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the business; he ran a promotional advertising company with a
door-to-door sales force selling certificates for customers going
to sports games, golf courses, restaurants, fun parks, etc. As she
says, “It was a good business for us, and we just kept building up
teams of people and opening up new cities, and it turned out to
be something very fruitful in our lives.”
Moving a Life and Family
Simply put, Anthony, Shelley and Steven liked living in the
United States and wanted to stay. Anthony was interested in
transferring his life to America and Shelley and Steven had
already been in the country for numerous years, raising their
families and expanding their businesses. While they were putting their time and money into a foreign country they hoped
to make a lasting home, getting their new lives legally squared
away presented difficulties.
Moving a life to another country is challenging to coordinate.
As Anthony says: “You do not know how long it is going to
take. If you have kids at school and you want to start them at
a new school; if you have a job and you want to know when
to finish; if you are selling a house, buying a house, or renting
premises; all of those things require firm dates, and that is one
thing people cannot necessarily have in the EB-5 Program or
any other visa process. You literally do not know if you are going
to get your visa until you get your visa.”
Unfortunately, for Shelley that meant being grounded in the
United States; she was unable to travel back to Canada for 18
months and missed critical family events, such as her sister-inlaw’s wedding and the funeral of her childhood best friend’s
father. Staying away from her extended family was not an easy
task, but she and her husband were committed to obtaining
their green cards.
In Steven’s situation, he explains, “All we wanted was for
our life to continue the way it was.” Like Shelley, he was not
prepared to pick up his family and go back to Canada.
“We went through three cycles of EB-2
visas, which are five year renewables, and by
the time we got to the end of our third EB-2,
we were firmly planted in the United States
with our business. We had two Americanborn children, and business was doing well.
We were not prepared to g