I’m Canadian and worked for Company A for 4 years. I then moved to the U.S. for my MSc and have been working here for 1 year for Company B. Company A wants me to come back on board at an executive level to help with their U.S. expansion (they already have a U.S. subsidiary) and stated the E-2 visa would work. I emailed their lawyer who also said it will work. Is this true?

David Hill, US Immigration Expert
Answered on October 02,2023

To qualify for E-2 classification, the employee of a treaty investor must:

Be the same nationality of the principal alien employer (who must have the nationality of the treaty country);
Meet the definition of “employee” under relevant law; and
Either be engaging in duties of an executive or supervisory character, or if employed in a lesser capacity, have special qualifications.
If the principal alien employer is not an individual, it must be an enterprise or organization at least 50% owned by persons in the United States who have the nationality of the treaty country. These owners must either: (a) be maintaining nonimmigrant treaty investor status or (b) if the owners are not in the United States, they must be, if they were to seek admission to this country, classifiable as nonimmigrant treaty investors. See 8 CFR 214.2(e)(3)(ii).

If they have an immigration lawyer, let their immigration lawyer handle this.

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