IN THIS GUIDE · Trace proceeds from equipment and investment sales
Keep each source identifiable
Hypothetical example: an applicant sells equipment and financial investments, then consolidates the proceeds. List each asset, relevant ownership records, sale documents and transfers. Distinguish completed sales from estimates and identify any liabilities paid from the proceeds.
Review financing separately from sale proceeds
Provide actual loan terms and collateral where borrowing is involved. Personally secured or unsecured loans may qualify under applicable rules; loans secured by enterprise assets do not count as the investor’s qualifying investment. A consolidated bank balance does not erase the different treatment of its components.
Show the business commitment
Read purchase, escrow and cancellation conditions together with payment records. Determine what is actually committed and at risk. There is no universal fixed E-2 minimum, and substantiality must be assessed in relation to the real enterprise rather than inferred from a large transfer alone.
Connect the funds to a viable operating proposal
Document ownership and control, qualifying treaty nationality, the actual enterprise and nonmarginality, and the applicant’s role developing and directing it. Lawful funding evidence is necessary but not the entire case. Paying for business assets does not itself authorize the applicant to work in the United States.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country; the applicant’s passport alone does not establish enterprise nationality. Nonmarginality includes capacity to provide more than a minimal living for the investor and family, with the alternative of a significant economic contribution. Apply those conditions to the real operating proposal rather than importing EB-5’s capital amounts or ten-job rule into E-2.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.