Immigration to which state?

AILA = American Immigration Lawyer's Association

One would think that if a lawyer is registered with the national association that they should know the law pertaining to their specialty. Which is why I suggested the organization.

However, over the several years I've been around immigration forums (which is many!) I have not seen many good stories regarding ANY immigration lawyers. Mostly they just take your money and you fill out the forms yourself, give them to the lawyer then wait and wait and wait...

Granted most of my experience has been with marriage based immigration, so I have no clue if there are any good lawyers to point you toward who can help with an E visa. Hence my suggestion to chek out AILA. Perhaps you can find some information there.

With a note of caution of caveat emptor

@Steven
@ axolotl

Thank you so much for your comments and advices.
How do you know about the taxation in Florida and California?
Do you know anything about Arizona?

-- Tue May 19, 2009 5:07 pm --

@ Reba

I know what you mean about lawyers. Thank you anyway for your recommendation.
What would you do in my situation? Is immigration with an E-visa possible at all WITHOUT a lawyer?

Quite a lot of lawyers will give you an hour of their time for a consult for little to no fee. Call around and talk to a few. If they make claims that sound too good to be true, they probably are, and keep looking.

I believe however that an E visa, like any other, can most likely be done yourself.

We had already a consultation with an attorney. It was a year ago and we found it on the Website "VisaPro.com". They do all kind of visas. May be that would be the better way, one we decided WHERE we want to settle. By now this is the more complicated thing for us.

How do you know about the taxation in Florida and California?
Do you know anything about Arizona?

To cut a long story short, because I've spent a lot of time there. Arizona is middling, they have low property taxes but they have a State income tax, which Florida does not, however it's not as high as in California.

Basically you end up paying out tax in different ways, in California they have low property taxes but high income taxes and a high sales tax. Florida has no State income tax but a relatively high property tax. I'd still say Florida has the lowest taxes of the three overall but it depends on your circumstances. However cost of living in Florida is definitely the lowest of the three, property prices and utilities are definitely lower in Florida.

What would you do in my situation? Is immigration with an E-visa possible at all WITHOUT a lawyer?

You don't need a lawyer, what you need is a consultant who is familiar with applying for E visas. Certainly you can apply on your own and if it were me in any other category I would, however E visas require a business plan, proof of investment, etc. and are quite complex. Even if you have an MBA it can be faster to go to a consultant because they will have templates they have used before, plus they will know what the consular officers in BC specifically look at based on their prior experience.

@ Steven

Thank you again for the interesting and detailed information. We will take that in consideration while we are looking for "suited objects". At the moment, we don't have to make a decision yet. Next we'll go to Florida to check out, if we like it there...

Florida is the most Canadian friendly State, imo. Under Florida State law any Canadian citizen can get a one-year DL simply with proof of Canadian citizenship which is much more friendly than any other State I can think of. Plus there are probably hundreds if not thousands of people from Ontario and Québec in Florida on E visas who have done pretty much what you are thinking of or close to it.

@ Steven

Do you, personally, know any of the hundreds or thousands of these Canadians with an E-visa in Florida?

No, but there have been a couple on here in the past and I did meet that British couple awhile back.

No, but there have been a couple on here in the past and I did meet that British couple awhile back.

I assume it's the couple with the B&B. We were thinking of buying a B&B too, but my husband thinks, that we could earn enough money with a B&B, if you know,what I mean.

-- Thu May 21, 2009 10:25 am --

sorry: that we could NOT earn enough money with the B&B.