The United States has treaties with 82 different countries around the world, where we permit foreign nationals from those countries to come to the United States to make an investment and stay in the United States to lead and manage their investment. The law provides that if you are a foreign national from a county with whom we have a treaty for investments, and if there is a United States entity that is at least 50 percent owned by foreign nationals from the same treaty country, and if someone makes a substantial investment into the United States entity, then the foreign national is allowed to come to the United States using an E-2 visa.

So a good example would be a startup company from Germany is owned by German nationals. United States does have an E-2 investment treaty with Germany. A US entity is set up that is at least 50 percent owned by German nationals and a substantial investment is made into that entity. The investment does not need to come from German citizens. It doesn’t need to come from Germany. It might come from the United States. It might come from an angel investor, or a venture capitalist, or friends and family, but some legal legally obtained capital is invested into the United States entity. And this will permit the foreign national from Germany to come to the United States to legally work in E-2 status for the US entity that is at least 50 percent owned by German national.