The E-2 nonimmigrant classification allows a national of a treaty country to be admitted to the United States when investing a substantial amount of capital in a U.S. business.  

A treaty investor may be eligible for E2 visa if he or she 1) has invested, or be actively in the process of investing, a substantial amount of capital in a bona fide enterprise in the United States and is seeking to enter the United States solely to develop and direct the investment enterprise.  

An investment is the treaty investor’s placing of capital, including funds and/or other assets, at risk in the commercial sense with the objective of generating a profit.  The capital must be subject to partial or total loss if the investment fails.  The treaty investor must show that the funds have not been obtained, directly or indirectly, from criminal activity.

The investor must have invested or in the process to invest substantial amount in the enterprise, i.e, start up cost of operating the business in planning. 

In addition, The investment enterprise may not be one that does not have the present or future capacity to generate more than enough income to provide a minimal living for the treaty investor and his or her family.  Depending on the facts, a new enterprise might not be considered marginal even if it lacks the current capacity to generate such income.  In such cases, however, the enterprise should have the capacity to generate such income within five years from the date that the treaty investor’s E-2 classification begins.