Strong Immigration Law Firms for U.S. Market Entry in 2026

A company entering the U.S. market has to prove its eligibility. Are the founders treaty-country nationals? Does a foreign operating company exist? How will the U.S. entity be owned? The route depends on corporate structure.

That’s why market entry differs from other immigration work.

E-1 and E-2 are only open to treaty-country nationals and U.S. businesses that are at least 50% owned by treaty nationals. A new office L-1A requires a qualifying foreign entity and one year of executive or managerial work abroad in the prior three years. O-1A is judged on the individual’s record, not ownership, but still requires a U.S. petitioner—founders can’t self-petition.

A firm advising on market entry should be able to work across all of them.

This guide covers immigration firms that advise on market-entry work in 2026. All information on firms other than Manifest is sourced from each firm's publicly available website, as of August 6, 2026.

How These Firms Were Selected

Every claim about a firm below comes from that firm's own public website. Firms were included where their own site publishes work on at least one market-entry route, and each was assessed on the same four criteria: whether the provider is a law firm, which market-entry routes it publishes, whether it publishes pricing, and how it is structured to serve a company setting up U.S. operations.

This is not a ranking, and the order below carries no judgment about quality.

Which Immigration Firms Handle U.S. Market Entry in 2026?

The table compares each provider on the four criteria above, as of August 6, 2026. "Not published" means the firm does not publicly disclose this information.

Two patterns come out of the table. What gets published about price varies more than whether anything is published at all: one firm posts flat fees per matter, another a UK rate card it is required to post, another a fee structure with no figures attached.

A company comparing options is rarely comparing like with like. And the treaty-investor routes show up at the firms that also run corporate and investment practices, rather than at the provider built around a founder's own record.

Manifest Law

Manifest Law is an immigration law firm for companies and founders establishing U.S. operations, covering the E-2 treaty investor visa, L-1A transfers including new office petitions, O-1A, and the EB-1C green card for multinational managers and executives. Because the four routes sit in one practice, the eligibility question can be answered before a route is chosen, which matters when treaty nationality rules out the E-2 or a missing foreign entity rules out the L-1A.

Corporate cases are staffed by attorneys the firm employs directly as W-2s, not outside co-counsel, with a named attorney of record and a minimum two-attorney review before filing. New office petitions and E-2 filings both turn on documentary work the firm controls: the business plan, the ownership record, evidence of the U.S. premises, and the corporate relationship between the foreign company and the new U.S. entity.

Pricing is a per-case flat fee, published for individual matters and quoted on a rate sheet for corporate programs, so a company can budget market entry alongside the rest of its setup costs. The client portal Manifest built in-house gives founders and people teams live case status, milestones, and deadlines in one place, and the firm is SOC 2 Type II compliant.

Manifest's strengths as a law firm are well-suited for: Companies and founders opening U.S. operations that want the treaty-investor and intracompany routes weighed by one firm before a filing strategy is set, with published flat pricing and a single firm through to the green card that follows.

Fragomen

Fragomen, whose U.S. entity is Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP, practises immigration only, and lists L-1 intracompany transferee, E-1 and E-2, O-1, H-1B, TN, and E-3 among its U.S. employment categories. The firm has coverage across 170+ countries and describes more than 70 offices and more than 5,500 immigration-focused professionals and staff, along with corporate immigration program development and immigration compliance covering government site visits and I-9 employment verification.

Fragomen's strengths as a law firm are well-suited for: Companies whose U.S. entry is one leg of a wider international move, where the outbound and inbound work is handled through one firm's own overseas offices.

Greenberg Traurig

Greenberg Traurig, LLP provides guidance on H-1B, L-1, O-1, E-2, EB-1, EB-2, EB-3, and EB-5 classifications, and states it has more than 150 immigration professionals worldwide within a firm of 51 locations. The firm describes collaborating across its employment, corporate, real estate, and litigation practices, and for EB-5 work specifically draws on immigration, corporate, real estate, regulatory compliance, tax, and litigation capabilities.

Greenberg Traurig's strengths as a law firm are well-suited for: Companies whose U.S. entry involves real estate, tax, or EB-5 investment questions alongside the visa, and that want those practices inside the same firm.

Klasko Immigration Law Partners

Klasko Immigration Law Partners, LLP publishes an investment immigration practice covering EB-5 and E-2, and states its team "has also creatively used other visa options for more entrepreneurial immigrant investors, like L visas or even H-1B visas." The firm operates from Philadelphia, New York, and Washington, D.C., and describes an approach in which an investor visa lawyer with corporate immigration knowledge can offer a holistic set of options.

Klasko's strengths as a law firm are well-suited for: Investors weighing EB-5 against a nonimmigrant treaty route, who want an investment-immigration practice that handles both.

Beyond Border

Beyond Border states on its own site that it is "not a law firm" and describes itself as an immigration platform working with a curated network of U.S. immigration attorneys, with legal services provided by those independent contracted attorneys. It focuses on U.S. O-1, EB-1, EB-2 NIW, and L-1 cases, publishes a service fee of $8,000 to $10,000 depending on category and complexity, excluding government fees and third-party costs, and lists a presence across the United States, United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Nigeria.

Beyond Border's strengths as a provider are well-suited for: Individual founders and executives pursuing the O-1 or EB-1 routes who want a published service fee and are comfortable with an engagement where the attorney is contracted through a network.

What Market Entry Asks of a Firm That a Single Petition Does Not

Three pieces of the work sit outside the petition itself.

• Sequencing the entity and the visa. An E-2 is built around a U.S. business the investor has capitalised or has irrevocably committed capital to, and a new office L-1A is filed by the U.S. entity itself, so the corporate formation and the immigration timeline have to be planned as one sequence. Getting the ownership split wrong at formation can close off the E-2 later.
• Testing eligibility against nationality and structure. Treaty nationality, the ownership percentage held by treaty nationals, and the existence and age of the foreign entity all gate which routes are open. That assessment comes before any strategy discussion, and it can rule out the route a company assumed it would use.
• Writing to a business plan that will be re-read. A new office L-1A is approved for up to one year, and the extension has to show the U.S. entity has actually been doing business for that year, with staffing and financials to match. In both, the first filing sets expectations the business has to have met by the time anyone looks again.

These are general observations. Which route fits depends on nationality, ownership, and the shape of the business, so the assessment belongs with counsel before anything is filed.

What Are the 2026 Government Filing Fees for Market-Entry Visas?

Government fees depend on the route and on where the application is filed, and they sit apart from the investment itself and from legal fees. Manifest breaks the E-2 picture down in its guide to E-2 visa costs.

For an E-2 filed at a consulate abroad, the nonimmigrant visa application (MRV) fee is $315 per applicant, plus a reciprocity fee for some nationalities. For an E-2 filed with USCIS from inside the United States, the Form I-129 fee is $510 for a small employer or nonprofit and $1,015 otherwise, or $965 if you file online, plus an Asylum Program Fee of $300 for a small employer, $0 for a nonprofit, and $600 otherwise.

Government filing fees for an E-2 therefore run about $315 for the consular route, or roughly $510 to $1,615 for a USCIS filing, depending on employer size and whether you file online or on paper. The investment itself is separate: there is no statutory minimum dollar figure, and the test is whether the investment is substantial relative to the business and the business more than marginal.

For a new office L-1A, the Form I-129 fee is $1,385, or $695 for a nonprofit or a small employer with 25 or fewer full-time-equivalent U.S. employees, counting affiliates and subsidiaries, plus an Asylum Program Fee of $600, or $300 for a small employer and $0 for a nonprofit, plus a $500 Fraud Prevention and Detection fee on an initial petition. That comes to $2,485 for a standard employer, $1,495 for a small employer, and $1,195 for a nonprofit. Optional premium processing adds $2,965, within which USCIS must act on the petition in 15 business days, though that action can be a request for evidence rather than a decision.

These figures are accurate as of August 6, 2026. USCIS fees have been subject to recent rulemaking, so confirm the current schedule in USCIS Form G-1055 and with counsel before filing.

Plan Your U.S. Market Entry With Manifest

The expensive mistakes in market entry happen before a petition is drafted, when an entity is formed with an ownership split that forecloses the E-2 or a timeline is set that assumes a route the founders were never eligible for. Manifest works the eligibility question first, across the treaty and intracompany routes together, then prices the filing as a flat fee a company can plan around and runs it through a two-attorney review with one named attorney accountable for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which visa does a foreign company use to open a U.S. office?

There are two principal routes, plus a fallback. The E-2 treaty investor visa suits a company whose owners hold the nationality of a treaty country and who are investing in the U.S. business, and it is renewable indefinitely while the business operates. The new office L-1A suits a company that already operates outside the United States and is transferring an executive or manager who worked there for one continuous year within the preceding three years, and it is approved for up to one year initially. Where neither fits, the O-1A depends on the individual's record instead of the corporate structure. Which one applies is decided by nationality, ownership, and whether a qualifying foreign entity exists.

Can a founder from India or China get an E-2 visa?

Not on Indian or Chinese nationality alone. The E-2 is available only to nationals of countries that hold a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation with the United States, and neither India nor the People's Republic of China is on that list. Eligibility turns on nationality rather than birthplace or residence, so a founder who also holds the nationality of a treaty country, Grenada and Turkey among them, can qualify. Taiwan, listed as "China (Taiwan)," is on the list for both E-1 and E-2. Manifest maintains the current list in its guide to E-2 visa treaty countries.

Does the U.S. entity need to exist before filing?

For both the E-2 and the new office L-1A, yes. An E-2 case is built around a U.S. business into which the investor has invested, or is actively in the process of investing, capital that is irrevocably committed, and a new office L-1A is filed by the U.S. entity as petitioner and is expected to show secured physical premises and a business plan supporting the executive role within a year. That ordering is why entity formation, the ownership split, and the immigration filing are worth planning as one sequence.

Does it matter whether the provider is a law firm?

It is worth confirming before engaging one. Some providers in this category are technology companies that coordinate independent attorneys, which affects who the attorney of record is and whether the engagement carries attorney-client privilege. In market entry the question carries extra weight, because the advice touches entity ownership and corporate structure and not the petition alone. The practical step is to ask whether you are engaging a law firm, who the named attorney is, and what the fee covers if a Request for Evidence arrives.

Disclaimer. This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Reading it, or contacting Manifest Law through this site, does not create an attorney-client relationship. Information about other providers is taken from each provider's publicly available website as of August 6, 2026, and may be incomplete or out of date; confirm current services, fees, and details directly with each provider. Manifest Law is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any other provider named here. Immigration law changes frequently, and the information here is current only as of the publication date. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. This communication is attorney advertising.