Assess qualifying invested capital against the cost and nature of the actual enterprise, with the financing properly analyzed. A down-payment percentage is not a universal approval formula.
Keep the full cost visible
Include genuine acquisition and operating obligations without automatically counting every financed amount as qualifying capital. E-2 does not import EB-5’s fixed capital and job thresholds.
Track investment capital and ongoing operating costs apart from government filing fees, legal fees, and family-related expenses, and confirm current official fees rather than relying on estimates from a different filing. Funds and assets actually placed into the enterprise count: the purchase price paid, equipment and vessels acquired, leasehold commitments, inventory and working capital genuinely deployed. Business professional costs — an accountant building segment reports, a lawyer drafting supplier contracts — are enterprise expenditure; immigration-preparation costs are not the same thing, and their treatment should be reviewed on your actual facts rather than assumed either way. The investment must be substantial relative to what establishing this enterprise costs, which in a franchise usually means committing essentially the whole of the fee, build-out, equipment and working capital rather than a portion of it.