IN THIS GUIDE · Startup readiness before the first sale
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify the launch dependencies
List what must exist before the first customer can be served: the product or service, equipment, permissions, suppliers and people. Some enterprises need premises; others need a working delivery system. Treat these as factual dependencies. A registration and a website can support the story but do not demonstrate that the business can actually perform.
Separate intention from commitment
A startup budget describes intended spending; E-2 evidence must show investment or an active process of investing. Link payments and binding arrangements to the business. Explain refundable reservations and remaining conditions accurately. Funds left available for personal use are different from capital placed at commercial risk, even when a bank statement shows enough to fund the whole plan.
Give forecasts a commercial foundation
With no historical sales, the assumptions carry more weight. Explain pricing, customer acquisition, delivery capacity and recurring expenses. Distinguish signed customer commitments from enquiries. The plan should address the enterprise’s capacity beyond supporting a minimal living for the investor and family, without inventing guaranteed customers or a universal number of required hires.
Make the investor’s role concrete
Describe the decisions the investor will control during launch and after trading begins. Identify who will deliver the service, handle administration and supervise suppliers. The file should connect that role to ownership and governance documents. Outsourcing tasks can be compatible with a real business, but it does not remove the need to show development and direction.
Confirm nationality before the money moves
E-2 rests on treaty nationality, and nationality is not the same as residence. The investor must be a national of a country with which the United States maintains a qualifying treaty, and the enterprise must be at least fifty percent owned by nationals of that same treaty country. A permanent resident of Canada who holds another citizenship is assessed on the citizenship, not the residence, and a business whose ownership is split among several nationalities may not meet the threshold even when the active founder qualifies. Establish this first, because it determines whether the rest of the analysis is worth doing. Where ownership is held through a holding company or a trust, the nationality question generally follows through to the individuals behind it, so ask counsel to trace the chain rather than accepting the operating company’s incorporation certificate as the answer.
Distinguish money spent from money at risk
Two tests sit behind the investment requirement and they are often merged. The capital must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise, and it must be at risk in the commercial sense — subject to partial or total loss if the business fails. Money sitting in a company bank account that the founder could withdraw tomorrow generally satisfies neither. Money spent on equipment with little resale value outside the venture tends to satisfy both, which is why purchase records carry weight. Work through the budget line by line and mark each item accordingly. Hypothetical example: a specialty coffee roastery that has paid for a roaster, a leasehold fit-out and a first green-bean contract can show commitment differently from one holding the same total as an unspent balance. The enterprise must also be more than marginal, meaning it should have the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.