Introduction

The Global Unicorn Index 2023 shows that the number of unicorns in the world has reached 1,361, while the United States leads the way with 666 unicorns, 179 more than a year ago, accounting for 49 percent of all unicorns globally and triple the 203 that existed before the epidemic. China came in second with 316, while India held third place with 68 unicorns.

U.S. unicorns have led the world continuously, “Why do most successful startups come from the U.S.? What does the US have that other countries don’t? Is it the culture? Is it the community, the early adopters, the investors, the environment?”

The answer to Quora’s hotly debated question is also the reason why Chinese companies are heading to the US in search of opportunities.

The United States, as one of the world’s largest economies, has a huge retail market, with the value of U.S. retail sales exceeding 7 trillion U.S. dollars in 2022, far exceeding China’s 2 trillion U.S. dollars; in the field of mobile consumption, U.S. netizens have a strong spending power, and the average profit of a single download of an app in the United States in 2021 will be almost seven times that of China; at the same time, the U.S. Internet ecosystem is good, and according to statista’s At the same time, the U.S. has a good Internet ecosystem. According to statista, the U.S. ranks third among the world’s largest online markets, with more than 307 million Internet users nationwide.

There are many reasons to attract more companies to the fertile ground of the U.S., but there are also a lot of difficulties faced by those who want to land and conduct business in the U.S. PayInOne will analyze the difficulties of conducting business in the U.S. and provide solutions accordingly.

1.No physical company in the U.S. —— PayInOne EOR

The first step in developing an overseas market is to establish a physical company overseas, but establishing a physical company in a new country can be very costly, costing a lot of time and money, as well as the need to cooperate with the relevant authorities and a number of service providers.

What if a company wants to do business in the U.S. but doesn’t have a U.S. entity?
An EOR is the best option.

The full name of EOR is Employer of Record, which is usually translated into Chinese as “Nominal Employer”, which is straightforward: Nominal Employer is your local employer, helping your real offshore employer (company) to deal with the relevant local legal responsibilities and benefits.

PayInOne offers this:
Use the PayInOne EOR service to help businesses share the high cost of establishing a U.S. presence through PayInOne’s compliant U.S. entity. This service helps companies manage legal and regulatory, human resources, and tax benefits issues related to U.S. employment, and handles employee onboarding, personnel management, and payroll payments instead.

At the same time, using PayInOne EOR service can also help overseas enterprises share risks. In the EOR service, the employer and the nominal employer need to be responsible for the employee’s social security, welfare payment, salary payment, vacation approval, etc. In these processes, a series of compliance issues will be involved, and in the face of laws and regulations that are very different from those in China, the enterprise is often faced with higher legal risks. With all these risks borne by the nominal employer, the company can quickly develop its business overseas.

2. Difficulty in accurate payroll ——PayInOne Payroll Management

Generally speaking, the overseas enterprises that already have a main body in the U.S. will subsequently face a large number of payroll management needs. The U.S. labor laws include federal and state laws, and the laws of each state are different, and there may be conflicts between the two, which increases the difficulty of payroll management, not to mention that the updating of laws and regulations is also very fast.

PayInOne offers:
PayInOne payroll management service ensures payroll compliance. PayInOne products and systems cover employment guidelines of various countries, including laws and regulations, policy changes, labor protection, investment policies, entry thresholds, etc., to ensure that payroll and related benefits and security contributions comply with U.S. requirements, and minimize the risk of U.S. employment. Meanwhile, PayInOne system has embedded Chat Gpt search function for global employment and payroll management, which allows clients to inquire related issues on their own, further saving related human communication costs.

PayInOne payroll service ensures accurate payroll. Unlike traditional payroll calculation and reconciliation relying on human resources, PayInOne relies on its own SaaS system to create employee tax and payroll calculation solutions with one click, simplifying the tax calculation process, replacing manual labor with technology, reducing manual work, completing automatic statistical accounting of expenses, and minimizing errors.

3.Contractors are in high demand — PayInOne Contractor

Contractor refers to the flexibility of enterprises in the use of labor and the flexibility of laborers in the way they are employed. Compared to the traditional labor contract, flexible employment only requires the signing of a flexible employment agreement, which allows both the enterprise and the laborer to be more flexible in terms of time and compensation, and at the same time, the employer does not have to pay social security for the laborer.

The demand for contractors in the U.S. is also high, especially in the industries of Netflix marketing, language translation, and offline promotion. Although flexible workers are not formally employed, U.S. states have introduced many laws and regulations to protect the rights and interests of flexible workers, which means that employers need to hire in accordance with these regulations, such as the “Los Angeles Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance” (“LFWPO”), which will come into effect on July 1, 2023 (the “Flexible Worker Protections Ordinance”). For example, the “Los Angeles Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance” (LFWPO), which goes into effect on July 1, 2023, requires a written contract even when working with contractors, among other things.

PayInOne offers:
With PayInOne’s contractor service, bills are automatically generated using PayInOne’s own SaaS system. At the same time, PayInOne provides pay-as-you-go contracts, whereby companies pay independent contractors for their work by the hour, day, or project within the agreed-upon timeframe, and through the use of an API to interface with and pass on information such as the independent contractor’s name and the amount of the payment, instant billing can be realized. Under the pay-as-you-go contracting model, companies only pay for the actual hours worked or tasks actually completed on a project, with no fixed employment or administrative costs. The service process of online contracting can be completed in as little as 5 minutes, and companies only need to focus on communicating with their employees.

4.Work Visas are Hard to Get — PayInOne Global Work Visa

It is difficult to get a work visa in the United States. On the one hand, it is because the U.S. has certain quota limitations on work visas for foreign workers; on the other hand, applying for a visa requires a large number of documents and supporting materials, and the application process is cumbersome and takes a long time.

Another difficulty is not knowing what visa to choose.

The best way to do business in the U.S. once and for all is to consider EB-5, which is known as “U.S. Entrepreneur Immigrant Permanent Resident Visa” or “U.S. Immigrant Investor”, and has no other requirements except for the amount of money invested and the number of jobs brought in. In addition to the amount of investment and employment, EB-5 has no other requirements for the applicant to get a green card directly and live, work and conduct business anywhere in the United States.

However, the waiting time for EB-5 Chinese nationals is too long, and most people predict that the waiting time will be up to 15 years or more.

And according to the survey data from iiMedia Research (AiMedia Consulting), SMEs account for about 68.3% of the enterprises planning to go overseas. How to get a visa to conduct business in the U.S. quickly, in compliance, and at a lower cost has become one of the challenges for SMEs to go overseas to the U.S.

For those companies that want to quickly conduct business in the U.S. in a compliant manner, what visa should they choose?

1. O-1 Visa

If a company wants to do business in the United States, especially for a founder, the easiest way is to obtain a work visa, such as a work permit through an O-1 (O-1 Extraordinary Ability Visa) visa.

There are three main categories of O-1 applicants:
(1) Applicants who are outstanding individuals in the fields of science, education, business, and sports.
(2) Applicants who are outstanding individuals in the field of the arts
(3) The applicant is an outstanding talent in the field of motion pictures and television.

In addition to the fact that the O-1 is issued to business professionals, the advantage of the O-1 is that it is very convenient and flexible:

• No quota restriction
• No quota limit
• Unlimited extensions
• Unlimited extensions can be granted.
• Apply at any time and start working as soon as you are approved.
• Expedited Processing: By paying an additional $2,500 to the government, O-1 clearance can be obtained in 15 calendar days or less.

Application Difficulties:

Applying for an O-1 visa requires extensive application materials:
O-1 is divided into O-1A and O-1B, are for the applicant’s “extraordinary ability” (extraordinary ability) to focus on the investigation, but the O-1A requirements to be relatively higher! O-1A applicants either won the industry’s internationally recognized important awards, such as the Nobel Prize, O-1A applicants either have won important internationally recognized awards in the industry, such as the Nobel Prize, Olympic gold medals and other awards, or have to provide three of the following eight requirements to prove their ability.

• Awards: Nationally or internationally recognized awards for excellence in one’s field of expertise;
• Membership: Membership in a prestigious group recognized by international or national experts in your field of expertise;
• Publication of your work by others: a report on the applicant, or the results of his/her work, in a reputable publication or in a reputable media outlet;
• Peer review activities: having been a reviewer of the work of other professionals in your field;
• Original contribution: a significant scientific, scholarly or business contribution in one’s field of expertise;
• Published scholarly articles authored by you: scholarly articles in professional journals or major media in your field of expertise;
• Key Competencies: Employment with a reputable organization or institution;
• Relatively high salary: evidence, through contracts or other reliable evidence, that the application has been, or will be, remunerated with a high salary or other remuneration for services rendered.

2. L-1 Visa

If a company has business in China and also needs to expand its business in the United States, it can consider the L-1 visa. Because L-1 is the U.S. Immigration Service to foreign businessmen, experts to the United States for long-term work issued by the non-immigrant work visas, mainly to encourage foreign enterprises to do business and investment in the United States, generally applicable to multinational corporations from overseas companies to the U.S. branch of the dispatch of senior managers, executives, or have special knowledge of professional and technical personnel.

The requirements for application are:
(1) The applicant has held a senior management position in a Chinese enterprise for more than one year;
(2) The Chinese company has been in business for more than three years and is of a suitable size (case experience shows: annual turnover of more than 5 million RMB, more than 20 full-time employees, etc.);
(3) The company is going to or already has a branch in the U.S. and needs to send the applicant to the U.S. branch to take up management positions (can prove the necessity and suitability).

At the same time, for companies that want to quickly start business in the U.S., the L-1 has several advantages:

• There is no quota for L-1 visas, no lottery, and applications can be submitted at any time.
• The L-1 visa approval period is generally 3 months, and you can pay an additional $2,500 expediting fee to receive fast results within 15 natural days.
• L-1 no degree, language requirements, no salary requirements, the U.S. company and the overseas company need not be in the same industry, the size of the multinational company applying for an L-1 visa has no size, number of employees and other specific requirements.

Application Difficulties:

• Document Compliance: In recent years, because of the increasing number of fraudulent documents, it has led to the USCIS starting to scrutinize the L-1 visa. If caught in visa fraud, in addition to having your visa canceled, you will likely be blacklisted and barred from re-entering the U.S. in the future.
• Also, unlike other visa options, the L-1 requires applicants to set up a physical office space in the U.S., which can be a challenge for small startups.

For visa application difficulties, PayInOne offers:PayInOne’s Global Work Visa Services offer include, but are not limited to, O-1 and L-1 visa processing.

• Relying on its own SaaS system, PayInOne makes the whole process more concise and convenient, accurately and timely updating the requirements for visa processing, ensuring that applicants provide material proofs according to the relevant requirements and successfully complete the application process, minimizing errors and unnecessary delays.
• Relying on one-stop service, we improve the efficiency of the service process and greatly shorten the visa application time, allowing you to quickly start your business in the United States.

As a one-stop global team hiring and salary payment management platform designed and developed specifically for overseas enterprises, PayInOne can provide efficient, compliant and low-cost customized global employment solutions for enterprises to legally and compliantly hire overseas employees, regardless of whether they have set up their main body overseas, hire full-time or part-time employees, and apply for what kind of work visa.