Christian
In this article
The E-2 visa is often sold as a shortcut into the US: set up an LLC, wire 100,000 dollars, interview a few weeks later, done. Part of that is true. Germans, Austrians and Swiss really are among the nationalities allowed to apply, and for Germans it is one of the few realistic work visas that needs neither an employer nor a lottery. The rest of the story is less precise. There is no statutory minimum amount, the LLC is only one of several possible legal forms, and the visa does not lead to a green card.
This article goes through the requirements the way the US State Department and the immigration agency USCIS phrase them, describes the process at the consulate in Germany and explains what the move triggers for taxes. The tax side is the one most write-ups leave out.
What the E-2 visa is and what it is not
E-2 stands for Treaty Investor. The visa lets you enter the US to develop and direct a business in which you have personally invested a substantial amount. It is a nonimmigrant visa. That means you live and work legally in the US for as long as the business meets the requirements, but legally you do not immigrate. The authorities explicitly require the intention to leave the US when the status ends.
What the E-2 is not:
- Not a path to a green card. The E-2 creates no claim to permanent residence, no matter how often it is renewed. Anyone who wants a green card needs a separate route, such as EB-5 with an investment of 800,000 dollars in certain targeted areas or 1,050,000 dollars otherwise, employer sponsorship or family.
- Not a passive investor visa. A brokerage account, a rented-out apartment or a silent stake are not enough. The money has to go into an actively operated business that you run yourself.
- Not a visa tied to an LLC. The law requires a real enterprise, not a specific legal form. An LLC is often practical for Germans, a corporation works just as well.
Nationality decides, not residence
The E-2 exists only for nationals of countries with which the US has a treaty of commerce and navigation or a comparable agreement. The State Department's list gives 14 July 1956 for Germany, 27 May 1931 for Austria and 8 November 1855 for Switzerland. All three are E-2 countries.
What counts is the passport, not the place you live. A German living in Cyprus or Dubai can apply for an E-2. A non-EU citizen with a German residence permit cannot do so through Germany. It also follows that residence in a third country does not open E-2 access. The Bahamas, for example, are not on the treaty list, so Bahamian residency does not help with an E-2. What the Bahamas actually do for a US connection is covered in the article on Bahamas residency.
Then there is the ownership rule: the business must be at least 50 percent owned by nationals of the same treaty country. A German investor with 50 percent and an American partner with 50 percent works. A German with 30 percent and a French partner with 70 percent does not work for the German, even though France is itself a treaty country, because the nationalities are not added together.
Substantial, not marginal, at risk
Three terms carry the whole visa, and none of them is a fixed number.
Substantial. There is no statutory minimum investment. The often quoted 100,000 dollars is a rule of thumb from practice, not law. The State Department applies a proportionality test: the investment is measured against the total cost of the business, meaning what it costs to buy or build it. The cheaper the business, the higher your share of that cost has to be. A service company that needs 80,000 dollars to start and is fully funded out of your own pocket can be substantial. A five-million-dollar hotel to which you contribute 300,000 dollars probably is not.
Not marginal. Now or within roughly five years, the business has to be able to do more than provide a minimal living for the investor and family, or it has to have a meaningful economic impact. In practice that means a credible business plan, revenue and staffing projections, ideally US employees. A one-person consultancy that only earns its owner's salary is the textbook example of marginal.
At risk. The money has to be irrevocably committed to the business and actually spent or contractually committed: lease, equipment, inventory, software, staff. Money that just sits in the business account does not count as invested. An escrow account released only when the visa is issued is acceptable. Loans secured by the business's own assets do not count. The source of the funds has to be documented without gaps.
For an LLC this means that formation and the EIN are the smallest part of the work. The real project is a business that has already spent money before the interview and can plausibly grow. For the ongoing payments the LLC needs a business account before the first money moves, and the article on opening a US bank account describes the routes for non-residents.
The process at the consulate in Germany
In Germany, visas are issued at the embassy in Berlin and the consulates general in Frankfurt and Munich. According to immigration law firms, E visas are handled centrally in Frankfurt. Check this on the website of the US missions in Germany before planning the appointment.
The process has two stages:
- Register the business and submit the application. Before the interview you submit an application package: form DS-156E, the business plan, evidence of the investment and the source of funds, the LLC's company documents, contracts. Consulates limit the size, and law firms report around 30 to 40 pages of core documents for Frankfurt. A 300-page binder comes back.
- DS-160 and interview. Once the package has been reviewed, the online DS-160 form, the application fee and the in-person interview follow. According to the State Department the application fee for E visas is 315 dollars per person. Germans and Austrians pay no additional issuance fee, Swiss nationals pay 125 dollars on top under the reciprocity table.
On timing: the claim "approval in 1 to 3 months" found on some comparison sites describes at best the stretch from the submitted package to the visa, and even that depends on the consulate, the season and how complete the file is. Reviewing the package can take several weeks, then comes the wait for an interview slot. Before all that lies the part that usually takes longest: LLC, account, lease, first expenses, business plan. From decision to visa, half a year is the more realistic figure.
Visa validity and length of stay
Two things get confused all the time here.
Visa validity determines how long you can enter the US on that visa. Under the reciprocity table for Germany, the E-2 is issued to Germans with multiple entries and up to 60 months of validity, the same applies to Austrians. Swiss nationals get up to 48 months.
Length of stay determines how long you may remain after an entry. According to USCIS this is up to two years per entry, recorded in the electronic I-94 arrival record. Leaving and re-entering within the visa's validity generally gives you another two years. Extensions inside the US are possible in increments of up to two years, with no cap on the number of extensions.
When the visa expires you apply again, and the consulate then checks whether the business has met the projections of the first business plan. So an E-2 is not a five-year ticket, it is a status that lasts as long as the business carries it.
Spouse and children
The spouse and unmarried children under 21 receive a derivative E-2, regardless of their own nationality, with the investor's length of stay.
- Spouses may work, without a separate application. USCIS treats the work authorization as part of the status. Proof is the I-94 record annotated E-2S, a separate work permit card is optional. This has been the rule since 2022 and is a real advantage over many other visas.
- Children may attend school and university but may not work. The derivative status ends at 21. Anyone moving with teenagers should plan for this, because a child who grew up in the US then needs a visa of their own, such as a student visa.
Taxes: whoever stays becomes a US tax resident
The E-2 is an immigration status, the tax consequences come through physical presence. The US determines the tax status of foreigners through the substantial presence test: you are a tax resident if you were in the US for at least 31 days in the current year and reach 183 weighted days over three years. All days of the current year count, plus a third of the days of the previous year and a sixth of the days of the year before that. E-2 holders are not exempt from this test.
So anyone who actually moves to the US on an E-2 almost always becomes a US tax resident. And US tax residents are taxed on their worldwide income: salary from their own LLC, dividends from the German brokerage account, rent from the apartment in Hamburg. The profits of a single-member LLC generally flow straight into the personal return, where federal tax, state tax depending on the state and self-employment tax for social security add up. Florida and Texas have no state income tax, California and New York do.
The German side does not end automatically with the move. You remain fully taxable in Germany as long as you keep a residence there, and an apartment you have not given up is enough. With a residence in both countries, the double tax treaty between Germany and the US decides where you are treated as resident. Anyone holding at least 1 percent of a corporation, such as their own GmbH, also has to check the German exit tax under section 6 of the Foreign Tax Act, which became considerably stricter in 2022. How this works out depends on the individual case and needs a tax adviser who knows both countries before the move.
The status does have one pleasant side effect: with work authorization comes a Social Security Number, and with an SSN and a US address building a US credit score becomes much easier than through an ITIN.
Who the E-2 suits
The E-2 suits people who want to run a real business in the US and would invest the money anyway: a franchise, a restaurant, an agency with US clients and US staff, a trading company. It suits people poorly who are really looking for a plan B, a second residence for emergencies or tax optimization. As an emergency option, a status tied to a running business in a high-tax country is an expensive solution. Which residence options fit that purpose better is laid out in the overview of plan B residencies.
Verdict
For Germans, Austrians and Swiss the E-2 is a real route into the US, and one of the few that works without an employer and without a lottery. But it is an entrepreneur visa, not an investor visa in the sense of parking capital. What decides it is nationality, at least 50 percent ownership, an investment that is substantial relative to the business and already spent, and a business that carries more than its owner's salary. The 100,000 dollars are a guide value, the "1 to 3 months" at best the final stretch. And anyone who actually moves should settle the tax consequences before the flight: US worldwide taxation on one side, a possible German exit tax on the other. A green card is not part of the package.
