USA VISA - Will the purchase of property help to obtain US residency status ?

The question whether purchasing US property can help to obtain US residency status is somewhat confusing for a qualified yes and no answer applies and this often leads to conflicting views being provided.

Many people from all over the world have a desire to obtain US residency status and yet many are equally nervous about risking their financial savings in a qualifying investment business venture to help them to obtain a suitable visa.

The E investor is the most popular immigrant US residency visa for this provides a relatively simple and easy path by way of business investment and yet as with all financial investment careful research is necessary to ensure no costly mistake is forthcoming.

It was back in the mid 80’s when I was first involved with British buyers of vacation homes in Florida and soon after I realised that there was a common thread to the buyer profile. All were buying for a combination of rental, investment and holiday reasons plus many asked if their property purchase could help them to obtain US residency status.

I told them that a single US home purchase was no justifiable business investment reason and therefore this would not help them to obtain a residency visa.
However I soon realised that a business involving a carefully presented visa application with at least 4 homes together with submission of a comprehensive detailed business plan showing how the business would succeed, could provide a completely different answer.

When a visa application is poorly presented or it portrays a “passive financial investment” an application will be declined. However if the visa application is carefully presented by an experienced professional with a proven track record in knowing how to demonstrate hat an “active property business” will occur this has a real prospect of resulting in the issue of an E2 visa.

The application should clearly demonstrate that a “substantial financial investment” is made prior to the application being submitted and although no actual sum is detailed in any document in reality this should not be less than $100,000.
Property loans are allowed although when the case sufficient projected business profit margin will need to be clearly demonstrated for as the projected expense and risk increases so of course will the scrutiny from any issuing immigration official.

Of equal importance is the need to clearly define why you believe that the proposed business will be viable and the application must show that the proposed business can readily support the owner’s future living expenses etc
The supporting business plan should demonstrate a defendable reason why it will generate employment and as a guide the projected generated profits normally should not be shown as being less than $50,000 per annum.

Clarifying the property aspect as an integral part of the business plan will be essential as would be in the case with a similar business proposal such as one involving say a guest- house, hotel or even property rental firm.

Vacation rental homes that are purchased should be viewed by the issuing authority similarly to a hotel for the property purchased has a very similar function, however no rental homes purchased should be shown as being bought specifically for personal use!

Property assets purchased as part of a rental business do of course require regular maintenance and rental bookings are also a necessary business function. Appropriate personnel for the every day business needs will therefore be required either at the outset or at a later date.

In Central Florida, especially within the Disney catchments a constant demand for “good quality well run” property management firms still exists despite the number of holiday rental firms that already operate in this area.

The constant growing demand for good quality management results from the continuing cycle of firms that naturally grow when they increase their portfolio of homes. This seemingly can reduce some business operating standards, hence the constant demand for new firms.

This specific problem was the underpinning reason why I decided that my real estate business should NOT to enter into property management, despite an obvious attractive financial temptation.

Back in 1985 there were very few holiday property management firms operating near Disney for by and large it was hotels providing rental accommodation.
Over the years we dealt with several thousands of property sales to British buyers all of whom bought for personal holiday use plus potential rental income.

In view of the importance our buyers applied to the property management, we decided that it we should provide the best client service by remaining totally independent from any property management firm. Indeed many of our real estate competitors could not resist the obvious financial temptation and they did otherwise.

As a result of our independence nowadays we can track and monitor the performance of some 700- property management firms in Central Florida alone and the valuable information that we continue to gain helps our client buyers.

Currently there are over 50,000 British owned homes in Florida and of course many more properties are owned by other non –residents, both US and foreign.

It follows therefore that there is a constant demand for quality small to medium sized property- management firms in this particular region and this is naturally creating attractive and exciting investment opportunities for budding entrepreneurs in search of a new US way of life.

Anyone who is keen to keep their financial investment risk to a minimum and is somewhat nervous of investing cash into a new business venture may be hard pressed to find a better alternative than to invest in a property based management renal business.

Property in the “Sunshine State of Florida looks set to keep rising in value for property prices are still lower than many comparable states such as California, where prices are almost 3 times as high!

Those interested in obtaining more information should contact Countryside International on UK number 08456 444 747 where a free DVD “The definitive guide to buying in Florida” is also available.

www.countrysideinternational.com

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