Young couple ready to embrace life in the US

by Yu Ran

SHANGHAI - Having decided to move to Los Angeles with her husband, expecting mother, Xu Cong, 25, has been busy preparing the immigration documents and plans to leave for the United States in December.

"I've discussed our future with my husband and we reached the conclusion that if we want to provide better education to our children and have more career choices for ourselves, immigration is the best solution," said Xu who studied in Britain for five years from 2003 to 2008.

They come under a category different from investment immigration, where applicants have to invest at least $500,000 in a targeted employment area to get a visa. Xu and her husband said they chose to register their own trading company by putting at least $800,000 as the starting fund.

According to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, targeted employment area refers to a high-unemployment or rural area in the US. The minimum qualifying investment in such cases is $500,000.

Xu's company will import gloves from China to the US and export water purifier and medical devices from the US to other countries.

In accordance with the rules set by the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Xu also needs to create or preserve at least 10 full-time jobs for qualifying US workers within two years.

"The whole process of preparation is more complicated than we thought, especially we have to write the detailed business plans for the company on how to make enough profits," she said.

Xu and her husband decided to move their date of arrival in the US forward, from March next year to December this year, to make sure that their baby will be born in the US.

"My children will receive better education and we will work for our company in the US Our parents will also be able to move to the US and live with us," said Xu.