DOING BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES:
A GUIDE TO LAWS AND PRACTICES
FOR THE FOREIGN BUSINESS PERSON
July 1, 2022
By: Nicholas G. Karambelas
Juris Doctor (J.D.) – Master of International Affairs (M.I.A.)
Publisher
Hastings Analysis
Copyright © 2021 All Rights Reserved (Second Edition)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE AUTHOR AND FOUNDER OF HASTINGS ANALYSIS
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS BOOK
USING THIS BOOK
THE STYLE OF PUBLICATION
NOTE ON STRUCTURE
DEFINITIONS
DISCLAIMER
PART ONE: THE UNITED STATES LEGAL SYSTEM IN PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 1-1 The Common Law Tradition
Section 1-1-1 The Case Law Method – Stare Decisis
Section 1-1-2 Codes of Laws and Regulations
Section 1-1-3 Uniform State Laws
Chapter 1-2 The Federal and State System
Section 1-2-1 The United States Constitution
Section 1-2-2 The Federal Government
Section 1-2-3 The Legislative Branch – Congress
Section 1-2-4 The Executive Branch – President and Departments
Section 1-2-5 The Judicial Branch – Federal Courts
Section 1-2-6 Enactment of Laws
Section 1-2-7 The State and Local Governments
Chapter 1-3 The Court System and Alternate Dispute Resolutions
Section 1-3-1 The Courts Established by the Federal Government
Section 1-3-2 The State and Local Courts
Section 1-3-3 Alternate Dispute Resolution
PART TWO: ESTABLISHING A BUSINESS IN THE UNITED STATES
Chapter 2-1 The Concept of the Business Entity
Chapter 2-2 The State Business Entity Statutes
Section 2-2-1 Choosing a Business Entity
Section 2-2-2 Choosing a State for Formation
Section 2-2-3 Domestic and Foreign Business Entities
Section 2-2-4 Mandatory and Default Provisions in State Statutes
Chapter 2-3 The Doctrine of Limited Liability
Section 2-3-1 Limited Liability – Wrongful Act
Section 2-3-2 Limited Liability – Disregarded
PART THREE: CORPORATIONS
Chapter 3-1 The C Corporation
Section 3-1-1 The Attributes
Section 3-1-2 Articles of Incorporation – Mandatory Provisions
Section 3-1-3 Articles of Incorporation – Permissive Mandatory Provisions
Section 3-1-4 Governance and Management
Chapter 3-2 Other Corporations
Section 3-2-1 S Corporation
Section 3-2-2 Statutory Close Corporation
Section 3-2-3 Professional Corporation and Professional Association
Section 3-2-4 Nonprofit Corporation
PART FOUR: UNINCORPORATED BUSINESS ENTITIES
Chapter 4-1 General Partnership
Section 4-1-1 Formation
Section 4-1-2 Governance and Management
Section 4-1-3 Dissociation
Section 4-1-4 Dissolution and Liquidation
Section 4-1-5 Taxation
Chapter 4-2 Limited Liability Partnership
Chapter 4-3 Limited Partnership
Chapter 4-4 Limited Liability Limited Partnership
Chapter 4-5 The Limited Liability Company
Section 4-5-1 Terminology
Section 4-5-2 Attributes
Section 4-5-3 Formation
Section 4-5-4 Management
Section 4-5-5 The Operating Agreement
Section 4-5-6 The Operating Agreement – Selected Provisions
Section 4-5-7 General Fiduciary Duties of Members
Section 4-5-8 Specific Fiduciary – Contractual Covenant of Good Faith
Section 4-5-9 Indemnification
Section 4-5-10 Rights of Oppressed Minority Members and Derivative Actions
Section 4-5-11 Series of Membership Interests
Section 4-5-12 Dissolution and Liquidation
Section 4-5-13 Taxation
Chapter 4-6 Business Trust
Section 4-6-1 The Attributes
Section 4-6-2 Formation
Section 4-6-3 Governing Instrument
Chapter 4-7 Cooperatives
Chapter 4-8 Unincorporated Nonprofit Association
Chapter 4-9 The Corporation Transparency Act (CTA)
PART FIVE: LABOR RELATIONS
Chapter 5-1 “At Will” Employees
Chapter 5-2 Employee Under Contract
Chapter 5-3 Independent Contractors
Chapter 5-4 Unemployment Insurance
Chapter 5-5 Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
Section 5-5-1 Executive Exemption
Section 5-5-2 Administrative Exemption
Section 5-5-3 Professional Exemption
Section 5-5-4 Highly Compensated Employee Exemption
Section 5-5-5 Computer Employee Exemption
Chapter 5-6 Unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements
PART SIX: RAISING INVESTMENT CAPITAL
Chapter 6-1 Debt Financing
Chapter 6-2 Equity Financing
Chapter 6-3 Securities Law
Chapter 6-4 Crowdfunding
Chapter 6-5 Non-U.S. Issuers
PART SEVEN: NON-IMMIGRANT BUSINESS IMMIGRATION
Chapter 7-1 Visa Waiver Program
Chapter 7-2 B-1 (Business Visitor) and B-2 (Tourist) Visas
Chapter 7-3 Temporary Workers (H, P and O Visas)
Chapter 7-4 Intra-Company Transferee (L-1A, L-1B Visa)
Section 7-4-1 Foreign National Qualifications
Section 7-4-2 Non-U.S. Company Qualifications
Section 7-4-3 Time and Renewals
Chapter 7-5 Treaty Trader (E-1 Visa)
Section 7-5-1 Conditions
Section 7-5-2 Procedure
Chapter 7-6 Treaty Investor (E-2 Visa)
Section 7-6-1 Conditions
Section 7-6-2 Procedure
Chapter 7-7 Employment First Preference (EB-1 Visa)
Chapter 7-8 E-3 Visa Specialty Occupation Workers (Australian Citizens Only)
Section 7-8-1 Conditions
Section 7-8-2 Labor Condition Application
Chapter 7-9 Canadian Visas
Chapter 7-10 Alien Entrepreneur (EB-5 Visa)
Chapter 7-11 International Entrepreneur Rule Parole Program (IER)
Section 7-11-1 Parole Authority
Section 7-11-2 Standards
PART EIGHT: IMPORTING INTO THE UNITED STATES
Chapter 8-1 Means of Importation
Section 8-1-1 Representative
Section 8-1-2 Distributor
Chapter 8-2 U.S. Customs and Border Protection: Entry of Goods
Section 8-2-1 Importer of Record
Section 8-2-2 Entry Documents
Section 8-2-3 Examination of Goods
Section 8-2-4 Classification and Customs Duties
Section 8-2-5 Goods Which Require Entry Permission of other Government Agencies
Chapter 8-3 Marking
Section 8-3-1 Country of Origin Marking
Section 8-3-2 Special Marking
Chapter 8-4 Intellectual Property Rights – Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents
Chapter 8-5 U.S. Free Trade Agreements
PART NINE: SELLING WITHIN AND EXPORTING FROM THE UNITED STATES
Chapter 9-1 Interstate Commerce
Chapter 9-2 Contracts of Sale
Chapter 9-3 Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)
Chapter 9-4 Exporting from the United States
Section 9-4-1 Export Controls
Section 9-4-2 Export Licensing
PART TEN: FRANCHISING IN THE UNITED STATES
Chapter 10-1 Definition of a Franchise
Chapter 10-2 Factors Demonstrating a Franchise Relationship
Section 10-2-1 Franchises Distinguished from Other Legal Relationships
Chapter 10-3 Federal Trade Commission (FCC) Franchise Rule
Section 10-3-1 Contents of the FDD
Section 10-3-2 Penalties for Violation
Chapter 10-4 State Regulation
Section 10-4-1 Registration of the FDD
Section 10-4-2 No Registration; Termination/Non-Renewal Provisions
Section 10-4-3 Exemption from Registration
Section 10-4-4 Penalties for Violation
Section 10-4-5 Time for Providing FDD to Potential Franchisee
PART ELEVEN: DOING BUSINESS ON THE INTERNET
Chapter 11-1 Using a Website
Chapter 11-2 Internet and Jurisdiction of Courts
Chapter 11-3 Electronic Contracts
Section 11-3-1 Definition of an Electronic Contract
Section 11-3-2 Determining the Time of Acceptance – “Mail Box” Rule
Section 11-3-3 Terms of the Electronic Contract
Section 11-3-4 Forming an Electronic Contract by Automated Means on a Website
Section 11-3-5 Signing the Electronic Contract
Section 11-3-6 Duty to Read – Presumption of Knowing Assent
Section 11-3-7 Emails as Contracts
Section 11-3-8 State Sales Tax on Sales of Goods and Services over the Internet
PART TWELVE: UNITED STATES TAXATION OF FOREIGN NATIONALS
Chapter 12-1 Resident Foreign National
Section 12-1-1 Lawful Permanent Resident – “Green Card” Status
Section 12-1-2 Substantial Physical Presence in the U.S.
Section 12-1-3 Tax Treaties
Chapter 12-2 Non-Resident Foreign National
Section 12-2-1 U.S. Source Income Not Effectively Connected with U.S. Trade or Business
Section 12-2-2 U.S. Source Income Effectively Connected with U.S. Trade or Business
Section 12-2-3 State Taxation of Foreign Nationals
Section 12-2-4 Employment Identification Number for Business Entities
Section 12-2-5 International Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) for Individuals
PART THIRTEEN: BANKS AND BANKING
Chapter 13-1 Banks in General
Chapter 13-2 Bank Operations
Section 13-2-1 Know Your Customer Guidelines
Section 13-2-2 A Personal Bank Account for a Non-U.S. Person
Section 13-2-3 A Business Account for a U.S. Business Entity by a Non-U.S. Person
PART FOURTEEN: BUSINESS CONTRACTS
Chapter 14-1 Contracts in General
Section 14-1-1 Contract Law in Perspective
Chapter 14-2 Types of Contracts
Section 14-2-1 “Bargained For” Exchange
Section 14-2-2 Paymaster Contracts
Chapter 14-3 Smart Contracts
Section 14-3-1 Smart Contracts in Perspective
Section 14-3-2 The Smart Contract Must Still be Drafted
PART FIFTEEN: INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS
Chapter 15-1 United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG)
Section 15-1-1 CISG Governs
Section 15-1-2 CISG Does Not Apply
Chapter 15-2 The UNIDROIT Principles of Commercial Contracts
Section 15-2-1 CISG and UNIDROIT Principles Compared
Chapter 15-3 Selected Terms and Conditions in International Companies
PART SIXTEEN: INTERNATIONAL OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS
Chapter 16-1 International Official Documents in Perspective
Chapter 16-2 Apostilles- Signatories to the Hague Convention
Section 16-2-1 Competent Authority
Chapter 16-3 Authentication and Legalization – Non-Signatories to the Hague Convention
Section 16-3-1 Authentication
Section 16-3-2 Legalization
Section 16-3-3 Types of Documents
Chapter 16-4 Civil Law Notary, U.S. Notary Public and U.S. Civil Law Notary
Section 16-4-1 Civil Law Notary
Section 16-4-2 U.S. Notary Public
Section 16-4-3 Civil Law Notary in the U.S.