How does the employee/business owner qualify?

The employee or the business owner has to meet a certain set of criteria as well in order to qualify for the E-2 category:

   1. The applicant and the employer have to be nationals of the same treaty country. This means a German company, for example, can only file E-2 petitions for German citizens.

   2. Only employees in an executive or supervisory position, managers, and persons with special skills qualify for the E-2 category.

   3. The employee has to present a contract of employment with the US company or the company in the treaty country, i.e. the employee has to be employed with at the company already.

PLEASE NOTE: It is not necessary for the employee to have been employed at the company for any minimum period of time, as is the case with the L-visa. This is just one of the E-category’s many advantages.