IN THIS GUIDE · A start-up must already exist before a treaty application is made
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Real and operating is a present-tense requirement
The enterprise must be a genuine, active commercial undertaking, not an idea, a plan or a company that exists only on a register. For a start-up that means the visible steps have to be taken first: the lease signed, the equipment ordered or installed, the utilities and business licences obtained, insurance bound, a bank account opened and operating, first staff identified or hired. A plan describing all of this in the future tense does not meet the requirement no matter how detailed it is. The practical consequence for a Hampton couple is that they will spend meaningful money before they know whether an application succeeds, which is a risk to price rather than to ignore.
Committed means the money can no longer be reclaimed
Funds sitting in an account labelled for the project are not at risk, because nothing prevents the couple from spending them elsewhere. Money becomes committed when it has been paid for premises, equipment, deposits, inventory and start-up expenses, or placed in escrow on terms the investor cannot unilaterally undo. Keep every invoice, receipt, deposit confirmation and lease payment, and reconcile them to bank records. The total that can be counted is the total actually committed, so a couple who plan a large investment but have spent a fraction of it are applying on the fraction. Where financing is used, personal liability that does not depend on the business assets can generally count; a loan secured only on the equipment being bought generally cannot.
Marginality is where new laundries are tested
The enterprise cannot exist merely to provide a living for the investor and family. With no trading history, a start-up has to meet this through a credible capacity to generate more than that within about five years, and the plan has to be built from something. Letters of intent from hotels or clinics, quoted pricing, machine capacity in kilograms per shift, and a dated hiring schedule tied to specific volumes are the sort of material that makes a forecast checkable. Round revenue growth percentages with no underlying assumptions are the sort that does not. Where the plan shows employees from the first months, say who and at what wage, because payroll is the clearest answer to this element.
Develop and direct, and what the status does not offer
The couple must control the enterprise and actually run it, which for a majority-owned start-up they clearly will. It is worth recording how, with the operating agreement, the bank mandate and a description of who makes purchasing, pricing, hiring and scheduling decisions. Two limits should be understood at the outset. E-2 status is tied to the enterprise, so if the business is sold or fails, the basis for the status goes with it. And E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence, so a family intending to settle permanently should treat it as a step that buys time to build a case, not as the case itself.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.