Home country -- on track to be a citizen.

And even E-2 is not just anyone -- it is for rich people. Even the minimum amount quoted $50,000 is considered enormous by most of almost 7 billion people living in the world.

It might be a substantial amount, but it is a legal way to live in the US. So your factoid while interesting is not exactly accurate.

Also, to put the $50K in perspective - Canadian permanent resident visa has a requirement of showing $10K in available funds, and there is a metric ton of such visas getting granted every year. $50K is not far off.

So is marrying a citizen or getting an H-1. They are legal. Read my comment, I mean someone from any part of the world, just getting enough money for a plane ticket, getting on a plane or boat, landing in NY and eventually becoming a citizen of US. No need to marry anyone, getting any company to sponsor you, no "gifted" abilities, no need for $50K, no need to have been raped and mutilated by militias and so on. That was my point. Sorry for not being clear enough.

(also $50K is not for personal expenses, this money have to be proven to be used in US economy as a direct investment. Not just showing that you have $50K to spend on shopping at the mall).

Ok, got it. In that case, and with a possible exception of EU zone, there are no countries that allow doing what you described. For example, being a citizen of Canada I can travel almost everywhere w/o visas, but I cannot just fly to Italy or Mongolia or Japan and get settled to live and work. Nor would I be able to get a work-enabling visa easily. In other words the USA is not an exception, there is nothing unique about their free settlement restrictions.

The difference, is that US (and Canada I guess), unlike many other countries was founded on immigration and prides itself with that fact ("melting pot, yada yada.."). However it ended up as a country with one of the most complicated and difficult immigration systems in the world.

That's a natural consequence of the evolution from undeveloped territory to settled and densely populated.

What happens in the EU zone?

EU citizens are free to move to any other EU country and work there, no questions asked.

I suppose the expectation is that unless you are escaping imminent danger (refugee status) or joining a loved one (marriage), your decision to change your home is a calculated move - and the gov't gives a similarly calculated go-ahead. In other words, you are describing a niche of "I am OK now, and would like to join you", and the government responds with "we are OK now, so what will you bring along?".

Not making a judgment about the ethical conclusions of that, though.

Just one condition. H1B's would be given out only in areas where there's a skill shortage in US. IT jobs are always on the list and that's why H1B's are easily given out for IT. However for other industries, say agriculture, or most factory work, it's impossible to take the H1B route.

That is exactly what the "oid" in "factoid" means, by the way.

fact : factoid :: human : humanoid

You are right. I said it because I am not an immigration specialist (apart from having navigated the system myself and know people who for for it). So it is possible that I am wrong. I did not go and research the laws in depth before posting. It is just what I heard from others.

$50K is peanuts for a business that is growing. It's the cost of employing an engineer for 4 months.

Honestly if a business isn't planning on investing $50K, why would the US want it?

Start your internet business outside the US, than apply for E-2 telling you want to move your business to Silicon Valley.

Also hire an immigration lawyer. You are hiring engineers to hack code, you hire lawyers to hack the law.

I'm a European and I intent to do exactly this.

The E-2 also involves a catch-22 : To show that you're serious about building a business, they require you to show that you have (for instance) a commercial rental lined up. Other things (such as potential employees, letters of intent, bank accounts, LLC incorporation and other strong indications that the business will be viable) are also important.

However, prior to getting the visa, you can't do business in the USA : So it's pretty tough to get all this done and stay strictly within the law (a B-2 visa should be for a business outside the States, for instance).

What's more, when it comes to renew the E-2, you are forced to have an interview (after submitting a whole lot of documentation) in the Embassy in your home nation : And the Embassies won't give any firm guidelines about the visa turn-around period, so that you're left in limbo (away from the US) until the magic envelope with your visa'd Passport inside drops through the letterbox.

FWIW, once at the Embassy, the official there was pretty understanding of the hustle required of an entrepreneur, and was pretty friendly once they saw that the reality matched the intent of the visa. The documentation exists mainly for rejection purposes, IMHO.