US Immigration Lawyers Guide on Beating Tariffs and Setting up a Subsidiary Business in the US

Posted onApril 7, 2025

In this guide, US Immigration Lawyers examine the option of setting up a subsidiary business in the US to beat tariffs and explore L1 Visa immigration options.

Talk to US Visa Lawyers in London for US immigration legal advice and assistance with US visa applications. Appointments are available for phone, Zoom, or Team meetings, as well as at our London offices.

Liberation or global recession

President Trump claimed April 2, 2025, as Liberation Day. It was the day Donald Trump declared a national economic emergency in the US and imposed global tariffs on the import of goods into the US.

While Trump supporters hailed Trump's economic policies as masterful and a means to end the global exploitation of US goodwill, the stock market dipped amid fears of a worldwide recession.

Whatever your views on tariffs and whether your home country should retaliate with tariffs against the States, all business owners who export goods into the US will be affected to some degree. For example, you are right to be concerned if you are a Scottish premium whisky distillery reliant on the US market for a significant proportion of your sales.

The UK-US trade statistics

According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2023 UK trade figures with the United States were as follows:

The US was the UK's largest partner for services imports and exports.
The US was the UK's largest export partner and second-largest import partner for goods*.
The UK imported £57.9 billion of goods from the US, accounting for approximately 10% of the goods imported into the UK.
The UK exported £60.4 billion of goods to the US, equivalent to just over 15% of all goods exports.
The UK imported £57.4 billion of services from the US, nearly 20% of all services imports.
The UK exported £126.3 billion of services to the US, amounting to 27% of all services exports.
Machinery and transport equipment were the primary commodities traded with the United States in 2023, with £19.9 billion in imports and £27.2 billion in exports.

*The ONS figures for UK trade with the US include Puerto Rico.

The import and export figures are eye-watering, but in preparation for Donald Trump's potential win in the 2024 US election, the UK government drew up a list of goods where tariffs could be imposed as a retaliatory measure. It remains to be seen whether the UK will impose countermeasures.

If you are an entrepreneur, SME, or family business with a niche UK product, these statistics may be of interest; however, they don’t provide practical measures to combat a 10% hike in the prices of goods exported into the US, which could make them potentially uncompetitive in the US market. Alternatively, you could sell your products at a 10% discount, reducing profitability, or a combination of the two approaches could be used to mitigate the effects of tariffs.

Our US Immigration Lawyers are already receiving calls from UK companies and business owners worldwide regarding immigration options to mitigate tariffs.

Mitigating US tariffs through a US immigration strategy

Tariffs are taxes charged on the import of goods from foreign countries. In the US scenario, a sliding scale of tariffs has been implemented to protect US industries from foreign competition by increasing the price of imported goods, thereby persuading US consumers to buy American goods.

It is too simplistic to say that if your company opens a subsidiary branch in the US, you will escape the effects of tariffs because global tariffs have wide-ranging effects. For example, if you need to import raw materials from the EU or China to the States to produce your US-manufactured goods, and the price of your raw materials rises due to retaliatory measures taken by the EU trading block or China.

Whilst opening a subsidiary in the US may not resolve all your tariff issues, it may give you an edge over competitors, and the tariffs may be the incentive needed if you have been debating opening a subsidiary or branch in the States.

A tariff mitigation strategy is complex. It requires careful planning. Your accountant, tax and business advisors, and corporate and Immigration Lawyers all need to work together to develop a budgeted plan that ensures it is feasible and ultimately profitable.

Opening a subsidiary business in the US

You may have ruled out a business move to the US assuming that Work Visas or Business Visas won't be available given the US administration’s focus on reducing net migration figures. However, visa opportunities are available if you are a non-US citizen looking to establish a branch office or subsidiary in the US.

A non-US company can use the US L1 Visa to establish a business in the United States by sending an existing employee on an L1 Visa to set up the US venture.

If there is no existing affiliate office or branch in the US, an L1 Visa applicant will be granted a one-year visa rather than the usual initial three-year visa. An application can then be made to extend the L1A Visa for up to seven years. The extension applications are each granted for a period of up to two years.

Securing an L1 Visa for a US business venture

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) rules state that where there is no existing US company base and the L1 Visa applicant is an executive or manager tasked with setting up the business, the L1 Visa applicant must evidence:

Business premises - the employer has secured physical premises for the business.
Employment – the L1 Visa applicant must have been employed as an executive or manager for the non-US business for at least one continuous year in the three years preceding the filing of the L1 Visa petition.
Growth - the US business must be capable of supporting an executive or managerial position within one year of the petition approval.
Legal ties - the US company must be legally associated with the non-US company that transfers the employee on an L-1 Visa. This could be through a parent company, subsidiary company, branch office or affiliate.
Active – the US company must be active. The US venture can't be set up as a shelf company and then mothballed while you wait to see how a tariff war develops and assess the strategic implications for a US subsidiary to manufacture your goods in the US.

To clarify, the US business needs to be established as a legal entity, but it does not need to have started trading internationally by the date of the L1 Visa application, as the job of the L1 Visa applicant will be to initiate the growth of the US company.

L1 Visa applications for tariff beating businesses

If your business plans to establish a branch or affiliate office in the US to avoid or mitigate tariffs, then you require comprehensive accounting, business, and legal advice.

Experienced U.S. immigration attorneys know how to navigate the process of securing an L-1 visa through USCIS, enabling your established executive or manager to transfer from their home country and establish a branch, subsidiary, or affiliate in the United States.

When tariffs and their implications and ramifications are all so new, it's essential that your business gets a specialist US immigration law firm on side so it has all the legal guidance and support it needs to take the first step in securing an L1 Visa and then in developing the US company into a financial success and tariff beater.

At OTS Solicitors, our US Immigration Lawyers are optimistic, seeing Liberation Day as an opportunity to seize the day and embark on US expansion plans that may have been in your dreams but have now been advanced for economic reasons.

US L1 Visa Lawyer London

For US immigration legal advice contact OTS Solicitors. Appointments are available for phone, Zoom or Skype consultations or at our offices in London.

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