSINESS ACCESS TO OVERSEAS BUYERS

• Country/Region: Taiwan, China
• Case: B-1, Business Nonimmigrant visa
• Processing Time: 4 Months
• Challenges:
  1. No work experience from client
  2. E-2 denied
  3. Discouraged because of denial if E-2 visa 
  4. Invested a lot, not sure if he’ll dissolve or build his business 
  5. Constant changing of embassy rules
  6. B-1 visa is an extremely limited visa

BACKGROUND

In the world of international business, you can make all of the right moves and still come up a bit short. This was, unfortunately, the case for Mr. Yang. Mr. Yang wanted to get an E-2 visa to come to the United States to sell wholesale security cameras. He had all the documentation, he was prepared for the interview process, he had the startup funding he needed. He essentially checked every box except for one; no clientele. There wasn’t enough money coming into his business according to the officer who reviewed his case, and he was denied. Mr. Yang had just graduated with his master’s degree, this was his first real foray into the business world, and despite doing essentially everything correctly in regards to the immigration side of his business, he had been denied. However, he did not give up despite initial feelings of discouragement. Instead of giving up, he came to us for a solution.

We have done plenty of E-2 cases in the past, and when we reviewed everything he had done, we saw that he had done it all correctly. The case officer even complimented him on the thoroughness of his paperwork and his interview, but his case was still denied because he could not show that he’d ever have a successful business. Understandably, Mr. Yang was dejected and discouraged. He had invested a lot of time, energy, and money into his business, but he knew if he couldn’t come to America to make it work, he’d pretty much be out of options and he would likely have to dissolve his business. He was scared that there will be no future for his business if he did not figure this out soon, which is when he met with Tsang & Associates. 

KEYS TO SUCCESS

We didn’t want Mr. Yang to lose his business, so we agreed to help him out. The best path forward was to attempt to secure a B-1 visa. On a B-1 visa, you cannot come to the United States with the intention of working, of drawing a salary. You can, however, come here to meet clientele, negotiate contracts, and consult for businesses. You can be here for business purposes, but you cannot “work.” 

B-1 can be kind of tricky. You cannot receive a salary; you cannot make money for yourself. You can run a business, you can do all sorts of business things, but you cannot make money for yourself. But at the same time, you can’t be doing the daily things associated with businesses. You can negotiate contracts, but when it comes time to sign, to actually get the money, someone else has to do it. It’s a very fine line, the B-1, and we don’t want people who don’t know what they don’t know to mess up either their interview process by saying they’ll try to do something they can’t do on B-1 or do something that isn’t in line with what their B-1 says they can do when they have it. We want our clients to be extremely informed of the rules and limitations of their visas.” – Andy,

Once we had decided that a B-1, a visa essentially designed for people to build businesses with, was right for him, it was a fairly simple process of getting Mr. Yang where he needed to be with his preparation. He had done such a thorough job preparing for his E-2 interview that much of the same documentation would be useful when he went in to interview for his B-1. Still, he required coaching on the differences between the two visas and the two interviews.

B-1 visas are tricky in that you are extremely limited in what you’re allowed to do when you’re in the United States on a B-1 visa. Your activities are much more limited than when you’re here on an E-2 visa, and we wanted to be sure Mr. Yang understood the differences. We didn’t want to have a situation where he’d accidentally say something to the case officer that would cause doubt as to whether or not he would follow the rules regarding what B-1 recipients can do. 

Once we coached him through the rules and regulations surrounding the B-1, we helped him prepare for his interview. This was again a short process, given that he had shown himself well in the E-2 interview just weeks beforehand. However, some of the question’s clients get in B-1 interview are asked differently or are completely different than what they would get in an E-2 interview, so we made sure that he had been prepped on any and all questions he might receive.

The final step was ensuring that he submitted all of his documentation properly to the embassy. This was no sure thing, as embassy rules change quite frequently, even more frequently than they update their websites. Sometimes through no fault of our clients or anyone’s clients, documentation gets denied because the embassy website itself is unclear or flat out incorrect in describing how to submit documentation.

OUTCOME

After crossing all of the T’s and dotting all of the I’s, Mr. Yang went in for his B-1 interview. He did extremely well in the interview, all of his documentation was sound, and again his case officer came away impressed. Mr. Yang was approved for a B-1 visa and has recently made the trip back here to the United States, free to grow his business and look for new clientele. This gave him hope that his business does have a future. We wish him the best of luck, and we will be working with him to file a new, updated E-2 application when he finds buyers for his product. 

*Name has been changed to protect client identity