Feature Educational Article | By Michael Nelson, Esq.
US business and Green Cards – What does it all mean?
The EB-5 Green Card program is an attractive immigration option for retirees, entrepreneurs, investors, professionals, students and other high net worth individuals who are able to make an investment which creates 10 jobs. An EB-5 investor can get a Green Card as fast as one who marries a U.S. citizen. Other relative petitions take 5-15 years. Employment-based Green Cards take 3-8 years.Here are answers to the most common questions we receive.What is an EB-5 Green Card?The Immigration Act of 1990 established the EB-5 immigrant investor visa program to create U.S. jobs by attracting foreign capital to the United States. Every year 10,000 EB-5 Green Cards are available. There is no quota waiting list for EB-5, unlike the H-2B nonimmigrant visa classification, and most EB-2 and EB-3 immigrant classifications where the demand far exceeds the supply.A minimum of almost at third of the 3,000 of the 10,000 EB-5 Green Cards are set aside for qualifying immigrants who participate in an EB-5 Regional Center program that targets high unemployment or rural areas across the United States. Read the full story
Cohabitation, the Termination of Alimony and Cell Phones
By: Diane Danois, J.D.
In today’s modern economy, the recipient of alimony is gender-neutral.
What’s a family law mediator and divorce coach like me doing writing about some techy new way to leverage cell tower location data to support or refute a claim for the termination of alimony? Isn’t mediation about resolving disputes without the need for litigation?While mediation’s goal is to facilitate the resolution of disputes without the need for protracted and costly litigation, it doesn’t ignore the utility of basic discovery tools available to assist the parties in negotiating settlements. Let’s examine an underlying dispute regarding cohabitation and alimony, and review how the use of cell tower location data could motivate the parties towards a more timely and cost-effective resolution.In today’s modern economy, the recipient of alimony is gender-neutral. Gone are the days of Mad Men’s Betty Draper, who stayed at home to raise the children, while Husband, Don, was working at the advertising firm. For better or worse, today’s modern woman is equally at risk of a spousal support obligation, just as her male counterpart of yesteryear. Just as the alimony burden is gender-ignorant, so too is the desire to see it end as quickly as possible. Read the full story
China Opens the Tax Umbrella
By: Laurence E. Lipsher
Foreign film producers are supposed to receive 25-percent of Chinese box office receipts.
China is venturing into new forms of taxation. As I wrote in an earlier article, the government is looking to fill its coffers by expanding the VAT, particularly regarding foreign entities and persons doing business in China. The government wants to increase consumer expendable yuan renminbi, not reduce it through taxes.Here’s a good example of what the government is likely to do. Life of Pi, a great film adapted from a wonderful book, has earned approximately $91 million in box office royalties in China. Under a new agreement between the U.S. and China, foreign film producers are supposed to receive 25-percent of Chinese box office receipts. That should mean $23 million for Twentieth Century Fox. But that was before imposition of VAT.Read the full story
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