Duygu from Turkey

Hi Sam. Hi everyone. This is Duygu. I am from Turkey. Turkey is a beautiful country—delicious food, friendly people—but living and working in the U.S. was always my dream. I don’t know why, to be honest. I also studied in Austria. I have traveled around Europe, a little bit around the world, but still, the U.S. was always on my mind. I studied international management in Turkey and I came to here to the United States twice as a tourist. And then after I graduated, after I worked for a while, it was: I had 10 years of experience in Turkey, but still, the U.S. was always on my mind. And after visiting as a tourist, I wanted to give it a try. I came here again and did some research, and then I decided that I wanted to study or live here or work here. But finding a job was not easy.

So, I decided to first apply for a student visa. In 2015, I applied for a student visa, got the visa, got the approval, and then I had one year of OPT [optional practical training]. During that year, I had an opportunity to work with a tech company. I was in San Jose, California, so Silicon Valley. So, with that experience, I also had an opportunity to work for a resale company that was selling natural stones. And back in Turkey, I had also worked in construction companies. My father was a contractor, so I had decided to pull up my connections and everything and give it a shot. So, I established my company in 2016 and since then, I have been here in the U.S.

As I said, first of all it was my dream and secondly, the economic conditions in Turkey were not the greatest at the moment. And after living and seeing here the conditions—living conditions and economic conditions—I thought they were more attractive than Turkey. And because I had established a company and I had seen a possible opportunity with that company, first I applied for an E-2 investor visa and got the approval in 2017, and it was for five years. And then I got, thank God, renewal in 2022. But then, going on again, getting the renewal, preparing all the documents again and again every five years… I thought I should be looking into something, some other visa options. At that point I realized that there was an opportunity like EB-5. So then, I started looking around, looking at projects and seeing the options.

Firstly, because I had an E-2 before, I had worked with the lawyers. Six years ago, I searched lots of attorneys, and the attorney that I worked with the moment for the E-2 was recommended by a close friend. And I wish he didn’t, but he was doing his best to try to help me. He got me the E-2 visa. There was nothing about it, but try to reach out to him, it was unbelievably hard. Every day, every week, he had a meeting, he had to go to some other seminars, he had family vacations, celebrations… He asked me the same questions over and over again, like he never has read whatever documents I have sent to him. And it was really tiring. So that’s why I was like, okay, I need to find someone that I can talk [to], I can reach, I can ask questions [to], I can get answers.

And when she or he ask me questions, they’re going to listen to me and not ask me the same questions all the time. It’s normal. I ask the same questions to the lawyers all the time, but you know that they listen to you, but you try to find some comfort in the answer. That’s why you keep asking the same questions. But when you look at it from, “What is your name?” I mean, you cannot ask me my name 15 times. It’s Duygu. It’s never going to change. So, that’s why I needed to find someone that I could talk to. On Google, you find lots of attorneys, but as I said, I needed to find someone that I could trust. And I talked to maybe four or five different lawyers and then I have decided to go with Anahita because from the first moment that I talked to her, I knew she that was different. I mean, all of our communications went through WhatsApp. When I went on WhatsApp, when I tried to write her something, she was online or was last seen like 5 or 10 minutes ago. So, she is very approachable. She was always within reach and as I said, I asked her the same questions, and she kindly asked her all my questions. She tried to help me with everything. Not only her, [but] her team was also great. So I’m really, really happy with my choice of attorney. So, that’s why I wanted to go with her.

Before, during and after, she’s always within reach.. Preparing the documents was not the hardest part for me because as I said, I had already applied for E-2. I always needed to keep my records next day. If someone else asked me that, I could give it to them right away. So, everything was in my Dropbox or Google Drive, so I was saving everything. But the hardest part was on them, because even though we still translate the documents, all the systems—like the government system or the banking concept—everything is different than whatever they’re used to. But they were great. I mean, I think I had started working with them second week of August, and we sent our documents on September 15, and it was like 27 pages. So, they really worked hard and prepared everything. And you know what, at one point I was like, I need to tell her that she needs to get some sleep because even it was like after 10:00 PM she was writing me and saying: “We need to do this, we need to change this or this is going to be the next step.” So, I’m really grateful for her and her team.

To me personally, as I said, because of my experiences, I needed to find someone that is reachable. So, I recommend everyone to talk to different attorneys. I mean, if it’s possible, try to see them, meet with them, and find someone that’s not pushy, not forcing you to do work with them or work with certain projects. Give them time, give yourself time and think about it, because you’re going to work with them day and night. And when they ask you something, when you ask them something, you need to feel comfortable about talking: talk, talk, talk. And they need to be reachable. And when you ask the questions, you should be sure that you’re going to get the answers and their answers will satisfy you. It’s like building trust. I know it’s maybe short term, you don’t have much time, but even with that time or before that time—two weeks, three weeks—think about it and find someone that you really can trust and talk and reach.

EB-5 is a big decision, a big investment, but it’s a great opportunity. So, for a couple of weeks, months, because I started looking at EB-5 in May, 2023… it took me almost two and a half months. You go on Google, you do the search, trying to find regional centers that are approved by USCIS. There are so many different regional centers and projects, of course, and on my laptop and on my phone, there were so many open pages with all the regional centers, but for most of them you cannot find too much information. It’s only the names, the company, where they’re located and what they’re doing. And so, I needed to find someone that had some visibility. On the other hand, to be honest, when you do the Google search, you come up first. Your company and Kolter, and you think, “You know what?”

Sometimes it’s too much. There might be some tricks, and you just think, “I need to do more research because I have studied marketing here.” I know there are organic searches and paid searches, so I needed to find some organic ones, and it takes time. It’s not like one day, two days. So, you need to be patient, you need to be passionate about it and keep searching. I have found a couple of different projects, regional centers, some of them were in Oakland, in the SF Bay area. The location was not the best, still is not the best. So I said no, and I don’t know why. I was always interested in solar energies, wind energy, and I have found some companies, but they don’t have too much paperwork [available] and you don’t get the chance to talk to them that much. They are not open as you are.

Finding documents and feeling that the company is real, what they are doing is real. It is one of the most important things. And I also found some franchising opportunities, like opening a Subway. I didn’t have that much time because of my own business. I even thought, “Maybe I can go with my own business, find 10 people,” but I didn’t want to risk getting an approval. So it was out of the question. And there were some hotel projects, but again, real estate projects are good, but I am not sure about the hotel projects. So I started looking into more single houses or condos and then I decided to do a single house because at this time, COVID time, it was affecting everything, every sector. And I thought that the single-family houses were going to be great.

After searching more about it, I met with… When I check my records, I think I talked to you in May and I talked to, as I said, other regional centers, but I decided to go with you and Kolter. So, I think my main reason, if you were to ask me why I did go with you, was because of your openness. I had the opportunity to meet with you and you really work hard, you and your partner, I also heard from other investors, I had the opportunity to talk to them. They told me that you and your partner are great, so to feel some comfort, it’s the most important thing. And I felt that with you, so that’s why I chose you and Kolter.

You know what, when you ask USCIS, they say that there should be some risk. Of course, there should be some risk for EB-5, but you still want to have some kind of trust. And even though my country wasn’t India or China, they have backlogs. I still chose a rural project because things are going to be going faster. And that’s why, first of all, I chose the rural projects and the Twin Lakes project. It’s like, oh my God, they already had all the jobs created and everything was approved. There were other investors before me, they went through the same things. Everything gives you some kind of relief that you are not the only one. And I didn’t, to be honest, I didn’t go to the Twin Lakes project site, but I talked to the real real estate over there, the realtors, and I talked to other investors. I called the sales office and talked to them. I also asked Anahita, and she was really helpful.

And yeah, I think it gives you a real relief to know that the jobs are already created and the processing is going to be faster hopefully. And also because I have an E-2, I didn’t need to wait to apply for change of status later, so I could do them both at the same time. And hearing that one of them, I believe the latest investor, he got his travel and work permit visa within two months. It was like, okay, this should be a really good project to invest in. That’s why it was one another reason for me to choose the Twin Lakes rural project.

So, I think I talked to you first in May—I’m going to be honest here. When I first talked to you over the phone… everyone tells me that I am a cold person. I felt the same for you: that okay, he’s knowledgeable, he knows what he’s doing, but he’s a little bit cold. But then when I met you in July, second week of July, you had a meeting in SF. Seeing you in person, it was a great opportunity. And seeing that how you prepared, learning about your background, learning, hearing from your partners, your company, it was great. And when I saw the PowerPoint that you prepared and then all the materials that you sent me, I was like, “Oh my God, there is so much information I don’t even need or wouldn’t think about asking.” So you are so upfront and you are approachable like Anahita and you are open, promising to give us all the documents. Of course, as much as you can, you can’t give every details, but in general, you are able to offer all the documents that are needed for someone to make a decision. So, you really made it easier, you made the process easier for me and I’m sure for the other investors. I’m really thankful.

Search, search, search, ask questions. Do not trust everything that you read or hear on Google. Try to call everyone, visit if it’s possible, talk to people and get a feeling if the project is trustable or the person is trustable. It might seem tiring, complicated, or confusing because, as I said, it’s a big investment. It’s not like a one-day decision, but it’s a great opportunity. So, you need to feel as comfortable as possible because it’s going to be on your mind for the next five, six years. So, you really need to be careful, but feel comfortable because when you feel comfortable about the project and lawyer and the regional center… Believe me, we applied, as I said, in September, I didn’t even think one day, “What’s going to happen?” What’s going to happen is going to happen. But just make sure that you have done your due diligence and your research, you found someone [and] a project that you trust, and go for it.