No fixed dollar threshold determines E-2 eligibility on its own. Substantiality relates the investment to the actual cost of the specific business, while nationality, real commitment of funds, direction of the enterprise, and the non-marginality requirement must each still be satisfied.
Identify what the proposed budget is meant to establish
Set out the business being purchased or formed and the costs the proposal covers, flagging anything outside a headline purchase price. Distinguish firm estimates from amounts already spent, and confirm how the actual commitment will be assessed rather than borrowing a figure used in an unrelated case.
Direction is not defeated merely because an agreement contains ordinary brand standards, a reservation system or a fleet program; the question is whether the actual agreement leaves the investor with operational control. An operating company supplies records that a startup must construct, but the requirements are identical: treaty nationality, substantial at-risk capital, a genuine commercial enterprise, the investor's ability to direct it, and more than marginal capacity. Because the category asks whether treaty-country nationals own at least half the enterprise, and whether the investor genuinely develops and directs it, shares or voting rights placed in a relative's name can move the answer to a question nobody meant to open.