Cafecitos, cigars and a chance to experience Cuban culture? These are some of the many facets of a trip to Havana. But being able to use a credit card instead of cash to pay for your trip? Priceless.
Pompano Beach-based Stonegate Bank (NASDAQ: SGBK) issued the first of its MasterCard credit cards for use in Cuba on Tuesday.
The South Florida bank was the first – and so far the only bank to launch a debit card for use by U.S. travelers in Cuba. The bank announced a partnership with MasterCard when it launched the debit cards last year.
That move followed Stonegate’s decision to become the first U.S. bank to establish a relationship with a Cuban bank.
Since President Barack Obama announced the intention to re-establish a relationship with Cuba, Stonegate has been actively increasing its banking ties to the island nation. At the request of the U.S. Department of State, Stonegate agreed to handle the banking for the Cuban government in the U.S., which encompass services such as travel visas and any dealings with embassies in Washington, D.C.
The issuance of a credit card has been a work-in-progress for the last nine months. To commemorate the occasion, Stonegate is offering a limited-edition card featuring a design by Cuban artist Michel Mirabal.
"Hopefully, more U.S. Banks will allow their customers to use their cards in Cuba, thus helping to alleviate the burden on travelers to the island," Stonegate President and CEO Dave Seleski said. "I am very excited to introduce these products which I believe will benefit our corporate clients and provide a meaningful diversified income stream to the bank."
In addition to personal credit cards, Stonegate announced plans to issue corporate, purchasing, payroll and prepaid cards within the next 30 days.
Debit and credit cards certainly allow increased flexibility when traveling in Cuba. However, Cuba and its businesses still need to establish infrastructure to accept debit and credit cards to process sales.
Stonegate is one of the largest South Florida-based banks, with $2.45 billion in assets.
E1 Treaty trader visa: an E1 visa may be a good option for an individual involved in significant trade in goods, services, or technology that is mainly between the United States and a nation with which it has a treaty of commerce and navigation .... read more in the file ALTERNATIVES FOR INVESTOR
E2 treaty investor visa: the E2 visa allows recipients to develop and direct the operations of businesses in which the have invested, or are in the process of investing, as significant amount of money .... read more in the file ALTERNATIVES FOR INVESTOR
L1A - Intra Company transfer Visa and alternative to an EB-5 ..... read more in the file ALTERNATIVES FOR INVESTOR
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor category allows a person, and his or her family members to obtain permanent residence in the United States through the investment of a certain amount of money in a New commercial Enterprise (“NCE”), and by creating or saving 10 jobs for either U.S. Citizens, Lawful Permanent Residents or those authorized to work in the U.S.
Read more on this File EB 5 LITERATURE
The EB-5 visa program, which is enormously popular with developers but criticized by some lawmakers as an unfair express route to U.S. citizenship for the wealthy, just got a five-day reprieve.
Renewal of the program – which awards a U.S. green card to foreigners who invest $500,000 into the U.S. economy – was part of a short-term spending bill approved by the House of Representatives Friday. The bill, approved by the Senate on Thursday, will keep the government running through Dec. 16 while lawmakers negotiate the $1.15 trillion budget, of which EB-5 is a small component.
The EB-5 program, which offers 10,000 U.S. visas annually and has been dominated by Chinese investors in recent years, was initially up for renewal in September, when lawmakers passed a stopgap measure to keep the government operating through Dec. 11.
In recent months, lawmakers have been considering various changes to the program, such as raising the minimum investment amount. Currently, investors are required to invest $1 million or a discounted amount of $500,000 in “targeted employment areas,” or zones designated as having high unemployment. Other changes could place restrictions on TEA designation.
The EB-5 legislation currently contains 40 pages of changes, according to Ron Klasko, a managing partner at Klasko Immigration Law Partners.
For New York developers, proposed changes to TEAs are particularly worrisome since many of them have taken advantage of the discounted investment amount by creating special districts linking their projects to low-income neighborhoods.
“From the point of view of New York developers, almost all of them have, in the past, qualified for the $500,000 reduced investment amount of the TEAs,” Klasko said. “Many of them will not qualify for that under this new law, meaning investors would have to invest $1 million. That’s an issue.”
The legislation would also allot a certain number of visas to different investment categories, such as 2,000 visas for projects in rural areas and 2,000 visas for people who invest $1 million.
“There have been long waiting lists for investors in China when they were competing for 10,000 visas,” Klasko said. “Now many of them for the New York projects will be competing for 4,000 visas.”
There’s little chance the bill will not pass, he said, since it’s part of the government’s omnibus bill. Meanwhile, developers and investors are sitting tight. “Until we have the final law,” said Klasko, “There won’t be a lot of activity.”
Jolly's bill relates to non-immigrants who are working in the US and hold an E-2 Treaty Investor Visa. The E-2 Visa requires recipients to invest in the US economy, usually by starting a business and hiring people. However, recipients are required to reapply for an E-2 Visa in some cases every two years, often returning home to apply for a new visa. It appears, unfortunately, that this bill if passed will not help if you wish to remain permanently after being on an E-1 Treaty Trader Visa. Currently to gain permanent residence based on investment you need to invest from half a million to one million US dollars and employ at least ten people. Business people on E-2 visas typically run small businesses and are unlikely to have that sort of money to invest.
Jolly's bill would make it easier for E-2 Visa holders to obtain immigrant status once they had been in the US, legally, for 10 years. It would also permit their children, who under current legislation face may face difficulty in remaining in the US when they turn 21 (unless they obtain a work related E-2 visa or student visa or some other type of visa), to be covered by their parents' visas until the age of 26.
Addressing the audience at Da Sesto Italiano Ristorante e Vino, most of who came to the US on an E-2 Visa, Jolly said: "While we address reform for illegals too, and I believe we do, we can't possibly begin to reform the immigration system that involves only those who are here without documentation without recognizing that our legal immigration system has failed, and has failed each and every one of you."
The bill would actually assist people like Da Sesto's owner, Sesto Ramadori, who is originally from the region of Marche, Italy. He came to the US 18 years ago, arriving from Canada where he holds citizenship status. He describes how he recently went through the E-2 application process again in the summer of 2014.
He said: "We went through all the paperwork and filed an application. It's not just the matter of an extension. You literally have to do all the paperwork to show that your business is viable and that you're employing people... It's a lot of money; it's a lot of uncertainty."
Andy Strickland, a St. Petersburg immigration lawyer and Mr Ramadori's attorney said: "The process is costly; you're looking at $4,000 to $5,000. Plus, if they decide to go abroad for their visa instead of extending their status here with the US Citizen and Immigration Services, if they don't do that, then they have to go abroad and get a visa, they have expenses with that as well."
Strickland says Jolly's bill is viable: "Why chase people away who came here the right way, who are doing things the right way, who are creating jobs for U.S. citizens? I think we should reward people who are doing things the right way and give them an opportunity to keep doing things the right way."
Jolly stated that there will be opposition to his bill because of the anti-immigration sentiments of some people. He also says that the bill is so common-sense that it should pass easily.
He said: "I think people in Congress will recognize the importance of addressing legal immigration at the same time we're having a national debate about illegal immigration. It's only fair that we do so and it's right that we do so."
Jolly says he expects a tougher challenge at procedural level, passing a small piece of legislation to reform part of the American immigration policy, given that the focus has been on comprehensive immigration reform (CIR). However, adding the bill as part of a larger CIR proposal is something that he is willing to consider.
Jolly said: "Whenever you have comprehensive immigration reform, it is hard to pass small provisions. This one, I hope, is a very simple one that we could move outside of the comprehensive immigration reform. Let's recognize the contribution of legal immigrants now, but it may be that this gets wrapped into comprehensive immigration reform, and I'm okay with that. We're prepared to have that conversation."
"Mr Jolly may be being overly optimistic. It has proved to be extremely difficult to pass immigration reform legislation through Congress."
If you wish to set up a business in the US and are a national of a Country under the E-1 Treaty Trader or E-2 Treaty investor schemes we can help with registration as an E-1 or E-2 Treaty Business. We can also help with L-1A and L-1B intra-company transfer visas to transfer staff to the US and help with other types of visas. Call the London office on 0344 991 9222 for further details.
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Renewal of the program – which awards a U.S. green card to foreigners who invest $500,000 into the U.S. economy – was part of a short-term spending bill approved by the House of Representatives Friday. The bill, approved by the Senate on Thursday, will keep the government running through Dec. 16while lawmakers negotiate the $1.15 trillion budget, of which EB-5 is a small component.
“From the point of view of New York developers, almost all of them have, in the past, qualified for the $500,000 reduced investment amount of the TEAs,”Klasko said. “Many of them will not qualify for that under this new law, meaning investors would have to invest $1 million. That’s an issue.”
“There have been long waiting lists for investors in China when they were competing for 10,000 visas,”Klasko said. “Now many of them for the New York projects will be competing for 4,000 visas.”