Carlie Bonavia: Hello there it’s Carlie with the Expat Focus Podcast.
If you’re not receiving our monthly newsletters, it’s easy to get on the list. Simply head to expatfocus.com/newsletter to sign up. We recently spoke about how to leave America following the US Presidential Election. We’re flipping it in this episode, speaking about how to move to America in 2025, with Attorney Mena Maimone.
Now, you’re an immigrant to the USA yourself, along with your mom. Can you tell me, first off, what motivated you to move to the States?
Mena Maimone: If you’ve ever been to South Florida, it’s captivating. We came down seven years ago on a girl’s trip and we just fell in love with it. The weather. The people were very nice, the opportunities.
We went back to Canada and we were like, let’s get out of here. Let’s go to Florida. I would say, like I said, opportunities, weather, the taxes everything was just there and everything lined up. So that’s what motivated us to come down.
Carlie Bonavia: And in your experience, what’s a key motivator for people moving to the USA at the moment?
Mena Maimone: I think if you’re talking about people coming from Canada, Canadians, then it would be what I just mentioned, but if they’re coming from other parts of the world, I think it’s the American dream. The opportunity that exists here is like no other. If you are a hard worker, an entrepreneur, you can really make a great life for yourself here.
I think everyone around the world knows that and they want to take part in that. There’s a true sense of pride to be here. It’s a beautiful place to be and a wonderful place to, to grow yourself personally, financially or otherwise.
Carlie Bonavia: We’ve spoken on this podcast before to Mia who came to the USA from Australia on an O1 visa and she recently shared her experience of going through the green card lottery successfully. If people are not especially talented in a certain area or they don’t really want to leave their application to move to the USA to chance, what are some more common pathways for foreigners looking to move to America?
Mena Maimone: I think one of the most common pathways is the E2 visa. That’s an investor visa.
If you’re open to starting a small business or buying a business, it depends where you’re coming from, but I can talk about Toronto. The requirements for Toronto are that you invest 80 to a hundred thousand dollars, that you make all the purchases before you apply, and that your funds come from a legitimate source.
So long as you meet those requirements, you can come to the U.S on your E2, your spouse can come and have an open work permit. In Toronto, it’s about a 94% success rate. I’ve never had a denial and I have a money back guarantee on that visa because of the success associated to it. So, if you really don’t want to leave its chance, that’s a great visa, a great pathway and you can continue to renew it indefinitely so long as the business is running and profitable.
Other than that, there are employment based visas, but a lot of them do require an employer, unless you’re doing a self-petition. Let’s say you have a high level of education and you really stand out in your field. Maybe you’ve won awards or you’ve been recognized. There’s a visa called EB2 NIW, National Interest Waiver, where you can petition for yourself.
You do have to have a strong profile, a strong background and a career, but that’s a good visa as well. If you want to take the reins and, submit your own petition. Other than that, there is also EB3 that doesn’t require a lottery. So EB3 requires an employer. They would have to go through the labour certification process to show that they couldn’t hire an American to do the job.
There’s multiple points that we’d have to go through with the employer, but at around three to four year mark, you would get your green card and it’s a direct path to green card. So that one is a great option as well. That doesn’t involve a lottery.
Carlie Bonavia: I want to circle back to the visa through investment.
You said 80,000 to 100,000 dollars and you’re starting your own business. Is there a scope of what kind of business you can plan to start in the U.S. or anything like that?
Mena Maimone: It doesn’t matter, as long as you meet the three requirements. Which are: source of funds, where’d you get the money? Is it from a legitimate source? A substantial investment, 80,000 to 100,000 dollars, and funds at risk. So, you actually have to spend the money buy the business or incur startup costs before we can apply. As long as you have those three, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re looking into.
Carlie Bonavia: And to keep that visa, your business does have to be successful or relatively successful?
Mena Maimone: People ask me, how much do I have to make? Is there a number? No, there isn’t. But when you apply for the visa in the first place, we do a business plan. It’s important that the business plan is doable, that you can actually achieve the goals that you put in your business plan.
When it comes to renewal, they’re going to take a look at that and say, okay, what has this person fulfilled? Are they generating a profit or are they just scraping by? If they’re just scraping by, it’s going to be hard to renew. You have to be generating a profit, so being a surplus. Usually, they require by the end of the five years that you have at least one American employee.
Carlie Bonavia: Okay. So, you need to be shown to be investing in the U.S. and in personnel in the U.S. as well.
Mena Maimone: Yes.
Carlie Bonavia: Now, the other visa you mentioned is if an American company is going to hire you. In your experience of late, is that very common for U.S. businesses to be looking abroad for people?
Mena Maimone: Depends on the industry. Usually not. I have seen a lot in the healthcare industry though. If you’re a nurse, a doctor, then there’s definitely a good pathway for you. They tend to approve a lot of STEM. So, if it’s something to do with STEM then there’s usually an employer that is willing to sponsor.
But you never know. I can tell you a personal story. I went to law school with a lot of international students, some from Italy, some from Spain, Portugal, you name it. They were there. studying at my school and because of the student visa, they were given a one year open work permit at the end of their studies. During that time some of them were able to build connections with managing attorneys or law firms, and they were able to get sponsored on the H1B.
They were selected in the lottery and they’ve been here ever since. So, you can get lucky, especially if you’re a student here or you have another way to be here and you can prove yourself and have that employer sponsor you.
Carlie Bonavia: So, you never know what connection you’re going to make that’s going to lead you to an opportunity.
Mena Maimone: That’s right. Absolutely.
Carlie Bonavia: What about between states? You’re based in Florida. Is immigrating and planning to base yourself in Florida different to say if you immigrated and plan to base yourself in New York or California?
Mena Maimone: No, because immigration is federal. It deals with the USCIS and the consulates around the world.
It doesn’t matter what state you want to go to. You can even go to Alaska. We could send you to Alaska. So long as you want to come to the United States, we can help you.
Carlie Bonavia: Mena, in your experience, what is the most difficult part of the application process when you’re applying for a U.S. visa?
Mena: The most difficult part is that it can be tedious.
There’s a lot of supporting documents that you’re going to need to submit. The forms, it could be annoying, you have to go through all the forms and fill out all this information. It’s very time consuming and tedious. Sometimes if you don’t get the right officer, they’ll send a request for evidence and they’ll say, we need even more.
So, these kinds of hurdles that get put in your way and the amount of documents that they require you to submit can sometimes be annoying for our clients. But the good thing is if you have a good attorney who explains things to you, who is patient, who is able to help you organize yourself. Then it would be a much better experience, I think.
Carlie Bonavia: Obviously you’re a bit biased in this situation, but do you think an attorney is essential or could you decide to go it alone in your application process?
Mena Maimone: It depends on what you’re doing and your level of competence. For example, if you’re going to do an E2 and you’re going to go it alone, that’s a horrible idea.
There are things that are logical and you’d think, okay, this is logical and that but we know through practice are not going to work. We know certain tricks, and if you run into certain hurdles, we know how to resolve them.
Going the E2 route by yourself is not a good idea. If you need to renew your employment authorization document, it’s a simple form and you need to attach a couple supporting documents. Sure, you could do that by yourself. It’s not that complicated.
It also depends on the person. I have some clients who have a difficult time reading and writing English, so it might be difficult for them to do that on their own.
Carlie Bonavia: We’re speaking at the end of 2024. So, what should you expect in terms of fees to help with your visa application on average?
Mena Maimone: It depends on what visa you’re looking to do. They range anywhere usually from 3,000 dollars if you’re doing a simple TN, for example. All the way up to 20,000 dollars if you’re doing an EB5, a very complex petition.
Carlie Bonavia: What is an EB5? What is that? That is 20,000 dollars?
Mena Maimone: So, it is a lot of work and it is a green card by investment.
The reason it’s a lot of work is because there’s two steps to it. We have to make the initial petition, then we have to do an adjustment status if you’re here physically in the United States. An EB5 with 800,000 dollars you can get your green card in 10 months, depending on where you were born. So long as you’re not born in certain countries that have a backlog.
Right now, that is the fastest pathway to get a green card. Even faster than marrying a U. S. citizen, which is shocking to some people. So
Carlie Bonavia: 10 months, 800,000 dollars and I get a U.S green card.
Mena Maimone: That’s right. Okay.
Carlie Bonavia: Okay, and faster than marrying someone?
Mena Maimone: Faster than marrying someone. How it works is there’s two types of EB5’s.
There’s the 800,000 dollar investment that gets invested into a rural regional centre. A regional centre is a project. For example, they’re building this resort in Wyoming. It’s a rural area, a low employment area. So, 800,000 dollars is sufficient. You would invest into this project and you can typically expect to have your money back in three to five years. They basically use your money, to make money, to finance this project. That’s the one way.
The other way is, let’s say you’re an entrepreneur and you have more than 1,050, 000 dollars to spend. You can start or buy your own business. You have to be able to employ at least 10 full time U.S workers within a two year period.
You have both options, which both result in your green card. So, it’s a good option.
Carlie Bonavia: You said there are some countries with a backlog. What are the countries where there’s going to be a longer wait at the moment?
Mena Maimone: It is Mexico, India, China, and the Philippines.
Carlie Bonavia: Australia’s okay.
Mena Maimone: Australia’s okay. We get all clumped into one, Canada and Australia are together in their current.
Carlie Bonavia: Oh, that’s nice. So, say you’re not from a backlog country, you’re using an immigration attorney or an agency to support your application. What is the average wait time from when you apply to move to America to when you get the green light?
Mena Maimone: It depends on what visa you’re going for. For example, E2, you want to do an E2, you want to invest 80 to 100, start your own business. We can get that done in three to six months typically, depending on the client. Sometimes they take a bit longer, they have to find the right business, it depends on them, but usually it’s about three to six months.
They can come to the United States once that’s been approved at the consulate in their country. In terms of EB5, the one that I just mentioned, that one has an adjustment of status concurrent filing. They could come to the United States as a visitor and they could just stay once they make the investment and we file for them.
It really depends on what category that would change how long you’re waiting.
Carlie Bonavia: What are some common reasons why an application will be rejected?
Mena Maimone: Sometimes it’s just the officer that you get, and it’s a matter of just refiling and it depends on the type of visa.
Carlie Bonavia: When you say it’s the officer that you get, do you mean maybe they’re just having a bad day, or they’re not in a good mood, or?
Mena Maimone: Sometimes you would meet all of the requirements. We submit five, six hundred pages of supporting documents, and you just get the officer that is there to deny. There’s no rhyme or reason. If you’re going to go into an appeal, there’s about a 2 percent chance you’re going to get approved on appeal.
You’re better off just letting that denial happen and filing again, which happens sometimes. Another reason you might get denied is if you’re not up front. So, if you have a criminal background for example and you don’t disclose that to us. We file the petition based on the assumption that you don’t have a criminal record and it would then get denied because you weren’t being honest with the government.
Carlie Bonavia: And the government has a way of finding out, right? You can say no, but they’re going to check.
Mena Maimone: They’re going to check and then it’ll pop up.
I have clients who have had an arrest from 30 years ago when they were just being silly and young and something happened. They were able to show the government look, here’s the full fingerprint background check. It was dismissed or it was pardoned. It was 30 years ago. Totally fine.
I had another gentleman didn’t tell me that he was recently arrested and went into his interview and his family was all approved, but he was denied because he didn’t disclose that criminal background. So that’s one reason, and then it depends on the certain visas.
If you don’t meet the requirements, I will not petition for you. If you go to the wrong attorney and they’re just looking to make a quick buck, they could petition for you even though you don’t meet the requirements and lead you down a dead end. We don’t do that, but I’ve heard of that happening with other legal representation.
Carlie Bonavia: Will a good attorney make sure you’re going to get approved first time?
Mena Maimone: Yes, and it is actually an oath that we make that we are performing our job and we’re giving advice in good faith. For me, my word is everything. When I’m helping a client, I know if I feel that they’re not going to be approved, I don’t even file their petition because I don’t want to waste their time or money.
Carlie Bonavia: Except if you don’t disclose a criminal record, that’s on you.
Mena Maimone: Right, I can’t read your mind.
Carlie Bonavia: There’s a limit to your powers.
Mena Maimone: Yeah.
Carlie Bonavia: We spoke before about STEM and healthcare. Are there any other industries right now the US government is looking favourably upon when it comes to assessing visa applications?
Mena Maimone: It’s primarily STEM, then anyone with an advanced degree. So, if you have a master’s degree or higher, there’s more options.
Then, like we discussed, if you have money, money talks. If you have money, you’re going to have a way easier time getting your green card than if you don’t.
Carlie Bonavia: I spoke to some immigration consultants for Canada recently, who said the process in Canada is inherently a little bit ageist. If you’re over a certain age or if you’re retired there isn’t really a pathway for you.
Is that kind of the same with the USA? Do they take these applications from retirees and people say over the magical age of 40?
Mena Maimone: No, I don’t really think that’s a factor. As long as you either have money or you have the degree or the qualifications, then you’ll be fine.
Carlie Bonavia: Okay, so you can be 65 and retired, but with a chunk of cash and you can get through.
Mena Maimone: You’ll have your green card in 10 months.
Carlie Bonavia: Finally, Mena at the time of recording this, the U.S is preparing for a change of presidents. What do you think the next four years will look like in terms of immigration under president Trump?
Mena Maimone: So historically, we saw that when President Trump was in office the last time, there was a defunding of USCIS. Resulting in longer wait times, some privileges were taken away. For example, if you’re on a certain visa like H1B your spouse could no longer work. Adjustment of status under certain visas was taken away.
That’s what we’ve seen historically, however, during his campaign, he made certain promises, I don’t know if you recall, he said that for those who graduate from a U.S institution secondary school, he would make a pathway for Green Card.
He’s made certain claims and promises the second time around. He’s also said that the first time he was thrown into his first time being president, he didn’t really know what was going on.
I’m hopeful that this time around, He’ll put some pathways in for legal immigration. I think his main priority is going to be to get rid of the illegal immigration side of things. That’s been a problem in this country for a very long time.
I’m hopeful that it will change, but as we’ve seen historically, it’s caused some issues.
Carlie Bonavia: What do you think the flow on effect of hypothetically cleaning up illegal immigration might be for legal immigration pathways? Do you think it opens the door for different types of skills to be needed? We know that illegal immigrants might typically be working some particular labour jobs that will still be needed for example.
Mena Maimone: I think that if the legal problem is solved, that there won’t be as much of a backlog, because there’s only a certain amount of green cards that the US issues in any given year in certain categories. We have such a big illegal issue here, a lot of those illegal immigrants then somehow transition onto the legal pathway, and occupy those green cards, maxing out the amount that are eligible to be given out in a year. I think what might help with the backlog.
Although if the legal pathway was better designed, easier to manoeuvre, there wasn’t such a wait time and If the USCIS had proper funding, then we wouldn’t have so many illegals because they’d have a proper pathway.
I don’t think anyone wakes up and says I would love to be illegal.
Carlie Bonavia: Illegal in the USA. That’s my dream.
Mena Maimone: Nobody wants that. For example, if you have a parent who is a US citizen and they want to sponsor their son or daughter who’s over the age of 21, it’s a 10 year wait. That is totally unreasonable. Totally unreasonable and then they wonder why people are coming and staying illegal. They want to be with their family.
I think if the system improved, the legal pathway was more organized and easier to navigate, that would avoid a lot of the problems we have in and of itself. We wouldn’t have to have such a mass deportation campaign.
Carlie Bonavia: With all the flow on effects that will come from that.
Mena Maimone: Right.
Carlie Bonavia: Mena, it’s been great to have you on the ExpatFocus podcast today to speak all things immigration to the USA and how you go about it as a foreigner. Where can people find you if they’d like some specific advice?
Mena Maimone: It’s maimonelegal.com.
We also have movetotheusa.ca, so that’s our fun little slogan website. We also have a Facebook group for Canadians, but anyone can join to get advice. It’s Canadians moving to Florida and the USA. So that’s a fun place, we’re on there all the time. People are commenting questions and we’re answering them.
Even if you’re from Australia or anywhere else, feel free to join. Just because you’re not Canadian doesn’t mean you’re not welcome. You can give me a call on 888 863 3207 and we’d be happy to set up. We have a free 20 minute call that my staff provides. If you wanted to meet with me for an hour, it would be a paid $350 consultation and I would take care of you from there.
Carlie Bonavia: That’s it for today. Are you working on a move stateside? Are you taking the option where you’re investing 800k? Or, maybe you’re working on starting a business for 100 thousand dollars? Perhaps you’re a lucky duck and have a job offer in healthcare or STEM.
Let us know in the comments on our YouTube channel, just search for Expat Focus. If you like this episode, let us know by leaving a review wherever you like to listen to the show, and I’ll catch you next time.