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FRENCH RIVER · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

Does buying a customer list establish a qualifying E-2 business?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

Not by itself. Assess the real enterprise, investment, nationality and development-and-direction conditions, using the rights and operations actually acquired.

Explain what the buyer can operate

A French River buyer should distinguish contact information from contracts, assets and effective authority. Show how the business will deliver its services and meet nonmarginality rather than assuming a large list equals supported income. No universal number of customers establishes eligibility.

The dependents' options follow the investor's status, so the principal case comes first: treaty nationality by citizenship, at least fifty percent treaty ownership, substantial capital genuinely committed and at risk in a real operating United States enterprise, non-marginality, and an actual develop-and-direct role. Negotiate a diligence window into the term sheet so the subscription can be reviewed before it becomes binding, and set explicit checkpoints inside it: documents received, nationality of ownership confirmed, control rights assessed, funding route agreed. The classification for employees requires that the enterprise be at least fifty percent owned by treaty-country nationals, that the employee share that nationality, and that the position be executive or supervisory, or require special qualifications essential to the enterprise.