The E2 visa asks you to make two investments at once. The first is into a real, operating business. The second is into a coherent story that convinces a consular officer your investment is substantial, at risk, and capable of creating jobs. Budgets collapse when founders confuse these two. You can spend heavily on fees and still fail if the business is flimsy, or spend smartly on a strong enterprise but miss procedural requirements that sink the case. An experienced e2 visa lawyer balances both sides: the enterprise must make sense on its own terms, and the filing must present it as a bona fide, job-creating venture.
Below is how an e2 immigration lawyer typically breaks down the E2 visa cost structure and where smart founders allocate money. The figures assume a standard case in 2025. They vary by city, industry, and whether you apply at a U.S. consulate abroad or through USCIS in the United States.
The cost map: direct fees, professional services, and the business itself
There are three buckets.
Government fees. For consular filings, most treaty countries still use the DS‑160 with a machine-readable visa fee that sits near 205 dollars. Some posts have reciprocity fees ranging from zero to several hundred dollars per applicant, depending on nationality. If you file with USCIS for a change of status, the filing fee for Form I‑129 with the E supplement is currently in the 1,000 to 1,500 dollar range, depending on the fee schedule in effect and whether the small business discount applies. Premium processing, if available for the specific E category and period, adds roughly 2,500 dollars and buys a 15‑calendar‑day decision window, not an approval guarantee. Each dependent (spouse and children) has separate consular fees and, if filing stateside, biometrics or I‑539 fees that typically add a few hundred dollars per person.
Professional services. Legal representation is the core line item. An e2 visa attorney may charge a flat fee ranging from 6,000 to 18,000 dollars for a straightforward case. Complex matters, such as multi‑member ownership, franchise compliance, foreign corporate structures, or borderline investment amounts, can push into the 20,000 to 30,000 dollar range. An e2 visa consultant who focuses on business plans often charges 1,500 to 6,000 dollars depending on depth, industry modeling, and financial forecasting. Accounting support, including U.S. entity setup, EIN, state registrations, and initial bookkeeping, usually lands between 1,000 and 5,000 dollars. If the matter involves a regulated trade or licensing, add compliance counsel. Finally, translations, apostilles, and document retrieval from abroad can cost a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.
The business build. This is the heart of the e2 visa cost. The law does not fix an e‑2 visa minimum investment, but in real life officers weigh the scale of the enterprise. A nail salon in a secondary market might credibly launch at 80,000 to 120,000 dollars, while a small manufacturing operation or food production line can easily require 250,000 to 600,000 dollars in equipment and build‑out. A software consultancy may need less hard capital and more payroll committed to key hires, credible contracts, and marketing. What matters is proportionality to the business type, funds being irrevocably committed and at risk, and a plan to grow beyond the owner-operator model.
These buckets interact. A weak business plan forces the legal team to over‑explain. An underfunded build invites skepticism, no matter how polished the petition looks. The opposite is also true: a strong enterprise reduces friction and, in many cases, long-term legal cost.
Where E2 money actually goes inside the business
I have watched founders fixate on a magic number as if the visa unlocks at 100,000 dollars. That number has no basis in the statute. Officers look at qualitative evidence of commitment: funds already spent on non‑refundable items, executed leases, equipment delivered, payroll started, marketing and technology deployed, and a bank balance that ties to near‑term obligations. Think of it as building an “operational score.”
Real expenditures that carry weight:
- Lease deposits and build‑out. A commercial lease with a reasonable term and a personal guarantee shows commitment. Build‑out invoices, paid deposits, and photos of progress go far. Avoid contingent leases that evaporate if the visa is refused, unless they are otherwise binding and non‑refundable. Equipment and inventory. Paid invoices for equipment delivery, serial numbers, warranties, and insurance policies prove the business exists beyond a PowerPoint. For inventory businesses, purchase orders and shipping documents carry weight. Payroll and contractors. A bona fide enterprise needs people. Early hires, even part‑time, signal growth potential. Payroll runs, W‑4s, and offer letters are persuasive. If you cannot start payroll yet, signed contingent offers with start dates tied to visa issuance can help, but hard payroll data is stronger. Licenses, insurance, and compliance. Health permits, state licenses, professional certifications, and general liability policies show you intend to operate lawfully. Sales and marketing. Website, CRM subscriptions, ad spend, service agreements, letters of intent, and contracts establish market traction. Officers like real customers.
Purely refundable items carry less weight than sunk costs. A wire transfer to your own U.S. business account that sits idle won’t impress anyone. Money that can be withdrawn tomorrow is not “at risk.”
The myth of the minimum investment
The phrase e‑2 visa minimum investment misleads because officers judge substantiality relative to the business. They look at two models. For low‑cost enterprises, they expect a very high percentage of the total startup cost to be invested and at risk. For higher‑cost enterprises, the percentage can be lower, but the absolute dollar amount must still be meaningful. For example, a boutique fitness studio with a 150,000 dollar total startup budget that has 120,000 dollars already paid and committed often fares well. A trucking business with a total need of 350,000 dollars that only has 70,000 dollars in committed spend is weak, even though 70,000 sounds like a lot on paper.
In my practice, cases that move smoothly usually meet these rough bands:
- Professional services firms or consultancies with clear contracts and payroll: 60,000 to 120,000 dollars committed, with at least one W‑2 or equivalent payroll started. Service retail such as salons or small cafés: 100,000 to 250,000 dollars invested, including leasehold improvements and equipment paid. Light manufacturing or specialty food production: 200,000 to 700,000 dollars across machinery, FDA or state compliance, and initial inventory.
Edge cases exist. A seasoned founder buying a profitable micro‑business for 90,000 dollars may succeed if the books, tax returns, and escrow structure show real transfer of ownership and continuity of jobs. On the other hand, a 150,000 dollar “investment” into a holding company that subcontracts everything and has no fixed assets, staff, or contracts usually fails.
The role of the business plan and why it deserves a line item
An e2 visa business plan is not a pitch deck. Officers read dozens per week and quickly dismiss fluff. A useful plan does five things: ties the market opportunity to a specific operating model, shows a staffing plan that grows beyond the owner’s role, forecasts revenue with defensible assumptions, maps spend to milestones already met, and reconciles every number to source documents. The best plans read like an operator wrote them, not a copywriter.
What to expect if you hire a specialist:
- Discovery and scoping. You’ll be pushed to provide supplier quotes, lease terms, pricing logic, unit economics, and pipeline evidence. Weak answers here are a warning sign. Model building. For product businesses, unit contribution margins, break‑even volumes, and inventory turns. For services, billing rates, utilization, and gross margin on labor. Staffing roadmap. Titles, timing, expected wages, and a rationale for how these hires grow the enterprise. Risk analysis. Officers appreciate acknowledgment of risks and concrete mitigations: supplier diversification, regulatory approvals in process, contingency capital, and operational controls.
Cost for a plan that does this well ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 dollars in most markets. Yes, you can draft it yourself, and we see many founders do so successfully. Just budget the time for revisions after your e2 visa lawyer marks up inconsistencies that would raise questions at interview.
Legal fees: what you get when you hire an e2 visa law firm
Different lawyers run different playbooks, but here is what a comprehensive engagement should cover. Initial strategy often takes an hour or two of hard questions: timing between investment and filing, whether to apply abroad or with USCIS, spousal work authorization strategy, and how fast you need to be in the United States. Document gathering then begins: corporate formation records, capitalization ledger, bank statements tracing funds, invoices and receipts, agreements, payroll runs, and licenses.
The attorney’s value is in the brief. A strong legal memo frames the business, the investment flow, and the job-creation plan, anticipating officer objections. Expect exhibits to be tabbed, indexed, and cross‑referenced to the memo. For consular cases, a good e2 immigration lawyer also coaches you for the interview: what you’ll be asked, how to answer succinctly, documents to carry, and what not to say. For USCIS change of status filings, the legal team sets expectations on adjudication posture, requests for evidence, and the practical limits of working before approval.
A typical fee progression I see in New York and other large markets: 8,500 to 12,500 dollars for a straightforward case with a single owner and a simple corporate structure; 12,500 to 20,000 dollars when there is an acquisition of an existing business, a franchise with franchisor compliance riders, or substantial foreign ownership that requires source‑of‑funds tracing across multiple accounts. An e2 visa lawyer New York may price higher due to local overhead and the complexity of deals common to the market. Ask whether the fee covers RFE responses and consular follow‑up, or whether those are billed separately.
Consular filing versus USCIS change of status: cost and time trade‑offs
Two paths exist to initial classification. If you are abroad, or if you prefer a visa foil in your passport with the ability to enter and exit freely, consular processing is the standard path. If you are lawfully present in the United States in another nonimmigrant status and need to start quickly, a change of status with USCIS may be attractive. The e2 visa processing time depends heavily on the route and on where you file.
Consular processing. Timelines vary by post. Some consulates turn E2 cases in 6 to 10 weeks from submission to interview. Others push to 12 to 20 weeks, and a handful take longer. There is no premium processing at consulates. Government fees are modest, but you might incur e2 immigration lawyer ALONZI LAW GROUP PLLC higher costs for courier services, local counsel in the treaty country if documents need authentication, and travel to the interview post. The benefit is a visa stamp valid up to five years in some treaties, often with multiple entry, and the ability to reenter the United States freely during validity.
USCIS change of status. Filing fees are higher and you may add premium processing for speed. The advantage is predictability: with premium processing, you often receive a decision within weeks, which can help you start operations and payroll. The downside is travel limitations. A change of status approval is a status, not a visa. If you leave the United States, you’ll need to schedule a consular interview to obtain the visa before returning in E2 classification. Also, USCIS adjudications can be paper‑intensive, and RFEs sometimes probe deeply into source of funds and operational reality. Cost rises if your attorney must craft extensive responses.
A seasoned e2 visa law firm weighs your business calendar. If your lease starts next month and contractors need direction, change of status with premium processing may be worth the cost. If your market requires frequent travel, consular processing is usually the better long‑term play.
Source of funds: the hidden cost center
Tracing the investment is the silent time sink that can expand legal and translation costs. The regulation requires the investment to be from a lawful source. In practice this means bank statements that show the path of funds from origin to the U.S. business. Simple cases draw on savings with pay slips and tax returns that back the accumulation. More complex cases involve a property sale, business dividend, loan secured by personal assets, or gifts within the family.
Each of these adds steps. Property sales require sale contracts, closing statements, and proof of proceeds landing in the investor’s account. Loans require the note, collateral documentation, and proof the loan is not secured by the assets of the E2 enterprise. Gifts require gift deeds and the donor’s source‑of‑funds evidence, which can double your paper trail. Foreign documents may need certified translations and, in some countries, legalization or apostille. Budget both time and money for this, especially if your bank issues limited‑detail statements.
Payroll and staffing: don’t leave it to the narrative
The statute requires that the enterprise not be marginal, meaning it must have the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family. Officers look for jobs, sooner rather than later. I encourage E2 clients to run at least some payroll before filing, even if small. Two part‑time roles with real duties and W‑2 documentation can change the tone of an interview. If immediate payroll is impossible because you are abroad, build credible contingent offers with compensation aligned to market rates, and budget for payroll taxes, workers’ compensation insurance, and onboarding.
Payroll has cost beyond wages. Set up fees with a payroll provider, state unemployment insurance accounts, new hire reporting, and handbook or policy development if you are in a regulated space. These are small numbers individually, a few hundred dollars each, but they round out the portrait of a real employer.
Real budgets from the field
I keep anonymized composites that help founders sense‑check their numbers.
A boutique coffee bar in a mid‑sized city. Leasehold improvements and equipment: 160,000 dollars. Working capital for initial inventory and payroll: 25,000 dollars. Licenses, insurance, and point‑of‑sale systems: 6,000 dollars. Legal and plan: 12,000 dollars. Government fees and consular travel: 2,500 dollars. Total: roughly 205,500 dollars, with 180,000 dollars already spent at filing.
A small B2B software consultancy. Entity setup, insurance, and compliance: 3,500 dollars. Laptops and initial tooling: 8,000 dollars. Marketing and sales stack: 6,000 dollars. Payroll for one U.S. hire for three months funded in escrow: 45,000 dollars. Legal and plan: 13,000 dollars. Government fees: 1,600 dollars. Total: roughly 77,100 dollars, with executed contracts worth 180,000 dollars in the first year. Approved based on credible revenue and staffing plan.
A specialty food manufacturer. Equipment: 310,000 dollars. Facility improvements and sanitation: 85,000 dollars. Inventory and packaging: 40,000 dollars. Quality assurance consulting and FDA registration: 12,000 dollars. Payroll month one: 22,000 dollars. Legal and plan: 18,000 dollars. Fees and incidentals: 3,000 dollars. Total: about 490,000 dollars. Hires two employees before filing. Smooth approval.
These numbers illustrate proportionality, not thresholds. The consultancy succeeded at a lower absolute spend because the business model is low‑capex and revenue‑driven with staff beyond the owner.
Mistakes that inflate cost or sink cases
Founders tend to underinvest in operations and overinvest in presentation. They buy glossy business plans and then submit thin evidence of actual spend. Another pitfall is last‑minute investing. Officers can tell when invoices are paid all at once days before submission. A staged, logical spend that maps to build‑out and launch milestones looks authentic.
A second mistake is using personal loans secured by the business’s own assets. That fails the at‑risk test. If a bank loan is part of the structure, it should be secured by personal assets and clearly recourse to you, not to the business’s assets alone.
A third is ignoring local laws. For example, owners who plan to open a childcare center often budget for rent and toys but forget state licensing, inspections, staff credentialing, and insurance endorsements that add months and thousands of dollars. That gap shows up at interview and undermines credibility.
The last is treating the owner as the only worker forever. An E2 can be renewed indefinitely, but renewals scrutinize job creation. If you did not hire in the first term, be ready for questions or a denial. Hiring early often costs less than fighting marginality later.
Choosing the right help: lawyer, consultant, or both
Not every case needs both an e2 visa lawyer and an e2 visa consultant. If you have a sophisticated internal model with clean documentation, a strong attorney may be enough to shape it into the required format. If you are new to U.S. business practices, a plan specialist can save weeks by building credible forecasts and staffing roadmaps. In New York and other complex markets, I have seen founders benefit from counsel who also navigates commercial leasing norms, state agency timelines, and local licensing. An e2 visa lawyer New York is often fluent in landlord forms, security deposit law, and union or permitting considerations that affect your build‑out costs and timing.
Ask providers candid questions: How many E2s in your last twelve months? In my industry? What is your approval rate and at which consulates? What is included in the flat fee and what triggers additional billing? Will you mark up my business plan for factual inconsistencies? Who attends the interview prep and how long is it? If an RFE arrives, what is the plan?
Processing time planning and cash flow
Your e2 visa processing time shapes your cash burn. Build a calendar that assumes slippage. If consular, hold back a reasonable working capital tranche to cover the gap between submission and interview, but be ready to deploy more for post‑approval ramp. If filing with USCIS and using premium processing, map RFE risk into your timeline. An RFE can add 3 to 8 weeks, even with premium processing, while you gather additional evidence and the agency re‑adjudicates. Keep suppliers and landlords informed of your timeline so they are not surprised by slowdowns.
Only commit to large non‑refundable items when you are confident of timing and case strength. That said, if everything is contingent on approval, it may look like you have not truly invested. This is a judgment call. Seasoned counsel can calibrate how much risk to show at the time of filing for your industry and consulate.
Taxes, structure, and long‑term costs
Entity structure affects cost in ways that ripple. A simple LLC disregarded for tax may be fine for a consultancy, but a restaurant with investors might need an S‑corp or a partnership with a thoughtful operating agreement. Multi‑member structures increase legal work, add K‑1 complexity, and require clear capital account records that tie to your investment tracing. Expect higher accounting fees, 2,000 to 7,000 dollars in the first year, if your structure is layered or if you carry inventory.
Insurance and compliance are not one‑time costs. General liability, workers’ compensation, professional liability, and any specialty coverage add thousands annually. Licenses renew. If you rely on regulated equipment or a commissary kitchen, inspections can interrupt operations. These realities matter at renewal when the officer looks at whether you built a sustainable enterprise rather than a flash in the pan to satisfy initial adjudication.
A smart spend checklist for founders
- Map your spend to milestones. Tie each large payment to a visible operational step: lease signed, equipment delivered, staff hired, first sales made. Treat payroll as a core proof of non‑marginality. Even small early hires matter. Trace funds cleanly. Keep statements, wire receipts, and contracts organized each step of the way. Use the business plan as an operator’s document, not a marketing brochure. Choose counsel who pushes back. Easy yeses up front become hard noes at interview.
What a realistic all‑in budget looks like
For most first‑time E2 entrepreneurs, I counsel a two‑layer budget. The first layer is the committed capital that must be spent or placed at risk before filing. The second is a working capital reserve you will deploy in the first six months post‑approval. As a range, layer one is often 70 to 80 percent of your total startup cost for low‑capex businesses and 50 to 70 percent for higher‑capex businesses where equipment orders and build‑out span months. The legal and planning budget sits on top.
A lower‑capex service business might plan 70,000 to 120,000 dollars at risk pre‑filing, 30,000 to 80,000 dollars in reserves, and 10,000 to 15,000 dollars for professional services and fees. A brick‑and‑mortar retail or hospitality venture might carry 150,000 to 300,000 dollars pre‑filing, 50,000 to 150,000 dollars in reserves, and 12,000 to 20,000 dollars for professional services and fees. Manufacturing or specialized production can easily exceed these ranges. This structure keeps you from starving the operation while also presenting a compelling record of real commitment.
Final notes on risk and renewals
The E2 is a living visa. Approval is not the finish line, it is an invitation to perform. Renewals focus on what you built: revenue, jobs, payroll tax filings, vendor relationships, and growth. If you cut corners at the start, renewals become expensive and uncertain. If you invest in durable assets, staff, and systems, renewals are usually efficient. Keep a compliance binder from day one: quarterly financials, payroll reports, W‑2s and 1099s, tax returns, updated licenses, insurance renewals, and a refreshed business plan that maps the next phase. That binder is as important as your first application package.
For founders deciding whether to assemble the case themselves or retain counsel, do an honest assessment. If your time is best spent opening the doors, negotiating supplier terms, and hiring, an experienced e2 visa attorney earns the fee by removing procedural risk and telling your story clearly. If your venture is simple, your documentation pristine, and your comfort with U.S. filings high, you can reduce legal spend and lean on a targeted review instead of a full‑service package. Either way, your dollars should move the business forward and prove it on paper.
The E2 is generous to those who treat it like what it is: an owner’s visa for owners who build. Invest where customers will notice first, document vigorously so an officer will notice second, and let your spending tell a coherent story.
