WorkflowBusiness & Investor Immigration

E-2 Visa Business Plan

E-2 visa business plan drafting that reads the investor's lease, quotes and hiring plan, tests marginality as the attorney moves each assumption, and cites each number to its page.

Watch it work Book a walkthrough

Follow the plan from lease clause to release ↓

Watch with transcript →

The problem

A writer's plan whose rent and payroll disagree with the client's own papers

The deal is signed, so the paralegal sends the papers and a questionnaire to an outside plan writer and waits for a first draft. It comes back built from the questionnaire. Its rent does not match the lease, its build-out does not match the contractor's quote, and its payroll does not match the hiring plan the investor signed.

Someone at the firm reconciles each figure by hand, and at a flat fee each round of revisions is unbilled time. Marginality gets tested at the end, if at all. A plan with too few hires, or busier tables than the shops down the street, reaches the interview with its weakest number unexplained.

Built forImmigration attorneysBusiness plan analystsParalegalsInvestor clients

The Problem Today

Each E-2 file for a new business needs a plan, and the outside writer's numbers rarely match the investor's own documents.

55,324: E-2 visas issued in FY2024 published
7–10: business days for an outside writer's first draft published

Outsourced, then reconciled

Lease
Quotes
Hiring
Projection

A writer's fee on each planPaid on a flat-fee file, with revision rounds on top
Marginality tested lastThe weak number meets the officer before the attorney

The Solution

Each term read and citedLease, quotes, hiring plan and budget, each value tied to its page
A model that keeps its sourcesEach assumption wears its document, and five years recompute as it moves
Marginality tested liveIncome and jobs tests rerun as the attorney moves a slider
Cited plan, attorney signsDrafted in the post's format, each number tied to a source

Built-in controls

Released only after an attorney signs the tests
Each off-source value logged with who and why
Investor records stay out of any model's training

What You Get

The firm files a plan whose numbers trace to the client's own records, with the weak one already answered.

No outside writer's feeDrafted in-house from the deal papers
The officer's question answeredThe number most likely challenged comes with its support
A client ready for the interviewA summary in her own language, kept out of the filing

How the plan gets built

An E-2 visa business plan built on nine screens, lease to signature

The nine screens follow the plan as it gets made, each naming who works it and the trouble it takes off that desk.

01Where each assumption came from
Each assumption read from the investor's lease, quotes and hiring plan
How it works
- Thirteen assumptions in one ledger, each with its value, exhibit, page and the agent that read it
- The rent of $9,850 a month opens beside its highlighted lease clause
- Build-out takes the lowest of three contractor quotes, $168,400
- A status on each line, such as matches, estimate supported or partly read
Business plan analystStops checking a writer's rent and payroll against the lease and the hiring plan, because the documents now set the numbers.
02Competitors within two miles
A competitor scan that benchmarks covers and ticket against nearby shops
How it works
- Seven competitors pinned on a map, each circle sized by covers a day
- A median of 96 covers a day and a median ticket of $23.60
- Each cover count marked as an estimate from listings, review volume and posted hours
- About 14,200 office workers within a mile back the weekday lunch case
Associate attorneyReviews the market section against shops an officer could look up, with each estimate labeled as one.
03Projection model
A five-year model whose sliders each wear the document they came from
How it works
- Six sliders: covers, ticket, rent, cost per position, build-out and year-two hires
- A source chip stays lit while its value matches the document
- The revenue chart and the profit and loss statement recompute as any slider moves
- The meter opens at 1.11× of the family's living: arguable
Founding attorneySees which numbers are the client's own and which are judgment calls before she reads a word of the draft.
04Meter after the hiring change
A marginality meter that runs the income and jobs tests live
How it works
- Income test: year-5 family income against the family's minimal living of $84,000
- Jobs test: W-2 jobs by month 24 against the 11 the covers need
- Moving year-two hires from 3 to 5 staffs lunch on all five weekdays
- The meter reads 1.71×, and the chip reads changed by attorney
Founding attorneyDecides the assumption that matters while she can still change it, and sees what the change does to both tests at once.
05Most likely challenged
The number an officer is most likely to challenge, named early
How it works
- Each assumption is returned to its evidence and the drop in the multiple measured
- Covers a day at 112 sits 17% above the two-mile median of 96
- At the median, year-5 income falls to 0.67×: marginal
- The support it offers: 1.75 covers per seat against a median of 2.33
Founding attorneyGoes into review knowing which number to defend and what proves it, rather than hearing it first across the interview window.
06Hiring plan by year
A hiring timeline tying each W-2 position to the work it staffs
How it works
- Eleven W-2 positions on a timeline, each bar starting at its hire month
- Three year-two hires staff one weekday; five staff all five
- A check that no 1099 contractor is counted as a job
- Payroll from $233,400 in year 1 to $481,605 in year 5
Business plan analystShows the client where the model departs from the hiring plan she signed, with a request to confirm it in plain words.
07Business plan draft
A plan draft rewritten from the current model, each number linked
How it works
- Eight sections in the post's format, each with its page count and review status
- Redraft rewrites staffing, projections and marginality from the current model
- Section 8 leads with 11 jobs by month 24 and $481,605 of payroll
- The cite checker reads 214 of 214
Associate attorneyReviews a draft whose figures already match the model, so her time goes to the argument instead of matching figures to documents.
08Marginality and job tests
Five tests, a stress test and the attorney's signature on one screen
How it works
- Substantial investment, at risk, real and operating, develops and directs, not marginal
- Each test cites its evidence, from the lease to the model sheet
- Stress test: covers down 10% gives 0.98×; rent up 10% gives 1.55×
- Signing locks the model, the tests and each change with its reason
Founding attorneySigns knowing how far each number can fall before the business turns marginal, and leaves her reasons on the record.
09Export and release
A release that stays locked until every number traces to a source
How it works
- The cite checker reads the 31-page plan and finds 214 numbers
- 183 tie to exhibit pages and 31 to the model sheet
- Exhibits in tab order, with the plan inside the page target of 35
- Release opens only once an attorney has signed the tests
Founding attorneyReleases the plan into the filing package with the citation count in front of her, and no stray figure left to find late.

Covers down 10% takes the plan under 1.0×; rent up 10% leaves it clear

The stress test on the signed model, with five year-two hires. Each line moves one assumption and reads the year-5 multiple of the family's living.

What moves	Year-5 multiple	Meter zone
Covers a day −10%	0.98×	Marginal
Average ticket −5%	1.24×	Arguable
Rent +10%	1.55×	Clearly not marginal
Payroll cost +8%	1.25×	Arguable
Covers at the two-mile median of 96	0.67×	Marginal

Around the model

Lease clauses, a held section and the client's summary around the model

Opened beside the numbers by the people who prepare, review and receive the plan.

Lease passage opened from the rent chip on the model, with base rent of $9,850 a month, a 3% yearly increase and a ten-year term highlighted — **The clause behind the rent**A source chip opens the passage the number was read from: rent of $9,850 a month, the 3% yearly increase and the ten-year term, highlighted.

Assumption ledger with other operating costs marked partly read, the accounts passage at 15.8% and 16.1% of sales, and a button to ask for one page again — **A page it could not read**One page of the investor's earlier shop accounts is a photo too dark to read. The 16% operating cost rests on the two years it could read.

Marginality section of the draft held by the plan writer while the meter reads arguable at 1.11×, with family income of $93,231 in year 5 — **A section the writer holds back**At 1.11× and 9 jobs by month 24, the plan writer will not say the business is not marginal. The section waits for the attorney.

Market analysis section of the plan: seven shops within two miles, a median of 96 covers and the per-seat comparison, marked reviewed — **The market argument, already made**Section 4 says why 112 covers holds up: a larger room, at 1.75 covers per seat against the 2.33 median. The associate has reviewed it.

Client summary of the plan in the investor's own language, naming covers a day as the likely interview question, marked as outside the filing — **A summary in the client's language**One page for the investor that names the question the officer is most likely to ask. It stays out of the filing.

Audit trail of 15 entries: year-two hires changed from 3 to 5 with the meter from 1.11× to 1.71×, the signature, the release and each agent run — **Who moved what, and why**The hiring change, logged with its reason and what it did to the meter, beside each agent run, the signature and the release.

An unstaffed lunch, a high cover count and a page too dark to read

Three findings from one file, each settled before the plan went to the attorney.

A lunch the hiring plan cannot staff

The signed hiring plan adds 3 year-two hires, enough for lunch on one weekday. A full weekday lunch of 32 covers needs 5, and the meter sat at 1.11× until the attorney decided.

Covers above the shops nearby

The plan's 112 covers a day is 17% above the two-mile median. At the median the plan is marginal, so the per-seat support goes into the market section.

A page too dark to read

The 2023 page of the investor's shop accounts could not be read. The operating cost uses 2024 and 2025 only, the plan says so, and the investor can be asked to re-upload it.

The checker can find the weak number, and only an attorney rules on it

Agents read, model and draft; an attorney or the client makes each of these calls.

Whether the business is marginalThe marginality checker proposes. An attorney signs the tests.

A challenged assumptionOnly an attorney moves it, and the change is logged with its reason.

The client's own factsThe investor confirms her hiring plan and household budget herself.

Signing what you preparedThe analyst who prepares a plan does not sign it.

Release to the filing packageAn attorney releases the plan. Agents never file, send or sign.

Marginality, sources and sign-off in an E-2 visa business plan

What is an E-2 visa business plan?

An E-2 visa business plan shows the officer that the investment is real and at risk, and that the business will not be marginal within five years. This solution drafts it from the investor's own lease, quotes, hiring plan and household budget, and cites each number to its page.

How does it show that the business is not marginal?

Two ways, as the firm's rule sets them: family income in the fifth year against the family's minimal living, and the payroll jobs the covers need by the end of the second year. The meter recomputes both as any assumption moves, and the attorney signs.

Can AI write an E-2 business plan an attorney will sign?

Agents read the papers, build the model and draft each section in the post's format. They do not decide. An attorney moves the decisive assumptions, signs the tests and releases the plan, and the cite checker blocks release while any number lacks a source.

Which number will the consular officer question?

The marginality checker returns each assumption to its evidence and measures the drop in the fifth-year multiple. The largest drop is named, with the support for the plan's figure, so the attorney and the client can prepare the answer.

What happens when the attorney changes an assumption?

The model, the meter and the challenge ranking recompute at once. The source chip shows the change, the audit logs who, from, to and why, the affected sections are redrafted, and the client is asked to confirm her own facts.

What does the investor have to send?

The lease or purchase papers, contractor quotes and equipment orders, the hiring plan and prior business accounts, a menu or price list with supplier quotes, and the family's household budget. A page that cannot be read is named, and the investor can be asked to send it again.

Does the client get the plan in her own language?

She gets a short summary in her language, drafted with the question the officer is most likely to ask. It is kept out of the filing, so the plan itself stays in the post's format.

Business & Investor Immigration