Employment-based Immigrant Visas

However, in the more likely situation that the investment enterprise will only exist after the entrepreneur enters the United States, a copy of a comprehensive business plan projecting a need for no fewer than 10 qualified employees within two years and their anticipated hiring dates will be accepted.

A business plan should include the following:

1. How the commercial enterprise is organized (whether as a corporation, general or limited partnership, business trust, joint venture, holding company, sole proprietorship, or other entity);
2. The concept and purpose behind the enterprise;
3. A description of the physical premises, including photographs
   (if available), or drawings of the planned premises if not yet constructed;

4. Financial forecasts and projections for implementation of the business plan, including requested capitalization and anticipated return on investment, and estimated timetables for construction, commencement of operations,
   and hiring;
5. Specific market research demonstrating that the target area for business will support it; and
6. Credentials of key persons responsible for development and management of the business enterprise, including the investor if appropriate.

The business plan should be straightforward and comprehensible to ensure the investor understands all aspects of the investment, and so that INS adjudicators will know in a brief review that the investment will satisfy statutory and regulatory requirements for conditional residence.

Conditional Permanent Residency

Immigrant investors and their spouses and children enter the U.S. in conditional permanent resident status subject to termination after two years.

To preserve permanent resident status, they must petition for removal of the condition during the 90-day period before the second anniversary of their original admission.

The petition for removal of the condition must include evidence that a commercial enterprise was established and that the petitioner "invested or was actively in the process of investing the requisite capital." The investor must also show that he or she "sustained" these actions throughout the period of the investor's residence in the United States.

One caveat for alien immigrant investors: the United States taxes such investors for their worldwide income during their two-year conditional residency.