Staff departures are not an automatic disqualification, but their effect can be material. A missing licensed operator may prevent lawful opening, while losing several production workers may change the revenue forecast. Explain how the acquisition remains a real, viable enterprise and how the investor will develop and direct it; there is no fixed E-2 job quota that resolves those questions.
Show the enterprise works with the staff you can prove
Present two versions of the same enterprise: the one described by the seller, and the one the buyer can actually staff and fund. If the second still generates more than a minimal living for the investor and family, or contributes significantly to the economy in the United States, the non-marginality discussion is grounded in evidence. Ownership must also meet the treaty threshold, with at least fifty percent held by treaty nationals.
Lawful source and path, substantial committed at-risk capital, treaty nationality and development and direction remain separate questions. Develop and direct is about control and asks who runs it, which is usually satisfied by majority ownership but can also be shown by operational control where ownership is exactly even. Separately trace lawful funds that are irrevocably committed and at risk, test substantiality relative to the business, and show a real operating enterprise that is not marginal.