IN THIS GUIDE · Documenting a real operating enterprise when the business sells online
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Show that the enterprise is real and operating
E-2 is a nonimmigrant category, not a route to permanent residence. The core questions are treaty nationality for the investor and the enterprise, an investment already committed and at risk, an applicant able to develop and direct the business, and an enterprise that is more than marginal. An online model satisfies none of these automatically. Describe what the company sells, who fulfils orders, which contracts are signed, and what the founder personally directs day to day. Write the operating description before the business plan, listing what is sold, who fulfils orders, which agreements are signed, and what the founder personally decides each week. That description is what makes an online model legible, and it also exposes the gap between contracted relationships and intended ones. A treaty investor case rests on treaty nationality, capital committed and at risk, an applicant able to develop and direct, and an enterprise that is more than marginal.
Trace money from the founder into the business
Committed capital is easier to demonstrate when each transfer has a paper trail: personal funding sources, the transfer into the company account, and the spending that turned cash into inventory, software subscriptions, equipment or prepaid supplier commitments. Where borrowing is involved, distinguish debt secured by the business assets from borrowing backed by the founder's personal collateral, and ask counsel to review the specific loan instead of assuming financing is disqualifying. Keep a single ledger showing each transfer from the founder into the company and what the money then bought: inventory, software subscriptions, equipment, or prepaid supplier commitments. Funds still sitting in the account demonstrate the opposite of commitment. Where borrowing is involved, distinguish debt secured by the business assets from borrowing backed by personal collateral, and ask counsel to review the specific instrument rather than assuming financing is disqualifying.
Explain marginality without inventing headcount
No fixed number of employees is required, and no dollar figure is published as a universal threshold. What matters is whether the enterprise has the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family. For a digital seller that argument usually rests on order volume, margin, supplier capacity and contracted services, so keep the underlying figures consistent with bank records and platform statements. Build the marginality argument from figures that reconcile to bank records and platform statements: order volume, margin, supplier capacity, and contracted services. No fixed headcount is required and no universal dollar threshold is published, so a forecast unsupported by trading records adds nothing. The question is whether the enterprise has the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family.
Separate selling to customers from working in the country
A website can take American orders long before anyone holds authorization to work inside the United States. Decide who performs which tasks, and from where, during the period before a decision. Keep launch commitments, supplier deadlines and lease or service contracts on the same calendar as the immigration steps, and treat every date as provisional because neither approval nor a processing time can be promised in advance. Hypothetical example: an online seller of orthopedic pet supplies uses a third-party warehouse and two contract manufacturers. Orders can arrive from customers in the United States long before anyone is authorised to work there, so decide who performs which tasks and from where during the period before a decision. Keep launch commitments, supplier deadlines, and service contracts on the same calendar as the immigration steps, and treat every date as provisional.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.