Who is the principal visa applicant?
This is the main or primary applicant. We do not mention the spouse, children, or other family members in this business plan.
What is a d/b/a name?
D/b/a stands for ‘doing business as’. This is an assumed, trade, or fictitious name that allows you to do business under a different name than how your business is legally registered. In most states and locations, this name must be officially registered.
Example: Let’s say you choose to establish a company that provides cooking classes. The officially registered name of the business is John Doe’s Cooking Institute. You decide you also want to offer catering but want a name that better represents these services. You may choose to register a d/b/a name of John Doe’s Catering.
Why do you as the petitioner need to know, ‘Is the company operating’?
This enables us to present your business accurately. It determines whether we use future or present tense when writing the business plan.
How do I know if my business is considered operational?
Typically, your business is operating if you have registered the company and are making sales.
How should you describe your business?
In many cases, a business will participate in multiple activities. A company can be a wholesaler, retailer, and online seller at the same time, depending on which channel is being used to reach the target audience. For instance, the company can sell socks in bulk, but also own a retail store where products will be offered and run an online store where products can be ordered online (per item). For more ideas, please refer to the samples under the next question.
What do you really need to know about my business?
We need to know how the business will be managed, how your products/services will be developed or produced, and other processes that are essential to running your business and serving your clients, and how you will sell your product and services to clients.
Here are a few real examples: EB2-NIW Samples
How will the products and/or services offered by the U.S. company benefit the country or its population?
Since your application and business plan need to demonstrate that what you will offer is in the national interest, please elaborate on how you, your products, and services will do that. This can include filling the need for products/services that are in high demand (e.g., personal protective equipment or nurses during the pandemic), bringing new opportunities to a specific area (e.g. creating jobs in a rural area)
Here are some examples:
How should I fill out the table?
Products/Services – What are you selling? How do you make money? In many cases this is straightforward, but for some businesses it may not be. This should be a list of the most prominent/common products/services you will offer.
Unit of Measurement – Imagine that you’re generating an invoice for a client. Will you charge per hour, per project, per item, per pound? That should be your unit of measure to use here. This may be different for the different product(s)/service(s) you provide.
Raw Materials Cost OR Purchase Price – For each product/service that you list, tell us how much you spend specifically to buy or produce one unit (excluding the personnel costs).
Sales Price – How much will you charge your clients for one unit of your products/services?
Here are examples of how you should – and should not – fill out this section.
Do this (EB2-NIW Examples)
Don’t do this
What if my business is project based?
This is a very common question. If you provide services on a per-project basis and the project fee will vary, use an average price and cost of a single project. If you have a lot of different types of projects, include the ones that are best-sellers and will make up the majority of your sales. Make sure to think about the future as well and include the projects that you plan to offer in future years.
It may also be advantageous – at least for the purpose of the business plan – to create packages to represent different likely combinations of your products/services. Please also inform us of how many projects you expect to have in one year or per month.
Here are some examples: (Samples required from Ops)
How will your company expand geographically over the next five years?
While you may not know the company’s future geographic areas, start by telling us where you will initially offer your products/services to your clients. Where are your clients based? Will you or the company have one store in a specific city in Year 1? Do you plan to open additional stores in other cities in Year 2 and beyond?
What if I don't have target clients identified yet?
It is okay if you don’t have a detailed strategy worked out yet. However, who do you think are the most likely people to buy your products/services generally? This should be a description of whoever you instinctively believe will be most likely to buy your products and services. Is it people in a certain age range, gender, or with specific interests or hobbies? Are you selling to businesses? Will you sell to a specific company or certain types of companies? Anything you can tell us about your most likely customers, whether they are consumers or businesses, will be very helpful.
For example, In Year 3, I plan to have an online store that offers goods and services with next-day delivery anywhere in the continental United States. In Year 5, I will also enter and make my products/services available in Canada and Mexico.
What if I don’t know my future hiring plans yet?
Imagine how you picture the growth of your company for the next 5 years and be realistic and sensible. It’s important to show at least some growth and that is difficult if you plan to do everything alone. Consider what roles or functions you would need to delegate to someone else in order to grow your business.
What if I don't know the salary I'm going to pay my future employees?
Salaries are very important as they must be sensible for the U.S. market. If you are unsure, you can search occupations and find average US salaries here
If you have an estimate in mind or know what you’d like to pay them, include that. If it is too low, we will ask you if we can increase to the lower end of the average salary for similar positions in the same industry.
If you want us to advise on salary, please make that note in the questionnaire, do not leave the section blank
What is the difference between an employee and a contractor?
Employees are part-time or full-time workers, likely to be long-term, that are on your payroll and for which you pay payroll taxes. A contractor is an individual or company that is outside of your organization that is usually paid for a specific task or function.
What is the difference between this section and the Investment section?
As part of this section, you should describe the recurring costs and expenses that your company will incur for running your business after your visa is granted. By describing the recurring costs, we can complete your business expenses and demonstrate that you have carefully considered the future cost of running the business. The forecast will project the company’s business expenses over the next five years.
Are you investing money in the U.S.?
An EB-2 National Interest Waiver (NIW) does not require an investment. The EB-2 National Interest Waiver is a type of EB-2 visa that is available to foreign nationals who can demonstrate that their work in the United States would be in the national interest, even if they do not have a specific job offer or labor certification.
What should I include in ‘Total Capital’?
This is a vital part of the business plan and must match other documentation that will be submitted in your application. This should include all funds that have already been spent and will be spent on the business by the time you submit your application.
When filling out this section, do not include any costs that will not be paid prior to your application. We will cover the ongoing and future expenses of the business in a later section.
Here are some examples from various industries:
Trucking [Image 13]
Retail [Image 14]
Restaurant [Image 15]
Restaurant (Purchased the Business) [Image 16]
IT Consulting [Image 17]
Why do you need to know the ‘Source of Capital’?
As part of your application, we need to know how much money you will spend on/invest in the business and where these funds are coming from. Please choose all the sources of capital that apply and list the amounts separately in the lines below this question in the questionnaire. Each type of funding is further defined here:
Personal funds – Your personal funds or funds from individual investors
Corporate funds – Funds from a related company that you already own and/or operate, or funds invested by other companies (hedge funds, etc.)
Bank loan – Funds from a loan granted by a bank or similar financial institution that must be paid back in the future with interest
