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New research shows a rise in the number of E2 visa approvals for wealthy Canadians. The US E2 visa is the most popular investor visa among entrepreneurs from Canada, who are reportedly moving to American states such as Arizona, Florida, and Texas for warmer weather and greater freedom.
According to official US government immigration data, 423 Canadians were granted a US E2 investor visa in January 2022 alone, representing a 640% rise when compared with January 2021, when just 57 applications were approved.
Meanwhile, according to records published by Google, “E2 visa” and “US visa” searches from Canada are at five-year highs. Amid the search engine trends and rising E2 visa approval rates, the number of E2 visas issued to Canadians in 2022 and the coming years is expected to increase ‘significantly’.
Several reasons for US move
Canadians applying for the US E2 treaty investor visa have specified several reasons for wanting to move to the US, including fewer COVID-related restrictions compared with their homeland, warmer weather in a number of American states, lower rates of tax and better educational opportunities for their children.
The E2 visa is one of the most popular visas within the US immigration system, allowing holders to renew indefinitely and enter and exit the US on multiple occasions within the validity of the visa and for as long as two years per entry.
Amid COVID, E2 visa applicants faced long delays, while there was also a 45% drop in the number of treaty investor visas issued in 2020 compared with 2019, according to the US Department of State (DoS).
US consulates and embassies
Based on DoS data, trends showed that the issuing of E2 visas across consulates worldwide stopped completely in April 2020 until July 2020. However, consulates in Frankfurt, Germany, London, UK, Seoul, South Korea, Tokyo, Japan and Toronto, Canada, resumed E2 visa processing in August 2020.
By October 2020, most consulates were approaching or exceeding visa processing numbers that were seen prior to the pandemic. In October 2020, the US consulate in Frankfurt issued 229 E2 visas having only issued 196 in February 2020 – one month before COVID-19 restrictions came into effect.
A similar trend occurred at the consulate in Tokyo, which processed more E2 visa applications in October, November and December than the months immediately prior to March 2020. In December, the consulate in Tokyo actually processed more E2 visa applications than it had in January and February 2020 combined.
The increase in E2 visa processing seemingly signals that consulates are attempting to deal with huge backlogs. However, it’s likely that backlogs will remain for many months to come.
Despite this, Canadian applicants are starting to see E2 visa approval rates rise, showing signs that visa processing is steadily gathering pace and the huge US visa backlogs are being tackled by the Biden administration – a pledge that President Biden recently made to ease the strain on the struggling US immigration system.
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