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BALDWIN · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

Can equipment delivery be the date I begin working in the United States?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Delivery is a business milestone, not employment authorization. The proposed activity and immigration permission must be reviewed separately.

List the setup tasks

Identify who will install, test and operate the equipment and where the investor would be physically present. Do not assume that calling the tasks setup removes work-authorization questions. Keep commercial deadlines visible while making commitments conditional where the actual permission remains unresolved.

Work backwards from the steps you control: covenant wording settled, funds traced and transferred, closing completed or firmly committed, business plan and staffing set, packet reviewed, appointment attended. Identify who has authority to change closing and release conditions, then confirm the applicable consular or status process for the specific applicant, keeping a proposed opening date separate from an anticipated government decision. Keep a proposed opening date separate from an expected government decision, and have any change in ownership, funding or operations reassessed rather than making the transaction irreversible to follow a generic timeline. Agreements written around a target opening date rarely allow for a step whose duration nobody controls, and a delivery clause penalising late acceptance shifts that scheduling risk onto the investor.