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For years, American politics has centered around a few major issues. The war, economy, taxes, cultural values and immigration. Most elections are fought and won around one of these major areas.

An economic downturn is imminent and has been a 7 year cycle according to leading economists. People get out of a bad economy and tend to forget in 2 years and start a cycle that cannot sustain itself and brings about another economic correction. In 2001 it was the dot com crash, now its the mortgage and banking sector.

Given that the elections are right in the middle of the economic correction (I don’t like the word downturn), economy is the primary focus on the elections. Which means the other major issues are neglected for the most part.

Both Barack Obama and John McCain started their campaigns by heavily concentrating on immigration reforms but you don’t hear them talk about it any more. All they talk about now is economy and foreign policy.

This is in fact good for immigrants. This takes away the big amount of focus on us and puts it back on things that really matter for everyone - jobs, credit and money. And for once, immigrants are not blamed for it.

That’s a good thing.

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We all know that Immigrants are much more enthusiastic and likely to succeed. However, there are a 3 things that pull immigrants back. Over the next few posts, we will also offer advice on how to get better at

Communication skills

Natives are always much much better at expressing themselves. They are way more adept at understanding what the other person is looking for, they also understand inside stories, jokes and references that most americans grow up with. This presents a significant disadvantage for immigrants. The English accent and language are also major issues with most immigrants (other than people immigrating from Canada and less so with other native english speaking countries).

Creativity and self expression

Most immigrants grow up in their culture and develop some values. Not too many nations are as creative and not too many cultures are as expressive as the United States. The result therefore is a lot of people immigrating to the United states are not at par with Americans in creativity and self expression.

Confidence

Most immigrants especially in their early years in the country seem to hold themselves back. So, even if they are right,  they do not have the communication skills and self expression skills and hence the confidence to express themselves. A fundamental American skill is confidence, even in times where people may not know what the final result may be and this is one thing immigrants can certainly improve on.

As the election heats up, economy and security turn out to be the big issues for most people. However for immigrants, immigration remains the #1 issue. Senator McCain if elected will be terrible for immigrants. Here’s why:

1. He said that “we need workers in this country, there are some jobs Americans are just not willing to do”. By saying this he implies that the only immigrants that are welcome here are workers to do what American people think is too low for them to do. He forgets what made America so successful is the entrepreneurship values of the past immigrants.

2. McCain had presented a “comprehensive immigration reform” bill in 2006, and now in 2008 after giving in to conservative pressure, is not even supporting his own bill any more. A classic McCain flip-flop.

3. He wants all immigrants to learn English - People that know us, know that we have written extensively on the importance of English and accent training for immigrants to the US, the candidates and their views on this subject. It is important for most people to not just learn the language but also the accent. But it should not be mandatory, it should be a life choice for the individual.

4. He spent months arguing for a temporary worker program, and now he is flip flopping on that issue as well.

5. McCain does not directly support H1B visas, visas that bring smart people into the country, people that finally will create more jobs in America.

The process of starting a new company can be intriguing - especially when you are not a permanent resident of the country. Visa issues take it’s toll but for those enterprising entrepreneurs that are still on say an H1-B visa in the US, it is still possible to start a company legally.

Here’s how.

Many visas are based on intent. You should not intend to stay here forever. Many of them like the popular H1-B and L1 visas are based on employment which restricts you from having interests or time dedicated to other tasks outside of your employer that sponsored you.

Method #1: Treat your business as an investment

If you treat your business as an investment and take a passive role, receiving profits from the business and spending time on the business outside of your regular work duties and hours without running the day-to-day management of the company, you will be fine. Hire someone else to run the business on a day-to-day basis.

Method #2: Partner up with other visa holders

There are ways in which a group of visa holders can partner up with one another thereby spreading the work to a small and manageable extent such that neither of you manage it fully but you all contribute. As long as you can show that you are still dedicated to your original employer, this method should work fine.

Method #3: Set up a company here in the US as a subsidiary to a foreign corporation and get an H1-B or L1 through it

This may be the riskiest but most effective method if you’d like to use all your time for your business because the other 2 methods do not provide you that luxury.

Set up a subsidiary of a foreign entity here in the US. You can incorporate it or not but you need to get a tax ID for the entity here. Then have that entity sponsor your H1B or L1 visa. Rules do not prohibit this person from being a founder or holding a majority stake in the entity. However, to get by with this method your entity must demonstrate viability to support this person’s employment. See a qualified accountant and attorney for this one for sure.

It’s all doable, don’t let a visa stop you!