Holding an unrelated minority share is not itself a problem. Eligibility turns on treaty nationality by citizenship, at least fifty percent treaty ownership of the U.S. enterprise, substantial capital genuinely at risk, a real operating business, non-marginality, and genuine development and direction by the applicant. The passive stake is not the qualifying enterprise.
Say what the stake is and is not
Describe the percentage, the rights attached, and whether any management role exists, because a holding carrying board or operational authority may be characterized differently from a purely passive one. If proceeds from it will fund the U.S. business, it becomes a source-of-funds question rather than an ownership question.
Keeping that distinction explicit prevents a reviewer from reading two businesses into a single application. A percentage is a number; control is a set of powers, and an agreement can separate the two in either direction. Veto rights held by a minority, a management contract handing daily operations to an outside firm, or a class of shares carrying no vote can all leave a majority holder unable to direct anything.
The same logic runs the other way, so a stake described as passive deserves a look: a board seat, a consent right over budgets or a signing authority on the accounts would make it something other than passive. Read the unanimous shareholders’ agreement, the register of directors and the bank mandate, and let those three documents rather than an ownership figure describe the applicant’s position in each company.