E-2 Visa With an Online Business: E-commerce, SaaS and Agencies

Yes, you can get an E-2 visa with an online business, as long as it is a real, operating U.S. enterprise with a substantial at-risk investment and a path to hiring beyond you. Nothing in the E-2 rules requires a storefront. The difficulty is evidence: a website and a laptop do not look like an enterprise, so an online case must show U.S. operations, spending and people.

Which E-2 tests do online businesses struggle with?

The Foreign Affairs Manual, 9 FAM 402.9-6, applies the same tests to every business. Three are harder for online models.

Real and operating. The enterprise must produce goods or services, not exist only on paper. For an online business, the evidence is a U.S. entity, U.S. bank account, inventory in U.S. warehouses or fulfillment centers, hosted infrastructure, active sales channels, contracts with U.S. vendors and customers, and people doing the work.

Substantial investment. Online businesses are cheap to start. Under the proportionality test, a low-cost business needs close to full funding from you, and the amount must still be enough to ensure successful operation. A small investment that covers 100% of a very small business can leave an officer unconvinced the enterprise is serious. See E-2 minimum investment.

Not marginal. This is the main hurdle. Under 9 FAM 402.9-6(E), the business needs the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for you and your family, or to make a significant economic contribution, generally within five years. A solo founder whose revenue supports one person is the textbook marginal enterprise.

Which online business models work?

Model	Stronger profile	Weaker profile
E-commerce and marketplace stores	Own brand, U.S. inventory or 3PL, trademark, paid marketing, operations hire	Dropshipping with no inventory, no staff
SaaS and software	Launched product, customers, U.S. sales and support roles planned	Idea stage, no product, no spending
Digital agencies	U.S. clients under contract, account managers on payroll	Owner as the only service provider
Online education	Instructors, platform, curriculum, enrollment growth	Single coach selling courses
Content and media	Production company with staff and several revenue lines	Personal creator income from ads

E-commerce stores

These work when there is real inventory, U.S. fulfillment, a brand and a team. Strengthen the case with warehouse or 3PL contracts, trademark filings, supplier agreements, advertising spend and a customer service or operations hire. Inventory on hand and equipment purchases count toward the investment under 9 FAM 402.9-6(B).

SaaS and software companies

These work when there is a product, customers or a launch, and a U.S. team in the plan. Investment goes into development, cloud infrastructure, sales and marketing. Under the FAM, intangible property such as software can be counted where its value can reasonably be determined, for example through contracts or expert valuation.

Agencies and online services

Marketing, web development and design agencies work with U.S. clients, contracts and staff. The danger is the one-person practice. See E-2 with a consulting business for the same marginality issues in service firms.

How do you build a U.S. presence for an online business?

Officers implicitly ask why this business needs to be in the United States and why you need to be here to run it. The answer lives in the operations:

• A U.S. entity, EIN and business bank account.
• A physical base: leased office, dedicated coworking space or warehouse. A registered-agent address alone is thin.
• U.S. staff or contractors, with a plan to convert contractors to employees. See E-2 employees.
• U.S. vendors: fulfillment, payment processing, advertising, legal and accounting.
• Inventory or equipment physically in the U.S. where applicable.
• A clear role for you: managing the team, meeting clients, overseeing fulfillment, building partnerships.

Can you move an existing online business to the U.S.?

Many online E-2 investors already run a profitable business at home and want a U.S. base. The usual structure is a new U.S. company, owned at least 50% by nationals of your treaty country, that becomes the U.S. operating arm. The country where a company is incorporated does not decide its nationality; the nationality of its owners does. See E-2 ownership rules.

The U.S. company needs its own operations and its own investment. Money and assets you transfer into it, such as inventory, equipment, or software and trademarks with a determinable value, can count. Revenue that stays in the foreign company does not show U.S. activity. Plan which customers, contracts and staff the U.S. company will serve and employ, and choose the entity type with your attorney and CPA; see LLC or corporation for the E-2.

How do you document an online investment?

Online spending is easy to prove and easy to overlook. Keep and organize platform and software subscriptions, development invoices, inventory purchase orders and freight, advertising account statements, equipment receipts, trademark filings, payroll and contractor payments. The business plan’s use-of-funds table should reconcile to the business bank account, and the money should trace back to its origin. See E-2 source of funds.

Remember that funds must be committed and at risk. Cash sitting in the business account with no purchases behind it does not show that you are “in the process of investing.”

What should the business plan explain?

An online plan has to do more work because the model is less intuitive to officers. Include:

• The customer acquisition model with real costs per acquisition and conversion rates.
• Unit economics: margins after fulfillment, payment fees and returns.
• Platform dependence risks (marketplace rules, ad costs) and how you reduce them.
• A hiring plan with roles and timing tied to revenue.
• Why the U.S. is the operating base and what you do here personally.

See E-2 business plan requirements and our business plan service.

Strong vs weak: two illustrative profiles

The profiles below are illustrations of how officers tend to read the evidence, not client cases.

Stronger: a founder with an established home-goods brand forms a U.S. subsidiary, ships inventory to a U.S. fulfillment center, funds U.S. advertising and a U.S. version of the site, rents coworking space, hires a part-time operations coordinator before the interview and plans several U.S. hires within five years. The investment is spent, traceable and tied to growth.

Weaker: a founder with a one-person dropshipping store holds money in a business account, has no inventory and no hires, and projects profits that would support only the owner. The investment is uncommitted and the business is marginal on its face.

How we help

We help online founders build the U.S. footprint officers expect: entity, banking, location, fulfillment and hiring, plus a plan that explains digital models in terms an officer can verify. Your immigration attorney prepares and files the visa application.

Next steps

Test your budget with the E-2 investment calculator. If you run an online business and want to build its U.S. operation, tell us about it.