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This visa has been especially made to increase trade between foreign countries and the United States. It is made for Canadian salesperson who wish to sell directly to Americans in the US territory. The admissibility requirements are:

  1. Be a citizen of one of the country admissible to the E-1 visa
  2. Have established a substantial amount of sales to the United States through a Canadian company
  3. Set up an American company which is owned by one or two foreign owners of countries who have bilateral treaties with the US
  4. 51% of the sales of the American company must come from foreign goods sold in the US or US goods sold in this foreign country.
ANALYSIS OF EACH CRITERIA
  1. Be a citizen of one of the country admissible to the E-1 visa

    The candidate must apply as a Canadian citizen or as a citizen of any country admissible. Just like for the H-1B visa, being a permanent resident of Canada does not give any advantage to the candidate. The list of countries admissible to the E-1 is regularly modified without notice. Some countries are added, but most frequently some countries are temporarily removed from the list for political reasons. So, for non-Canadians we have to verify if the client is admissible according to his citizenship.

  2. Have established substantial amount of sales to the United States through a foreign company;

    The client must show that they have established a certain amount of sales. There is no specific amount specified by the INS, because it depends of what kind of product is sold and what is the value of the goods. It is a combination of volume and value.

    Ex: If a Canadian salesperson sold 3 farm tractors in a year to a US company for a total $350 000, he might not qualified because the volume is not important enough. But, if a Canadian* sold $200 000 of pencils to an American retail chain in United States, he might easily qualify because the volume is quite large.

    So, once we know what the Canadian intends to sale and the value of the goods the main office legal staff will be able to estimate what amount of sales from the Canadian company will be considered by the INS as “substantial amount of sales to the United States”.

  3. Set up an American company which is owned by one or two Canadians (or other nationality)

    Once we have proven that there is a substantial amount of sales to the United States established by the Canadian company (or any country included by the US) which could take around 6 months, the salesperson can set up an American company. The American company must be owned by one or two Canadians (or another nationality) We say no more than two owners because the salesperson must have “controlling shares” of the American company. For the INS 50% is considered “controlling shares”.

    The most common scenarios are:
  1. A salesperson that set up his own American company and decides to represent one or many Canadian companies.
  2. A salesperson that set up an American company with a Canadian manufacturer. They own each 50% of the American company.
  3. A salesperson decides to represent many Canadian companies and forms an American company with each Canadian company.
  4. 51% of the sales of the American company must come from Canadian goods sold in the US or US goods sold in Canada

    The main goal of this visa is to increase the flow of trade between the NAFTA countries or any of the other 41 countries included for this visa. So, this criteria is to prevent that a Canadian salesperson enters the United States and starts selling only American goods to Americans. That explains why 51% of the sales made by the salesperson must be goods that are crossing the border in either directions.

    This criteria still give the possibility to the salesperson to sell up 49% of non-Canadian goods to the Americans. Which means that the Canadian salesperson can do an important amount of inter-state sales.

  5. Length of stay

    This visa is valid for a period of 5 years and can renewed as long as the requirements are respected.

    This is a non-immigrant visa but it could lead to a permanent residency later on. Like the other visas, spouse and children can be admitted and new from January 2002, spouses of E-1 visa holder can apply for Work Authorization in the United States.
CONDITIONS OF ADMISSIBILITY:
  • Be a citizen of a country admissible to the E-1 visa
    Call our offices for more information


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