Separate three buckets: money spent on the enterprise, financing costs such as interest and annual fees, and immigration-preparation fees. They are not treated identically, and it is wrong to assume every professional fee either counts or is excluded. Ask counsel to review the actual charges rather than applying a rule of thumb.
Ask how each expenditure will be characterized
Request an itemized view: which charges would be presented as investment, which are ordinary operating costs, and which support the enterprise's projections instead. Interest paid to a card issuer is a cost of borrowing, not a payment into the business. Government fees change, so confirm current amounts at the relevant step. No amount buys approval, and no quoted figure is a guaranteed investment threshold.
The regulations apply a proportionality test: the amount invested is compared with the cost of purchasing or establishing the enterprise. Debt secured by enterprise assets does not count as the investor’s qualifying investment. E-2 has no universal minimum; substantiality is assessed relative to the cost and needs of the real enterprise, which must be operating and nonmarginal. The investment is assessed in relation to the cost of the specific enterprise and must be substantial enough for that context.