IN THIS GUIDE · Exactly half the shares, and whether storage buildings are a real operating enterprise
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Fifty percent meets the nationality rule, and leaves nothing to spare
The enterprise must be at least fifty percent owned by nationals of the treaty country, so a fifty-fifty split with an American co-owner sits precisely on the threshold rather than comfortably above it. That has two consequences worth planning for. Any later dilution, share issue or transfer that drops Colette below half removes the basis of the status, so the shareholders agreement should anticipate it. And because ownership is counted by nationality, the citizenship of every holder has to be documented, including anyone holding shares through another company. Where the split is exact, the paperwork proving who owns what and when it was acquired becomes the foundation of the whole application rather than an administrative detail.
Ownership at fifty percent still has to produce control
The investor must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least half or by holding operational control through a managerial position or other device. At exactly fifty percent, ownership alone can satisfy the usual formulation, but a deadlock structure in which neither owner can act without the other is worth examining before it is signed. Practical control is easier to evidence when the constitutional documents say something concrete: that Colette is the managing member, that she holds the casting vote on operations, or that day-to-day management is contractually hers. Silence in the agreement is not fatal, but it turns a documentary question into an argument.
Real and operating, and not marginal, are two separate hurdles
The enterprise must be a real, active commercial undertaking producing goods or services, which excludes idle speculative holdings and undeveloped property. Storage buildings collecting rent with no staff resemble passive real estate; a managed facility with staff, contracts, sales activity and services sold to customers looks like an operating business. Separately, the investment must not be marginal, meaning it must have the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family. Evidence for that comes from filed historical figures where a business is being bought, and from a business plan with a defensible staffing projection where it is being built. Funds must also be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk, and substantial relative to the total cost of the undertaking.
What the category does not offer
E-2 is a nonimmigrant classification tied to the enterprise and to continued qualification. It can be extended while the business continues to meet the conditions, and it offers no direct path to permanent residence, so an investor who wants that outcome must find a separate immigrant route on its own merits. A spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, which for a household relying on two incomes is often the deciding practical feature. Children hold derivative status, may study, may not work, and cease to qualify at twenty-one. If the business is sold or ceases to operate, the basis for the status ends with it, which is worth understanding before a family builds a permanent plan on a temporary classification.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.