Not automatically. Assess actual commitment and risk rather than treating a savings balance as invested capital. There is no universal E-2 dollar target.
Identify what each payment achieves
Separate paid costs, binding obligations, conditional escrow and money still under unrestricted control. Review the genuine terms before relying on a headline expansion budget.
Show investment capital and business operating costs separately from government filing charges, professional services, and family or travel expenses, and confirm current official fees and the exact scope of each professional engagement before committing funds. Loan repayments, family covenants, escrow conditions, inventory, rent, payroll, and reserves should appear according to the real agreements even if someone informally used the word “gift.” There is no universal E-2 minimum; substantiality is assessed relative to the business. Check current government amounts at the time of filing rather than relying on a figure heard from another applicant, and confirm which route applies, since the consular process and a change of status filed from inside the United States are different procedures with different charges. Purchase price, working capital, lease deposits, equipment and a franchise or distributorship fee are the investment and are counted as such; consular processing or a change-of-status filing is an application cost, published in the official schedules, and is not part of the investment.