Investing in America as a immigrant

[Trym Odin Andersen]

Hello BP community! Im an 18 year old Norwegian who is super interested and love Real Estate. Ive been reading tons about it and have been planning on starting a real estate flipping business with an American partner which I meet while I was there on an exchange year. We have a set business plan, finance for our first deal and are clear on our goals and vision for the business. Im planning on going to college in Iowa where I have previously studied, so this would be our market.

But after getting all of that in order I see that working for your business is illegal for me unless I go through different Visa applications. So my question is if its worth it for me to go all in with the American Visa since I have everything planned out and a good partnership, or if I should keep it safe, stay in Norway,  and start my own thing here? ( Although I've heard its a lot harder to make money through real estate in Norway).

Any opinion would help, just need different views from similar mindsets.

Thank you BP!

[Becky Hiu]

Speaking from a standpoint of an immigrant here who is currently a permanent resident as of 2.5 years ago. I came here on a:

1. Student visa (F-1), then

2. Using the H-1 work visa, got a full-time job IN a field related to my majors (Quant Econs/Finance undergrad, Masters in Finance grad. This is a must - I couldn't be a barista at Starbucks and stay in the USA. Now, with the new POTUS in place, immigration is so tight, it's difficult to get certain longer-term visas approved). You have to be sponsored by a corporation/company and this is lottery based. 65k/year allocation max, first 20k go to grad degree holders, then they get dumped into the 45k pool if they don't get a draw and the entire world is applying for it. Chances today is a 20-25% win, AND they get snapped up day 1 of April's opening), 

3. And finally got my PERM just before my H-1B limit was up (3 years first tranche, 3 years max renewal after, otherwise leave the country or change visa status). This is a very expensive, tedious process that depends on which country you're from. Peeps from China/India's waiting average time is 10 years now. Mine was only 2 years.

Buying a house here is like buying a car, but lenders obviously prefer if you are at least an H-1B holder to lend to you, unless you're an all cash/private/hard money user. Think about it from the lenders' perspective - if you were to default on your mortgage, it's hard to trace a foreigner who's on say a student visa. I bought my first rental property being on H-1B. We now have LLCs (partnership) to house the properties and YES, you cannot earn a 1099-MISC/W-2 wage other than what you're being sponsored on. I am now able to earn 1099-MISC/guaranteed income (aka active income) because I'm a permanent resident but the nice thing about real estate investing is that foreigners can receive "passive" income... Also, you cannot own an S-Corp (I think) being a foreigner but can open/own an LLC but cannot work for yourself unless you're sponsoring yourself.

PM me if you want to chat more about this as I think I've quite some experience being a foreigner myself. Been doing this 7 years (RE) and been here 10+ years.