IN THIS GUIDE · Assess the operating enterprise behind outsourced services
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify what the investor will direct
Hypothetical example: a business outsources order delivery and administrative work. Describe its actual goods or services, ownership and the applicant’s management rights. Qualifying treaty nationality of applicant and enterprise matters, generally including at least 50% enterprise ownership by nationals of the relevant treaty country.
Support real operations and nonmarginality
Assess whether the enterprise is real and operating and has capacity beyond a minimal living for the investor and family or for a significant economic contribution. Provider availability alone does not establish business activity or capacity. Do not import EB-5’s job number or investment thresholds into E-2.
Identify actual committed capital and financing
Review substantial lawful capital committed at risk relative to the enterprise, without a universal fixed minimum. Trace source and path. Personal-asset-secured or unsecured loans may qualify; debt secured by enterprise assets does not qualify as invested capital. A provider expense should not automatically be assumed to establish the entire capital analysis. Debt secured partly by enterprise assets is excluded even when personal assets are also pledged; personal-only secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify on its actual terms.
Review genuine agreements and conditions
Describe what services are secured, what remains conditional and the actual investment stage. A qualifying visa-contingent escrow may matter. Do not present unsigned intentions as existing operations or assume a commercial contract grants U.S. employment permission. Debt secured partly by enterprise assets is excluded even when personal assets are also pledged; personal-only secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify on its actual terms.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country; the applicant’s passport alone does not establish enterprise nationality. Nonmarginality includes capacity to provide more than a minimal living for the investor and family, with the alternative of a significant economic contribution. Apply those conditions to the real operating proposal rather than importing EB-5’s capital amounts or ten-job rule into E-2. The investor must also intend to depart when E status ends; business ownership does not replace that individual requirement. If relying on future capacity, it should generally be realizable within five years after normal business activity begins.
Committed funds and real control, alongside the marginality question
The investor must develop and direct the enterprise, ordinarily demonstrated by owning at least half of it or by having operational control through a managerial position or another device. Funds paid into an escrow that releases only on visa issuance can count as committed if the terms make the commitment irrevocable on approval; a refundable deposit does not. The evidence that answers marginality is payroll: employees already on the books of an acquired business, or a staffing plan in a new one with dates, roles and wage figures that the enterprise's projected revenue can actually carry. A seller-financed note secured by the business's own assets is generally not counted as investment because the enterprise, not the investor, bears the risk; a note personally guaranteed and secured by the buyer's Canadian house is a different picture. E-2 capital must be placed irrevocably into the enterprise and exposed to risk of loss; the enterprise also cannot be marginal. Substantiality is evaluated in relation to the cost of the enterprise, so a budget should distinguish acquisition price, equipment, inventory, start-up expenditure and working capital.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.