Read the general investor planning overview
A Les Cèdres investor may abandon one acquisition and select another. The earlier business plan and spending total do not automatically establish the new enterprise’s E-2 conditions. Treat the second transaction as a new file rather than an amendment of the first. Reusing the earlier plan is efficient only for the parts that genuinely carry over, and the parts that do not carry over are precisely the parts a reader will examine. Start with a clean list of what the new business is, what it costs, what is already committed and what remains to be done.
Identify what actually carries into the new transaction
Hypothetical example: an equipment deposit concerns the first business while the second purchase has different assets and obligations. Explain actual refunds, commitments and transferred resources. Do not count a payment toward the new enterprise without a genuine basis. Hypothetical example: a rainwater harvesting design firm pays a deposit on a distribution business, withdraws, then agrees to buy a different company altogether. Three questions decide what carries across. Was the deposit refunded, forfeited, or applied to the second purchase by written agreement. Were the professional fees for the first deal specific to it, such as a valuation of assets no longer being bought, or general, such as advice on entity formation that still stands. And were any commitments assigned or terminated. Answer each with the document rather than from memory, and where money was genuinely lost on the first attempt, record it as a cost of the process rather than as capital in the new enterprise.
Assess capital and operations afresh
E-2 requires substantial lawful capital genuinely committed at risk, with source and path explained, and a real nonmarginal enterprise. Capacity beyond minimal family living or significant economic contribution must be supported. There is no universal fixed minimum or employee quota that substitutes for the actual new business assessment. The second business also needs its own plan, not the first one with the names changed. The market it serves, what it sells, its staffing, its premises and its projected spending are all specific to it, and a reader comparing the plan against the purchase agreement will notice figures belonging to a different transaction. Where the new business is already trading, its historical financial statements exist and should be used; where it is not, say so and show what the projections rest on. Substantiate capacity beyond minimal living, or a significant economic contribution, on the facts of this business.
Preserve nationality control and financing conditions
Establish treaty nationality, qualifying relevant treaty ownership and development and direction. Enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying capital; other financing and properly structured visa-contingent escrow require their actual terms assessed. A changed purchase contract does not itself grant permission to operate. Recheck the funding structure as well, since a different purchase price often means different financing. Confirm treaty nationality and qualifying ownership against the entity actually buying, which may not be the entity formed for the first attempt. Where a lender's security would attach to the assets of the enterprise itself, that borrowing is not qualifying capital, and where funds sit in escrow, the terms decide whether the capital is genuinely committed and at risk. Put those terms in front of counsel in their written form rather than describing them.
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.