Identify approvals beyond the seller’s signature
Hypothetical example: a buyer signs an asset agreement, while franchisor approval depends on training and a separate transfer payment. Record which rights are secured, conditions outstanding and what happens if approval is refused. Do not describe the franchise as transferred before the governing terms support that statement. List each condition that could prevent closing, each party who may waive it, and each payment's consequence if the deal fails. This identifies whether an escrow arrangement, release instruction, or other mechanism reflects a real commitment rather than a tentative intention. Do not call a contingent payment irrevocable until its legal terms support that characterization. The reader should be able to trace the commercial sequence without guessing which approval controls it.
Explain the investor’s actual authority
Read franchise controls alongside ownership and management rights. Standard brand requirements do not answer every development-and-direction question. Describe what decisions the applicant will make and what the franchisor controls rather than assuming either complete independence or no control from the franchise label alone. Read the operating agreement, franchise documents, service agreements, and employment arrangements together. The central question is whether the investor will direct the enterprise, not whether every business decision is personally made. Identify hiring, pricing, supplier, schedule, and financial decisions that the investor can make. If a third party limits an important decision, say so and explain what meaningful authority remains.
Document the commitment and enterprise
Trace lawful source and path of funds and distinguish payments, escrow and optional future spending. Substantiality and non-marginality depend on the actual enterprise; no universal minimum resolves the analysis. A franchisor’s approval is a commercial fact, not a government immigration approval or guarantee. Build a line-by-line source-and-path schedule from the first lawful source record to the payment into the enterprise. Then classify each outlay as committed, spent, held under defined conditions, or merely contemplated. A business plan should explain how the operation will earn revenue and move beyond a marginal result; it should not promise success. Do not borrow an EB-5 job-count rule for this analysis.
Establish treaty ownership and lawful funding
Treaty-country nationals generally must own at least half of the enterprise, so the complete ownership chain should be documented together with the lawful source and transfer path of the capital. Residence in a treaty country cannot replace treaty nationality, and a transfer receipt alone may not prove ownership or the funding history. The investor must develop and direct the enterprise through at least 50% ownership or operational control. E-2 itself supplies no direct route to permanent residence. Test treaty nationality at the enterprise level, including any holding company or co-owner. Residence, a mailing address, or a promising buyer does not cure the wrong ownership mix. The first review should also identify whether funds came from earnings, sale proceeds, a loan, or a gift and which records prove each stage. Resolve ownership changes before they create conflicting signatures across the deal documents.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.