[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is where smart business conversations meet real world experience, where strategies are shared, lessons are learned, and ideas come to life. I'm Emily Galindo and you're watching Biz Talk, your destination for real insight from the mind shaping tomorrow's business world, only on NOW Media Television.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Good evening and welcome to Biz Talk. I'm your host, Emily Galindo and we're very excited to have you with us today.
Today's topic is one that many are curious about but unsure of how to navigate, especially with all of the talking that's commercial real estate investing. And we are super excited to have to be joined by an expert in his field, Dr. Dennis Burke. He's here to help us break through the complexity and discover how to be more confident in taking those first steps into the world of commercial real estate Investing. So welcome Dr. Dennis Burke. Thanks for joining us today, Emily.
[00:00:55] Speaker C: Thank you for having me.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Absolutely. So you are an expert in commercial investing, and I know that this can be a complicated topic and something that I think a lot of people are interested in pursuing as an opportunity for financial growth and financial wealth. Would you agree that it's a profitable endeavor?
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Well, yes, of course it can be a profitable endeavor, but there are are a lot of elements to it. For instance, it depends on which sector of commercial real estate you get involved in.
We are in the mixed use space, which usually involves some of office, some retail and some warehousing.
But the mainstream office space as we know, traditionally from 5, 10, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, that seems to have seen a sharp decline, especially especially since COVID because more and more people are working from home due to Covid.
Covid created a whole new environment for people that enable them to believe that working from home is possible. And that has created a whole new sector of office space.
Essentially, I would say we have office suites now, executive suites, and while we've had them for many years, they've become much more common. And it's become a method for people to be able to who own office space, traditional office space, to find a new niche, a new way to market their space, because people can now rent by the space rather than by the square foot, which is the metric that has been used for so long.
In addition, retail space is still quite a strong area to be in, especially if you're in the neighborhood, community type retail store, your typical barber shop, your sandwich shop, your nail salon, if that's the tenant profile you have, you can do really well in that space.
And many cases you can still get good value if you're an investor in these areas. The one area I believe more and more should be steered away from is the office sector.
I still think there's good opportunity in industrial warehousing because people always need a warehouse to store equipment and to run their industrial style building business out of. Whether that is that they run a electrical contracting business, plumbing company, air conditioning company, warehousing is still a strong space to be. And then otherwise I would say that mini storage, vertical mini storage has also been very popular because people are now moving and migrating, especially to the state of Florida where I live.
You they bring so much stuff from the northern states or western states and they don't have the capacity in their homes to store because we don't have basements like you do in many other states. So people need extra space outside the house. And this is where many stores become a very valuable and viable opportunity for those who own those types of businesses.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: That's great advice and I've been hearing that as well in terms of the storage space units being a good investment. So let's say one of our viewers wanted to walk into this type of investing. Whether it be in a storage space or office suites or retail space. What should investors look for when evaluating commercial properties?
[00:04:26] Speaker C: Some of the most common norms would be location.
Location is always a factor.
So for instance, if you're trying to do retail, you need high traffic, potentially at major intersections where you have traffic lights and you have maybe 30, 40, 50, 60, 80 or 100,000 cars a day on the street.
So location is definitely a factor.
The surrounding environment, in other words, the demographics in that area are also a factor. Who might be your typical profile customer to rent from you then? Also depending on what other national brands might surround you, for instance, perhaps McDonald's is nearby, perhaps Starbucks or Dunkin Donut are nearby, perhaps Enterprise rental car is nearby. Other major brands and franchises surround you. These are factors that indicate that the community warrants careful consideration for an investment in real estate. Because none of these major corporations, especially those publicly traded, don't set up shop or build buildings in areas that are non viable.
So again, I would say that location is the biggest factor.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Absolutely. I mean, they do all the research on all the heavy lifting for us, so we don't have to. Right. To determine where's the good next spot. Are there any red flags that you see that most people miss when trying to determine a commercial investment opportunity?
[00:06:00] Speaker C: I think that taking care noticing or paying attention to things like, you know, dividers in the road, like you see a lot of states to manage the safety, to keep the kill rate down or amount of people that get killed down, they put concrete dividers in the road. And if that's the case and you have to drive like 200 yards past the structure that, that you, you know, that the person is renting in, then you know that's, that means that's not a good thing because maybe only 50% of the traffic is going to go your way or use your facility if you're a landlord.
Therefore, I would say that trying to find at traffic lights are finding where there's no dividing lines in the street, where you can actually cross over from one end to the other. I think that these are important factors to keep in mind.
Potentially another factor is determining the condition of the property.
How old is the property?
What is the condition of the infrastructure, such as is the plumbing old galvanized or cast iron piping from back in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, like for many years?
Or is it PVC, modern day plumbing?
Determining the parking lot, the status of the parking lot, whether or not it has been upkept and maintained in the last five or ten years.
Considering the status of the roof, how old is the roof? Does the roof need to be reroofed? And it could be that in Florida you don't have to worry about the roof because we have a hurricane, it could take it right off and you'll have no choice but to have a new roof.
These are some of the common factors.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: To take and keep in mind absolutely. The two, I think big takeaways from what you just said are I, you know, the middle of the, the entryway, access to the property.
We live in a big city here in Houston and there's a ton of construction going on all the time. And unfortunately some businesses, you know, lose out on a lot of business opportunity because there's so much construction and or dividers that are going in and things like that that can impact the revenue of the business.
So definitely something. Is there a way that we can find out future construction or anything like that to help business owners decide or investors decide if that's a good property for them?
[00:08:18] Speaker C: It may be possible to reach out to the state and find out what the future plans two, three, five years are for. Traffic lights are for potentially creating dividers on the road or maybe not putting dividers. There could be some research done. But if you're a buyer of real estate, there's usually a fairly lengthy due diligence depending on the size of the asset. So it could be that you have a 90 day or longer due diligence period. That gives you time enough to reach out to the state and find out what their plans are for the future for the roads.
I think also another factor is that depending on the kind of business you want to put put on a, on the major thoroughfare, you want to, if it's a restaurant, for instance, and it does breakfast and lunch, you probably want to be on the side of the road that the people are going to work on because, you know, you don't have breakfast at 4 o' clock in the evening. And so you have to be on the side. And there are other examples where you need to be on the going home side if you're a dinner restaurant, for instance, so that people can get dinner on the way home or pick up dinner to take with them to go home.
So these are nuances that are worth paying attention to because at the end of the day, you know, you either will have a challenge getting your building leased or you'll have a challenge with your customer count.
And once you build a building, or once you buy the building and try to lease it, you're stuck with it. You just have to make the best of it at that time.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: And that's a big investment to make to, to throw it on a whim. Right. And not know and look at that kind of due diligence.
[00:10:00] Speaker C: Yes. So it's part of the, you know, community demographics and profiles. And you can go usually to the main city, go to the chamber of commerce or go to their, you know, downtown development authorities.
You can and you know, they will tell you a lot of the information that I just referenced that you, you need to know in some cases just depends. If you're going to put in office suites, it probably doesn't matter whether traffic is morning, noon or night because office suites have become more, for instance, a secondary place to work outside the home. More people are working from home and they just need corporate identity and they need a place to go for meetings and such.
So people are on the, on the coming and going side all the time in that environment. So that might be such a big deal. But if you have a fast food restaurant, you definitely want to be on the dinner side, you know, lunch and dinner side of the street.
And all the research you need is out there and available. And local city governments and chambers are perfect places to go to find the information you need. And also state government.
[00:11:13] Speaker B: All right, well, you have offered an amazing amount of information to even consider.
It's not as easy as just picking out a Property and making a purchase. Right. So aside from all of the amazing advice that you've given us, how can someone assess the risks and benefits of a potential commercial real estate investment?
[00:11:35] Speaker C: So assuming in this case that your question entails that someone is buying a piece of real estate, is that correct?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yes, sir.
[00:11:43] Speaker C: Okay. So if they're buying a piece of real estate, they would request an offering memorandum from the seller or the seller's broker. And the offering memorandum generally outlines the background history of the property and the financial performance for several years, including potential the rent roll, the profit and loss statement, and other financial factors about the piece of real estate. So basically, you have to run your own set of numbers and assess the situation to see if that suits your particular investment requirements. Because everybody has a different outcome in mind.
And it just depends where your strategy is, whether you intend to hold the property on the short term or on the long term.
In the US if you hold the property for a year or less is considered short term hold and therefore subject to ordinary income tax. And if you do it for years or beyond, it's considered long term hold and then subject to capital gains.
And so people need to decide what their strategy. It's very easy to get into real estate. It's not so easy to get out of it. People need to understand that. But that's why you need to have a game plan to get out and a timeline to get out.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Very good advice. I hadn't even really considered that, that on the back end once you're in, because typically we see people just reinvest right into the next piece, into the next piece. And I don't think we enough of our viewers and maybe not enough individuals take into account your expertise of if you ever wanted to get out and take that money, what happens to it and how does it get taxed and do you actually get to utilize the equity that you've earned on that property?
Very good. Well, go ahead.
[00:13:37] Speaker C: It brings us to a different kind of question about a deferment of capital gains.
And the IRS has a IRS code 1031 as a tax deferred exchange program.
So they allow you to take your capital gains, your profits, so to speak, roll them into the next deal, and you just have to meet certain guidelines.
I mean, I don't want to get into all the specifics because I'm not a tax advisor or accountant in this case, but I know a lot of the information from just doing it for our own family portfolio.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: Wonderful. Well, with that, all the advice that you've given us, we've got a lot to digest because it is not as simple as just buying a piece of property. There's clearly a lot of detail that goes into understanding what side of the road to be on or who's in the area that you might be able to provide a product or service to, as well as futuristic plans for development around you and who also is purchasing in that area. So a lot to digest. And if everybody stick around because we're going to have Dr. Burke back here to dive into even more of his expertise on commercial investing and how we can leverage that for you as a financial gain for your own business. We'll be right back.
We are just getting started.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching BIZ TALK only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: Welcome back to BIZ talk. If you're just now joining us, I'm your host, Emily Galindo and we have been joined by an amazing expert, Dr. Dennis Burke of Property Wise Guys, and he's teaching us all things about commercial investing. And so thank you for being here with us again, Dr. Burke, and I'd love to jump in. You've given us so much advice about things to look for in wanting to make commercial investments and things how to be profitable and successful. But I want to back it up just a little bit and kind of focus on getting started.
If this was, let's say I inherited a million dollars tomorrow and this commercial investing is what I wanted to do to make my wealth grow. What advice do you have to individuals looking to just begin and start their commercial real estate investing journey?
[00:16:01] Speaker C: I think that the decision to invest has a lot to do with the individual themselves because real estate, you know, has a lot of could have a lot of risk in depending whether you go into small or multifamily or you go into commercial real estate.
I feel like that people have varying degrees of risk tolerance and have varying degrees of fear about what they're willing to take chances on. And so I would say on a scale of 1 to 10, if people's risk tolerance is very low in the 1, 2, 3 or 4 range, they probably should consider small multifamily, which falls into the category of duplex, triplex and quadruple.
Maybe even they could go to a 10 plex. But once you get past four units, you get out of the residential lending space.
By that I mean that small multifamily enjoys, you know, similar rates to single family homes.
Whereas if you get into the fifth unit, 678, nine up, you start to get into commercial real estate.
The lending, this lending space requirements and guidelines in commercial are different by far from multifamily, small multifamily, because government provides special concessions to individuals when they buy residential related real estate. Now you mentioned someone having a million dollars. Well, if they have a million dollars, probably I would guide them more into buying some kind of commercial property that's add value in nature. And by add value I mean the property they would buy has maybe some kind of roughage around the edges, maybe needs a lot of repairs, maybe it needs a new parking lot redone, maybe it needs a new facade, maybe it needs renovations on the inside.
But they can buy it at 50, 60 or 70 cents on the dollar in exchange for that. And so as they evolve with improving the property and, and putting tenants and new tenants at more market friendly rates, current market friendly rates, that would mean the rents would be higher and therefore they would force the value upward by design. And say a million dollar property might become worth 1.5 to $2.5 million depending on the improvements and what the rents would be after they made put in the new tenants.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Amazing advice because I've heard, I mean if you, if all I have is a million dollars though you had mentioned a little bit about commercial lending and working within that space.
Do I want to use all $1 million that I've just invested in investing in the property or should I use the bank's money?
[00:18:51] Speaker C: Do you think you might use any bank you could get back to your million dollar property? Maybe you put 250 or 300 down and you use a couple of hundred for improvements and the other five, six, whatever amount you have left, you just sit on that and then you would improve the property and force the value upward. It's a principle in real estate that is not commonplace that people just generally don't understand or know about.
So this is why real estate is the most amazing investment of all. And unbelievably, the government helps us to people become rich in real estate and.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: We appreciate that about them.
So as a beginner investor that I magically now am, are there common mistakes that you see beginners make in your space?
[00:19:42] Speaker C: I think maybe the biggest mistake people make is they overthink the situation. Just keep in mind it's just a piece of real estate and if you're going to buy a car, you just go out and you buy the car. But people don't look at that when they're looking at real estate because obviously the amount of money to be spent or committed to is substantially more. But I feel like people, you can't go too far wrong if you get a good price.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: Perfect overthinking.
[00:20:13] Speaker C: And also financing doesn't have to be banks that are otherwise good sources of financing that you can use besides banks.
[00:20:20] Speaker B: Any recommendations or any ideas for our viewers?
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Sure. So probably the least known and least understood method is seller finance.
And it's as simple as this, is that the seller of the property also becomes the lender and they receive a stream of monthly payments in the form of a mortgage payment every month. And instead of you sending your local bank, ABC down the street a payment for a mortgage, you're sending it to the actual original owner of the property, that person who sold you the property, they get something called the promissory note and a schedule of payments with us with maybe an amortization over 25 or 30 or 40 years.
And then maybe also there's something called a balloon payment, which is a lump sum payment at some point along the way that you pay them off. Could be 5 years, 7 years, 10 years or whatever is negotiated. But seller finance may well be the most incredible way to transfer the large amount of wealth in real estate in America. And yet most people don't know about it, especially in the baby boomer space. For those sellers who were born between 19 believe 45 and 1964, somewhere in that range, those people are trying to liquidate and sell, but they don't want to pay capital gains necessarily and they want additional income to live off. So they, they maintain their, their goal by, by financing the buyer with a moderate amount of money down. That's definitely a great way to go.
We also have in America something called bridge lending and, and hard money. These are at higher interest rates, but they come with less strings attached, less requirements and guidelines. In other words, private money is not regulated like banks or are. And for that reason you can borrow the money at a premium, high premium price, but at the same time you could close in two to four weeks or as quickly as possible that the documentation can be prepared by a law firm that closes real estate loans.
Obviously it's not always fun to pay more, but some cases the properties that, that's the only way to do it. Because what if the building is vacant or half vacant and has no rental income coming in or not sufficient to cover all the expenses, but yet there's a 50% equity in the deal. There's enough of a spread to cover the higher, higher premium rate you would pay on interest. Then it starts to make sense because otherwise you can walk away from the deal and lose a potential, let's say on a piece of commercial real estate of leaving a million or 2 million on the table.
And then you wouldn't have any opportunity at all. You'd just lose that completely.
So there's lots of other ways to creatively finance real estate.
It's a process. You just have to find out, get to know people or learn through third party sources. Because what I'm talking about isn't taught in school, colleges or universities.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's, you've obviously offered us a ton of expertise based off of your own experience and the, at the beginning of our conversation, there was a lot of detail and a lot of research that needed to go into, you know, purchasing a property. And on the, and now I feel like you provided me with a lot of solutions to be able to remove some of those obstacles.
If I, if I or our viewers or anybody wanted to work with you and be able to leverage some more of your expertise, how would they be able to get ahold of you to be able to help them in their commercial real estate investing journey?
[00:24:01] Speaker C: So our real estate brokerage in Florida is called Property wise guys. That's ww. The word property and the word wiseandguys.com property wiseguys.com and the number here in Florida is 941-444-0454. Again, that's 941-444-0454 and I'd be glad to help anybody that calls.
[00:24:32] Speaker B: Thank you so much, Dr. Burke with property Wise Guys. We appreciate you bestowing all your wisdom on us and helping our viewers really help navigate the beginning stages of commercial real estate investing. And so we appreciate your expertise and thank you for being on today.
And guys, we'll be right back with our next effort.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Thank you.
[00:24:53] Speaker B: We'll be right back with our next expert.
[00:24:55] Speaker A: Stick around. And we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: And welcome back to Biz talk. If you're just now joining us, I'm your host, Emily Galindo. And we are diving into a really detailed topic today about employment, immigration and exploring the National Interest Waiver, a powerful but often misunderstood immigration pathway for entrepreneurs. So we have an exciting expert with us today that is joining us to dive into that. Ishta Vatsa, who's with extraordinary Immigration is here to break down the niw. Really what it is, who it's for and how entrepreneurs can use it to stay and grow in their business in this in the United States. So welcome Ishta, thank you for joining us.
[00:25:52] Speaker D: Yeah, thanks for having me.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: Absolutely. So can you help us understand, explain a little bit about what the National Interest Waiver is and who it's designed for?
[00:26:02] Speaker D: Sure. So the National Interest Waiver is designed for leading professionals in their space and it's designed for individuals that are mainly in the STEM fields and are working in areas that the US Government has deported or perhaps it serves a certain security interest and economic interest.
So that's really.
NIW is key.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: No, that's good. And how does it differ from other work based visas?
[00:26:38] Speaker D: Yeah, so the NIW actually is an ultimate green card destination visa. Right. So it's not a temporary visa that is for a certain number of years. Right. At the end of the NIW process of and following adjustment of status or consular processing, whichever avenue the professional chooses to take, it actually results in a 10 year non conditional green card.
So it is very much a pathway from lawful permanent residency. Right. So that's why it's often pursued in conjunction with non immigrant visas as well. Non immigrant visas for the short medium term goals of the professional and then the NIW for their longer term goals.
[00:27:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean the words non conditional sound really exciting. Right. For anybody who is involved in immigration of any kind of.
So with that being said, what, what types of entrepreneurial ventures are considered to be in this national interest that, that we can use this for?
[00:27:41] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. So I think a lot of it comes down to what is the entrepreneur thematically working on? Right. So right now I know you guys are out in Texas, oil and gas, right. There is, there are a lot of federal directives right now talking about increasing production. Right. So if you're an entrepreneur in the oil and gas space, you know, the NIW may be a great avenue to pursue. Right. There's a lot of federal directives on cybersecurity, you know, and including federal directives and renewable energy, you know, EVs, the battery space, wherever there is kind of a federal interest or a program pushing things forward. And if you think Your work, you know, is analogized to that is similar to that.
That goes a long way for the niw.
[00:28:33] Speaker B: Okay. And is there like a list? I mean the national interests are constantly changing. So is there a place that our viewers could go from other parts of the country or part of the world, Excuse me. That can find a list of national interest directives that might fall in this category?
[00:28:52] Speaker D: Yeah. So there's like the CISA like Infrastructure Priorities, right. Critical Emergent Technologies list. I think that's a good place to start.
Now that's not going to be in and enough on its own. Right.
You really need to discuss in detail, you know, the technical nature of what it is that you do work with your attorney and kind of fleshing that out. Right. But that list is a great place to start Em.
[00:29:20] Speaker B: Okay, very good. And so if, can you share your. Because you're an immigration attorney and people can work with, with you. So can you share a story or an example of a success that you've had in helping somebody achieve the NIW immigration status and their long term success?
[00:29:37] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. So I worked with an entrepreneur who was actually in the agriculture technology space, right. And he had designed certain combines and components in Eastern Europe and he was basically looking to start a company here in the United States to go ahead and design those same combines and components. And surprise, surprise, the USDA said that this type of agriculture is really important for US Farmers. Right. So now he's in Iowa doing, doing, doing exactly that same type of potato farming work that he was doing in Eastern Europe. And this is someone who didn't need like an employment offer.
Right. You don't need any company or institutional backing for this. It's really based on your own individual merits and your own education, knowledge, skills, record of success in basically that same field that you're looking to pursue here in the United States.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: I think that's really encouraging to hear. Right. Because typically we are aware that a job has to offer you something. You have to have prepared that you've got a reason to be here and you have to go through those steps in order to immigrate. But this is a merit based.
I'm an expert in my field. I have something to offer the country and here's an opportunity and I think that's really encouraging.
So thank you for sharing your expertise on that.
If somebody is viewing this and feels like they fall into that category, how would they be able to contact you to be able to ask you some more questions about this NIW waiver?
[00:31:13] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. So they can Just contact
[email protected] that's infoeo immigration.com right there at the bottom of the screen.
You could just send me a general email with an inquiry and I'll follow up with you guys in terms of next steps.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Wonderful. Well, we're going to take a quick break, but stick around because when we get back, Ishta is going to explain to us a little bit more about how to boost your NIW application and improve your chances of getting approved in this immigration space to be able to come to the country and start your entrepreneurial journey. So we'll be right back.
We are just getting started.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the, the conversations that move business forward.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: And welcome back to Biz talk. If you're just now joining us, I'm your host Emily Galindo and we have our special guest Ishtvasta with Extraordinary Immigration. And he is here discussing the NIW waiver, which helps people from other parts of the world come into the United States as an entrepreneur offering national interests to the United States and helping them solidify their ability to build a business here and do something amazing. So thank you very much for joining us and I want to join, jump back into, we were talking about the application process and getting that NIW waiver done. What are some recommendations or tips that you would offer our viewers in how to strengthen their NIW application to ensure that it gets approved or at least increase their chances?
[00:32:56] Speaker D: Yeah. So, you know, some entrepreneurs are inventors. Right. So if you've got a patent and you filed it through your company, you know, now would be a great time to, to kind of get the word of that patent out and really elaborate on it and build on it. Right. That's one angle.
Another angle is perhaps like growing the reputation or the name of your company or organization across the United States. Right. Just so you know, it's, it's more straightforward to articulate the impact of your organization.
A third way to strengthen profiles for entrepreneurs, Emily, is, you know, for them to get just more involved in their respective field. Right. To publish a paper, maybe take an interview. Right. And be featured on like a leading news media organization in their, in their, in their space. Right. To kind of, you know, build that external expertise. Right. Anything that kind of gets entrepreneurs out of the bread and butter, the daily, you know, profit considerations and company operations, which are of course very important, but anything that gets them externally engaging with the industries that they're a part of, I think that's a great first step for. For entrepreneurs looking to. To build their profiles outward.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: Right. And I would assume, I mean, it's my experience being a marketing expert, that most people are really great about what they do. Right. They're great at the eventing, they're there, but they're not really great at marketing themselves or give you building their business. And so could you have any recommendation? I know you said like big newscast, and I would love to be able to do that, but if somebody doesn't even know where to start, would you make recommendations towards like local podcasts or. I mean, I guess with the Internet, nothing's local anymore. Right. They could do. Be doing podcasts or interviews for anyone, anywhere. Right, yeah. To be able to beef that up, really just.
[00:34:56] Speaker D: And that's a very fair point, Emily, really just engaging with your industry. Right, Right. So if you're an engineer in Houston and you know, you guys have a small but an active community of just individuals that are interested in furthering some type of invention or some type of activity, really just engaging with that, discussing that. Right. And I guess using the marketing phrase, Emily, just creating some content that's digestible, you know, for wider audiences. Right. Because a lot of the times what entrepreneurs do in multiple spaces is very technical. It is very complex. Right. And then it's very difficult to explain that, you know, to a USCIS adjudicator when, when a client just hands me like an Excel spreadsheet, I'm sure that, that what's on that spreadsheet is, is. Is great, and it's very difficult to produce, but there's also a digestibility component to this. Right. And. And the familiarity component to it. So I think by, by just engaging in their space, even if it's a local podcast. Right.
I think individuals, entrepreneurs take steps in that direction.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I think that you made an important point. I mean, the uc, the uscis, is, while it seems like a very big giant conglomerate, it is an actual human being who is processing these applications. Right. And they have to be able to understand what you do and understand the importance of it before they can actually process a stamp of approval on it.
[00:36:25] Speaker D: Right, exactly.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: And so I, I want to jump back in. Is, is it possible to have to be here on a work visa, a temporary. You had mentioned that Earlier, a temporary traditional work visa, and then apply later on for an NIW waiver after the fact.
[00:36:42] Speaker D: It absolutely. It absolutely is, Emily. Right. And a lot of visas, so L and H visas, are actually called visa types of dual intent, meaning that an individual can hold immigrant intent, non immigrant intent, at the same time as they hold that visa. Right. So because it has an immigrant intent component to it, after these, these niws are approved, you know, they can go ahead and file to apply for adjustment of status, which is the second phase of the process. Right.
For individuals on non immigrant visas or individuals that are just located abroad. Right. Looking to come to the United States, there are consular processing options. Right now, you know, the NIW is very much the first phase of an overall green card effort. The second phase is adjustment of status or consular processing, and which route really depends on a myriad of factors. And it's best addressed, you know, in a thorough consultation with an attorney.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: I was just going to say you're making it sound a little bit more complicated than just submitting an application and needing, you know, because phase one, we thought maybe if you just applied for the application, you got approved. That was kind of it. You're saying that that's not it.
[00:37:55] Speaker D: There's multiple things that's intuitive. Right. And that makes sense. But unfortunately, Emily, with immigration law, not a lot makes sense. And it's very arcade and one piece does not connect to the other. Right. That's. That's kind of where legal assistance comes in.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. And so what are some of the expertise aside from, I mean, do you only do the employee this, the NIW waiver application, or what is the scope of some of the legal immigration work that you do?
[00:38:19] Speaker D: Yeah, sure. So other avenues that actually lead to green cards for entrepreneurs. There's also the EB1A. It's called the Extraordinary Ability Visa. That actually is kind of what lent to my firm name. Right. In terms of just having narrow defined categories for individuals to meet and then just showing that they've achieved and sustained national claim. So you're an entrepreneur that's at the top of their space and you have that wide scale reputation. EB1, I would say, is certainly worth exploring because you know that, that wait time. Right. To get from phase one to phase two is much lower for an EB1A than it is for an EB2 and IW. Right. And if you notice, Emily, I'm using these EB ones, EB twos. There's about three main categories in the employment based visa section. Right. I do work across all of those. But basically the 1, 2, and 3 stands for the priority preference that, you know, the US legislature has allotted these separate visa types. Right.
And the amount of priority that they carry in terms of the numerical amounts that must be met each fiscal year.
[00:39:35] Speaker B: Okay. And with the EB1, give me just a quick. Like what does.
What kind of person or what kind of entrepreneur qualifies for, like the highest priority? What does that mean?
[00:39:44] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, sure. So in EB1A, it kind of, you know, to make it very like a very high level cursory review of this, it would either be scholars that tend to qualify or public facing professionals. Right. So it could be anywhere from scientists to athletes. Right. Athletes are very public facing, so the regulations tend to favor them.
Business executives tend to be public facing, so it favors them. Academics have tons of publications. They really judge the work of others, so it also favors them. Right. But if someone's not an academic or a public facing individual and they're looking to build an EB1 profile, I think either taking on endeavors that are more academic or more public facing can certainly help them kind of meet those, those EB1A criteria.
[00:40:34] Speaker B: I see. Hence the recommendation you made about getting more exposure, getting onto the documentations and doing those types of things that would, even.
[00:40:41] Speaker D: That would help for the EB1A or the EB2NIW. I think the real message here is engage with the industry. Kind of go outside the four walls of your company, you know, as difficult as that could be for entrepreneurs. And really just kind of engage with the industry. Yeah.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: You know, I say this a lot in my other career that, you know, you don't just get to open your doors and expect people to walk through. You actually do need to notify people that you're there and engage with other people in your industry and start to build a profile for yourself.
[00:41:10] Speaker D: No, and I totally agree, Emily. I think sometimes these green card building efforts for entrepreneurs can also help kind of the marketing and outreach aspect of their. Of their respective businesses as well.
[00:41:21] Speaker B: Yeah. You'll get a secondary financial benefit out of it if you do it. Potentially. Yeah. Yeah. Last quick question is what's the time frame typically for. Let's call it an EB2 if you're not a superstar. Like, what. What is the time frame of this type of application look like?
[00:41:36] Speaker D: So, so the application, you can go through premium processing. It takes 45 business days. But unless there's. There's like an underlying non immigrant visa reason.
Right. Why you need to do that? I generally counsel my Clients to head with regular processing. Regular processing right now is taking about, you know, anywhere between 12 to 18 months. USCIS is short staffed. I think that's, that's only going to get a bit worse in the coming months.
But really, Emily, what's also I think painful for a lot of people is just waiting even after their NIWS are approved for eventually having that eligibility to apply for the adjustment of status or to apply for consular processing. The overall process right now can take anywhere between two and a half to four years.
So it is very much a long term goal and a long term vision. And that's why the best way to approach the niw, I think is to also have short and medium term integration solutions if you want to come to the US for the short and medium term. And then you know that green card solution can really help you establish that long term basis here in the United States.
[00:42:46] Speaker B: Here's the thing and what we've already covered, but I mean there's a ton of information here and lots of different, as you know, steps and you said it's archaic and there's, it's big and all of the things. I think the one thing that I've heard from you is that you've got to have an expert like yourself by your side to be able to help you walk through through this process. That is not even if you are an engineer and an inventor, immigration law is not their, not their strong suit and they should own that. And so tell everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you to help them with that process.
[00:43:16] Speaker D: Yeah, of course Emily. The best way to reach out to me is info info immigration.com you're welcome to just send me a general hello email and I'm happy to follow up with you and answer any questions concerns you have. If that leads to a formal consultation, that's great.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Fantastic. Well Isht, thank you so much for joining us and being our expert in the immigration space. As we mentioned, it does require an expert like yourself. So if you are considering immigrating or are already here and want to consider using the NIW or have any questions for Isht at Extraordinary Immigration, please reach out to him. Thank you so much for being here today.
[00:43:52] Speaker D: Thank you for having me on.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Got it. All right, well if you love what you're watching and you can catch this episode of Biz Talk at anywhere anytime at Now Media TV at 6pm on Fridays or demand anytime. So just Download the free Now Media TV app on Roku and access me and BizTalk and all the great information and our great experts anytime in both languages, English and Spanish. Thanks so much and we'll see you next week.
