An eligible treaty national must invest, or be actively investing, substantial capital in a real U.S. enterprise and come to develop and direct it. The investment must be at risk and the business must be more than marginal.
Test the complete business arrangement
No single factor resolves eligibility. A large bank balance does not prove commitment, and owning a company does not automatically prove qualifying nationality or control. Review the source of capital, actual spending, ownership rights and commercial plan together.
E-2 remains a nonimmigrant category and requires intent to depart when status ends. Several familiar assumptions sit outside what the category actually tests. Hypothetical example: A founder plans a U.S.
market research firm, holds treaty nationality, and expects that a strong balance sheet and a signed lease settle the question. They do not: the analysis asks whether the capital is irrevocably committed and at risk, whether the enterprise is real and operating rather than idle, whether it is more than marginal, and whether this investor genuinely develops and directs it. Nor does E-2 test business quality — a promising plan can fail these conditions while a modest one satisfies them.
Treat the criteria as a checklist of separate conditions, each needing its own evidence, rather than as a general impression the reviewer forms from the whole proposal.