Read the general investor planning overview
Only the investor’s supported qualifying commitment belongs in the investment analysis. A donor’s wealth or promise to help later is different from funds actually transferred into the investor’s possession and control and committed to the business. Build the budget around the real gift transaction, not the family’s combined resources.
Identify the completed transfer
Document the gift terms, lawful source and the investor’s receipt of the funds. Explain any conditions or continuing donor control accurately. A statement that a relative can provide additional money does not establish that the investor has already invested it. Counsel should review the actual arrangement before its amount is included in a capital schedule.
Separate available support from investment
A family may keep additional reserves for emergencies or future expansion. Show those resources separately from the funds claimed as committed capital. Do not add a donor’s entire account balance to improve the substantiality calculation. If later contributions occur, preserve their own source and transfer records and assess how they enter the enterprise rather than assuming an earlier gift explanation covers them.
Match the funded plan to the gift
Compare the documented amount with the acquisition or startup costs it will pay. If a gap remains, identify the actual funding source instead of presenting informal family support as a completed transaction. The investment budget should also leave personal living needs visible. A genuine gift can explain funding but does not establish nationality, operational control or non-marginality by itself.
Separate what was given from what remains available
A donor's willingness to help further is not a resource the enterprise holds, and combining a completed gift with the donor's remaining savings produces a figure that overstates the investment. Show only what has actually been transferred and applied. Where the donor has indicated they would provide more if required, record that as context rather than as capital, and be clear in any schedule which amounts have moved and which have not. This also matters commercially: a plan that assumes further family support has a dependency on somebody else's continuing goodwill, and that dependency should be visible to whoever is assessing whether the enterprise can operate.
Size the plan to the funds actually received
Where a business plan was prepared on an assumption about the total available and the gift ultimately provided less, the plan needs revising rather than presenting alongside a smaller commitment. Reconcile the two explicitly: what the plan requires, what has been provided, and how any difference is to be met. Where the shortfall is to be covered by revenue that has not yet been earned or by support that has not yet arrived, identify it as an assumption. A plan matched honestly to the funds available is more persuasive than an ambitious one accompanied by a gap that nobody has addressed, and it is also considerably more useful to the person who has to operate the business.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.