USA
E-1 visa requirements: what you and your business need
The E-1 treaty trader visa is for owners and key staff of a business that already trades with the United States. The business and its owners must come from a country that has a trade treaty with the US. The E-1 visa requirements split in two. Your business shows that it trades steadily with the US, and that most of its international trade is with your country. You show that you share the business’s nationality, hold a real role in it, and plan to leave when your E-1 status ends.
Officers look at both halves together. Plenty of trade does not help if the owners hold the wrong passports, and the right owners do not help if the trade is spread across many countries. The tests are the same whether you apply at a US consulate abroad or through a change of status inside the US.
Officers refuse E-1 cases when the trade rests on one or two big deals. They also refuse them when so much trade goes to other countries that the US share falls below half. Below, each E-1 requirement gets the rule in the government’s own words, what proves it, and what weakens it.
E-1 visa requirements at a glance
Officers check the E-1 visa requirements mainly against records of trade you have already done. They look at your business first and then at you.
| Requirement | What it means | Who it is about |
|---|---|---|
| Same nationality | You hold a passport from a treaty country, and people from that country own at least half of the business | You and the business |
| Trade already under way | The business already sells or buys goods, services or technology between the US and your country | The business |
| Steady trade | Many sales or purchases spread over time, never a single deal | The business |
| Mostly with your country | More than half of the business’s international trade is with your country | The business |
| A real role | You run the trade, or you work in it as a manager or an employee with essential skills | You |
| A plan to leave | You will leave the US when E-1 status ends; you do not need a home abroad | You |
E-1 treaty nationality: you and your business
The first of the E-1 visa requirements is nationality. You need a passport from a country with an E-1 treaty, and your business needs the same nationality through the people who own it. The E-1 treaty countries number 54, and two of them, Greece and Brunei, have the E-1 but not the E-2.
Ownership is traced to the people who hold the shares
The ruleThe treaty trader or investor must, whether an individual or business, possess the nationality of the treaty country. The nationality of a business is determined by the nationality of the individual owners of that business. The country of incorporation is irrelevant to the nationality requirement for E visa purposes.
9 FAM 402.9-4(B) · 8 CFR 214.2(e)(7)
People from your country must own at least half of the business. If another company owns it, officers look at who owns that company, and keep going until they reach real people. Where the business is registered does not matter: a New York company owned by a Tokyo parent, whose shareholders are Japanese, counts as Japanese.
Shares held by US green card holders do not count toward that half, even if the owner also holds your country’s passport. A business usually has one nationality. The exception is a business owned 50/50 by people from two treaty countries, which can employ E-1 staff of either nationality.
- Your passport, and the passport of every owner from your country, with each person’s share
- The share register or cap table, followed up through any parent companies
- The company’s founding documents and its shareholder or operating agreement
- An ownership chart that stops at a parent company instead of naming the people behind it
- A co-owner with a US green card whose shares push your country’s ownership below half
- A new investor who leaves your country’s owners with less than half
- An applicant whose nationality differs from the owners’
Citizenship bought through investment: three years of living there first
If you got your passport through an investment program, you usually have to wait. A 2022 change to the immigration law requires three years in a row of living in that country as your real home before you apply. The wait does not apply if you have held E status before. Citizenship by birth, descent, marriage or regular naturalization has no waiting period.
E-1 trade: goods, services and technology all count
Under the E-1 visa requirements, trade means selling or buying goods, services or technology between the US and your country, for payment. It covers far more than shipping products.
Goods and services in the regulation’s own words
The ruleFor purposes of this paragraph, goods are tangible commodities or merchandise having extrinsic value. Further, as used in this paragraph, services are legitimate economic activities which provide other than tangible goods.
8 CFR 214.2(e)(9)
In plain terms, goods are physical products, and services are any lawful work that is not a physical product. The regulation’s own examples include banking, insurance, transport, advertising, accounting, engineering, consulting, tourism and technology. A software company that licenses its product to US customers trades technology, and a freight forwarder trades transport.
Buying counts as much as selling. Purchases from US suppliers are E-1 trade, just like sales to US customers.
E-1 trade has to cross the border
Each sale has to go between the two countries, and what is sold has to pass from the seller to the buyer. An officer should be able to follow every sale from the order to the invoice to the payment. Sales that stay inside the US, or inside your home country, are not E-1 trade.
Sending money home is not trade either. Fees you earn in the US and move to a bank account back home do not count if they pay for no business there.
Services and software as E-1 trade
A service counts when it is what your business sells. A consulting firm that bills US clients for advice trades services. Consulting hours, software subscriptions and licensing royalties paid by US clients can all build an E-1 trade record.
- Invoices, purchase orders and contracts with US customers or suppliers
- Shipping and customs papers for goods
- Bank records that match each invoice to its payment
- For services, signed client agreements, paid invoices and royalty statements
- Goods moved between two offices of the same company
- Income you cannot trace from the invoice to the payment
- A service given away free with something else
- Sales at home or inside the US counted as international trade
E-1 existing trade: the trade must already be under way
An E-1 is not a visa for finding customers. Your trade with the US has to be happening when you apply.
Signed contracts count when delivery is immediate
The ruleTrade is the existing international exchange of items of trade for consideration between the United States and the treaty country. Existing trade includes successfully negotiated contracts binding upon the parties which call for the immediate exchange of items of trade.
8 CFR 214.2(e)(9)
A signed contract counts when it binds both sides and calls for delivery right away. Letters of intent, talks, quotes and revenue forecasts do not count, however promising they look.
If your business has not traded with the US yet, it is not ready for the E-1.
E-1 substantial trade: many sales over time
Substantial trade means a steady flow of trade between the US and your country, made up of many sales or purchases over time.
No minimum amount, and never a single deal
The ruleSubstantial trade is an amount of trade sufficient to ensure a continuous flow of international trade items between the United States and the treaty country. This continuous flow contemplates numerous transactions over time. Treaty trader status may not be established or maintained on the basis of a single transaction, regardless of how protracted or monetarily valuable the transaction.
8 CFR 214.2(e)(10)
No dollar amount appears in the rule, and no single sale has to reach a minimum value. Officers look first at how many sales there are and then at how big they are. One contract never qualifies, however big it is or however long it runs.
Smaller businesses and income that supports your family
A small business can qualify. A long run of small sales can be enough. If the income from that trade supports you and your family, officers count it in your favour, but there is no income test to pass.
Trade records: the last full year, sale by sale
The rule sets no minimum number of months. Most E-1 applications show the last full year sale by sale, and add earlier years if the business has them. A younger business shows everything since its first sale.
- A list of every sale in the last full year, with the date, customer, country and amount
- Sample invoices from across the year, each matched to its payment
- Tax returns and financial statements for the business
- A customer list that shows repeat buyers
- One or two large contracts carrying most of the value
- Months with no trade at all between busy periods
- A record that starts a few weeks before the application
- Numbers that do not match across the invoices, bank statements and tax returns
E-1 principal trade: more than half with your country
Principal trade means more than half of your business’s international trade is between the US and your country.
Only international trade counts toward the 50 percent share
The rulePrincipal trade exists when more than 50 percent of the E-1’s total volume of international trade is conducted between United States and the treaty country.
USCIS, Form I-129 Instructions · 8 CFR 214.2(e)(11)
To work out the share, compare your trade with the US against all of your trade that crosses a border. Sales inside your home country are left out, so a business can make most of its money at home and still pass. Exactly half is not enough.
| Trade line | Annual value | In the international total? |
|---|---|---|
| Sales to US customers | $600,000 | Yes, US trade |
| Purchases from US suppliers | $150,000 | Yes, US trade |
| Sales to customers in France and Poland | $500,000 | Yes, other international trade |
| Sales inside Germany | $2,000,000 | No, domestic trade |
Example figures. US trade is $750,000 out of $1,250,000 in international trade, which is 60 percent, so the business passes.
Branch or subsidiary: which E-1 trade counts
Officers measure the trade of whoever actually does the trading. A US branch is part of the company abroad, so officers count the whole company’s trade. A US subsidiary is its own company and is measured on its own, so it can pass even if its parent abroad trades mostly with other countries.
Once the business passes, its E-1 employees do not each have to. An employee of a qualifying US subsidiary can also handle sales to other countries.
Records that prove the E-1 trade share
- A trade summary showing total international trade, US trade, the US share, and the papers behind each number
- The same numbers on the USCIS form, if you apply from inside the US
- An accountant’s breakdown of the year’s international trade by country
- For a branch, the whole parent company’s trade, not only the US office’s
- Home sales included in the total, which makes the US share look smaller
- Country figures an officer cannot check against the invoices
- A US share just over half, with no room to spare at the next renewal
- Branch figures shown without the parent company’s trade
E-1 employees: executive, supervisory or essential skills
Your business can also bring in employees from your country. Each employee needs the same nationality as the business, and the business itself has to qualify.
The employee either manages the business or a major part of it, or has skills the business really needs to run well. The E-1 and E-2 employee rules are the same for both visas.
E-1 intent to depart: a plan to leave when status ends
The last of the E-1 visa requirements is simple: you plan to leave the US when your E-1 status ends. Saying so clearly is usually enough.
A green card petition does not rule out the E-1
The ruleAn alien classified under section 101(a)(15)(E) of the Act shall maintain an intention to depart the United States upon the expiration or termination of E-1 or E-2 status.
8 CFR 214.2(e)(5)
You do not need to keep a home abroad. You can sell your house and move your family to the US.
A green card petition filed for you does not by itself sink an E-1 case; the regulation says an E application cannot be refused for that reason alone. At a consulate, though, you would have to convince the officer that you still plan to leave.
How do E-1 requirements differ from the E-2?
On what the case rests on. The E-1 rests on trade you already do; the E-2 rests on money you have invested in a US business. Nationality, ownership, employees and the plan to leave work the same way for both.
For the E-1, officers check that the trade is under way, steady, and mostly with your country. The E-2 visa requirements look at the investment instead: whether the money is at risk, large enough for that business, and able to do more than support your own family.
Check your E-1 visa eligibility test by test
Every one of the E-1 visa requirements has to hold at the same time. Strong trade does not make up for an ownership problem, and the right owners do not make up for trade spread across too many countries.
The imigOS eligibility check, step by step
The check asks about your passport, your business and its trade, then compares your answers with every US visa we cover.
- Answer the questions. About 3 minutes on your passport, who owns the business, and where its trade goes. The questions adapt to your earlier answers, so the set stays short.
- See where you stand. Which E-1 tests your answers clear, which stay open, and which other pathways the same answers reach, such as the E-2. No account is needed to read the result.
- Talk it through, if you want. A free call with an imigOS expath, one of our immigration experts. Expaths are not lawyers, so the call covers eligibility and planning rather than legal advice.
- Meet the attorneys. If a pathway looks suitable, the licensed attorneys who take that case type are shown, and the decision to go ahead stays yours.
The check is free, it takes about 3 minutes, and the result appears without an account. Check your E-1 eligibility before you assemble the trade record.
Common questions
The E-1 has no annual cap and no lottery, so the difficulty lies in the trade record. Most of the work goes into a steady run of transactions rather than a few large ones, and a US share above half that an officer can check. The ownership chart also has to reach the people behind the shares.
No. An E-1 holder may work only for the business the visa is based on, in the approved role. Moving to a new employer without approval breaks status. A merger or sale of the business also needs approval first, from USCIS or through a new visa. A spouse in E-1 status may work for any employer.
The regulation sets no minimum period. Applications usually show the last full year sale by sale, and add earlier years where the business has them. A younger business shows its whole history from the first sale. Each sale in the record should be backed by an invoice and a matching payment.
Not by regulation, but most E-1 applications include one. The E-1 rules do not list a business plan as a requirement, while standard E-1 document checklists do. The plan explains the US operation: revenue and staffing projections, funding, the market, and how the trade will grow. The officer still decides on the trade the business has already done.
E-1 status lasts only while the business meets the E-1 rules, and the more-than-half rule is checked again at every extension and visa renewal. A US share of half or less fails at that point. A big change in the business, such as a sale or merger, needs approval from USCIS, or a new visa reflecting it, before it happens.
Yes. E-1 trade is an exchange between the US and the treaty country in either direction, so imports from US suppliers count alongside sales to US customers. What is sold has to pass from seller to buyer, and each sale has to be traceable from the order to the payment.
Sources
- E-1 Treaty TradersU.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services · April 8, 2025
Show all 7 sourcesShow fewer sources
- 8 CFR 214.2(e): Treaty traders and investorsElectronic Code of Federal Regulations
- 9 FAM 402.9-4 and 402.9-5: E visa nationality rules and treaty traders (E-1)U.S. Department of State, Foreign Affairs Manual · February 17, 2026
- INA 101(a)(15)(E)(i), 8 USC 1101(a)(15)(E): the treaty trader classificationCornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
- 22 CFR 41.51(a): Treaty trader visa classificationCornell Law School, Legal Information Institute
- Treaty CountriesU.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs
- Treaty Trader & Treaty Investor VisasU.S. Department of State, Bureau of Consular Affairs
2–6 months
$9,800–$13,800
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