E-2 Visa Franchise Investments in the United States

We use the Your First Franchise! Roadmap to guide foreign franchise investors seeking E-2 Visas.

The U.S. immigration authorities favor the E-2 Visa for two reasons:

• One - The tested systems and processes franchisors provide to their foreign franchise investors lead to higher success rates than a typical, unproven business.

• Two - A franchise system supports foreign franchise investors vs going it alone in a new country. They can plug into the franchisor's operational support systems, ongoing training, and their community of franchisees providing an additional support system from day one.
  

Critical E-2 Visa Points:

• The E-2 visa enables the investor to own and control the franchise business.

• 82 Treaty countries qualify for the E-2 Visa. Those countries have a treaty of commerce and navigation or a bilateral investment treaty with the United States. They include Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Taiwan, and Australia.

• The foreign investor's spouse and unmarried children under 21 can obtain dependent visas to accompany the investor to the United States.

• The spouse is eligible for work authorization in the United States.

• E-2 Visas can be renewed every two to five years indefinitely as long as the investor continues to meet the requirements of the visa.

• While there is no minimum investment requirement for E-2 Visas, asset-based investments of $100k to $150k that generate jobs make a strong case for approval. In fact, job creation is significant to the approval process.

• While the E-2 Visa is a non-immigrant visa, it may provide a potential path to permanent residency (green card) in the United States through other visa categories, such as the EB-5 program.

Are you ready to explore E-2 Visa possibilities?

We work closely with immigration attorneys specializing in E-2 Visas as part of our franchise & funding framework. 

The first step is to verify that you meet eligibility requirements.