Together with

A Diverse Group With a Shared Ambition

The First Generation Community has been rocketing in terms of subscription numbers.

What started just last month, now already has more than 1,500 active and engaged Community members.

This is awesome! And it proves what I suspected all along - a centralized platform for advice, information, and connection around U.S. employment-based and business immigration is an absolute necessity.

I am already beginning to get a better understanding of who you are and how we can support you.

Main Highlights?

• Addressing Your Needs: How Will our Community Support You?

• Sector Update: Record Number of E-2 Visas in 2023

• Expert Insight: EB-2 NIW for IT & Energy Sector Professionals

• The Joorney Joornals: Always Reiterating Client-centricity

👨🏽‍💼 Seeking Employment in the U.S.

I know from the results of our Visa Match platform that there are a large number of you looking for employment in the U.S. - whether through the H1-B route or another alternative.

Our Community was always imagined with you in mind.

At Joorney, we may be immigration business plan specialists, but this doesn’t mean that our focus starts and ends there.

And also, despite some assumptions about H1-B, this visa is also available as a self-sponsorship option for Start-up founders - who very much depend upon a professional business plan as part of their application.

Regardless, I want this community to support anyone looking to the U.S. as a life-changing opportunity. And I plan to do whatever I can to offer you a guiding hand.

H1-B Jobs Boards

At Joorney, we are always seeking to further build out our own products and services, as well as those offered by our partner ecosystem.

I am now actively communicating with specialist H1-B jobs boards, as well as our own product team, to better understand how I can meet this demand.

Until I have something more formalized, I can already provide a few useful links (note, these are unvetted third-party services and not Joorney partners).

Some Resources I Found:

• H-1B Visa Jobs

• My Visa Jobs

CV Assessment & Writing

Not only for H1-Bs, but also for EB-2 NIWs, L-1s, and other visa types, your CV can form an important early piece of documentation.

When it comes to applying for work, I’m sure you’re all aware about how much early vetting is conducted in an automated fashion.

It’s thus crucial that your CV is formatted correctly, includes all of the key details, and has a decent spread of relevant keywords.

With a 100-strong writing team, established content creation processes, and a dedicated AI product pillar, Joorney are well positioned to execute in this area.

Watch this space for new services and partnerships to support you with this process. Until then, here are a few useful links (note, these are unvetted third-party services and not Joorney partners).

Some Resources I Found:

• Enhancv

• Jobscan

Looking to Purchase an Operational U.S. Business

A large proportion of our members are existing businesspeople, start-up founders, or budding entrepreneurs.

Many more of you have the ambition of moving into business at some stage in the future.

I have seen a huge trend of members actively seeking to purchase established small businesses in the U.S. - everything from Gas Stations to Retail Stores, Investment Property to Educational Institutions.

Of course, the right choice of business will always depend on a whole range of factors, not least your own passions. And it’s crucial that the business you choose can:

a) meet the E-2 visa criteria, and
b) provide a secure and sustained level of revenue generation.

Again, via partners and our own product development, I will seek to provide additional information, support, and guidance in this area moving forwards.

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⚖️ In Search of Expert Legal Guidance

I can never reiterate enough how important it is to have the support of a trusted business immigration attorney to support your application process.

This is a huge component of Community.

At Joorney, we have the largest ecosystem of such experts in the world - and I am able to leverage these partnerships for you, our Community members.

Via the Visa Match platform, I have already qualified and referred dozens of prospective applicants to best-in-class legal partners.

And this is one of the clearest boosts I can provide you with along your immigration journey - the right partner really can make all the difference.

If you would like me to find the perfect business immigration attorney for your needs - and you haven’t yet been referred via Visa Match - you can simply answer a few quick questions via the link below and I’ll endeavor to find your perfect match.

What Do You Want to See?

As mentioned, you are more than just subscribers - you too will help to shape or Community as pioneers.

And on that note, I’d love your feedback on a few key aspect of the First Generation Community:

Latest U.S. Immigration Sector News

Record Number of E-2 Visas in 2023

The number of E-2 Treaty Investor Visas issued by the United States reached an all-time high last year at 54,000 - a 20% increase from the previous year.

This growth in E-2 investor visas has happened without too much noise. No flash, no style, but you can’t argue with the performance.

If E-2 were a stock, it would be part of every institutional portfolio by now.

I’ve been fascinated by the combination of circumstances behind the numbers, and these are my main takeaways:

📈 The numbers will go higher. There is undeniably still room for growth, because there is no quota for E-2 investor visas. Plans with good, solid potential get approved no matter what has come before.

🗳️ Elections matter (some). You would expect E-2 numbers to rise and fall depending on who’s in office, but that’s not the case. Growth is more or less steady across administrations, but anxiety about what may come after this year’s election is contributing to the rise in applications.

💲It doesn’t matter what the dollar does. The dollar goes up, the dollar goes down. Meanwhile, demand for the E-2 only goes in one direction. It seems that the attraction of the U.S. market is steady regardless of where the dollar is going.

🌎The U.S. is still the biggest consumer market in the world. Yes, other countries are on the rise. But the numbers are clear — the U.S. is still by far the biggest market in terms of consumer spending, and it’s not even close. People go to America because they can open their doors and achieve success now.

😷 It’s like COVID never happened. Though E-2 approvals were down by around half during COVID, remember that COVID was an extinction event for many industries. Entrepreneurs still wanted to come, even in the middle of the pandemic, but the administrative wheels of the program stopped turning. Just three years later, you would never guess that COVID interrupted anything.

This is testimony to the resilience of both the E-2 program and the values behind it. And I am pretty certain that the E-2 growth will only continue 💪

What Types of Businesses Are Ineligible for E-2?

On the topic of the E-2 Visa, I was also sharing some insights about the types of businesses that don’t qualify earlier this month.

@joorneybusinessplans

What types of businesses are ineligible for the E-2 visa? 💼📑 The E-2 visa, also known as the Treaty Investor Visa, has specific restrictio... See more

Expert Insight

EB-2 NIW for IT & Energy Sector Professionals

Combining our own internal expertise at Joorney - this time with our VP Sales, LATAM, Eliana Gimenes - and our partner network - with Isht Vatsa and Alyssa Giordano, both of Extraordinary Immigration PLLC - we recently conducted a webinar on EB-2 NIW for IT & Energy Sector Professionals.

As our guests pointed out, the EB-2 is a broad visa category that covers a huge range of talents, skills, and contributions - so, it’s difficult to talk about a single path forward that applies to everyone.

Still, there are some basics to cover in terms of eligibility, self-petitioning, satisfying the “national interest” part of the “national interest waiver”, along with many other aspects of the EB2 visa category.

As always, we had a great Q&A session after the main part of the discussion was done, with lots of good questions from those in attendance.

Chapter Breakdown

• Extraordinary Immigration Presentation

• The difference between a Professional and a Business Plan?

• Identifying the eligibility criteria for the EB-2 NIW in IT, the energy sector, and other related technical and business-facing professions?

• Criteria that will prove or sustain the Dhanasar for this kind of petition?

• Building a strong case in the application process?

• Key points to consider during the case construction and case adjudication process?

• Recent policy changes and updates

• Post-approval and the transition to permanent residency in the U.S.

View the Full Webinar & Selected Audio Clips

The Future Thinkers

The Future Thinkers is a semi-autobiographical story of my own experiences as an immigrant/nomad/global citizen.

My first real venture out of the comfort of England was a four-month overland expedition down to South Africa. This then followed stints in Ethiopia, the UAE, Luxembourg, Romania, and finally back to the UK.

A journey that started alone now sees me accompanied by my wife and three children. Our immigration story continues even here and I have plenty of learnings to share.

Chapter 2.0

Circling Back

The road back to Ethiopia was true abandon - just me and the big yellow machine. The route was a little over 5,000km and I had given myself a week to get to my destination.

The car became more than my vehicle - it was my home, my hotel, my dinner table, my constant shell.

Any pause en route was considered as lost momentum. Food orders were politely bellowed from the car at children delighted to be of service.

My steering wheel was my pillow. And I would stop only once my head was almost already resting upon it. I woke to the sunrise - as is customary in Africa - and spent at least 18 hours per day rolling forwards.

I picked up hitchhiking Maasai in North Tanzania, met an old friend in Nairobi, and acquired company for the last stretch of my journey in the form of two Dutch backpackers.

We broke down on the notorious Marsabit-Moyale road - infamous for its astoundingly challenging surface of loose stone and rocks, as well as the regularity of bandit attacks.

It had been the part of the journey I was least looking forward to. And, true to form, it presented the biggest challenge.

Abandoning my new companions and guide in the middle of nowhere, I leapt on to the back of a cattle truck and road, with accompanying nomads, back to Marsabit.

Once there, I visited the local Catholic Mission and pleaded for support - which came in the form of a mechanic and spare parts.

Several hours later and with sunlight hours rapidly disappearing, the car was fixed and we continued to roll onwards towards the Kenya-Ethiopia border.

The evening presented more challenge, after a late night celebratory beer turned into a stolen laptop bag and an uncomfortably intrusive police enquiry around multiple households - which ultimately availed nothing.

And, the next morning - tired, frustrated, and anxious about how many of my computer files were safely stowed away in the cloud - I convinced my way through the closed border crossing and somewhat stumbled over the finish line into Ethiopia.

There was still the challenge of the long, winding, mountainous road to navigate to reach the southern city of Arba Minch - where I would meet up with new colleagues. But, several hours later - and with midnight far passed - I was finally able to apply the brakes, step outside the vehicle, and bring an end to several months of almost constant momentum.

Little did I know that the biggest challenge of my entire journey was laying in wait, just 10km up the road, on the final 400km stretch of road up to Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

From Panama with Positivity

“When life gives you lemons…”.

This week’s From Panama with Positivity is all about control over circumstance.

The world is - unfortunately and undeniably - unfair and imbalanced. But the perception we afford towards are challenges is the key to overcoming them.

By constantly gazing upwards, having ambition, and comparing ourselves to those who occupy the positions and statuses we aspire towards, it can be easy to focus on limitations - “… if only I had x, I could achieve y”.

The key is perspective. And striving to have a balance of observations between those that are more enabled towards their goals and those that face greater challenge.

In simplistic terms - be thankful for the tools that you do have and use these to build towards those that you lack.

The Joorney Joornals

I will also share with you some of the updates from our core immigration business plan business.

We don’t just write the plans, we shape the industry.

Always Reiterating Client-centricity

This week, we held our inaugural sales convention - an internal event for our commercial team to connect, reinforce key values, and share insights and ideas for the year ahead.

As always, the key pillar of all of this was client-centricity.

We don’t just pretend to care about our clients and prospects; we truly insist on a universal ethos of being as available as physically possible to their needs.

And this is why the sales convention was taken as yet another occasion to reiterate our vision of: The Customer Comes First.

Immigration - and especially business immigration - is a sector where urgency is a near-constant. We are dedicated to meeting that urgency at all stages.

Witnessing our clients' journey and being part of it as they navigate the immigration process, get a bank loan, or raise money to start a business fills me with immense pride. Their determination and resilience inspire us daily, and I'm so proud to have played and continue to play a part in their success.

More Satisfied Customers

Joorney is truly a customer-first company. And this is where the Community concept came from.

We want to better serve you and support you on your transformational journeys. We always like to see great reviews from our customers and so why not share?

What’s on the Horizon?

The First Generation Resource Center and Live Community are both progressing incredibly fast. And I will be inviting you into both of these platforms within the next month.

I have been able to leverage some of the most professional and efficient content writers in the U.S. business immigration space, through a partnership with Joorney’s Operations team.

And this material will very much form the foundations of our Community resources, alongside additional input from our valued partners.

The Newsletter (Edition 3)

The next edition of the First Generation Newsletter is also already in the works. And, from now on, the number of contributing voices is also going to continue to increase.

We will continue to strive to increase the value we can provide you with and the support we offer.

Until then, keep facing forwards.

And remember that.

Unity Fuels Success.