Sequence hiring against the business's real opening date and available funds, not against a promised decision date. No processing time is guaranteed. Decide which commitments can be made conditional, which must be signed early to secure premises or equipment, and who manages the enterprise if the investor's travel is delayed.
Separate business dates from immigration dates
Lease start, equipment delivery, and staff notice periods run on commercial timelines that ignore visa steps. List them beside the immigration milestones and mark where a conflict would cost money. Remember that a visa's validity period is not the same as the authorized stay recorded on admission, and that E-2 requires an intention to depart when status ends.
Review conflicting contractual obligations with counsel before signing. Write the commercial commitments as a list with three columns: the date, the amount at stake, and whether the obligation can be made conditional. Landlords and equipment suppliers will sometimes accept a condition raised before signature and almost never afterwards, which is why the list is worth making early.
Hypothetical example: a sterile packaging validation testing lab signs for equipment with a delivery date and a training week attached; if nobody with authority can attend, the training slot is lost and rebooking runs months out. Ask who signs, who supervises installation, and what the plan is if the investor's travel does not align with those dates.