It is impossible to work on American territory without a visa adapted to your situation.

A / Le visa L1 : “intracompany transfer visas”

It is a visa issued for a person transferred within a subsidiary or branch
American. This visa is issued for a period of 3 years and is renewable for a period
of 4 years. It makes it easier to obtain the Green Card than other visas.

It also allows the spouse and children of the L1 visa holder to be allocated
automatically an L2 visa which allows them to study in the USA.

There are three cumulative conditions for granting this visa: the applicant must have worked for one year with the French parent company during the last three years preceding the visa application, the parent company must hold at least 51% shares of the subsidiary and finally and the applicant must occupy management or senior executive positions in the United States.

The INS Local requires a certain number of documents, namely:

1. The articles of association, shareholders' agreements and share certificates of the parent company and the subsidiary.
2. Proof of the manager's functions of the person concerned
3. Proof of the financial capacity of the American subsidiary to compensate its employees
4. The parent company's balance sheet
5. Document I-129 approved by the INS
6. Proof that the employee in question has worked one year in the last three years for the parent company. The American company must then file with the local INS (that of the head office of the subsidiary) an application for admission to the United States on behalf of the employee.

This authorization is materialized by the delivery of document I-129; The interested party must then send all the documents to the American consulate in France to obtain his visa.

The disadvantage of this type of visa is that it takes longer than
for an E visa it usually takes 3 to 4 months; in case of emergency it is possible
to obtain a visa in fifteen days on condition of paying an additional sum of 1000
dollars (premium processing).

B / The E visa There are two types of E visa: the E1 “treaty trader” visa and the E2 “treaty investor” visa.

These visas are issued to people who come to the United States to exercise an activity
international trade between his country of origin and the United States.

French nationals have the establishment agreement dated November 25
1959 between the USA and France.

The E1 visa is granted to people who represent a foreign company in the USA, of which 50% commercial activities are carried out with American companies.

This visa is granted for an unlimited number of years, (it is adire as long as the
American company justifies a significant commercial activity with France) and allows
the spouse to stay in the United States and the children to go to school. It concerns
small and medium enterprises.

The E2 visa is granted to people who will create a business in the United States.
United and who will invest a minimum of $ 250,000.

This visa lasts as long as the activity of the American company.

The documents to be provided in addition to the passport are as follows: The articles of association of the company
American, meeting reports, share certificates and proof of activity
important commercial: Invoices, orders, contract, bank account. This visa is
advantageous because its delivery is much faster since the request is made
only at the American consulate in France.

On the other hand, it would appear more difficult to obtain the green card via the E visa because there is a
number of E visa granted each year. These quotas do not exist for L1 visas
which, if the documents are correctly assembled, will be issued automatically.

Finally for people with particularly high professional qualifications
highly qualified, the American employer will need to apply for an H or O visa depending on the
situation of interest. The candidate will be authorized to stay in the United States for a period
necessary to perform these specific functions.

The American immigration legislation is very tightly regulated, it is necessary to
provide the required visa because otherwise the sanction of expulsion from the territory would be immediate.

Severine Gianese-Pittman

The most important incentive for foreign investment in the United States is the regime
United States tax.

There are also a large number of tax advantages in addition to the already favorable tax regime.
in Florida: the maximum tax rate is 39.6% for individuals and 35% for individuals
companies.

In addition, the Franco-American tax treaty provides for a particularly advantageous regime, thus
the enterprise of a contacting state is taxable only in that contracting state and the withholding rates at the
source of dividends are only 15% or even 5% if the recipient of the dividend holds
10% of the voting rights of an American distributing company or 10% of the capital of a distributing company
French.

Florida has many advantages:

- There is no double taxation at federal and federal level:

Indeed, at the state level, there is no tax on the income of individuals or
companies, with the exception of "corporations" and some other legal forms of company.

As regards the latter, the levy remains particularly low, since it amounts to 5.5% of the
returned.

– Il n’existe pas davantage d’impôt sur les stocks et l’impôt sur les sociétés est calcule sur le bénéfice net de la “corporation”

that is to say the equivalent of our limited liability companies and exceptionally, that of certain LLPs (known as SARLs in France.)

With regard to the French tax system, Florida thus has many tax advantages not only
with regard to the French tax system but also compared to other American states.

A certain number of taxes relate more specifically to individuals:

- This is income tax, the intangible tax

which is a Florida state tax on everything that is not material, but whose value derives from what this property represents (for example stock stocks); any business is subject to the intangible tax for for every 1000 dollars, the assets concerned are subject to a corresponding tax of 2 dollars.

Local authorities, counts, municipalities, school districts also collect the tangible tax which
covers all material goods and the value of the property on the previous January 1.

- Finally, the sales tax specific to the federal state is the American equivalent of VAT

It relates to the total price of all sales; the rate is 6% on sales and rentals of goods and on the price of goods introduced and used in Florida, and 7% on sales of services in the energy and telecommunications.

I. Definition

International double taxation of income or property has its origin in the full fiscal sovereignty of the States, each of which has full discretion to exercise their right to tax,

1. one because it considers itself the state of residence of the income recipient and
2. the other because he believes that this income has its source in his territory.

Such a situation can arise schematically in the following two cases. A person is a tax resident of France and a US tax resident if:

1. she has a Green Card or
2. she spends more than 183 days on American territory.

Likewise, a person who is a resident of a state and receives income from another state risks being taxed in the state of the source because the income arises in this territory and in the state of the residence because the beneficiary is domiciled there.

II. The tax treaty in France of August 31, 1994

The subject of the tax convention of August 31, 1994 on the income tax of
people and companies is to avoid these double taxation in France and the United States.

The convention provides that a person cannot be simultaneously a tax resident of France and the United States.

She is considered a resident of the state with which her personal and economic ties are closest.

Therefore :

1. people domiciled in France are subject to tax on all their income (from French or foreign sources),
2. people whose tax domicile is located in the United States are subject to tax in France on their income from French sources only.

With regard to the provisions of the agreement, the following are considered to be tax residents of France:

1. people who have their main home or place of residence in France,
2. those who exercise a paid or self-employed professional activity in France,
3. those who have the center of their economic interests in France or,
4. state agents who exercise their functions
5. State agents who exercise their functions entrusted with missions in a foreign country and not subject in this country to a personal tax on all their income)

Thus, this convention encourages French investments in the United States by granting
to nationals of both states a more favorable regime than that to which
nationals of third countries.