Read the general investor planning overview
A Saint-Constant investor may join a venture with co-investors of different nationalities. Separate the source of the money from the actual ownership and control after the transaction; total funding alone does not establish treaty nationality.
Build the actual ownership record
Identify the owners, nationalities, interests and governing rights after the proposed investment. E-2 generally requires at least 50% relevant treaty-national enterprise ownership, and the applicant must develop and direct through qualifying control. A co-investor’s larger payment is not by itself a complete statement of ownership or decision rights.
Trace each relevant funding transaction
Establish lawful source and path and capital substantially committed at risk. Do not aggregate unexplained transfers as if every amount automatically qualifies. Enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying capital; other financing and properly structured visa-contingent escrow require assessment of their real terms. Keep one page per funding transaction: who paid, from which account, on what date, under which instrument, and what the payer received in return. A single page a stranger can follow is worth more than a folder of statements, and the pages with no instrument behind them are the ones to resolve first.
Keep the enterprise’s economic conditions complete
The business must be real, operating and nonmarginal, with capacity beyond minimal living for the investor and family or for significant economic contribution. Neither a group of investors nor a total budget replaces the actual enterprise assessment. Prepare ownership documents and operating evidence together so the proposal describes the same business throughout. Capacity is shown by operating documents rather than assertions: the premises, the equipment, the staffing plan with roles and start dates, the licences, and the projections with their assumptions written beside them. Where a projection carries no stated assumption, it cannot be tested, and an untestable projection tends to weaken the very point it was included to support.
Where ownership is actually recorded, and where it only appears to be
A term sheet, a capitalisation spreadsheet and a pitch deck all display ownership, and none of them creates it. Ownership is created and recorded by the constating documents, the share register, the subscription agreements and any shareholders' agreement, while control is created by the voting provisions inside them. Ask for that set in full, including every amendment, and read the voting provisions before the percentages: an interest of at least half the enterprise held by treaty nationals is one condition, and the ability to develop and direct is a separate one that a drag-along, a veto or a class structure can quietly move elsewhere. A weak version of this evidence is a spreadsheet exported from an accounting system, which reflects what someone entered rather than what any instrument provides. Where a document is missing because the company was formed recently, say so and name the instrument that will supply it, rather than filling the gap with the founders' recollection of what was agreed. Hypothetical example: several investors funding a machine-parts venture assume the largest contributor controls the enterprise, and the shareholders' agreement places the appointment right with a different holder.
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.