The E-2 is classified as a nonimmigrant treaty investor visa. A treaty country is a foreign state with which a qualifying Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, or Navigation or its equivalent exists with the United States. A treaty country includes a foreign state that is accorded treaty visa privileges under the Act by specific legislation. Thus, E-2 treaty investor visas may only be applied for by people or companies from the following countries:
As for Albania, Azerbaijan, Haiti, Jordan, Nicaragua, and Russia, there exist signed treaties, but not ratified. An investment, for purposes of the E-2 treaty investor visa, is the treaty investor's placing of capital, including funds and other assets (which have not been obtained, directly or indirectly, through criminal activity), at risk in the commercial sense with the objective of generating a profit. In addition, these are the following requirements:
The treaty investor must be in custody and control over the investment capital;
In case investment fortunes reverse, the capital must be subject to partial or total loss;
Such investment capital must be the investor's unsecured personal business capital or capital secured by personal assets;
Capital in the process of being invested or that has been invested, must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise. The foreign national has the burden of establishing such irrevocable commitment;
The foreign national may use any legal mechanism available, such as the placement of invested funds in escrow pending admission in, or approval of, E classification, that would not only irrevocably commit funds to the enterprise, but might also extend personal liability protection to the treaty investor in the event the application for E classification is denied.
Source: Santamaria, Marc, "Why Immigrants Benefit the United States Economy and the Legal and Tax Issues Chinese, Filipinos and Vietnamese Face When Immigrating to the U.S." (2016).
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