BASIC REQUIREMENTS FOR OBTAINING E-2 STATUS

  There are several basic requirements to the issuance of an E-2 visa

  The first requirement: The requisite bilateral Treaty must exist between the United States and the Applicant’s country of nationality

  The following countries have Treaties with the United States permitting E2 status. click here for list.

The second requirement: qualifying under the treaty (treaty company’s ownership)

  Note that in order to qualify the individual or business must have the same nationality of the Treaty country.

  NOTE-if the individual is a permanent resident (‘green card holder’) of the United States she or she no longer qualifies as a Treaty national. The US business must be at least 50% owned by individuals of the treaty nationality.

  Examples of Treaty investor nationality.

  (1)   Three British citizens open up a restaurant in the United States. Each of them owns an equal one-third share of the restaurant, however two of them already have ‘green cards’. The third UK national would not be able to obtain E2 status as the company is not majority British owned and the UK citizens with green cards are disqualified.

(2)   Three German nationals open up a restaurant with two British citizen green card holders, each has an equal 1/5 share in the business. In this case as the business is more than 50% German owned the business is eligible for E2 status.