Yes, legitimate gifts can be a source of E-2 capital. The applicant still needs to demonstrate lawful source, possession and control, and an actual qualifying investment in the enterprise.
Review the substance of the gift
Document the donor’s source and the transfer, and disclose repayment obligations or rights that make the arrangement something other than an unconditional gift. Receipt of family money does not by itself establish control of the company or a substantial at-risk commitment. Assess those elements separately alongside nationality, development and direction, and the business’s real operating capacity.
Gifted funds can support an investment, and the analysis then turns on substance rather than on the label. Two questions matter most. Has the money genuinely become the investor's own, transferred without expectation of repayment or return and documented as such?
And does the arrangement leave the investor able to develop and direct the enterprise, or has the donor retained influence that sits awkwardly with that requirement? Ask both directly and ask the donor separately, since families frequently hold understandings that nobody has articulated. Where the reality is a loan, or a gift conditional on the donor having a say, the arrangement should be documented and assessed as what it is.
The remaining requirements are unaffected by the source: treaty nationality, capital irrevocably committed and at risk, and an enterprise that is more than marginal.