Starting a business and moving to a new country is an exciting yet daunting prospect for many entrepreneurs and investors. For Canadian citizen Greg Allen, the E-2 investor visa provided a pathway to opening his precious metals firm in sunny Florida. We sat down with Greg to gain insight into his motivations for choosing the E-2 visa, how he overcame application hurdles, and his experiences running a business as a visa holder.
“The best thing you can do is establish as early on as possible a good core team of people in the United States where you plan to have your investment. And that means a good CPA, a good lawyer, you want to have a good relationship with a banker. And if you have that, not only are you better able to function as a business, but you’re able to prove or make the case to the consular officer that, hey, I not only have a good plan for this business and I’ve made this investment, but I have the right people around me and a team to help me execute my plan.” – Greg Allen
About our Guest
Greg Allen established Allenhouse Metals in Florida in 2017. Since then, he has steadily developed the company into a full-service precious metals firm. Allenhouse Metals specializes in the purchase, sale, and storage of physical gold, silver, platinum, and palladium as a registered dealer of Dillon Gage—the authorized purchaser for the United States Mint and many other government mints around the world.
Prior to founding Allenhouse Metals, Greg played professional hockey for four years. After his playing career, he worked in hockey development for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Hockey Canada. After hockey, Greg attended the University of Toronto, where he published his senior thesis, “Economic Independence through Exchange Rates, Abandoning Bretton Woods, and the Nixon Shocks.” Significantly, he was supervised by Professor Bothwell, who was the Director of the International Relations Department and is considered the world’s foremost scholar in Canada-US relations. Greg later used this work to launch his online financial literacy program.