Can I live in the United States if I get the E-2 or L-1 visa?

Yes. Both visas grant the right to live and work in the US. The E-2 is renewable indefinitely as long as the qualifying investment continues; the L-1 has a maximum stay of 5 to 7 years depending on the role.

How is an E-2 visa business plan different from a regular business plan?

The E-2 plan must demonstrate a 'substantial investment,' that the investment is at risk, that the business is real and operating, and that it will create employment beyond the founder. Generic business plans rarely cover those four elements explicitly.

What does substantial investment mean for the E-2?

There is no fixed dollar amount. The investment must be substantial relative to the cost of starting the type of business in question, and substantial enough to ensure the founder is committed to the business. Practically, investments under $100,000 are often scrutinized; over $200,000 is comfortable for most service businesses.

How long does the business plan take to deliver?

From intake to delivered plan, our timeline is typically 3 to 5 weeks. Complex or multi-entity businesses can take longer; simple service businesses can be faster.

Do you handle the visa application itself?

We draft the business plan, which is the central exhibit of the visa petition. The actual visa application and embassy interview are handled by an immigration attorney; we work alongside one or refer to a partner if you do not yet have one.

What if the embassy asks for revisions?

Revisions to address embassy or attorney feedback are included in the engagement. We do not consider the plan delivered until it has either supported a successful application or been formally accepted by the embassy.

Business plan for E-2 and L-1 visa

If you are applying for the investor visa (E-2) or the executive transfer visa (L-1), one of the documents the United States embassy will ask for is the business plan. It is not a formality. It is the central exhibit of the petition: the document that explains, in concrete and verifiable terms, that your investment is real and your business will operate.

Generic business plans, the kind written for a bank loan or a fundraising round, rarely satisfy the embassy. The framework is different. Below is what the embassy is actually reading for, and how we structure the document to address it.

The four things the embassy looks for.

Every E-2 and L-1 plan we draft is structured around four things the consular officer will check. Miss any one of them and the petition is at risk.

01The investment is substantial relative to the cost of starting the business in question
02The funds are at risk and have already been committed (not just promised)
03The business is real and operational, not a shell formed for the visa
04The business will create employment beyond the founder, typically by year 2 or 3

A good business plan does not assert these things. It demonstrates them, with documentation, financial projections, and a hiring plan that matches the business model.

What we draft into the plan.

The full plan is typically 30 to 50 pages, depending on the complexity of the business. Every plan includes the same nine sections, tailored to the specific industry and entity:

The embassy is not asking whether your business idea is good. It is asking whether your investment is real, your plan is credible, and your operation will create jobs.

Executive summary tailored to the visa context
Description of the business, the entity, and the founder's qualifications
Market analysis specific to the US geographic and demographic market the business will serve
Competitive analysis with named US competitors
Operations plan describing how the business will function day to day
Marketing and customer acquisition plan
5-year financial projections with monthly Year-1 detail and assumptions documented
Staffing and hiring plan with specific roles and US-based hires by year
Source and use of investment funds, mapped to specific operational uses

What sets E-2 plans apart from L-1 plans.

The two visas overlap but emphasize different things. The E-2 (investor visa) leans hard on the investment itself: amount, source of funds, at-risk commitment, irrevocable expenditures. The L-1 (intracompany transfer) leans hard on the relationship between the foreign parent company and the US affiliate, plus the executive role of the transferee.

We adjust the structure of the plan to match. An E-2 plan front-loads the investment narrative; an L-1 plan front-loads the corporate-relationship narrative and the role description. Both end with the same kind of operational and financial substance, just framed differently.

30 - 50

Pages in a typical E-2 or L-1 business plan

What we need from you.

The plan is built on real information. Before drafting, we need a complete picture of the business, the founder, and the investment. The intake interview is where most of this comes from; supporting documents fill in the rest.

Description of the business and the products or services
Founder's CV and prior business experience
Documented source and amount of the investment funds
Any contracts, leases, or commitments already in place
Target US geography (city, state, region)
Hiring intentions for the first 3 to 5 years

A US city skyline at dusk, the kind of place a new visa-backed business often opens its first office. — We draft plans for clients opening businesses in every US state.

Working with your immigration attorney.

We draft the business plan. The visa application itself, the petition packaging, the embassy interview prep, are handled by an immigration attorney. Most of our plans are commissioned through the attorney directly; some come through the founder, with us handing the finished plan to the attorney for inclusion.

If you do not yet have an immigration attorney, we refer to a small set we have worked with for years. They know our format, our style, and the points at which they will need to ask us for revisions. The handoff is clean.

The business plan.