Prefer to read? (Transcript)
Speaker 1 00:11 Good morning. Happy Saturday to everyone your are. We are here at business and legal talk with Leo and Claudine. Good morning. Good morning. Hey. And we got, Hey, whose voice is this? Ooh. Hey, we have a guest on the show today. I did it. Did I know about it? Who is this guy? Who’s this guy? The one and only. Hey, some please. Claudine, you know, snacking on, we’re here. Family guy. He was sweeping the sweep in the hallway, so we grabbed him and pulled him into your, grab somebody from the street. Hey, so welcome back to this show. If you’re a regular listener, you know that we are here all about, uh, helping your business be profitable and sustainable. And um, we’re um, but we have a special show for you today. We’re going completely off the grid with, we are going off the grid. This is an unscripted show
Speaker 2 00:57 unscripted. Um, and it is a completely different topic, although it relates heavily to business, completely different topic. And, and being unscripted, I know is a little scary for some of you, but we’re gonna make it.
Speaker 1 01:11 Yeah. And you know, it’s going to be great. It’s good to be unscripted. I’m a such a wreck. I mean it’s the, I have an agenda for everything. I don’t today. So I’m a, I’m freaking out a little bit, but you’re going to get to see the, you know, the real me. Um, and tell us about our guests. So our guests
Speaker 2 01:26 today is Harpreet Singh. He is an associate in my office and he is here with you and myself as well to discuss an issue that we think really affects business owners primarily here in the central Valley. And it’s across the spectrum no matter what industry. Um, and that issue is immigration. And we, you know, the more I have learned from the both of you, the more intrigued I become on the subject. Uh, we don’t practice immigration law at our office. Um, but the two of you have been through completely different, um, immigration experiences and, um, the life of somebody who comes to this country and, um, you know, goes through the immigration process, um, to, to whatever extent to some, some people go, you know, all the way through to citizenship. And then there’s a whole bunch of different categories in between. Um, and everybody has this really unique experience. And, um, the immigrants to this country provide such an incredible, um, economic development and, and generate just a tremendous energy for business. Um, and as I have listened to both of you over the time that I’ve gotten to know you, I have just heard things that just make me just in awe.
Speaker 1 02:37 Well thank you. A Harpreet is great to have your back on the show. He’s a returning, he said repeat. Yes. I think our first repeat I had at first, you, you are our first repeat. Oh, there’s a couple, there’s a couple that might be upset about that. I know, but we’re bringing, we’re bringing him. Boom. Bring it back. The sexy. So we’re bringing you back. There we go. Thank you. So I’m mean the opportunity, you’re welcome. You know, this kind of came up last minute and uh, this is why it’s an unscripted show. What happens when you leave me in charge of something? I leave Claudine in charge. I walk away from today’s and I come back to script the show. It’s all right, but it’s part of the fun thing about me. I don’t know. I don’t know. So, um, I think, you know, gladly and really encouraged me to just, you know, there’s a, there are things that I talk about on us, you know, every Saturday on a weekly basis that are somewhat detached, you know, our business and, and, and, and, and how to grow.
Speaker 1 03:29 And I usually hide, you know, behind the numbers and how to help a company grow. But rarely ever do I get to talk about me. And you know, I’m married, I’m happily married and in February we’ll be 20 years since I married sounds or the love of my life. And, um, and it’s been a wonderful, uh, time, you know, but I’m an immigrant and you know, I was not born in the U S and this whole immigration thing and you will have to be, you would have to be living under a rock the last year to not notice. You cannot, you can’t turn the TV or the radio on or flip a newspaper without reading something, hearing something, watching something related to immigration. It’s really a very sensitive topic and we’re not going to go the political route, no, no date. That’s not what we do, but I think you’ll be, it would help you understand what this is from a personal point of view and also what it matters to you.
Speaker 1 04:26 If you’re thinking about, uh, using immigration as a way to grow your business, whether you want to acquire great talent, uh, from outside of the U S or you want to raise capital, uh, you want to raise some funds, uh, funds for your business, uh, in one way of doing that, it’s through a very cool program called the we’ll talk about in the later segments. But for now, for me, it’s, I am so grateful guys today to be here in the U S to be the most beautiful country in the world. And I say that having born, being born in El Salvador, uh, during the, you know, during the, you know, civil war years, I, you know, I grew up during the civil war in El Salvador in the 80s. If you were around at that time, you know, they remember it was the gorillas against the, the, you know, the army and 50,000 people lost their lives.
Speaker 1 05:14 And I remember growing up, and it’s such a small country, 50,000 is huge. 50,000 when a country only has 7 million people. It was a, all of us lost somebody. And I lost relatives. One of my uncles got shot in the head. Um, I, you know, grew up. Uh, it wasn’t, it was an out of the ordinary for me to be going to school and walking. And in the prior night there had been a confrontation between the left and the Coriolis in the, in the army. And there would be dead bodies on the street yet, you know, I’m, you know, basically there no, no corner, no news is just there because people were afraid to go on the street. And this is kind of the world I come from. And, and, uh, I was so fortunate that I, I, you know, I, I would cry myself, sleep as a 19 year old hoping for a way out or the country.
Speaker 1 06:00 And it’s not, you know, things that I’ve seen that no kids should see. Um, and I w I remember going to, you know, the local mall and, and, and tuning into watching USA network back in the 80s and watching us U S television and wanting to be here and here I am now. But at the time it was nothing but a F a faint dream that I had. And I was able to get a Fulbright scholarship, uh, back in the 80s, and I was able to legally immigrate to the U S and I got my college education pay for, um, in that dream started when I was nine years old. And the only thing that I got going have going for me at the time was like my smarts and said, you know what, the only way out of the country is through scholarship. So I need to get the best grades.
Speaker 1 06:44 So from that point forward, I have this drive to succeed because I am not an entitled person. I don’t expect anybody to hand it over to me. I’m going to work harder than most people to get what I want. But that started as an immigrant as a nine year old. So that’s my story in I came and you know, I, I became a, I have a degree in business and in financial analysis and I always loved numbers. Now just it’s fitting that I will be a CFO. Now having dealt with numbers for 25 years, how did you get the knowledge of a Fulbright opportunity? So not the same now as it used to be? It’s quite, quite the opposite. I think we are sending a lot of our scholars from the U S out to other countries to kind of study abroad. Yes. It seems like that it’s, it’s changed more to become that.
Speaker 1 07:37 So, um, and of course her pre doc, we want to hear her story, but you know, I think, you know, we’ll get to you, but uh, so one thing that happened or you know that there are defining moments in one’s life, right? You have moments, I’m sure Harpreet and clothing that you go back to, you know, even what the temperature was like when something happened in your life that would define in moment was one of my teachers. I was a sophomore in high school and I was, you know, how one of the highest GPA that was involved in everything you, because I was driven to get out of the country by, by for survival. So he said to me, he says, look, I been studying and I have a couple of friends that they and the us embassy and they told me about this program sponsored by the USAID, you know, the United States agency for international development.
Speaker 1 08:22 I just heard word that there is a, a program where you can apply as a Salvadorian and go on a Fulbright scholarship to study the U S uh, for free. Um, uh, and I said, I, it’s, it sounds too good. I never heard of something like that. Sounds too good to be true. If nothing is too good to be true, it must be false. Right? But you know why it turned out to be a real thing. And the problem had been going on. The central American scholarship program, uh, had been going on for a couple of years because of what was happening in central America at the time. So long story short, he planted that seed. That was the beginning of it. Uh, as a sophomore in high school, he said, I’m going to get the applicants, so you had to apply in your S and you’re at the beginning of your senior year.
Speaker 1 09:07 Okay. Because you will be notified. You took a year long process for you to be weirded out. So you had to have, not just the grades, you had to had the, the moral character, you had to had the ability, the leadership ability to be trained in the U S it to assimilate the culture and to be an asset back into your country at some point in time. And, um, that’s how it happened. That’s awesome. I was chosen, uh, to come and um, I’ve been grateful ever since. And that was, I remember the day that I even remembered the day I flew into Miami, the first time out of the country ever came to the U S on August 22nd, 1989. Really? You remember the day I remember today, cause it tells you there are dates you don’t forget. Right. So, um, that’s my story. And I, and I, gosh, I feel like I was telling you when we were off the show that there is, the reason I work harder than most people is because I N I hear to be entitled this country, regardless of where you come in the political spectrum, it is the most beautiful country in terms of opportunity the world has ever seen that are more opportunities created in the U S here then why do you think millions of people want to come here?
Speaker 1 10:26 Do you think it’s easier outside of the U S no, it’s not. And I can tell you that because I’ve been out of the U S and I’ve been in the U S and I like it here better. So anyway, so in the opportunities I’ll see opportunities when others don’t. Right, because I’m, I am grateful if you were to really break it down to one word, how I feel about the U S it’s gratitude. Wow. Wow. Coming from an immigrant, I am grateful not withstanding the loss anyway, so we have to go to break. I know there’s a lot that I want to hear her. Pre-story you are listening to business and legal talk with Leo. Claudia, we are raw today. Right back.
Speaker 3 11:21
Speaker 0 11:23 you
Speaker 1 11:37 are tuned in to this, to legal talk with your Claudine. No, this is not a dream. This is the real show in happy Saturday and we’re talking about immigration and I just got down, you know, wiping off my tears. It’s been very, you know, it’s not, not really, but I don’t like talking about this, but I’m glad we did and I’m glad we’re talking about something that is really, really important for the world to know. It’s not just the best stuff about communication, but what is good about our current immigration system. So with that, I’d like to turn it over to Harpreet. Tell us about your story.
Speaker 4 12:09 Yeah. Hi guys. It’s Harpreet Singh. Uh, I think you have heard me probably in previous episode regarding talking about law, but today I will be talk about my personal story related to immigration. And my story is not that much interesting than the Leo’s story. So my story is somewhat strange, a lot of stumbles, struggles. So, um, so while I filed my petition for immigration based on family base petition and we will talk about more about different type of visas and things like that. So, uh, so when I got my visa, I already have a job offer for us as a software engineer and um, so it was really very difficult decision to make at that point. And my parents,
Speaker 1 13:01 we’ll say software engineer, yes. In, in here in the U S or in Europe,
Speaker 4 13:06 uh, in India, uh, with a, with a us based company. So, so it was a strange, um, I think time to get a visa in mail. And so, so I was just thinking about it and then my parents pushed me, okay, why not? You just go there and just see how it looks like and then you can just decide about that. And so, so I decided to just come to us, uh, based on and, and non-immigrant we used. Um, and so as it was a family base, we used as, so we have to apply for different forms to just get department of residency. And so while I was thinking about that and then my parents pushed me more, okay, why not you continue your further studies in us. And then I taught, okay, let’s do it. But the main big problem I think, uh, which especially I think with the other students you will, um, I think also relate to that is the student loans.
Speaker 4 14:05 Because if you are not a permanent resident, you cannot apply for a federal aid, uh, where federal government will, I think subsidize your college expenses. So you have to take private student loan and those are really horrible. And I was talking about 2008, the interest rate was around 11%. Right. And so these are like, where are you expensive loan. And when you just come to U us for at least was T or you are not technically a resident, so you have to pay, uh, even if you are not coming as a student on a student visa, you have to pay the foreign student faces, which are like three times more than, and yes, I didn’t know that. It’s, it’s so, um, but still means I have decided to forward with my studies, but they’re having like a lot of other technical issues because immigration system, it’s really very difficult system to go through, uh, application stakes four years to, to adjudicate.
Speaker 4 15:09 And, and even if there is a single, I think a disagreement with a DHS who is the department of Homeland security, which is the bigger agency. And they have, uh, an agency who deals with, uh, the visas and processing of that, which is USC bias. So if you have this agreement with them, it then takes another years of time to go through the process and get your permanent residency. So, so we had some disagreements with the processing because at that time, uh, the regulations were not clear. So USCI has disagreed about department and residency status. And then I have to go through the court system. And unfortunately court system is another horrible process you have to go through because you get the dates after every two years. And my dates was like Korea scheduled for two times. So I have to wait for like four years.
Speaker 4 16:08 Really? Wow. For just a simple thing because the regulations have been changed. So there was no disagreement between DHS and me too to get permanent residency, but we have to wait for that the date. So, um, so you cannot even imagine during that whole process I completed my bachelor’s with getting the private student loans and still after that I was just waiting for this whole process. And after getting the degree, I was thinking about opening a business. Either it’s a franchise, subway or some other franchise business, but the problem is that you cannot, um, get those kinds of businesses usually, uh, without having permanent residency. You have to be a permanent resident league. They call it an LPR, right? Yes. So there is also another angle which comes in and I think you can relate the small business owner and especially if you are immigrant, right?
Speaker 4 17:06 You cannot get his SBA loan without having a permanent resident status. Correct. And that’s, that’s another hurdle you have to pass. If you have a good business, existing business, you cannot buy it because you don’t have that much capital to come off at whole cash. Right. So your life just stance in this way. You cannot open a business because obviously people don’t have hundreds and thousands of dollars with them. Right. Um, so, so the practicing law, it just comes from the circumstances. I have never imagined I would be a lawyer till at least 2010 so that is, that is amazing. So,
Speaker 2 17:50 I mean, when I first met her and I, when, when he interviewed for the position with our firm, when, when I was reading your resume obviously before you came in, but when I realized that he was a computer science major prior to being in law school, I thought, well that’s really interesting because it completely different worlds and computer science is a very successful world. And then you get a degree in computer science. Yeah. Why leave it, why come to the law? You know, because it’s a very, it’s a very, very lucrative world that you can be in. And, um, so I didn’t realize that that was what caused the switch from going from computers, computer science. And
Speaker 4 18:26 that was also like one of the main reasons because I was thinking about to get into the business world, but, uh, because of these situations, it’s being difficult. And, and later, um, I was also in the real estate because of my father’s, uh, profession, because he is a, he had been working for as a business broker. So, so then I taught to continue that. And because of, uh, in Walmart and that you just get frequent disputes about the contracts and that have provided me a roadway and a different profession to think about, okay, why not just try law because I am much more interested to know about breach of contract stuff and what happens with that when people fight where they go,
Speaker 2 19:12 right. What happened in the scene. So go to the courthouse when they are what a civilized, right. And
Speaker 4 19:23 they’re civilized. Sure. So, um, so my story to come into law is just being built based on the circumstances and difficulty with the immigration process. And once I got my permanent residence in 2015, um, then I was somewhat relieved. Okay, now ha I have the stuff I need. Um, then still in my life the law has already came into being and just, I con decided to continue with that because I was already in law school. I began my law school in 2013 so then I decided to complete that and just taught, I would just continue with business law, real estate, because that’s my background. And, and now were then taught about computer science. So, so you can think about how the immigration can change your life if you go through this difficult process. It just change your goals. It just changed your prospective to think about what you’d like to do because you cannot do certain things until you attend this particular status.
Speaker 4 20:34 So I have a question for you. Of everything that you’ve learned by going through the immigration process, how does that make you into the person that you are today? What sets you apart from somebody hasn’t gone through that? Um, I can say it has, um, maybe in some different way it has helped me in terms of being more thinking about documentation obviously, because there is a lot of stuff I used to review the regulations. Okay. What’s the problem in my case? So be your own attorney? Yes, we Oh wow. But I have not represented myself. Um, but sure means I was just looking all this documents, okay, what is this stuff, why they disagree? And then I knew there is like a small issue with regulation, which was corrected by I think passing of new regulations with my visa. So I think the best thing I can say, I have learned about the system of governance, how it operates, when it is bad and when it is good, right? Because system of governance is attached to everybody’s life. You’re applying for different thing with government and, and, and you, you can see when people disagree with you, the people who are sitting at some position and they just hold some line and how it affects your life. It has affected probably I will be married maybe in 2013 if I had a permanent residency that at that time. So it has affected also the marriage
Speaker 2 22:10 did so did it, did it put off you’re getting married? Yes. Oh wow. I didn’t know that.
Speaker 4 22:16 So, so you can see means how unwantedly maybe I can understand the people in DHS don’t want that, but still how it affects your whole life and it just changes your goals. So my story about immigration is somewhat weird and somewhat struggling, but I think the one thing I can say about, because I have looked like different systems similar to Leo, so I think the best thing which, which I can think about the U S system in general, it’s about the security, the fee law of being secure because one of the most important thing a business owner needs as far as the stable and security office society. Right?
Speaker 2 23:03 That boy, if that’s not a real key aspect of business, and one I think we probably take for granted to some large extent as business owners is, is the stability. I mean we, we dealt with it a little bit in 2007 eight, nine, 10 yeah. When, you know, things got rather unstable. But I think that’s probably besides the great depression, the most unstable that we’ve dealt with, which is tremendously different than other countries.
Speaker 4 23:29 You know, I was thinking as you were talking about, you know, I said gratitude is one word that comes up to me. And then there’s another word that I really, I see reflects, I see tie it out to business is resilience. Yeah. I think as an immigrant you have to, to become resilient
Speaker 1 23:46 and be to work harder, not, you know, and I, you know, I don’t like entitlements. I don’t want anything. Give it to me. So the opposite of that, you have to go get it. You have to advocate for yourself, you have to educate yourself and you have to want it more than the next person and you have to hope work hard. So in some way that, yeah,
Speaker 2 24:05 resilience helps in business. And so I had an interesting stat I wanted to chime in just real quick and we’ll get to your set. It seems to me now not having ever been through the, um, the system, it seems to me that you pin a lot of hopes and dreams on it and um, failure’s not an option. Like you, you get started in the process and you don’t get halfway through and go, you know, I think I’ll just do something else. Like you’re committed, you’re committed to completing it. Even if it takes an extra two years or three years or five years or, or whatever
Speaker 1 24:37 failure as you know, that can be quoted. Failure is not an option. An option. If you are an immigrant and you’re a provide for your family, right? You’ve got gotta do it right, but you got to hang in there and you’ve got to plan for the long haul. This is a long game. Yeah. So I have an interest in stats. So while, uh, according to a survey of business owners and the American community survey, this report finds that while immigrants make up, this is in 2017. By the way, immigrants make up 13% of the U S population in general. They make up 18% of all small business owners.
Speaker 2 25:18 Wow. That’s, that’s a lot now. Immigrants. Okay. So
Speaker 1 25:22 first generation immigrants, first generation. So there’s such thing as I already, you know, if like for instance, my wife is of Mexican descent, she’s third generation, you know, Mexican American, but her immigration, Oh Oh zero you know, immigration zero which is the ones that are actually came being born in Mexico, came in the 20s I would be me and I would be generation zero because I emigrated my sons, my kids are first generation being born in Salvadorians and then their kids will be second generation and so forth. So there, there’s a distinction between those who are, and you can argue that aside from the, you know, however, you know, 13% of the U S population, you know, let’s talk it about 45 million people that are immigrated into the U S that’s a big amount. That’s the population of all the central America by the way. 45 minutes. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. There’s 45 million people between Belize and .
Speaker 2 26:17 So how many people did, do either one of you have an idea of how many people go through the immigration system annually or are let’s say caught up in it annually? It’s
Speaker 4 26:27 about, um, because if he had talk about then, uh, obviously I will not, uh, go in more detail. There are about 250,000 around. You get family visas, which has the immigrant Rizos and if you add the employment base, we used us on top of that. It’s about
Speaker 1 26:48 1 million. So every year 1 million immigrants, that doesn’t include the people asking for refugee status. That doesn’t include people. So, and the backlog in the U S immigration system. So I think I heard, I read somewhere that what about 900,000 cases in backlog in immigration courts that are actually sitting there waiting to be adjudicated. Yeah, I think it’s such a huge system. All right. Hey, okay. We’ll come back. Stay tuned. Don’t go anywhere. Business illegal talk with Leah and Claudia and we’ll be right back. Power talk and 36
Speaker 0 27:23 .
Speaker 5 27:35
Speaker 2 27:44 well welcome back. We are back with Leo and Claudine and Harpreet Singh is our guest today. We are having a really interesting conversation on the subject of immigration and kind of the personal story behind it and, and we’re really what folks go through. I’m trying to get through the process legally and trying to get here so that they can be a U S citizen, whether it be a permanent residence. And I know we’re going to get into that a little bit. There’s a number of different classifications and those different classifications come with different restrictions and different abilities once you are here. So, um, one of the things that we were talking about off air, um, and I’ll go back to you Harpreet is um, you know, what happens when they reject you. Let’s say you get through the entire process and then you’re rejected then what?
Speaker 4 28:35 Um, yeah, I think first of all, it’s a very hard decision to grasp by an immigrant if you get rejected. So, so it depends where his immigrant is located at that time, right? Because if you are, uh, if the immigrant is located, uh, outside U S and they are having an interview, uh, in, in a U S embassy, uh, based on their either immigrant petition, non-immigrant petition. So, uh, first of all they will provide you particular citation, why we are rejecting you so you can ask for reconsideration or there is administrative process which you can go through. Uh, but it is, especially if you are outside, it’s really very frustrating because it takes a lot of time to go through because it just comes back to us. Your files come back through the agency, us, CIS and then you go through administrative process and, and especially at this point you cannot even, I think think about the time frame which it will take to go through the appeals process.
Speaker 4 29:46 Right. So it’s always good to be prepared. I think whenever you have these kinds of things, if you are in U S I think still you have to go through this appeal process. But the issue is that for some uh, immigrant with us, they just put you under deportation proceeding. They just provide you notice, okay, just go out within 30 days and if you don’t go out then basically you are technically unlawful, uh, resident, right? And you are, yeah. Then, then there is whole lot of bars depending on how much time you have spent in us as an unlawful resident. And it just bars you for five years, 10 years. So, um, so it’s a very horrible news you will get right. And then you have to just go through the, uh, immigration court process, which is already backlogged as Leo mentioned. It’s about like 900,000 cases and, and, and you will just get, there’s after every two years and, and it’s, it’s, I think a very, uh, uh, I think hell I can say.
Speaker 4 30:59 Um, so you should not be in that, but unfortunately, like many people are in that situation because of technicalities, different issues going on and, and you have to think about they have families here, right? And if you are, especially in running a business, how you can, how you can think about growth of that business. If you have this swabbed, I think hanging over your head and you don’t know your future, right? Because I have went through that process. I can understand that, uh, you don’t have any certainty about your future, what you will do, what you can do and what’s your progress in future.
Speaker 1 31:36 Yeah. There’s one theme though that I think a lot of, um, we, I had been very fortunate that I was surrounded by people who were, I had the right advisors. Um, it is sad and it’s hard when immigrants are not represented well. Um, they don’t understand the language. Um, and then, and then panic sets in and they say or do things that hurts them for life. You know, like impersonating a U S citizen is a, is a as unforgivable sin. And yeah, and I have, you know, I’ve, you know, watched the news and read stories and I’ve known of people who have lied and they, you know, trying to get out of it, they had to go visit a family, a relative, a different country, and they come back and they say, Hey, you know, at the border Yama U S citizen and you’re not, or you can’t vote if you are not a us citizen.
Speaker 1 32:25 And people just make just fatal mistakes by not just being, um, being advised. Well, so it’s a hard bar. I mean it’s, it’s a great process, but you have to hire the right people to help you to do it right. Because I think the immigration system, uh, overall has done what it’s supposed to be. But you know, because this is a business show how, let’s just, I like to kind of take us in a different direction. There’s two things that I like us to talk about. One is there are, you know, business owners looking for capital funding for their business and um, and the other one is what if you actually can get, you know, there are some industries like software where, you know, get wonderful talent for it. Me from India or other countries in Ukraine. What do you need to do as a business owner if you want to immigrate somebody? So maybe we can go down that route.
Speaker 2 33:13 Yeah. And using, um, using, uh, labor from other countries or we see that, you know, quite a bit. In fact, you and I were dealing with, with that Leo, you and I a couple of weeks ago, um, a situation with a client who had used labor coming from other countries, telecommuting. So, and what, what, what are the rules around that?
Speaker 1 33:35 So, alright, so the ball is fresh in my mind. This whole thing about, I just came off a meeting, um, that where we were talking about raising funds, right? Raising capital for our business. The deacon know that if you’re a business owner and here in the U S you can tap into a program that’s called the E B five. Yeah. E as in Edward, B as in boy dash five. You can look it up and Google and it’s a Purim that is designed to bring wealthy, uh, um, immigrants that are basically able to, uh, invest in a us based company. Salonas they’re generate X amount of jobs on a, on a rural or underdeveloped area that needs capital infusion, foreigners or you know, foreign nationals can participate in that program in, be legally obtain a permanent residency. And you have to go through the whole, you know, DHS gets involved.
Speaker 1 34:29 But that is another Avenue I’ve, I’ve known of the developers. It’s really big in real estate development, uh, footprint. A project in Seattle that I heard raised $100 million, all of it, uh, to actually, uh, to, to, to build some hotels in Seattle, all of erased by foreign national, uh, E B five immigrant business. So, and it’s half a million dollars a piece. So if you’re a foreign national in a different country, you know, China or GLA or Argentina or even El Salvador, and if you have the financial wherewithal and want to immigrate to the U S there’s a way to do it without having to cross the border illegally. You, you, you, you basically participate in this perm. It’s just, you know, knowledge is power. You have to know that it’s out there. Now, as a business owner, you know, there are multiple ways you could go raise capital for your business. You know, you can get alone, right? It’s traditional. And the SBA will give you this wonderful, great loans that banks will, you know, they’re secured by the SBA and, and you can do whatever you need to for your business. You can actually raise capital from outside investors, you know, whether they’re angels, venture capitalists in such a or, or later stage in business private. But you can also go as a business owner and raise capital from foreign nationals.
Speaker 2 35:42 And is there a, uh, floor, uh, limit meaning a minimum?
Speaker 1 35:46 It’s half a million dollars. The minimum is the minimum. So do you happen to work with immigration lawyers and it’s, and it’s increasing. It’s, I think recently. Has it been revised already? Yeah, it’s in process because they have, I think published the rules. It would be 1 million. Is that wow. Yeah, that would be as significant that it would double the, basically we’ll double the investment,
Speaker 2 36:11 but I, I would suspect that there, because of the incentive that, that the, the lender has to come to the U S that the, uh, threshold for requirement to get the money might be a little lower. Well, it might be a little easier, a little easier to tap into. Now you are biting off a whole entire nother set of problems because you have the whole immigration system. But with that said,
Speaker 1 36:33 but the money has to be at risk. Yeah. So, so here’s the thing, what the U S what the U S wants is to raise capital, you know, but it’s, it’s a way that the us is used to, to, to find, to fund, to, to growth in the economy. Correct. Particularly the small business owners, those between zero and you know, 500 employees that the SBA considered small businesses. Right? Right. So that it’s an Avenue for you. But, but for it to work, for you to gain immigration status, the money has to be at risk, meaning that you invest in a venture that may go belly up.
Speaker 2 37:07 Right? Right. But as if, as you, as the business owner here who may be looking at that as a, as an Avenue, as an Avenue for capital, um, it seems to me that because of the incentive that the lender is going to be able to utilize that as a way for legal entry into the U S right. They’re a little bit maybe less regulated with the requirements to, to utilize that money as opposed to us going to, you know, just so a bank lender here.
Speaker 1 37:34 Well, yes and no. Um, did, if you kinda come into that kind of money and if you made that kind of money, whether, whether you are in, yeah. In Mexico, in you are a SoFi, what I might experience dealing with, they’re very sophisticated investors.
Speaker 2 37:49 Sure. But they may take a risk that a U S lender would not take.
Speaker 1 37:53 Correct. Well, their incentive is not so much making money on the, on the venture. They want to immigrate to the U S basically buy your way into the, into, and it’s a legal way of doing it. Right. So mostly I think it also depends. Um, there are other treaties which a U S had done with other countries like Australia, Canada, there is no minimum limit of 500,000, a hundred or $1 million. These limits are only for some other countries which don’t have treaties. Really. I didn’t know. So if you want to buy a business of 200,000, you can get a rezone that, so to buy the business outright, yes. You wouldn’t if I didn’t know that part. So guys, we’ve got two minutes. So, um, but this is an interesting, that is really interesting. It’s really interesting because you have to, I think, uh, think about one thing, if you are out of status, if suppose someone is already present and already in immigration code, unfortunately they cannot use this route, right?
Speaker 1 38:57 Because if you had already tacked into the immigration system by going to some other way, uh, you’re out, you can now press reset and start over it. This is for foreign nationals who are, don’t have any immigration issues with the U S they, they, you know, here’s a wealthy family who has grown up in, um, Peru, right? And South America who thinks that getting hard there and they just want to do better for their family. So they look North to come to the U S and they heard you read about the perm. Never been in an immigration system for them it’s very, you know, they have to go, they have to have the Capitol proof that they are actually how they came into the money. You know there has to be some way of making sure that the money is legit. But if that is the case they have to invest in, there are, there are rules and regulations.
Speaker 1 39:41 You have to have the money at risk. As I said, you have to create jobs in impoverished rural development areas. So you cannot just go to New York city and invest money there. You know the business has to be in a tough place. You know, that’s, that’s why we have those government programs. You know the HUBZones, you know the set up size four for government contractors. They, because you, the government incense you a to B in certain areas so you can get out, get loans, get advantage because we want to have everyone to have equal chance. Um, and we want to make sure that the economy is well in all areas, not just in a pocket up. You know, can you imagine the U S only have 10 cities that are doing well, everybody else is not. It would really sink the economy. You have to spread the wealth.
Speaker 1 40:25 So those incentives are critical. But so that’s one way. The other way is employment, right? Yes. There are rules about that. Um, because I was involved in a situation that they had to bring a w we had to make a case for a software company to bring a software developers into the U S in any way. So, so that’s a whole thing that we were going to get into the next segment for right now. Um, any final thoughts on this? The whole ah, no, I just find it incredibly fascinating that, that, that, that there’s a lending market. Yeah. Yeah. I think, and also this program, it’s about business. And also you can have on other projects are there, you are your developer, our homes you can also went through. So it’s about the investment and how you can create jobs, create jobs. The main point of this whole program. Yep. Hey, so I hope you’re enjoying this whole take on immigration. Uh, stay tuned. We’ll be right back.
Speaker 5 41:24
Speaker 1 41:49 this has turned out to be a very exciting topic. I didn’t think so at the time, but uh, we really gone a, I think debunking some of those myths that we were talking about off the air. But, um, what, so, so finish my thought for an, for a business to immigrate employees into their companies here in the U S you have to prove the burden of proof is in the employer to show immigration that there was no qualified person to do that specific job description here in the U S so the system is very tight. You have to have, you have to jump through multiple hurdles as in a business owner to prove that the person that you bring in, you couldn’t, you advertise for it. You look, you look everywhere and you couldn’t find that person. So when I hear somebody on the street who is not really following immigration, they say, well, they’re taking my job away. you know, you’re not gonna immigrate somebody into the U S to work at a McDonald’s or you know, to work at a burger King or to be a waiter. I no disrespect to those industries, but it doesn’t happen that way. Immigration system does not allow it. So you have to create a position and you avid, you open at four 30 or however many days or weeks there is, people have to apply it, they have to be unqualified and the bar is so high that you have no choice but to go elsewhere.
Speaker 2 43:10 Right. And I think it’s important to kind of make a distinction that the conversation that we’re having today is really about the immigration system and people attempting to come through the system legally and that that’s the other system or lack of system is really a Pandora’s box that we’re not getting into getting into.
Speaker 4 43:28 No. So I think the main important thing, again you have, I think, touch about it’s that the system itself is built in such a way that, that the no one is taking someone’s else’s job. And there are also recently changes made about the minimum salaries because that’s one of the points you can think about. Okay. Maybe the employer will not, uh, think about to hire someone from here because of higher salaries, right? But the system has a requirement that there needs to be minimum salary. I think now it’s about $60,000. So that’s, that’s a, that’s an odd, a small amount, right? And, uh, so, so people coming through that process and also, uh, nowadays because of everything is backlogged. So it takes about two, three years of time to, to just get that employee in place and employer get problems. Because you can understand how you can manage with two, three years of having no such specialized employees and also the employment based system.
Speaker 4 44:39 It just allows people to come in who have special skills, who have higher degrees, either as PhD or scientists from other countries or if someone has some other artistic skills. Right? So, so you’re not talking about people who are working at some other restaurants who are been immigrated to U S so these are people we, the system is picking up people who have some special and some useful things which they can contribute to this country. Right? So, so I think we have to really think about, uh, whenever we are thinking about immigration system and have to go in D because sometime in media the things are so much in brief, they just miss the point sometime. And sure. Our purpose at the show is not to talk about one policy or another, but to talk about the general system which had been going through over the years. And I think the next point, which I liked to, I think touch and especially these small business owners, uh, which, um, I think have to go through, uh, especially if you are living in California, uh, now the employers, uh, should not, I think cooperate with or without any Warren should share information of employees. Right? So
Speaker 2 45:58 Wharton and I want to, I want to kind of just touch on that, that employers in California are not allowed to turn over, um, information on their employees who may or may not be, um, immigrants or legal or non-legal or anything. You are not allowed to do that without a search warrant.
Speaker 4 46:16 So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s, uh, I think it’s, um, you can have different views about it and we will not just go into the political stuff, um, because it’s, it’s more about that you need to protect your employee unless and until there is a search warrant or, um, something like that from DHS. So it just creates a confidence, uh, uh, by the employees in their employer that my employer will only, uh, work out in at least somewhat my trust and still legally comply. If there is some legal warrant, right? So still this thing is I think fight between federal and state has going on and I think, uh, you will just see within like two or three years what’s the result on that. But for small business owner, you have to I think understand and there’s also I think more logical that uh, your employees should have faith in you that you will not Don over to them once the employee provides you proper documentation and just fills the um, uh, the verification form.
Speaker 4 47:28 And it’s the employers job farther verify once they just provide those documentation, right? And just being into the situation of harassing the employees because it just brings more all down of your whole organization. It’s the job of the government to look at. And so I think you have to just make sure that you are doing that. And I think another point, I wanted to touch a, it’s somewhat historical point and, and it’s related to immigrant and business. So there is a, um, I think good history because in pass we have went through I think different discrimination practices unfortunately because the world was different at that time. So either we are talking about 1960s when the immigration flow have been, I think uh, went on because previously immigration was much more blocked for other countries. So in 1960s and seventies, when people just immigrated to U S the people who are discriminated and you cannot get like usual jobs.
Speaker 4 48:29 Uh, so uh, so at that point if you can imagine in into that world, it would be difficult to support yourself without a job. So what you will do, you will just do a self employment. You will just find some other contractors work or, or, or some people yeah. Means so most of the immigrant, and at least I can talk about my community, the Indian community or community, the event to self-employment route because of the discrimination which was going on. So either they went to trucking industry or real estate or home building work or those kind of convenience store convenience store route because you cannot get the jobs. And now you have to support yourself. Lots of people are looking at you back home that you will get succeed. That’s another pressure you have to feel. If you don’t succeed, then you just, I think, um, uh, pound yourself and, and, and you, you just go into that depression route, which no one wants to. And I think everyone is looking for you that you will succeed. So, so you will another I think, and the only option left a self employment. And I think Leo will also maybe can contribute some options, our opinions on that. Like what, what you have taught when, when you have immigrated to us.
Speaker 1 49:53 Well, yeah, I, I think what we can go on a lot of ways in this conversation, but I think for me personally, um, the U S is a country built on, on a, on a bedrock of let’s give every opportunity to make the best that you can for yourself, right? A capitalistic society, which you can make anything happen. This is truly their land of the free and, and there’s a freedom of thought and, and really founded on entrepreneurship. Yes. So when I came, you know, you become what you surround yourself with, right? If you hang out with great people, you’re going to become great. If you hang out with losers, you become one. But there’s something about what’s in the air, I’ll say in the water supply here in the U S that everywhere I turned, when I came, I saw opportunities and I don’t know whether it is because they were absent when I was growing up in El Salvador or I saw them everywhere.
Speaker 1 50:48 And I think I was more in tune. I think as an immigrant myself, I was more in tune with, Oh my gosh, does that mean that I don’t, my last name is irrelevant, you know, in, in some, uh, in some countries, like you’re the minute you are born, you are in a caste system, your last name, you don’t have this initials after your family doesn’t come from this part of the country. And then now you’re, um, basically you, you get shot in the leg before, you know, you get shot on the foot before you even start. Yeah. I think here in the U S it’s true equal opportunity for you to build something. So what I, where I leaned to is I wanted to start a business just because everywhere it’s encouraged.
Speaker 2 51:26 Well and it’s the, it’s the alternative. Whereas if some people want to, you know, grow up and they want to work for a company and, and that’s just what they like to do and that’s their comfort zone and I’m grateful for them. But there are other people who have the alternative and they get the chance to have that. And, and if you are that entrepreneur spirit, you can’t avoid it. I mean, it’s like the color of your eyes. It is what it is. I mean, you can, you can go try to go other routes all you want, but at the end of the day you’re gonna keep coming back to this. Um, and, and so I think that that, that’s kind of the unique thing. It’s not, we are not necessarily have to be employed by other people. We have that alternative where we can be the employer. Look
Speaker 1 52:10 there is, to me, the crux of the matter. You have choices in most places around the world, you don’t have a choice. Right. And you know, I think we can talk about a lot of things, but to me is you have a choice and there’s opportunity. Now what people choose to do with that opportunity, it’s on them. Like the immigrant community is here. They, they, most of them, you know, it was, yeah, they were talking about 18%. We would just read it. But there’s one statistic that I did not read and you know, I love numbers and we have for life complete numbers. Please just don’t let me down. Right? So the same report that I read to you guys said that, uh, that there are, uh, the report also concluded that firms that are half or more owned by immigrants accountable, 14% of private sector employment in generated $776 billion, whether it be in receipts, and this is in 2007.
Speaker 1 53:13 Now add another 300 billion and probably a trillion, right? In economic output directly co-related to be businesses that are part where there are immigrants involved. So that tells you that this produces good, you know, increases the economic output, increases the gross domestic product. The country is better so long as we do illegally. So we’re not proposing anything other than if you’re going to come to the U S do it legally. And anyway. I hope you guys have some fun today and it, I feel much better. I, you know, even though it wasn’t structured and unstructured, but, uh, thank you for a little bit. Yeah, we, it was funny flowing. Thank you Harpreet for being here today. You made it so much better, Dean. As always, we have fun together. Hey everybody, have a great week. See you next week.
Speaker 5 54:01 .
