No blanket exclusion should be assumed. The actual commitment, risk and business facts need review.
Explain what the funds support
Distinguish capital committed to the enterprise from money simply available for possible future use. The accounting label alone does not establish or defeat qualifying treatment.
An E-2 first review should answer four questions with documents: does the applicant hold treaty nationality, does the enterprise have the required nationality, has the applicant placed substantial capital beyond unilateral recall and exposed it to business loss, and will the applicant develop and direct a real, nonmarginal enterprise? Start with ownership and control before adding a business plan. The funds must be irrevocably committed; they must be at risk. An enterprise expected only to support the investor and household is not enough. The useful output is a source-and-use schedule that links each dollar to an executed purchase, lease, escrow condition, inventory order, or operating obligation. A bank balance by itself settles little. Hypothetical example: a watch-repair entrepreneur buys tools, signs a workshop lease, and leaves the rest of the money in a personal savings account while negotiating a possible purchase. The lease, invoices, and enforceable purchase terms show commitment; the untouched reserve does not automatically do so. The decision is whether the committed amount is substantial in relation to the actual enterprise, not whether the account looks large in isolation.