US Citizenship parents

Do the Employees of E-2 Treaty Investors Qualify for US Visas?

By Verdie Atienza, Senior Immigration Attorney, Head of E-2 Visa Practice, Davies & Associates

There is a wealth of information regarding the  USA E2 Visa, but not a lot of people know that the E-2 Enterprise may also file an application for a foreign national of the same nationality as the E-2 Treaty Investor to qualify for an E-2 Treaty Employee visa. The E-2 employee may be an executive or supervisory employee. The employee may also be employed in a lesser capacity provided  that he or she has special qualifications.

It should be noted that the E-2 Treaty Investor need not be an individual. The E-2 Treaty Investor may also be an enterprise or organization at least 50% owned by persons in the United States who have the nationality of the treaty country. 

More interestingly, these owners do not necessarily have to maintain nonimmigrant E-2 treaty investor status in the U.S. They just need to be classifiable as nonimmigrant treaty investors, if they were to seek admission to the U.S. In this regard, an E-2 enterprise may still bring E-2 treaty employees to the U.S. even if the E-2 Treaty Investor does not want to apply for the visa or if the E-2 Treaty Investor is actually an organization or an entity.

To qualify for E-2 treaty employee visa, the duties of the applicant must be executive or supervisory character, which means that he or she will have ultimate control and responsibility for the enterprise’s overall operation, or a major component of it.  If the applicant is seeking to apply as someone with special qualifications, the skills and/or aptitudes must make the employee’s services essential to the efficient operation of the treaty enterprise. 

There are several qualities or circumstances that could, depending on the facts, meet this requirement. These include, but are not limited to:   

  • The degree of proven expertise in the employee’s area of operations
  • Whether others possess the employee’s specific skills
  • The salary that the special qualifications can command
  • Whether the skills and qualifications are readily available in the United States.

It should be noted that knowledge of a foreign language and culture does not, by itself, meet this requirement. 

D&A recently obtained an E-2 Treaty Employee for a UK national to occupy a General Manager position of an E-2 company engaged in selling gold coins and bars through its user-friendly online platform. The company builds on the expertise of its highly successful affiliate in London, which operates in the same industry. The E-2 Company specializes in the sales of LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) approved gold and silver bars and coins to both national and international clients. 

The E-2 investment was made by a UK entity that is owned by a UK national who does not wish to enter the US on an E-2 Treaty Investor visa.

To find out more about the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa, click here.


This article is published for clients, friends and other interested visitors for information purposes only. The contents of the article do not constitute legal advice and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Davies & Associates or any of its attorneys, staff or clients. External links are not an endorsement of the content.


Verdie Atienza- E-2 Visa Lawyer

Immigration Attorney Explains E-2 Visa Citizenship Requirement.

Senior Immigration Attorney at our firm, Verdie Atienza, details all the issues surrounding nationality requirements for the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa. In the video, which you can watch below, Verdie explains that you must be a citizen of an E-2 Treaty country. The full list of E-2 countries can be found here.

Don’t worry if you are NOT from an E-2 Treaty Country. You can obtain citizenship of an E-2 country and then apply. The two countries with the fastest and cheapest pathways to citizenship are Grenada and Turkey. Verdie outlines the process and costs in the video.

The E-2 visa allows you to move to the United States for the purposes of investing in and actively running a business. Your investment must be sufficient for the business and usually upwards of $100,000. Spouses can apply for work permits for the US and children under the age of 21 can accompany you. You can keep renewing the visa so long as the business continues to operate successfully.

Watch the video and contact Verdie if you have any questions.

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E2 Treaty Investor Visa Approved in Pandemic Time

E-2 Extension Approved Despite Sluggish Performance in Pandemic

By Verdie Atienza, Head of L-1 & E-2 Visa Practice

Two years ago, D&A assisted an investor from Jordan obtain an E2 Treaty Visa through his investment in a furniture business. He applied to change of status after he entered the U.S. on a visitor visa. With the change of status application, he did not have to appear for interview at the Embassy which made more sense to him since he wanted to immediately operate the business and considering that the reciprocity schedule for Jordanian nationals is only 3 months. His spouse and dependent children thereafter applied for their visas at the Embassy to join him in the U.S.

While the first year and six months were not very good for the E-2 company, D&A managed to secure an extension of status for the client. While things became much harder in the first few months of the pandemic due to store shutdowns and stay-at-home orders,  retail sales rebounded strongly due to sustained consumer resilience.

Extension of Status Approval

D&A highlighted the record percentage increase in sales in 2020 to convince USCIS that the Company is very much poised to achieve the forecasts in the business plan submitted with the initial petition. D&A emphasized the strong stock market, rising home values and record savings boosted by government stimulus payments in 2020 to assert that the Company is slowly but surely moving the path of attaining goals that is expected to ultimately result in positive contributions to the US economy, specifically in the area of employment generation.

While it was certainly not easy to get the E-2 status extended, it pays to have an experienced team on your side to present your application in the best light possible to get a favorable decision from USCIS.

What is the E-2 Treaty Investor Visa?

The E-2 Visa allows anyone with citizenship of an E-2 Treaty Country to apply to move to the United States to invest in and run a business. Anyone not from a Treaty Country can first obtain citizenship of a Treaty Country and become eligible in this way. See Grenada Citizenship by Investment and Turkey Citizenship by Investment. The E-2 Visa application process requires the submission of a credible business plan and renewals are granted on the basis of performance against that business plan.

Our team has successfully filed many E-2 Treaty Investor visa cases, including where the additional step of obtaining citizenship of the E-2 Treaty country is required. D&A is one of the few firms able to support a client across the entire Grenada Citizenship by Investment and E-2 Visa process without needing to outsource the work.


This article is published for clients, friends and other interested visitors for information purposes only. The contents of the article do not constitute legal advice and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Davies & Associates or any of its attorneys, staff or clients. External links are not an endorsement of the content.