Traditionally, the E-2 visa is only available for foreign nationals who possess the nationality of a country with which the United States maintains a bilateral investment treaty or a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation. It is a nonimmigrant visa with major benefits that are typically not conferred by other types of nonimmigrant visas, including fast processing time, indefinite extension, ability for the entire family to travel freely, possibility to avoid taxation on worldwide income, ability for the derivative children to go to school and ability for the spouse to work.

In recent years, delays in various immigration preference categories have brought this visa under the spotlight. Through certain “citizenship by investment” (CBI) programs, citizens of nontreaty countries, such as China, India and Vietnam, can obtain citizenship of an E-2 treaty country (most notably Grenada and Turkey) and apply for the E-2 visa.