Sometimes. A prelaunch enterprise can qualify where the commitments are credible and documented — signed leases, accepted insurer proposals, filed licence applications, purchase orders. There is no universal requirement of first sales or of equipment already in production use. What matters is that the arrangements are real and the capital is genuinely at risk.
Track the permit that gates opening day
Identify the critical authorizations and dependencies for this business, which may involve more than one approval. Track each separately and advance independent preparation where lawful and practical. Avoid announcing an opening date to landlords, staff or customers that assumes both a permit and an immigration outcome, since neither can be promised on a timetable. Note also that a visa's validity period is not the same as the stay authorized on the I-94.
Set milestones you control — records retrieved, investment evidence assembled, counsel's read on the refusal — and avoid commitments keyed to a decision date nobody can promise. The capital has to be irrevocably committed before the application is decided, which usually means closing, or using an escrow whose only release condition is the outcome of the application itself. Build a dated review file around the contract deadlines, escrow release, money trail, business opening sequence, visa application materials, and travel plan.