r/e2visa

Hi everyone,

I’m currently in a stressful situation and wanted to see if anyone has gone through something similar.

My I-485 package was delivered to USCIS on April 9th (I have delivery confirmation), but I still have not received a receipt notice (I-797C) and no receipt number has been generated yet (confirmed with live agent).

The concern is that my E-2 status is expiring tomorrow (April 24th).

My attorney told me that:

• After April 24th, I will no longer have lawful status
• But I may still have lawful presence / period of authorized stay if the I-485 is accepted

However, since I don’t have a receipt yet, I’m really anxious about where I stand right now.

My questions:

1. Has anyone had their I-485 delivered but waited 2–4+ weeks for receipt?
2. Did your receipt date go back to the delivery date, or was it the notice date?
3. Has anyone been in a situation where their nonimmigrant status expired before receiving the receipt?
4. Did everything turn out okay once the receipt was issued?
5. Did USCIS ever reject the case after such a delay, or was it just lockbox backlog?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who experienced something similar. This waiting period without a receipt is extremely stressful, especially with my status expiring.

Thank you in advance 🙏

Greatly appreciate if anyone has any insight on whether a waiver of admissibility should be filed concurrently with an E2? Has anyone proceeded in this fashion and / or do you have lawyer referral (with cost details for consideration)?

• Business has already been acquired (investment done as partnership via US LLC -- closing happened last month)
• Applicant is Canadian
• Convictions are from 1990s and have been pardoned / sealed as of 2000 (there is an issue of obtaining court records given how old record is--pardon files include high details, but cannot obtain all of the final conviction records)
• There is a prior denial of admission to US, in which record of convictions are now in the US customs record (however there have also been subsequent admissions without issue as well, both via land and air)
• One lawyer previously consulted suggested E2 should be applied for first, and if inadmissibility flagged, then waiver prepared and submitted, however, he would not consult further without all court documentation

Thank you!

Remember that USCIS and consulates do check the existence of US business entities in VIBE. I would post the US gvt. website link here but.i understand reddit doesn't allow website links in postings. It is worth checking your US business is in VIBE before you apply. You can google "USCIS Vibe" you will find it. Or ask.

While clearly allowed by the law, somewhat to my surprise, we also just had a case approved in London a few days ago with 0 employees, other than the investor. There was a future (but not immediate) hiring plan. The client may be willing to discuss the case with anyone interested. Much of the investment came in the form of inventory purchased by the UK entity in China and transferred to the US E-2 visa entity.

Does anyone have other examples of recent E2 visa cases with 0 employees? If so what consulate?

This reminded me of the Foreign Affairs Manual (FAM) and investment. FAM is manual issued by the US State Dept. for its consular staff. FAM is available online.

It is crystal clear that investment does not have to be cash and can include things like equipment, inventory, deposits into escrow accounts dedicated to paying for business operational costs (thereby avoiding the risk of depleting cash before an E2 is approved) and licenses (useful for capitalizing brands for E2 investment purposes).