IN THIS GUIDE · Staffing plans and non-marginality evidence
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Start with work that must be done
Describe the functions required to serve customers and operate the enterprise. Identify what the investor directs, what staff deliver and what outside providers handle. This gives hiring assumptions a business foundation. A list of future job titles without duties, cost or demand evidence does not explain why those roles will exist. Start with the customer journey and calculate the tasks required before naming employees. Contracts, bookings, supplier terms, and capacity records are stronger than a generic hiring chart. Hypothetical example: a marine electronics calibration shop may show that a technician is needed once scheduled vessel work exceeds the investor’s available hours.
Link recruitment to revenue and capacity
Show when demand or operating needs justify each role and how wages and related costs will be funded. Existing payroll and staffing records support an operating business; startups need credible assumptions. Avoid assuming every planned hire begins immediately if the forecast cannot fund it or the business does not yet have work for that role. Tie each proposed payroll date to revenue, cash reserves, or a documented funding event. A forecast is more credible when it shows the month in which the business can meet the obligation. The decision is whether to defer a hire rather than present a cost the enterprise cannot actually carry.
Use the correct non-marginality standard
The inquiry concerns present or future capacity beyond minimal support for the investor and family, with the applicable significant-economic-contribution analysis also relevant. Employment evidence can support that assessment, but E-2 is not an EB-5 job-counting program. Do not import a ten-job rule or promise approval based on a staffing number. Review the business as a whole, including likely growth, rather than treating a headcount as a pass-fail rule. The non-marginality analysis concerns capacity beyond supporting the investor’s household at a minimal level. Employment can be relevant evidence without becoming a numerical promise.
Reconcile the investor’s role
Show how the investor develops and directs the enterprise in the real staffing model. If the owner initially performs some delivery work, describe that accurately instead of inventing a mature management hierarchy. The forecast and role explanation should agree about who does the work during launch and as the enterprise grows. Compare the investor’s planned week with the staffing model and correct either document if they conflict. Developing and directing the enterprise must be real, not a label added after the operation has been designed. Keep the ownership evidence and the business plan aligned on who controls the company.
Update the staffing case as the business actually staffs
A staffing plan is a statement about the future and it dates quickly, so decide at the outset how it will be maintained. Record which roles are filled, which are actively being recruited and which remain projections, and refresh those categories as hiring proceeds rather than filing the original forecast unchanged. Where a hire does not happen, note why and what the business did instead, because an unexplained gap between plan and payroll is more damaging than a plan revised openly. Keep the investor own role consistent with the current staffing position, since a founder who has absorbed unfilled duties is describing a different operation from the one the forecast assumed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.