Green Card for Startup Founders EB-1 / EB-2

My Journey — Green Card with EB-1 As a New Startup Founder in the U.S

Published in

Startup Grind

9 min readJul 24, 2017

I came to Mountain View, Silicon Valley last year as I had been chosen to present my company in a startup competition. The reason it took me two months to organize my trip prior to coming was that I wanted to have sufficient time to meet with potential investors.

Raising the undersized seed investment in the first two weeks was a frantic time. It came to my awareness that if I was to promote my company to my satisfaction, I would have to stay in the U.S.

Immigration — Entrepreneurs’ Tragic Story

As I met with more and more founders of young companies that I had known, I found out that the entire issue of immigration was a baffling, agonizing and costly journey.

Every one of the founders I had met underwent a different process.

My mind was made up: I decided to commence my own private immigration journey. My initial meeting with an immigration attorney went rather badly. I paid $150 for consultation which yielded no results.

I was told by the attorney that I could extend my tourist visa and its cost would be $1000. I told him that I had heard of people attempting to do just that, but ending up overstaying their visa.

Therefore, I was not interested in it. The next thing the attorney offered me was an O-1 Visa, one that is extended to entrepreneurs who possess “extraordinary abilities”.

The legal fee for such a visa was $7500, one which would not allow my wife to work legally in the U.S. I felt completely let down. What was the point of traveling to the other side of Los Angeles and waste money on a consultation that made me come out empty?

Comparing Immigration Attorneys — A Headache

I decided to meet and talk with more attorneys, but this time there was no way I would consent to pay for consultation.

A serious, professional immigration attorney would realize that a serious customer came to him and would see me free of charge. And so, I had two and then three meetings which had no thread running through them and the advice I had received left me baffled.

I was offered an L-1A Visa by another attorney. This visa demanded that I move my existing business to the U.S. and prepare a new business plan for it.

This visa also required that I come up with proof for all kinds of things that I had no idea whether I could prove or not. T

he cost for an L-1A Visa would be $10,000. Then again, when I approached a third attorney, he recommended that I get an E-2 Visa, which is an investment visa for “non-millionaires” and would cost $12,000.

In order to get this visa, I would have to use some of my seed funds. This would provide proof that I was investing in the U.S.

Each of the immigration specialists I met offered me a different visa for a different price. This was exasperating. How are you to choose the right path?

How can you trust an immigration attorney? One error and your future in America can be stained.

Most of my friends are startup founders from San Francisco or Los Angeles and they all seem to undergo the same headache.

Meet attorneys, get different references and eventually decide on someone without really knowing what is in store. Some of my friends were so busy developing their businesses that they were determined not to go through this.

They made an even worse choice. They remained in the U.S for nearly six months.

Then on the 5th month they tried to extend their visa, and by the time they received the authorities’ (USCIS) reply to their request — which could have been negative — They had to leave abruptly, or worse, found out that unintentionally, they had overstayed their visa. That’s dreadful!

Entrepreneur’s Green Card

One day, I was having a coffee with an old friend I had once met ten years ago while visiting Argentina. He told me about another Argentinean friend who received a Green Card because he was an entrepreneur, and that he got it within six months.

“Impossible,” I said. If that were real, everyone would go for it. Right? My friend went on telling me about his experience with immigration attorneys. “You cannot trust most of them, and don’t believe the reviews you find online, they are mostly a sham.

An immigration attorney will do all he can to convince you that you are in good hands and that your case will be written with the best attention in mind.

The cost for the service will be thousands of dollars and once you put your signature on the attorney-customer agreement, reality proves that your case is moved into a young paralegal’s hands, or someone who may not even be an attorney.

Many of the cases end in heartaches and some very able people end up with some grave problems.”

None of These Attorneys Informed Me about EB-1 Green Card — Why?

*I got in touch with my friend’s immigration attorney and asked about it. I discovered that EB-1 and EB-2/ NIW are a legitimate procedure and a valid Green Card that both I and my wife can attain.

I decided to do more homework on the matter and gradually realized that immigration was a field divided into specialties.

An immigration attorney, who is an expert on family oriented matters, will not necessarily be good in business visas.

Moreover, a business visa specialist is usually not an EB-1 specialist. If an immigration attorney does not know how to write you an EB-1 case, do you think he/she will recommend EB-1 to you?

After a short while I found an immigration attorney who was an EB-1 specialist. I told her about my journey and about what I do. She explained to me that EB-1 is the fastest way to get hold of a ten-year Green Card and five years later you can already apply for citizenship.

Most startup founders actually prefer to go for an O-1 Visa, particularly if they are already in the U.S. and would like to obtain their status fast and safe.

Once the O-1 is approved, you can proceed with an EB-1 or EB-2 and you always have a safety net. It means that if it did not work, your O-1 status would still be valid and you can apply again.

A Money Back Guarantee for Your Case

“How long does it take to obtain a Green Card via EB-1?” I asked. She replied: “Six months.”

“How much will it cost?” “$15,000,” she said. I explained to her that I could not take the risk of paying so much money and then get a denial. I also explained that I actually did not have that kind of cash at that time.

She told me not to worry about it. “You can pay me in six installments and you are ‘risk free’. If you don’t get your EB-1 approved, I will give you your money back.”

“Really!” I replied. “You would take that chance. Why?” She explained that she could tell that I had a strong case and that she has complete faith in her ability to make it work.

That did it. I decided to go for it and hired her.

This Waiting Time Is True Nightmare

I could not believe it, but after seven months I got approved and today I have a Green Card. Hurray!

But it wasn’t that easy.

Four months later, I got an RFE, which meant a Request for More Evidence. This made me extremely concerned, anxious and skeptical. What if I chose the wrong attorney? What will happen if I get rejected? Will she really return my money?

At that time I began to be homesick. I planned to go home to visit my family and attend my cousin’s wedding.

My grandmother was sick and here I was, trapped in the U.S. I could not leave while I was in the process.

This was a nightmare for me. If I left, it meant I would not be able to come back. This opened my eyes that if one wants to go through an EB-1, one had better do it from home with no rush, or while one already has another legal status/visa in the U.S.

The Problem: Informational Gap

When I came to the U.S, I had no idea that I could stay there legally. When I started squandering time on immigration attorneys, I had no clue this was an area that was inundated with untrustworthy professionals.

I had no inkling that EB-1 and Eb-2 belonged to a very small niche of attorneys who could actually write and carry out such a case.

In addition, I had no suspicion that despite the fact that I was never rich and had very basic education, that I could actually apply for a Green Card and really get it.

When you read about the requirement of an EB-1 or EB-2, you think you should be a Nobel Prize winner.

The Nobel winners can apply for an EB-1, but entrepreneurs like me can as well. We are in the same category, which basically means that we have to have “extra-ordinary abilities.” This is perplexing.

Why Is It So Difficult to Make the Move?

My experience shows that coming to America with a small startup company is not an easy journey.

Entrepreneurs cannot receive a high salary, pay rent for comfortable accommodation, work in a nice office or find a genuine new community. Even opening a corporate bank account for a new company, whose members don’t have social security yet is a difficult and costly task.

Paying 10–20 thousand dollars for an immigration attorney you don’t even trust — and your journey is much harder!

The most important things to do when choosing an immigration attorney is to:

Read all of the reviews. Make sure they are not fake. Read in cross platforms.
Make sure that the attorney is an EB-1/2 expert.
Make sure you are willing to invest plenty of time to dig into your past and support the evidence needed.

Approve 3 Out of 10 and You Are In.

Here are the 10 EB-1 categories. You need to have 3 solid categories to apply. It’s better if you have more than 3 just in case one of your categories doesn’t get approved.

* Criteria for Demonstrating Extraordinary Ability

You must meet 3 out of the 10 listed criteria below to prove extraordinary ability in your field:

Evidence of receipt of lesser nationally or internationally recognized prizes or awards for excellence
Evidence of your membership in associations in the field which demand outstanding achievement of their members
Evidence of published material about you in professional or major trade publications or other major media
Evidence that you have been asked to judge the work of others, either individually or on a panel
Evidence of your original scientific, scholarly, artistic, athletic, or business-related contributions of major significance to the field
Evidence of your authorship of scholarly articles in professional or major trade publications or other major media
Evidence that your work has been displayed at artistic exhibitions or showcases
Evidence of your performance of a leading or critical role in distinguished organizations
Evidence that you command a high salary or other significantly high remuneration in relation to others in the field
Evidence of your commercial successes in the performing arts

** Examples of Documentary Evidence That a Person is an Outstanding Professor or Researcher

Evidence of receipt of major prizes or awards for outstanding achievement.
Evidence of membership in associations that require their members to demonstrate outstanding achievement.
Evidence of published material in professional publications written by others about the alien’s work in the academic field.
Evidence of participation, either on a panel or individually, as a judge of the work of others in the same or allied academic field.
Evidence of original scientific or scholarly research contributions in the field.
Evidence of authorship of scholarly books or articles (in scholarly journals with international circulation) in the field.

As for me, this experience transformed my life. I decided to solve the problem I ran into and I started PassRight.com— An immigration platform that allows you to safely hire the best immigration attorneys.

The idea behind the platform is to make you save time and headaches. Read real reviews, see fixed prices for immigration visas and make a wise decision on who to hire.

To start, fill out the first time user questionnaire and enjoy a hazard free immigration journey.