IN THIS GUIDE · The principal will hire a general manager while retaining strategic responsibility
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Write the two job descriptions
Draft one description for the general manager and one for yourself before either is hired or filed. The manager's should cover scheduling, staffing routines, purchasing within limits and daily customer issues. Yours should cover strategy, capital allocation, pricing policy, key contracts, and the authority to hire or replace the manager. Overlaps are normal in a small company; identify them rather than hiding them.
Show direction through decisions, not titles
A title on an organizational chart proves little. Keep records of decisions the investor actually makes: approved budgets, signed leases and supplier agreements, bank signature authority, board or member resolutions, and written instructions to the manager. Direction can be exercised through majority ownership and controlling authority, but it is the evidence of control actually exercised that matters, not the label used in the agreement.
Keep capital and enterprise requirements in view
Delegation does not change the other elements. Capital must be substantial relative to the cost of this enterprise, genuinely committed and at risk, with lawful source and traceable path documented. The business must be a real operating commercial enterprise and non-marginal, judged on present or future capacity beyond a minimal living for the family, or on significant economic contribution. There is no universal minimum amount or job count. Hypothetical example: an electrochromic-glass calibration studio plans to hire a site manager before opening. The owner must decide whether the lease, equipment purchases and operating account show real business exposure, or whether funds remain retractable at the investor's choice. A plan that promises future activity cannot cure money that has not been committed. The record should connect each transfer to its lawful source, destination and business purpose, then compare the forecast with the investor's actual authority and the enterprise's non-marginal outlook.
Plan your own presence and status
Decide how often the investor will be in the United States, what work will be performed there, and under what status. Owning the company does not by itself authorize you to work in the country. If a manager runs the site, explain how oversight happens between visits: reporting cadence, approval thresholds, systems access. Keep the temporary purpose visible, including intent to depart when status ends.
Test the fifty percent treaty ownership line
E-2 requires treaty nationality, at least 50% relevant national ownership of the enterprise, and the applicant’s ability to develop and direct it. Assess working capital and visa-contingent escrow on genuine terms, and distinguish enterprise-secured debt from qualifying personal financing. Review the purchase contract, lease, equipment order, and escrow terms together: a visa-contingent escrow can have different consequences from a deposit refundable whenever the buyer chooses. If a U.S. partner will hold a share, the treaty-nationality ownership must still reach at least fifty percent. The decision-maker should also distinguish a loan secured personally from financing secured by the enterprise’s own assets, because the security arrangement can affect whether the funds qualify.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.