Read the general investor planning overview
A business account holding customer prepayments is not the same thing as invested capital. If the enterprise you are buying owes goods or services against money already received, that money is an obligation to those customers. Separate it from your own committed funds before you describe an investment, and before you agree to a price built on the total balance.
Read the balance as obligations first
Ask for a deposit ledger: which customers paid, when, for what undelivered work, and under what refund or cancellation terms. Ask how those obligations transfer at closing and who performs them. Then set your own contribution beside them. An E-2 review considers the investor's funds irrevocably committed and placed at risk in a real, operating, non-marginal enterprise, together with qualifying treaty nationality for both the investor and the enterprise. Money that must still be earned by delivering someone else's order does not become your capital because it sits in the same account.
Ask which part of the balance is genuinely available
Hypothetical example, an illustration only and not a description of any business in the area: a buyer is shown a healthy bank balance and a purchase price supported by it, then learns that most of the balance represents deposits on orders scheduled for delivery after closing. Ask which figure is cash the enterprise may use freely, what working capital the operation needs to complete those orders, and what the transaction documents say about assuming them. Have the accounts read by the person assessing the transaction and by the person assessing the immigration evidence — they are looking for different things.
State what is committed, contingent, or neither
Mark each amount as spent, irrevocably committed, or still conditional. A qualifying escrow arrangement tied to visa issuance is possible, but its terms decide the question, and not every refundable deposit qualifies. There is no fixed universal minimum that settles substantiality; it is assessed in relation to the enterprise. Ownership and control are fact-specific, and you will also need to explain how you would develop and direct the business. An immigration review is not a valuation, and it does not tell you whether the price is sound.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.