Skip to content
CHISHOLM · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

Can a Chisholm contractor qualify for E-2 with a forty-five percent stake?

Sources checked:

THE DIRECT ANSWER

Not as structured. The enterprise must be at least fifty percent owned by nationals of the treaty country, and a minority stake beneath an American majority owner does not meet that test. The develop-and-direct requirement fails on the same facts.

Ownership is the gate, and nothing behind it is examined until it opens

Two requirements bite at once here, and both are about who holds the enterprise rather than about how good the business is. Nationality of the enterprise is measured by ownership: at least half must be held by nationals of the treaty country, and Jonas alone at forty-five percent does not reach that. Develop and direct is met ordinarily by owning at least half, or by demonstrating operational control through the governing documents.

Three fixes exist and each changes the commercial deal. An equal split with genuine negative control for each side. A majority stake, which costs Jonas more money.

Or a control structure written into the voting and management provisions, which means lawyers on both sides and a seller willing to accept it. Raising this at the start is better than amending a signed agreement, because a structure rebuilt after the fact reads as arranged for the application.