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Hi,
I have couple of questions regarding my business trip to United States in the July/August. I'm so confused about usages of B1 visa and what is allowed and what is not so I need some advice from you guys. I read tons of horror story where people where returned on port of entry because of miss used of B1 visa so I want to tell you in short my reasons for trip and your suggestions are there valid for B1 visa entry.
I got my B1/B2 visa 3 years ago when I was attending IT conference in LA without any problems and I got 10 year visa with multiple entries, without any annotation.
3 months ago I quiet my software developer job and started my own one-man company (for now at least) and started working for some international clients. One of those clients is the company which I plan to visit in USA on my next trip. My current relationship with that company is that "me" or my company is doing software development for them (remotely from my origin country, Croatia). I get paid by work done in the way that I send them invoices on monthly basis.
I have 2 reasons for my trip :
1. There will be discussion with company in USA (their development team) about new features and future road-map. There will be only planning, discussion and meetings, not actual coding or anything related building software while I'm there or similar. Actual work will occur after my trip, when I'm back in my country as I'm doing right now.
2. USA company have intention to open abroad office in Europe and one of the meeting topics will be about that because they are planning to put me as manager and representative person who will handle their abroad office somewhere in Europe (probably my country, Croatia). They are planning to open office which will handle European clients and also to form small development team there also.
During my stay in USA I will not work for USA company and receive any salary there or similar. There will be only meetings for future product features and my other objective will be to meet more deeply with the team in US so that we can discuss about future plans and about opening their abroad office in Europe where I will be put in charge (not my existing company which I own). They are planning to get me return flight tickets and to arrange me place to stay, nothing else. There will not be any money involved while I'm in USA.
My duration stay regarding the business side will be around 3 weeks (meetings and plannings) and after that I plan to spend around 1 week for tourist sightseeing and meeting with my US friends. My duration will not exceed 1 month for sure.
So, my question is, are above reasons valid to present to immigration officer on port of entry and are there any chances for me getting returned back? What kind of papers are you suggesting me to bring with me as evidence of my story?
Some people suggested me that I declare that I'm going for sightseeing for a month (B2 portion of Visa) and not include any business part but I not agree. I read a bunch of visa failure stories and I personally think that the best thing is to tell the truth about my intentions while in USA. I think that my trip is bushiness trip for sure, but from your own experience do you think otherwise?
I'm aware that officer in USA can easily turn me back for their own reason, but intention of this post it to check if I'm breaking any B1 rule at the beginning.
Any suggestions are more than welcome! I know that I asked a lot of questions but I want to double check everything before the trip and to minimize chances of rejecting.
If you need any other detail or information, just let me know.
Thank you in advance!
Regards
I have couple of questions regarding my business trip to United States in the July/August. I'm so confused about usages of B1 visa and what is allowed and what is not so I need some advice from you guys. I read tons of horror story where people where returned on port of entry because of miss used of B1 visa so I want to tell you in short my reasons for trip and your suggestions are there valid for B1 visa entry.
I got my B1/B2 visa 3 years ago when I was attending IT conference in LA without any problems and I got 10 year visa with multiple entries, without any annotation.
3 months ago I quiet my software developer job and started my own one-man company (for now at least) and started working for some international clients. One of those clients is the company which I plan to visit in USA on my next trip. My current relationship with that company is that "me" or my company is doing software development for them (remotely from my origin country, Croatia). I get paid by work done in the way that I send them invoices on monthly basis.
I have 2 reasons for my trip :
1. There will be discussion with company in USA (their development team) about new features and future road-map. There will be only planning, discussion and meetings, not actual coding or anything related building software while I'm there or similar. Actual work will occur after my trip, when I'm back in my country as I'm doing right now.
2. USA company have intention to open abroad office in Europe and one of the meeting topics will be about that because they are planning to put me as manager and representative person who will handle their abroad office somewhere in Europe (probably my country, Croatia). They are planning to open office which will handle European clients and also to form small development team there also.
During my stay in USA I will not work for USA company and receive any salary there or similar. There will be only meetings for future product features and my other objective will be to meet more deeply with the team in US so that we can discuss about future plans and about opening their abroad office in Europe where I will be put in charge (not my existing company which I own). They are planning to get me return flight tickets and to arrange me place to stay, nothing else. There will not be any money involved while I'm in USA.
My duration stay regarding the business side will be around 3 weeks (meetings and plannings) and after that I plan to spend around 1 week for tourist sightseeing and meeting with my US friends. My duration will not exceed 1 month for sure.
So, my question is, are above reasons valid to present to immigration officer on port of entry and are there any chances for me getting returned back? What kind of papers are you suggesting me to bring with me as evidence of my story?
Some people suggested me that I declare that I'm going for sightseeing for a month (B2 portion of Visa) and not include any business part but I not agree. I read a bunch of visa failure stories and I personally think that the best thing is to tell the truth about my intentions while in USA. I think that my trip is bushiness trip for sure, but from your own experience do you think otherwise?
I'm aware that officer in USA can easily turn me back for their own reason, but intention of this post it to check if I'm breaking any B1 rule at the beginning.
Any suggestions are more than welcome! I know that I asked a lot of questions but I want to double check everything before the trip and to minimize chances of rejecting.
If you need any other detail or information, just let me know.
Thank you in advance!
Regards
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