Tuesday, June 17, 2014

你需要签订婚前协议吗?

很多人现在在经济条件和挣钱能力相差很多的情况下结婚。 比如, 年龄相差比较大,或第二次或第三次婚姻。 很多人听说过而且向我们咨询婚前协议。他们的问题实际上是,“我需不需要一个婚前财产协议呢?”

最好的回答方式是反问,如果你没有一个婚前财产协议, 你的财产分配在离婚或一方过世的时候会是怎样? 如果你不作婚前协议,你所在的州的法律决定谁拥有您在婚姻存续期间取得的财产,以及该财产在离婚或死亡的分配方式。有的州法甚至对你结婚前的拥有的财产做了规定。根据法律规定,婚姻被认为是夫妇之间的合同。 伴之合同,夫妻双方自动获得了一些财产权利。 例如,如果没有婚前协议,否则,一配偶通常有以下权利:

  1. 在婚姻期间获得的财产的所有权; 
  2. 婚姻存续期间双方产生的债务; 
  3. 对共同财产的管理权,对转让的决定权; 

如果这些法律不是你所喜欢的,那么就是考虑婚前协议的时候。 你可以通过婚前协议来规定你的财产的管理转让和在离婚或死亡的情况下的分配。 


Do I Need Prenup?

Prenup is not a foreign word to a lot of people. It is a common questions to newly wed, especially those with relatively big difference in age or those who are not married for the first time. 

A prenuptial agreement ("prenup" for short) is a written contract created by two people before they are married. A prenup typically lists all of the property each person owns (as well as any debts) and specifies what each person's property rights will be after the marriage.

Do I need a Prenup? 
The best way to answer this question is to ask yourself, what is going to happen if I don’t have a Prenup? 

If you don't make a prenuptial agreement, your state's laws determine who owns the property that you acquire during your marriage, as well as what happens to that property at divorce or death.  State law may even have a say in what happens to some of the property you owned before you were married.
Under the law, marriage is considered to be a contract between the marrying couple, and with that contract comes certain automatic property rights for each spouse. For example, in the absence of a prenup stating otherwise, a spouse usually has the right to:

  1. Share ownership of property acquired during marriage; 
  2. Incur debts during marriage of the other spouse, and
  3. share in the management and control of any marital or community property, sometimes including the right to sell it or give it away.

Therefore, the answer to the initial question is, if these laws aren't to your liking, it's time to think about a prenup, which in most cases lets you decide for yourselves how your property should be handled.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Myths about Investment Immigration Part II

Many clients asked us whether they can obtain green card through acquiring an existing US business. Our answers have always been, yet, but it is rather difficult. Foreign investors may obtain green cards for them and their families through investment of  a minimum of $1 million in creating a new U.S. business or restructuring or expanding one that already exists.

If you want to buy an existing business and expand it to get green cards,  you would need to increase either the number of employees or the net worth of the business by at least 40%. You would also need to make the full required investment ($1 million or $500,000 depending on location) and you would still need to show that your investment created at least ten full-time jobs for U.S. workers.


If you want to obtain green card by buying a troubled business and save it from going under. To do this, you would need to show that the business has been around for at least two years and has had an annual loss of 20% of the company’s net worth at some point over the 24 months leading up to the purchase. You must still invest the full required amount, but you are not required to show that you created ten jobs. Instead, you would need to show that for two years from the date of purchase, you employed at least as many people as were employed at the time of the investment.