31 out Oportunidade de investimento internacional incrementa a economia do sul da Flórida
Pierre Olivier Carles didn’t grow up with an eye on coming to the U.S. He was born in France and had a good life there, building a family and a career as a successful entrepreneur and investor.
But that changed when a friend invited his family to vacation in Palm Beach in 2007.
“We spent a week of vacation here and really fell in love with the area, [and] in 2013 we decided to move permanently,” Carles said.
For him, coming to the U.S. meant joining the big leagues in online products and technology. So he launched Palm Beach-based Digidust, a marketing and internet technology company.
Investors
Carles is part of an increasing number of investors flocking to the U.S. on E-2 visas. Whether they’re entrepreneurs from abroad or South Florida-grown brands looking for investment capital, many businesspeople are tapping into E-2 visas as a more flexible and accessible option for launching or growing their enterprises.
Carles considered moving here on an EB-5 visa – a $500,000 investment that can lead to citizenship, but has stringent job creation and project requirements. Instead, he opted to go with the E-2 investor visa because it suited his entrepreneurial drive.
“I wanted to come here and create a company and work within it and develop it,” he said. “The E-2 is a better option for me because, with the EB-5, you are investing in something, but you are not really involved all the time.”
Carles’ experience isn’t unique in South Florida. Companies such as Miami-based Gelato-Go, The Spot Barbershop and North Miami Beach-based chain Chicken Kitchen are all considering E-2 investments. Others, like JoorneyBusiness Plans in Miami Beach, were founded by E-2 investors and have been strong job creators since opening their doors.
“We are entrepreneurs that are creating jobs, creating value, creating companies. And we are all paying taxes,” Carles said. “It has been really great for us.”
A Fertile E-2 Environment
There’s no denying it: With 38 percent of the population born outside of the U.S., South Florida is undoubtedly a melting pot. That, coupled with the region’s geography and strong international business climate, has likely spurred more entrepreneurs to dive into the E-2 visa pool.
While there are many ways for someone who is not a U.S. citizen to legally live and work here, the E-2 visa has long been popular with foreign entrepreneurs and U.S. businesspeople looking for growth capital. Between 2011 and 2015 alone, the number of E-2 visas issued in the U.S. surged 31 percent.
“E-2s are the No. 1 tool for immigration lawyers for entrepreneurs. It’s a great visa. For me, it’s the Rolls-Royce of visas,” said Roger Bernstein, co-founder of Miami-based Bernstein Osberg-Braun, P.L., the “Visa Attorneys,” and operator and owner of the EB-5 for Florida Regional Center. “It’s been absolutely a boon for the South Florida economy.”
Still, E-2 is not for everybody because it’s a treaty-based visa, meaning that only citizens of countries with certain bilateral treaties qualify, Bernstein said. If you’re a citizen of a country like Venezuela or Brazil, which do not have treaties, you need a dual citizenship with a qualifying treaty country like Italy to secure an E-2 visa.
Distinction
A distinct advantage of E-2 is that it’s fluid. The minimum investment depends on various criteria, and must be sufficient enough to make the investor at least a 50 percent owner. From there, a visa can be processed by the U.S. Department of State at a U.S. embassy abroad for up to five years, and can be extended for entrepreneurs and their family members, if the business plan’s goals are met.
Nataliya Rymer, a Philadelphia-based immigration attorney with Miami-founded Greenberg Traurig that’s often in South Florida, agrees that the E-2 visa can be an ideal choice for entrepreneurs and investors, as companies with E-2 investments can apply for E-2 visas to employ specialized foreign workers.
“If the E-2 option is available, it’s a really fantastic and flexible visa option,” she said.
Rymer sees E-2 clients that range from Fortune 500 companies to smaller shops. In South Florida, her clients run the gamut, but she would estimate that about 70 percent make use of the E-2 visa.
As Eugenio Hernandez, name partner of Coral Gables-based Avila Rodriguez Hernandez Mena & Ferri, jokes: “I guess I have been practicing law for too long – 30-plus years – and E-2 visas have always been part of my practice.”
Two brothers, one Miami business
The Findaro brothers from Washington, D.C., didn’t get started in the immigration space. Patrick has worked at a variety of financial services heavy hitters like BNY Mellon and J.P. Morgan, while Jack has a background in franchising with Burger King Corp.
Today, the brothers are partners in Miami-based Visa Franchise LLC, which works with potential franchisees and matches them to brands. They analyze a client’s background, desired investment amount and capabilities to see what’s the best fit. Miami, as a gateway to Latin America and Europe, was a natural fit for the brothers’ startup.
Visa Franchise works with brands like Gelato-Go, Steamatic and The Spot Barbershops.
“It comes down to a few different factors, [but] we match the franchisor based on their background and what the client is interested in doing in the U.S.,” Jack Findaro said.
Visa Franchise clients come from all over the world and move across the U.S.; its first client landed in California.
“The E-2 really provides an option where they get it sooner, and it’s something they control,” Patrick Findaro said.
That control is something that is typically very important, and characteristic of an E-2 investor – and most entrepreneurs.
A scoop of E-2
Who doesn’t love gelato? Sweet and cool, creamy with just a bit of iciness, it’s a dessert made forSouth Florida. But for founders Domenico D’Addio and Alessandro Alvino of Miami-based Gelato-Go, it’s more than a treat – it’s a livelihood.
The Italian duo bstarted with just one location in Miami Beach with the help of gelato master chef Antonio Armino, and have grown the brand to three retail shops and a production site in SouthFlorida, with two more outposts in Florida and one in California in the works.
“At the beginning, it was a fun little investment for Alessandro and me with another friend of ours [Antonio] who was the gelato chef,” D’Addio said. “But after a year, it became bigger.”
As the business takes off, the founders are looking to their backgrounds for potential investments. D’Addio came to the U.S. on a L-1 visa as an employee of another company, but is now a permanent resident.
“We started to think about franchising last year,” he said. “A lot of people are interested in E-2, and the profile is right for Gelato-Go.”
To open a Gelato-Go franchise, investors pay a $40,000 franchising fee to use the brand and the company’s processes, then pay additional costs like rent and equipment. The Gelato-Go shop in Carlsbad, California, is being opened by an Italian-Brazilian franchisee, who received E-2 visas for himself, his wife and his child.
Why did the chicken court the visa?
Gelato-Go is a relatively young business; the first shop opened in January 2013. But owners of both new and established South Florida businesses are looking at E-2 as a source of potential investments.
Take Christian de Berdouare, founder and CEO of Chicken Kitchen, a chain with 26 outposts – many of them in South Florida.
De Berdouare got into the chicken business on New York’s Upper East Side and, decades later, he’s at the head of the Chicken Kitchen brand and looking at E-2 and EB-5 investments for future growth.
“It’s a good way to get growth capital at a really good rate. It’s an opportunity for us to grow the concept without me taking on more risk,” he said. “I think it would be a win-win for both me and the investor.”
De Berdouare envisions a split LLC ownership for a franchise where E-2 investors can meet the 50 percent ownership requirement and still open a Chicken Kitchen.
“E-2 is more for the investor that is looking to invest [less],” he said. “Our stores cost more like $600,000 to open, so the investor would have to be willing to invest more than usual.”
A haircut and an opportunity
Santiago Arbelaez isn’t a barber; he’s an owner of a private fund and an investor. But today, he’s a partner in Miami-based The Spot Barbershop, which has four locations. And the chain is looking at E-2 as a possible investment stream to continue growing.
The Spot is built for E-2, as it’s a relatively low-overhead brand that launched as a small business. The barbershop began – like many startups – in a garage in 2001, with barber Fredy Perdomo cutting hair for his friends and families.
“Everything started to go very well, a lot of people went to his house,” Arbelaez said. “Eventually, they needed a location because they couldn’t run it out of the garage.”
As the brand continued to expand, Perdomo’s brother joined him in the business, and they began looking for a capital loan. Arbelaez has a company that makes loans for small and medium-sizebusinesses and, when he began to run the numbers, he saw The Spot as a great investment.
Arbelaez partnered with the Perdomo brothers and began to shop The Spot around to EB-5 regional centers, but found that the scope of an EB-5 investment was too big. Then he found Patrick Findaro and, after three weeks, The Spot closed a client in Brazil, who earned an E-2 through his dual citizenship in Italy.
“We will be working with him every day. He is going to be in the shop,” Arbelaez said. “We want to grow with E-2. We are already close to doing another one in Midtown Doral, and we have another location ready to open up in Downtown Doral.”
E-2 entrepreneurs
In South Florida, E-2 acts as an incentive for international entrepreneurs to set down roots and establish sustainable, job-creating businesses. In recent years, two entrepreneurs from France came separately on E-2 investor visas and have collectively created about 35 jobs in the U.S, some local and some national.
Carles is one, with Digidust. Benjamin Jarmon, co-founder and CEO of Joorney Business Plans, is another. His company evolved out of his own experience with the E-2 visa process in 2013.
“I did an E-2 myself …. I went to different business planners, but I didn’t feel like there was a natural authority for business plans,” said Jarmon, who secured the five-year visa. “I realized that the product businesses needed most was a business plan.”
Even though some potential E-2 visa investors are prepared to launch a business here, others aren’t as ready.
“We see a lot of people coming in at the last minute, saying: ‘Oh! I forgot my business plan,’” Jarmon said. “No one wants to sit down for 100 hours to write a business plan when they are dealing with relocating their family, finding a business and applying for a visa.”
The E-2 allowed Jarmon to create 30 jobs and grow a company with co-founder Paul Monson in just 2.5 years. For him, it’s been a way to enter the South Florida business landscape and flourish.
“E-2 is an amazing tool for entrepreneurs internationally …. It forces you to invest and to take a risk and behave like an entrepreneur,” Jarmon said. “It makes the local economy a lot more dynamic in general. It brings tremendous diversity of ideas. It’s innovation with a price of entry.”
BY THE NUMBERS
E-2 visas issued during the past five years
2011 – 28,245
2012 – 31,942
2013 – 35,272
2014 – 36,825
2015 – 41,162
Nina Lincoff covers banking, finance, insurance and investments. Get the latest banking news with our free daily newsletter. Click here to subscribe.
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