An E-2 employee has to share the treaty nationality of the business hiring them.

The treaty nationality has to be yours, not just the company's. 8 CFR 214.2(e)(3) says the employee must have the same nationality as the principal employer, and defines who that can be: a person in the United States holding the treaty nationality and maintaining E status, or who would be classifiable that way, or an organization at least fifty percent owned by such persons. So a treaty enterprise cannot use E-2 to hire outside its own treaty nationality, however senior the hire, and an employee of the right nationality has no case until the enterprise itself qualifies. The Department of State publishes the Treaty Countries list at travel.state.gov, separating E-1 from E-2. Being on it is necessary rather than sufficient: a presidential entry proclamation can suspend entry for nationals of named countries, the list moves, and it is checked at travel.state.gov alongside the treaty list rather than assumed from either one.

E status is granted for not more than two years at a time under 8 CFR 214.2(e)(19), and extensions come in increments of not more than two years under (e)(20). Paragraph (e)(20)(iii) says there is no specified number of extensions, and it makes itself subject to (e)(5) and to the presumption in (e)(20)(ii), which is written about this page's reader: employees with special qualifications who are responsible for start-up operations should be able to complete their objectives within two years, and absent special circumstances they will not be eligible for an extension of stay. The officer can ask for the timetable, because (e)(18)(ii) contemplates evidence of how long the skills will be needed and a projected date for completing the start-up or training a replacement. The honest reading: plan on two years, and treat anything past that as a case to be made on new facts, a role that has become something other than start-up, a function that outlasts the opening, or a different category. Design the second stage in month one instead of month twenty.

E is not a dual intent category. Dual intent, which H-1B and L-1 have, lets a person hold a temporary status and pursue permanent residence at once. 8 CFR 214.2(e)(5) has two sentences that pull against each other: a person in E classification has to maintain an intention to depart when the status ends, and an application for initial admission, change of status or extension of stay may not be denied solely on the basis of an approved labor certification or a filed or approved immigrant petition. The visa is not among those three; at a consulate the officer works from the State Department's manual and asks a beneficiary of an immigrant petition to satisfy the officer that the intent to depart is real. For the family, 8 CFR 214.2(e)(4) lets the spouse and children receive the same classification whatever their own nationality, the one place the nationality rule stops. INA 214(e)(2) authorizes the spouse to work, and USCIS treats an E spouse as authorized by the status itself. Children receive status without work authorization.