IN THIS GUIDE · A business is recovering from a short operational shutdown
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Record what the pause actually was
Write a plain chronology of the interruption: the date operations stopped, the reason, the date they resumed, and what continued in between. Note whether the U.S. lease, insurance, licences, payroll and supplier accounts were maintained. Capital already spent does not stop being at risk because sales paused. A reviewer reading a factual sequence can distinguish a temporary operational disruption from an enterprise that was never genuinely operating. Reconcile this chronology to bank statements, lease records, and insurance documents. The decision is whether funds and operating commitments remained exposed to the business during the pause, not whether the interruption can be described optimistically.
List the reopening conditions and who controls them
Reopening may depend on conditions someone else controls: an inspection, a licence reinstatement, a landlord consent, a supplier restoring credit terms. List each condition, who decides it, and the evidence that it is satisfied or credibly committed. Signed agreements, paid deposits and scheduling confirmations can show readiness even before post-reopening revenue exists. There is no universal rule requiring completed sales after a restart before an application is considered. Separate completed conditions from expected conditions in a dated checklist. A conditional permission is not the same as an issued permission, and the distinction can affect when the enterprise can genuinely reopen.
Show customer continuity with records, not claims
Customer continuity is documentary, not anecdotal. Identify accounts that stayed under contract, those that returned after the restart, and those that were lost, with the records behind each: purchase orders, renewed agreements, booking systems, invoices. Explain replacements being pursued. A candid account of churn with a rebuilding plan reads better than a claim that nothing changed, because the underlying records will show the interruption anyway. Reconcile the customer list to deposits, delivery records, and cancellation notices. The applicant must decide which relationships are current revenue evidence and which are only prospects in the recovery forecast.
Rebuild projections from the reopened business
Projections written before the shutdown are now a liability if they are simply resubmitted. Rebuild them from the reopened cost base, realistic ramp assumptions, and the capital still available. Non-marginality can rest on present or future capacity beyond minimal living for the investor's family, or on significant economic contribution; it is not a job-count test. Describe how the investor develops and directs the recovery, with decisions, authority and hiring named. State the assumptions beside the records that support them, including the date cash becomes available for payroll. The investor should decide whether the revised forecast still supports a non-marginal enterprise before treating it as filing evidence.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.