IN THIS GUIDE · Ask the seller the questions the purchase agreement leaves out
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Ask what the buyer can still get back
The requirement is that funds be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk of partial or total loss. So the question to put to the seller and to the lawyer is precise: under what circumstances can the buyer recover any part of what has been paid. If the answer is that a deposit returns on a wide range of conditions, the commitment is not yet what the requirement contemplates. A conditional escrow can be structured to work, but it has to be drafted for that purpose, and the applicant should be able to point to the clause that does it.
Ask how any vendor financing is secured
Deferred payment out of earnings is common in contracting businesses and it raises a specific issue. Borrowed or deferred funds secured against the assets of the enterprise being purchased do not count as the investor's qualifying capital, because the risk sits with the business rather than the investor. Where the buyer is personally liable and the security is over their own assets, the treatment differs. The question to the seller's counsel is therefore not merely what the payment schedule is but what secures it, and the answer should shape the deal rather than be discovered afterwards.
Ask what the business actually earns
Marginality asks whether the enterprise has the present or near-future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family, or will make a significant economic contribution. In owner-operated contracting businesses the reported earnings often understate or overstate the reality for tax or presentation reasons, and both directions cause problems. Ask for several years of financial statements and tax filings, ask how the owner is compensated, and ask what happens to revenue when the owner leaves. Build projections from those answers rather than from the vendor's summary.
Ask who will really be in charge
Development and direction ordinarily rests on at least fifty per cent ownership or demonstrable operational control. Where a seller stays on, or a manager is retained, the question of who actually decides needs an answer in writing: who signs, hires, sets prices, and takes the operational decisions. It is also worth stating plainly to everyone involved that E-2 is a nonimmigrant classification with no direct route to permanent residence, since households frequently assume otherwise and structure their longer plans on that assumption.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.