E-2 Immigration re: budgets and L-1/H-1B

Hello There

I am after some information or to put it another way a case study of
anyone who has gone through this proceedure before, I've read up on
all the various Visa's which would be applicable to my situation,
some I am still stetchy on and some I have fairly good idea what
would be required, so to put you in the picture I will give you a
brief outline of what my situation is (without giving too much away
to protect my privacy)

I am 25 and my mother is in her 50's, we have both wanted to move to
America for a long time, after looking at various visa's and the
qualifing statutes that are required for completing such a move, the
only options that seem open would be the E-2 visa, now I am lead to
believe that this would be obtainable via one of two routes applicable
to my situation, that would be firstly to be in the possesion of one
property and in the process of buying another to then start a management
company and gain the qualifing statutes for an E-2 visa as this would
qualify as an enterprise and the property would serve as ample capital
to meet this 'magic $100,000' mark which seems to be required. Now I
realise that this would only be suitable for one of us to qualify via
this route and because I am past the age of 18 I no longer qualify for
being a dependant, so can I obtain a visa to work for the management
company as described above in an executive posistion which would meet
the, either L-1 or H-1B visa (not sure which one) or would this not be
possible. This I would describe as the Florida route, one I am not that
exited about as Florida isn't my ideal destination, but it could be the
old getting the camels nose in the tent route.

The second option which is more preffered would be to open up and Bed
and Breakfast / Motel / RV park in either Arizona, Nevada, California
desert areas. Now for this option I realise that only one would qualify
for the visa which brings up the question of the L-1/H-1B visa option,
but that aside, the problem with route is that our budget doesn't meet
this fabled $100,000 mark, it's not far off it, but here is where the
confusion comes in from all the sources I have read via magazines,
books, trade shows and the internet some say it has to be a minimum of
$100,000 and some say it doesn't have to be $100,000 as long as the
business will attain substantial profit to make up for the shortfall in
intial investment, is this true and as this site is for expats who have
probably been down this route or similar it would be interesting to see
if this achieveable, or do you know of any case studys of something
similar. I realise that each case is different and really it is down to
one person in the immigration office to say yes or no, and that no
matter much you could say it that you wouldn't be there to scrounge off
the system, it would all depend on the business plan but surmise.

1. The Florida route as described above, how successful has that been
for people who have made the move to your knowledge?
2. The L-1/H-1B* visa for me to obtain working rights in the US as an
'executive' of the company, would this work in practise (*delete as
appropiate)
3. The fact that our budget is slightly short (solid cash, not loans)
and what effect would this have on a successful application?

I know this is probably asking a lot and if some of it doesn't make any
sense, but any help in either of the fields mentioned above would be
tremendous.

Thank You

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