--- title: "How to Start a Business in USA from UK: E-2 Visa | Portunus" description: "How to start a business in USA from UK the right way: sequence entity formation, funding, and banking so every step builds E-2 or EB-5 visa evidence." datePublished: 2026-07-16T00:00:00.000Z canonical: https://www.portunusai.com/blog/start-business-usa-from-uk source: https://www.portunusai.com/blog/start-business-usa-from-uk --- # How to Start a Business in USA from UK: E-2 Visa | Portunus How to start a business in USA from UK the right way: sequence entity formation, funding, and banking so every step builds E-2 or EB-5 visa evidence. If you want to know how to start a business in USA from UK for the purpose of a visa, the single most useful thing to understand is this: the London U.S. embassy asks new E-2 startups for a comprehensive business plan, a five-year profit and loss forecast, forecast assumptions, and a detailed breakdown of startup costs [1]. Generic company-formation guides are built for someone opening a domestic business and filing routine paperwork. They are not built for the specific evidentiary chain a consular officer expects to see. That gap is why so many UK founders form an LLC, wire money across, open a bank account, and still arrive at their interview with the wrong paperwork in the wrong order. This is a sequencing guide, not a generic formation walkthrough. The argument is simple: every step you take, from choosing a state to funding a bank account, either produces the evidence an adjudicator will ask for or it doesn't. Do it in the right order and the documents assemble themselves. ## which US visa route matches your business plan (E-2, L-1, EB-5, O-1, EB2-NIW) Before you form anything, decide which route you're building evidence for, because the routes are not interchangeable. **E-2 treaty investor.** A nonimmigrant visa for nationals of treaty countries, which includes the UK. You invest a substantial amount in a real, operating U.S. business you'll direct and develop [1]. It's renewable but temporary, and it tests whether the business is genuine and active, not a parked account. **EB-5 immigrant investor.** A green-card route. You invest in a new commercial enterprise and must create or preserve at least 10 permanent full-time jobs for qualifying U.S. workers [2]. The core standard is job creation, not just capital deployment. **L-1 intracompany transferee.** For founders who already run a UK company and want to open or staff a related U.S. entity, transferring an executive, manager, or specialist. **O-1 and EB2-NIW.** Extraordinary-ability and national-interest routes that hinge on your personal record, not your investment. The position that matters, stated plainly: do not blend E-2 and EB-5 standards. The two visas test entirely different things. E-2 asks whether your business is real and substantial relative to its cost [1]. EB-5 asks whether you have created or preserved at least ten qualifying jobs [2]. Evidence built for one does not automatically satisfy the other, and mixing the tests is the fastest way to a confused, weaker filing. ## how to sequence US company formation, funding, and banking for visa evidence The order is the strategy. Founders who treat formation, funding, and banking as three separate errands end up with three disconnected folders. Adjudicators want a chain. Here is the sequence that produces a chain rather than a pile: - **Choose the state where the business will actually operate.** Not the state with the best tax folklore. If your restaurant is in Austin, form in Texas. Formation costs, registered-agent rules, and foreign-qualification requirements vary by state, so pick where the trade happens [3]. - **Form the entity and get the founding documents.** Articles of organisation or incorporation, operating agreement or bylaws, and the EIN from the IRS. These are your first dated evidence points. - **Document the source of funds in the UK before it moves.** Assemble tax returns, sale contracts, or business records that show where the capital lawfully came from. This is done before the wire, not reconstructed after. - **Wire the capital and keep every receipt.** The wire trail linking your named UK account to your named U.S. business account is the spine of the investment story. - **Fund the U.S. business bank account.** The account exists to receive and hold committed capital, and its statements should line up exactly with your wire receipts. - **Sign the lease, buy equipment, obtain licences.** Each expenditure draws down the funded account and proves the money is being put "at risk" in an operating business, the language E-2 officers care about. For an EB-5 file, the same skeleton applies, but the downstream evidence shifts toward the new commercial enterprise and its hiring plan, because the 10-job requirement is what you'll ultimately have to prove [2]. For attorneys, this sequence doubles as a reusable per-client checklist. A consulate-ready E-2 binder isn't a folder of documents; it's these steps in the order an officer asks about them: entity, capital, at-risk deployment, viability. Get the sequence right once and every case runs on the same rails. ## how to open a US business bank account from the UK for an E-2 or EB-5 case There is no single script for opening a US bank account from the UK, and any guide that gives you one is guessing. Whether a bank will open an account, and what it demands, depends on your entity type, your state of formation, and whether you hold an ITIN or have any U.S. presence. Policy varies bank by bank. Some require a director to appear in person at a branch. Others accept remote onboarding once an EIN and formation documents are in hand, and the requirements shift again once an ITIN enters the picture [3]. Entity structure adds a further layer of friction: a single-member LLC with a non-resident owner and no in-state presence typically faces more verification steps than a corporation with a U.S.-resident officer named on the formation documents. Treat "can I open it remotely?" as a question to put to each specific bank, not a settled fact. On timing: your EIN comes from the IRS and is usually needed before the account opens. An ITIN, your individual taxpayer identification number, is a separate application with its own processing timeline, and not every bank requires one for a non-resident LLC owner. Confirm with your target bank whether an ITIN is a prerequisite before you apply, and get the EIN moving first regardless. Note: a funded account is not proof of your investment. It shows money is present. It does not show the money is yours, lawfully earned, and committed to this business. That evidence lives in the wire trail and the source-of-funds documents, which the account statements should corroborate rather than replace. ## what documents prove lawful source of funds for a US investor visa Bank statements alone will not satisfy an officer. They show a balance; they don't show origin. Source-of-funds documentation is the paper trail that explains where every dollar came from and how it lawfully became yours. The chain typically includes: - **UK tax returns (SA302s or equivalent)** covering the years the money was earned or accumulated. - **Sale records** if the capital came from selling a property, shares, or a business, including contracts and completion statements. - **Inheritance or gift documentation** such as grants of probate, wills, or signed deeds of gift, with the donor's own source evidence where relevant. - **Business accounts and dividend records** if you're drawing from a company you own. - **Wire transfer receipts** connecting the named UK source account to the named U.S. business account. The depth differs by route. For an E-2, you need to convincingly trace the capital you're actually investing and show it's at risk in the business [1]. EB-5 scrutiny goes deeper: because it is a path to permanent residence, USCIS's Form I-526 process requires officers to trace the lawful source and path of every dollar invested, not just confirm a balance [2]. An E-2 file that would pass might still be thin for EB-5. Assemble this evidence before you move money, not after. Reconstructing a paper trail under time pressure is where cases fall apart. ## how much investment do E-2 and EB-5 visas require in 2024 The two routes use completely different yardsticks, and one of them is not a fixed number at all. **E-2** has no statutory minimum. The test is a "substantial" investment that is proportional to the total cost of the enterprise [1]. A £60,000 investment might be substantial for a consultancy but plainly inadequate for a manufacturing plant. The smaller the business, the closer to 100% of its cost your investment should be. Officers also want to see the capital is irrevocably committed and at risk, not sitting in reserve. **EB-5** does have dollar thresholds, and this is where you must be careful. The figures commonly cited are $1.8 million for a standard investment and $900,000 for a project in a targeted employment area, alongside the requirement to create or preserve at least 10 permanent full-time jobs [2]. Verify those dollar amounts against the U.S. Department of State's Immigrant Investor Visas page and current USCIS Form I-526 instructions before you rely on them [2]. Thresholds have been adjusted before, so confirm the live figures there rather than trusting any article, including this one, as the final word. The practical takeaway: E-2 asks "is your investment substantial for this business?" EB-5 asks "have you hit the current threshold and created the jobs?" Two different questions, two different evidence packages. ## example: sequencing a London E-2 startup case from incorporation to interview Consider a UK founder, Priya, opening a coffee-roasting business in North Carolina. She forms a North Carolina LLC because that's where the roastery will physically sit, not because a forum praised Delaware. She gets her EIN, then assembles her source-of-funds file in the UK: two years of SA302s and the completion statement from selling a rental flat that funds most of her £110,000 investment. Only then does she wire the money, in tranches she can trace, from her named UK account to the newly opened U.S. business account. Each wire receipt is filed. She signs a commercial lease, orders a roaster, and pays for licences, and every payment draws down the funded account so the statements visibly show capital going to work. The centrepiece is the plan the London embassy actually requests: a comprehensive business plan, a five-year profit and loss forecast, the assumptions behind that forecast, and a breakdown of startup costs [1]. Priya's forecast ties directly to her lease cost, her equipment invoices, and realistic revenue assumptions for local wholesale accounts, so the numbers reconcile with her receipts rather than floating free. Her binder now reads in the order an officer thinks: entity documents, wire trail, at-risk expenditures, then the [E-2 business plan and five-year forecast](/blog/e2-visa-business-plan) that ties it together. If you're building toward a [London E-2 interview](/e2-visa/united-kingdom/london), that reconciliation between plan and paper trail is what turns a folder into evidence. ## how to start a business in USA from UK: FAQ and next steps Next: lock the entity, source-of-funds, and wire evidence chain first, then bring in an attorney for filing strategy. Once your capital and formation evidence is documented and reconciled, you can plan the physical move with a clear picture of your U.S. footprint. Explore [US and international visa guides](/visas) to match the route to your situation before you spend on formation. ### Sources - [NIV - Treaty Trader or Treaty Investor: Treaty Investor Visa (E-2)](https://uk.usembassy.gov/niv-treaty-trader-or-treaty-investor-treaty-investor-visa-e-2/) - [Immigrant Investor Visas](https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/immigrant-investor-visas.html) - [US Visa Options For UK Citizens: Best Path](https://www.visapro.com/resources/article/uk-investment-in-usa/) ### Ready to Start Your E2 Application? Use our AI-powered platform to check your eligibility and begin your application process. [Check E2 Eligibility](/check-eligibility) ### Related Resources - /blog/e2-visa-business-plan - Writing a Winning E-2 Business Plan - Step-by-step guide to creating a business plan that gets E-2 visa approval, with templates and examples. - /blog/e2-visa-application-uk-guide - E2 Visa Application Guide for UK Citizens - Complete E2 visa application guide for UK citizens: requirements, processing times, investment amounts, and steps. - /blog/eb5-visa-guide - EB-5 Visa Guide 2025 - Complete EB-5 visa guide covering investment requirements, costs, processing time and application steps. Disclaimer: For informational purposes only. Not legal advice. Immigration outcomes are determined by the U.S. government.