E Visas

The E-2 visa is for someone who is making a substantial investment in a real American business and coming here to run it (or an executive or supervisor, or have special qualifications, of a company receiving a substantial investment). It is the most flexible entrepreneurial route the immigration system offers to nationals of treaty countries: there is no quota, no minimum dollar figure written into the law, no petition to USCIS when applying from abroad, and the status renews indefinitely for as long as the business qualifies.

An E-1 or E-2 visa is only available to a citizen of a country that has the right kind of agreement with the United States. Roughly 80 countries qualify, but the two categories do not travel together: some countries support only E-1 treaty trader status, others only E-2 treaty investor status, and most support both. The first question in any E case is therefore simply whether the applicant's nationality appears below, and in which column.

Yes. The spouse and unmarried children under 21 of an E-1 or E-2 principal can obtain E visas of their own, and their nationality does not matter. This is one of the more generous features of the treaty categories: the spouse of a Japanese E-2 investor may be Brazilian, and the children may hold a third passport, yet all of them take the same E classification as the principal.

The E-1 visa is for people whose working life consists of moving goods or services back and forth between the United States and their own country. If that describes the business, E-1 is often the cleanest route available: there is no quota, no labor certification, no petition to USCIS when applying from abroad, and the status can be renewed for as long as the trade continues.

Six things have to line up. The first two are about who you are, the middle three are about the trade itself, and the last is about your role in it.

The requirement this page qualifies. A request to extend a nonimmigrant stay must ordinarily be filed before the previously authorized period expires, and by or for a person who has maintained the classification. An extension or amendment of stay may not be approved where the person failed to maintain the previously accorded status, or where that status expired before the request was filed. The same provision, however, allows the lateness of the filing to be excused. 8 C.F.R. 214.1(c)(4)(i).

What this part of the handbook covers. An extension of stay is a request to remain in the United States longer in a nonimmigrant classification that a person already holds. It is decided by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on a request filed inside the country, and the general framework appears at 8 C.F.R. 214.1(c). This page sets out that framework. The page beneath it deals with the narrower problem of a request filed after the authorized stay has already expired.