Canadian citizens opening a restaurant in usa under a TN visa/ h2b visa?

S

sharon

New member
hi, my husband and i are both canadians and we just moved to huntsville, alabama, usa because he got a job here and us immigration has granted him a TN which allows us both to stay here for up to 3 years without renewing our stay. we are both interested in opening a restaurant here in huntsville and were wondering how to do so. we read about the E2 visa but one of the requirements is to place a substantial amount of investment into the business. so the main questions we need to get answered are:

given our situation, being under a TN work visa, are we eligible to apply for the E2 visa and get a restaurant going?

and secondly, because opening a restaurant is not exactly a very big investment, would this hinder us from being successful in applying for this? we would be having a start-up cost of about 70 000 to 120 000 us dollars.

thank you all!
3 hours ago - 4 days left to answer.
Additional Details
also, my husband's parents hold the h2b visa...could they register the company under their name instead while my husband and i just manage the restaurant as directors?
 
I have already answered your question the first time you asked it. The additional part about your husband's parents is absolutely not permitted.

People in the U.S. as H-2B's are confined to employment only for the organization or person who petitioned for them. They cannot engage in side employment, and running the day to day operations of a restaurant certainly would not be an activity in which they could participate.

If you want to open a restaurant, that's fine. If you want to run it, manage it, direct it, oversee it, attend to it, you need to change to the E-2 classification. It doesn't matter which verb you use, a TN would not be allowed to attempt to contribute to the accrual of profit or production of a U.S. based restaurant.

If you want to invest in a restaurant and hire U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents to run its day to day operations, you can do that. You could eat there, and make sure your employees aren't stealing all your potatoes, but you would have to be hands off when it came to running it.
 
I can't answer your questions, however I want to say "Welcome to America." It is a nice change for people to come into America and want to work instead of freeloading.

I pray you have great success. If I lived near you I would visit your restaurant.
 
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