Identify the licence rights and restrictions
Hypothetical example: an applicant plans to buy a business whose software licence belongs to the seller personally and cannot be assumed transferred. Read the licence, transfer conditions and relevant approvals. Distinguish access to a system from a right to operate the proposed U.S. enterprise using it. Hypothetical example: an investor is acquiring a refrigeration-monitoring company, but the sensor platform licence remains conditional on the vendor approving a new account. The buyer should identify the approval deadline, service consequences and any alternative system before describing the company as operating. A proposed consent is not the same thing as a right already available to the enterprise.
Explain the enterprise under the secured rights
Describe the services, customers, operating resources and applicant’s role. Identify what depends on a new licence or consent. Non-marginality and substantiality require the actual business and investment facts; there is no universal minimum that resolves a missing operating right. Test the forecast against the actual costs of the secured business, including staff, equipment, customer contracts and any rights that must still be obtained. The central decision is whether the enterprise can operate on the documented plan and is more than a means to support the investor alone. A revenue projection should explain its inputs rather than supply an unsupported conclusion.
Trace the commitment and funds
Document ownership, qualifying nationality, development-and-direction authority, lawful source and actual payment path. Read deposits, escrow and refund conditions specifically. A proposed technology licence is not automatically committed capital, and an expensive valuation does not establish the applicant’s rights or an immigration outcome. Capital must be bound beyond unilateral recovery: it must remain committed and at risk of commercial loss. A conditional arrangement needs careful reading before it is counted. Trace each transfer starting with lawful-source evidence and ending at the business obligation. If money may be returned without a genuine loss exposure, identify that condition instead of treating every deposit as the same.
Establish treaty ownership and lawful funding
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country. Trace the actual ownership chain and the lawful source and path of the investment capital. Applicant residence is not a substitute for nationality, and a bank receipt alone may not establish ownership or funding history. Development and direction ordinarily require at least 50% ownership or operational control by the investor. E-2 remains nonimmigrant and supplies no direct route to permanent residence. Confirm the treaty-country nationality of the persons who actually own the enterprise and the investor’s authority to direct its development. A nominee, informal manager or unexplained intermediate company can change the analysis. The file must permit a reviewing officer to trace ownership and control without inferring either from residence, a bank balance, or a commercial title.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.