Does an E-2 small-business investment need to exceed $300,000?

Not necessarily. There is no rule requiring the investment to exceed $300,000. The appropriate investment amount will depend on the nature and scale of the business and its operating costs. For example, running a graphic design company mainly requires things like office rent, desks, computers, and printers. Unless expensive equipment is involved, there’s no basis for investing as much as $300,000 to run a graphic design business, so the required investment scale for a small-business investor visa can be significantly lower. What matters most is the business plan and how well the immigration officer understands how the business will be run. We have in fact seen cases where clients received an E-2 small-business investor visa and successfully ran a business with under $100,000 invested — we’ve even had a case accepted at around $10,000.