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E-2 Extension for French Restaurant Owner

Preparing French Restaurant Owner For E-2 Visa Interview

  • Applicant: Ms. Caron
  • Nationality: French
  • Applying For: E-2 extension
  • Time: 1 month
  • Challenges:
    • Paris Embassy is notoriously meticulous
    • Client had two previous denials
    • Client did not want to risk her entire life to travel back to Paris
    • She had a weak case due to lack of thriving business
    • Requirement of the formulation of a backup plan if the Visa was not approved
    • Ms. Carson was very distraught through the case process

 

BACKGROUND

We have a wide array of clientele and a wide array of services, as our client Ms. Caron found out when she came to us needing an E-2 extension. The E-2 visa is designed for people who are coming to the U.S. to invest large sums of money into a company and then run that company from an executive level. Ms. Caron had her case denied at the U.S. Embassy in France for issues with funding sources and investment. Those denials, and the current state of her case, made her extremely nervous to apply for her E-2 extension. Her case was weak. Her business was not posting profits and her salary did not indicate that she held an executive position. Her entire life was here in the United States. Her kids, her husband, and nearly all of her assets were now here, and a denial would have meant she could have potentially been separated from it all. She could not fathom life away from loved ones, and at this point was very fearful of her future.

Ms. Carson needed to find a law firm that was experienced in these types of cases, and found Tsang & Associates. She indicated her anxiousness to us when she brought her case for review, but we knew that not only could we likely help her secure her E-2 extension, but also she was in an economic position that could allow her to utilize services that we rarely have to break out for our clients. We took on her case and diligently got to work.

 

KEYS TO SUCCESS

First, we did our due diligence on her E-2 extension. While her case was weak from first glance, it became clear that she had a good chance of getting an extension, even at the Paris Embassy, an embassy known to be very particular. Her business, a restaurant, wasn’t doing well economically, but they had recently rebranded their entire style. They had renovated from a fast-food style restaurant to a sit-down bistro recently, and their outlook had improved. Her salary could also be explained. By drawing a low salary, she allowed the business to expand more rapidly than if she was drawing a six-figure salary.

We felt strongly that our argumentation would provide a successful outcome for Ms. Caron, but we also knew that her interview would be key, so we began our comprehensive interview preparation process. We grilled her like she was a CEO talking to shareholders, like she was explaining every aspect of her business, where every dollar was going and why that was the best choice for the business. We also prepared her workforce for possible calls from USCIS. Sometimes USCIS will call employees of business owners that they interview in order to double-check their stories, and we wanted every single employee to be completely prepared.

“Ms. Caron required what I call ‘white-gloves service.’ We are extremely thorough with all of our cases; we take pride in taking the extra step for every one of our clients. But Ms. Caron required the extra-extra step. So not only did we cover her case thoroughly, but we set up a power of attorney, legal guardianship of her children, and a backup immigration visa plan in case the E-2 extension did not work out. We made sure that Ms. Caron had every single part of her life covered in the event of failure, that she could go to Paris confident in our plan and our contingencies. We wanted her to be confident and calm, so she could best represent herself. That was important to us.” – Joseph Tsang, Attorney

Once we had prepared her interview, we began our “white-gloves service” for Ms. Caron. We wanted to put her as at-ease as possible because we know calm and confident clients represent themselves best. To put Ms. Caron at ease, we did a comprehensive package for her. First, we tried to think of a worst-case scenario, an E-2 denial. What would that mean? It would mean her children would be left without both their parents, as her husband was going with her to Paris. It meant no one would be in the United States to run her business, and it meant that she would be stuck in Paris. We set up a power of attorney for a reparative to make business decisions and temporary legal guardianship for her children. We also began preparing a business-visa application for her as well. It would give her a chance to go back to the embassy the next day for a second shot at returning to the United States. In the denial situation, time would be of the essence. Even with a relative having the ability to run the business, the owner of a fledgling company can’t be away from the business for over-long.

 

OUTCOME

Once we prepared all of her documentation for both visas and for the extra-legal services that we provided Ms. Caron, we sent her off to Paris to do her interview. Ms. Caron’s E-2 extension was approved. She was able to quickly return to the U.S. to continue to run her business and live her life. While a lot of the work that we did for Ms. Caron turned out to be superfluous, she was exceedingly happy to have it all done, given the peaceful state of mind she was allowed to have during the entire process. The fear she once had, turned into happiness now that she is able to stay with her loved ones in a place that she calls home.

*Name has been changed for client privacy.