No regulation sets a minimum number of jobs for an E2 visa. That surprises most applicants, and it misleads some into submitting plans with either zero hiring or a fantasy of 25 employees by year two. Both versions fail for the same reason: the job projections do not match what the business can actually pay for.
The legal test is marginality. Under 9 FAM 402.9, a marginal enterprise is one that lacks the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the treaty investor and family. The projected future capacity should generally be realizable within five years from the date the business commences normal activity. Job creation is the most persuasive evidence of that capacity, because payroll for US workers proves the enterprise contributes income beyond the investor’s household. After 12 years of preparing these plans, we treat the hiring table as the load-bearing wall of every E2 visa business plan.
Job Creation Is Marginality Evidence, Not a Quota
A consular officer does not count your projected employees against a fixed threshold. The officer asks three questions. Can this business realistically generate the revenue shown? Does that revenue support the payroll shown? Does the resulting picture exceed a minimal living for the investor’s family within about five years?
One part-time hire at filing plus a credible ramp can pass. Ten projected hires with no revenue logic behind them can fail. Immigration attorneys commonly suggest showing at least one US worker early and a ramp toward roughly three to five positions by renewal for a typical small business, with labor-heavy sectors like restaurants expected to show more. Those are practice norms, not rules, and your plan must justify its own numbers.
What “Realistic” Means to an Adjudicator
Realistic means four things, all checkable inside your own document.
- Headcount tied to revenue capacity. Each hire appears when projected revenue can cover the fully loaded cost of the position.
- Industry-typical staffing ratios. A restaurant doing $600,000 a year does not run on two people, and a two-person consultancy does not need eight staff.
- US worker positions. Roles filled by US citizens or permanent residents carry the evidentiary weight. Jobs planned for the investor’s family members do not help the marginality case.
- Proper worker classification. W-2 employees are the strongest evidence. A plan staffed entirely by 1099 contractors invites the question of whether the enterprise really sustains US jobs; contractors can support the story only when contractor use is standard in the industry, such as delivery drivers or subcontracted trades.
Building the Year-by-Year Hiring Plan
Start From Revenue, Not From Headcount
Work backward from what the business earns. A service firm billing $180,000 in year one can support the owner plus one part-time hire. It cannot support four salaried staff, and an officer will spot that in minutes. Build the revenue model first, then place each hire at the quarter when cash flow covers wages, payroll taxes of roughly 8 to 10 percent, and any benefits.
We covered the revenue side in depth in our guide to E2 visa business plan financial projections. The hiring table must be read as an output of that model, never as a separate wish list.
Specify Positions, Wages, and Start Dates
A passing hiring table names the position, the year and quarter of hire, full-time or part-time status, W-2 or contractor classification, and the annual wage at a defensible market rate. “Marketing person, Year 2” is weak. “Part-time marketing coordinator, Q3 Year 2, W-2, 20 hours per week at $22 per hour” is evidence.
Realistic Hiring Ramps by Business Type
Top-ranking pages tell applicants to be realistic without showing what realistic looks like. This table shows typical passing ramps we build, assuming a solo or couple-run E2 investment in the common $100,000 to $250,000 range. Your plan must adjust for local wages, seasonality, and your actual revenue model.
| Business Type | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 5 | Staffing Logic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Consulting or professional services | 1 part-time admin | 1 FT associate, admin to FT | 2 to 3 FT | 3 to 5 FT | One hire per $120K to $180K of recurring billings |
| Restaurant or cafe | 4 to 6 (mix FT and PT) | 6 to 8 | 8 to 10 | 10 to 14 | Labor at 28 to 35 percent of revenue from day one |
| E-commerce or online retail | 1 PT fulfillment or VA | 1 to 2 (ops, customer service) | 2 to 3 FT | 4 to 6 FT | Hires follow order volume; 3PL use must be explained |
| Franchise (service brand) | 2 to 3 per franchisor model | 3 to 5 | 5 to 7 | 7 to 10 | Anchor to the franchisor’s Item 19 staffing assumptions |
| Trades or home services | 1 technician | 2 technicians, 1 PT dispatcher | 3 to 4 | 5 to 7 | One crew added per $250K to $350K of annual jobs booked |
| Small retail storefront | 1 to 2 PT | 2 to 3 | 3 to 4 | 4 to 6 | Coverage hours drive minimum floor staff |
Two patterns in this table matter more than any single number. Labor-intensive businesses hire early because they cannot open without staff. Knowledge and online businesses hire late, and their plans must lean harder on revenue and owner income to prove non-marginality in years one and two.
If you want your specific concept benchmarked against staffing data for your industry and county, BPlanWriter offers a free consultation. Call +1 (512) 521-1557 and we will pressure-test your hiring assumptions before your attorney files.
Payroll Costs Must Reconcile With Your Financials
The fastest way to lose credibility is a hiring table that contradicts the financial statements three pages later. Officers cross-check. So do we, line by line, before any plan leaves our office.
The Consistency Checklist
- Every position in the hiring table appears as wage expense in the profit and loss projection for the correct year.
- Payroll taxes and workers compensation load each wage by roughly 10 to 15 percent, stated explicitly.
- Wage rates match the market for your metro area; prevailing wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is the safest source to cite.
- Total labor cost stays inside industry-normal ratios, such as 28 to 35 percent of revenue for restaurants or 40 to 55 percent for service firms.
- Headcount growth tracks revenue growth; no year adds staff while revenue is flat.
- Owner compensation is separate from employee payroll, and household living costs are addressed in the marginality analysis.
- The org chart, staffing narrative, and financial tables all state the same numbers.
A plan that passes this checklist reads as one coherent document. That coherence, more than any individual figure, is what our structural guide to an E2 visa business plan that gets approved is built around.
Red Flags That Draw Refusals and RFEs
Hockey-Stick Hiring
Two employees in year two, then 18 in year four with no expansion capital, no second location, and no revenue jump to fund them. Officers read this as a number invented to look non-marginal. Growth must have a mechanism: new contracts, added capacity, a second crew, longer operating hours.
Jobs With No Revenue Support
A cleaning company projecting $150,000 in year-one revenue cannot carry five full-time cleaners at $35,000 each. The payroll alone exceeds revenue. This arithmetic failure appears in a surprising share of self-written plans, and it is unrecoverable at interview.
All Contractors, No Employees
Classifying every worker as 1099 to avoid payroll costs undercuts the job creation story and raises misclassification questions. Use W-2 positions as the backbone and justify any contractor roles by industry practice.
Family-Only Staffing
A spouse and two adult children on the org chart create zero evidentiary weight for marginality. The plan must show income flowing to US workers outside the household. Family enterprises can still structure a strong case, and our guide to designing an E2 visa business plan strategy for family enterprises shows how to separate family roles from the US hiring story.
Round Numbers With No Sources
Ten employees, $1,000,000 revenue, $50,000 salaries across every position. Uniform round numbers signal that no research happened. Cite BLS wage data, industry association staffing ratios, or franchisor disclosures for every material figure.
If a consular officer or USCIS has already questioned your numbers, the projections usually need rebuilding rather than defending. Our team regularly supports counsel who are responding to an RFE on an E2 business plan, and weak job tables are the most common trigger we see.
Job Projections at Renewal: Your Old Plan Becomes Evidence
The projections you file today get compared against reality in two to five years. At renewal, officers ask a simple question: did the hiring happen? A business that projected six jobs and created two faces a harder renewal than one that projected three and created three.
Project numbers you can hit. Then keep payroll records, quarterly 941 filings, and W-2s organized from the first hire, because they become your renewal exhibits. When performance has diverged from the original plan, the projections should be reset against actuals, which is exactly the work covered in our guide to updating your E2 visa business plan for renewal.
Get Job Projections an Officer Can Verify
BPlanWriter has prepared E2 business plans for 12 years through a three-stage process: Explain, Draft, Review and Revise. We build hiring tables from industry staffing data and reconcile every position against the financial model before delivery. We are not a law firm; our plans complement your immigration attorney’s case strategy and do not replace legal advice.
Book a free consultation and we will review your concept, your investment amount, and your target filing date, then tell you what a defensible five-year hiring plan looks like for your industry.
FAQs
How many employees do I need for an E2 visa?
There is no legal minimum. The business must be non-marginal, meaning it generates more than a minimal living for your family within about five years. In practice, plans typically show one US hire early and a ramp toward three to five positions by renewal, with labor-heavy businesses like restaurants showing more.
Do jobs have to be created before the E2 visa is approved?
No. First-time applicants are judged on projected capacity, so a credible five-year hiring plan tied to revenue is sufficient. An existing business strengthens its case with current payroll records, and at renewal the actual hiring record largely replaces the projections.
Do part-time employees count for E2 marginality?
Yes. Part-time W-2 positions for US workers support the marginality argument, though full-time positions carry more weight. What matters is that total payroll shows the enterprise contributing income beyond the investor’s household, at wage rates consistent with your financial projections.
Can independent contractors count as job creation for E2?
Partially. Contractors demonstrate economic activity but are weaker evidence than W-2 employees, and a plan staffed entirely by 1099 workers invites scrutiny. Use contractors only where the industry norm supports it, such as delivery, trades, or creative project work, and say so in the plan.
What happens if my business does not meet its job projections?
Missed projections surface at renewal, when officers compare your original plan against tax filings and payroll records. Modest shortfalls with a clear explanation and an updated, realistic plan are survivable. Large gaps between projected and actual hiring are a leading cause of renewal refusals, which is why the original numbers should be conservative.
