By Tishita Agarwal If you are looking for a visa that will allow not only you, as an investor in an US business, but also your family and employees to enter the US, the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa might be the right fit for you. The E-2 visa is a long term non-immigrant visa that allows foreign nationals investing in an US business to direct and develop the business while living and working in the US.  Financial investment One of ...
Read More

Portugal offers a Golden Visa (residency through investment) program and recently dropped the amount of time you need to hold residency before applying for citizenship from six years to five. Property is an acceptable form of investment for the Golden Visa program The minimum investment requirement in a Portuguese property depends upon where the property is located and how old it is. This ranges from €280,000 for a property over thirty years old in a low-density area up to €500,000 ...
Read More

Did you know that the Direct EB-5 Program remains open to new investors at the $500,000 minimum investment amount? But hurry. The time to file at this lower rate is likely to be limited. The EB-5 Regional Center program has lapsed because Congress was unable to agree a unanimous vote to reauthorize before the July 4th recess. We expect Congress will reauthorize the program, although the exact timing of this is uncertain.Unlike the Regional Center program, Direct EB-5 is permanently ...
Read More

Life in America is returning to something resembling normality following a successful roll out of Covid-19 vaccines. However, disruption continues at the border with travelers from Europe (Schengen area), the UK, Ireland, China, India, Iran, Brazil and South Africa still banned unless you can obtain a National Interest Exception (NIE). While restrictions may soon lift on the UK and Europe, the entry restrictions on the other countries show not sign of abating in the short term. Consequently, the State Department ...
Read More

Davies & Associates just secured approval of an EB-NIW (National Interest Waiver) petition for a doctor of plastic and reconstructive surgery from Canada. We initially helped him move to the US on a TN Visa, then switch to an E-2 Visa, and now he finally has a Green Card approval through the NIW route. Immigration is an ongoing process, and obtaining a visa is often just the start of that process. Our client's require continuing support from our firm with ...
Read More

By Mark I. Davies, Global Chairman, Davis & Associates On June 30th, 2021 the EB5 Regional Center Program expired and USCIS stopped accepting new I526 Petitions for processing. At the same time USCIS continued to accept EB5 petitions for Direct EB5 applications at the USD 500,000 level.While USCIS have stopped processing EB5 Regional Center Petitions and related I485 Petitions the processing of Direct EB5 and related Petitions continues. With work having stopped on EB5 Regional Center files it seems a ...
Read More

The EB-5 Regional Center Program expired at midnight last night. We expect this to be a temporary lapse as Congress negotiates how to reform the program. What does this mean for EB-5 investors in the Regional Center Program?It depends where you are in the process... 1. Anyone applying for EB-5 through Regional Center Program from today: Your application will be rejected 2. Anyone who has filed form I-526 prior to the deadline but not yet received an adjudication: Your application ...
Read More

Tối ngày 22/06, một thẩm phán liên bang đã ra phán quyết rằng một trong những người đứng đầu Bộ An ninh Nội địa dưới thời Tổng thống Trump không được bổ nhiệm đúng cách, do đó làm mất hiệu lực của việc tăng giá chương trình EB-5 từ 500.000 USD lên 900.000 USD vào tháng 11 năm 2019. Trong vòng vài giờ sau quyết định của tòa án, công ty của chúng tôi đã nhận được rất nhiều câu ...
Read More

Immigration officers can no longer reject visa applications without first issuing a Notice of Intent to Deny By Tishita Agarwal In 2018, the Trump administration set a policy that would allow immigration officers to reject visa applications for visas such as the H1-B Visas, L-1 Visas, H-2B, J-1, J-2, I, F and O-1 visas, without issuing a Notice of Intent to Deny. This Trump-era policy invalidated the principle of a June 2013 USCIS memo that required immigration officers to issue ...
Read More

Davies & Associates proudly represents LGBTQ+ clients in asylum cases and with deportation defense. While huge strides have been made in the United States, same sex relationships remain criminalized in dozens of countries worldwide. Even in countries where same sex relationships are not outlawed, LGBTQ+ individuals also face discrimination or persecution. In some countries members of the LGBTQ+ community face the Death Penalty. Grounds for Asylum in United States The United States has five categories as grounds for asylum claims: ...
Read More

Statement from Mark I. Davies, Global Chairman, Davies & Associates A federal judge ruled last night that one of the heads of the Department of Homeland Security under President Trump was not properly appointed, thus invalidating the EB-5 price increase from USD 500,000 to USD 900,000 in November 2019. Within hours of the court decision, our firm received scores of inquiries from potential EB-5 investors who are hoping to avail themselves of the opportunity to invest in an EB5 qualifying ...
Read More

By Simon Nguyen Bộ Ngoại giao đã công bố bản tin thị thực tháng 7 năm 2021 cho thấy có sự chuyển biến tích cực trong quá trình xử lý hồ sơ của Nhà đầu tư , đặc biệt đối với Nhà đầu tư Việt Nam so với Bản tin thị thực tháng 6/2021 và tháng 5/2021 đều ít chuyển biến với Ngày hành động cuối cùng là năm 2018. Cụ thể, “Ngày hành động cuối cùng” cho hồ sơ ...
Read More

Chính quyền Biden đã khởi động lại Chương trình dành riêng cho Doanh nhân Quốc tế (INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEUR PAROLE - IEP). Chương trình đặc cách cho Doanh nhân Quốc tế cho phép chủ sở hữu và người quản lý của các công ty khởi nghiệp có triển vọng tạm thời cư trú tại Hoa Kỳ để phát triển các doanh nghiệp có tiềm năng kinh tế và tạo ra việc làm. Cá nhân nào đủ điều kiện cho chương trình ...
Read More

We held a webinar with key experts on how to maintain US permanent residency for Green Card holders, conditional Green Card holders, and aspiring Green Card applicants. One of the key aspects of this is TAX. Watch the Webinar Tax and Residency The US is an extremely sophisticated tax jurisdiction with state, federal and local taxes. When you have US permanent residency, your must maintain an address in the United States for tax purposes. So what does that mean for ...
Read More

By Verdie Atienza, Head of L-1 & E-2 Visa Practice Two years ago, D&A assisted an investor from Jordan obtain an E-2 Treaty Investor Visa through his investment in a furniture business. He applied to change of status after he entered the U.S. on a visitor visa. With the change of status application, he did not have to appear for interview at the Embassy which made more sense to him since he wanted to immediately operate the business and considering ...
Read More