No fixed dollar threshold applies to every E-2 case. Substantiality relates the investment to the specific business, while nationality, active development and direction, and the enterprise's own requirements still need to be independently satisfied. The funds must also be irrevocably committed and at risk.
Understand what a budget figure actually establishes
Identify the business being purchased or built and exactly what the proposed spending covers, flagging costs that sit outside a headline purchase price and distinguishing firm estimates from money already paid. Confirm how the actual commitment will be assessed rather than borrowing a number from an unrelated case, since a larger payment does not repair an unresolved nationality or business-operations problem.
E-2 review begins with treaty nationality and control, then turns to the money and the enterprise. The investor must direct and develop the business, funds must be irrevocably committed and genuinely exposed to commercial loss, and the enterprise must be substantial for its actual cost and not marginal. Hypothetical example: a commercial-laundry operator proposes to buy a route business using savings and a signed asset-purchase agreement. A balance statement shows available money, but the closing instructions, escrow terms, ownership agreement, and operating plan reveal whether the commitment and control are real. The reviewer also needs evidence of customers, equipment, and staffing, not a promise of future demand. Identify any co-owner’s nationality and voting rights. E-2 is a temporary treaty-investor category and does not itself create a direct permanent-residence route, so the applicant should not make the case depend on an assumed later immigrant benefit.