Third-country nationals
Where can I file an E-2 visa application?
Your treaty nationality decides whether you qualify. Where you file is a separate question — and for anyone living outside their country of citizenship, it is usually the harder one.
Start here
Consular practice expects you to file where you live
The rule that governs all of this.
E-2 applicants are expected to apply in their country of citizenship or permanent residence. Filing at a post where you are neither — a third-country application — has been tightened in recent years and is the exception rather than the norm.
Some posts still take these cases readily. None of them are obliged to, and none of them can be made to. Everything below describes how often a post has said yes, not whether it must.
The ratings on this page are ours, not the Department of State's. They describe a post's willingness to schedule an appointment. They say nothing about whether a case will be approved, and they carry no official standing — the substantive standard is 9 FAM 402.9, and it is identical at every post in the world.
5 posts
Regularly schedules outside applicants
These posts have handled third-country cases often enough that filing here is a normal request rather than an exception. Read any condition attached to the post before assuming it applies to you.
- Amsterdam
Netherlands
Email Submission · 5 MB per file
- Dublin
Ireland
Email Submission · 80 pages · 3 MB per email
- Lisbon
Portugal
Email Submission · 50 pages
Only for treaty-country nationals who are permanent residents living in Portugal.
- Singapore
Singapore
Online Portal · 2 MB per file
- Toronto
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
16 posts
Takes them, case by case
These posts process third-country applications without treating them as unusual, but availability is less predictable and some steer non-residents elsewhere.
- Bangkok
Thailand
Email Submission
- Bern
Switzerland
Email Submission
- Buenos Aires
Argentina
Email Submission
Open only to nationals of Argentina and to permanent residents of Argentina at the time the package is submitted. The post asks anyone else to contact it before applying.
- Copenhagen
Denmark
Email Submission · 7 MB per file
- Frankfurt
Germany
Email Submission · 30 pages · 5 MB
- London
United Kingdom
Online Portal · 20 MB
Open to treaty nationals of other countries who live in the UK. Section C requires evidence of ongoing UK residency — a lease or mortgage for your primary UK home, and a recent UK pay stub — from every applicant, so an applicant living outside the UK cannot complete the package.
- Madrid
Spain
Email Submission · 50 pages · 200 MB per file
- Melbourne
Australia
Online Portal
- Montreal
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
- Paris
France
Online Portal · 10 MB
- Rome
Italy
Online Portal
Non-residents of Italy are steered to their own country of residence; appointment availability here for them is limited.
- Santiago
Chile
Email Submission
Open only to nationals of Chile and to permanent residents of Chile at the time the package is submitted. The post asks anyone else to contact it before applying.
- Stockholm
Sweden
Email Submission · 7 MB
- Sydney
Australia
Online Portal
- Vancouver
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
- Wellington
New Zealand
Online Portal
12 posts
Limited, and expect to justify it
These posts take a small number of third-country cases and may ask why you are filing here rather than where you hold citizenship or residence.
- Ankara
Turkey
Email Submission · 15 MB per tab
- Belfast
United Kingdom
Online Portal · 20 MB
Open to treaty nationals of other countries who live in the UK. Section C requires evidence of ongoing UK residency — a lease or mortgage for your primary UK home, and a recent UK pay stub — from every applicant, so an applicant living outside the UK cannot complete the package.
- Bogotá
Colombia
Email Submission · 125 pages
Applications are accepted only from Colombian citizens, and from Venezuelan citizens holding a second nationality that has a valid trade agreement with the United States. The post asks everyone else to apply in their own country of residence.
- Calgary
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
- Istanbul
Turkey
Email Submission · 15 MB per tab
- Manila
Philippines
Email Submission · 50 pages
- Ottawa
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
- São Paulo
Brazil · not a treaty country
Online Portal · 80 pages
The United States and Brazil have no treaty of commerce and navigation, so Brazilian nationality alone does not qualify. São Paulo accepts E-1 and E-2 applications from Brazilian citizens who also hold the citizenship of a treaty country.
- Seoul
South Korea
Email Submission · 70 pages · 20 MB
- Tel Aviv
Israel
Physical Binder
- Tokyo
Japan
Email Submission · 70 pages · 50 MB
- Warsaw
Poland
Email Submission
4 posts
Rarely accepts outside applicants
These posts seldom take third-country cases. Treat them as closed unless the post tells you otherwise.
- Ciudad Juarez
Mexico
Email Submission · 100 pages · 25 MB per email
- Halifax
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
- Mexico City
Mexico
Email Submission · 100 pages · 25 MB per email
- Quebec City
Canada
Email Submission · 50 pages · 20 MB
Choosing
What actually changes between posts
Openness is one variable, and rarely the decisive one.
The approval standard does not move. What moves is the work: Lisbon caps the package at 50 pages and exempts nothing, Frankfurt caps the business plan itself at five, Dublin allows 80 pages but only 3 MB per email, Singapore wants exactly three files with prescribed names, and Tokyo wants a ZIP of tab folders.
Appointment availability moves too, sometimes by many months, and it changes faster than anything else here. Check the current wait for a post before choosing it, and confirm directly with the post that it will take your case at all.
Questions
Filing outside your own country: common questions
What is a third-country national for E-2 visa purposes?
A third-country national is someone applying at a U.S. consular post in a country where they are neither a citizen nor a resident — a Turkish national filing in Dublin, for example. Your treaty nationality decides whether you are eligible for an E-2 visa at all; where you file is a separate question, and the two are often confused.
Can I choose which consulate to file my E-2 application at?
Only within limits. Consular practice expects E-2 applicants to apply in their country of citizenship or permanent residence, and filing at a post where you are neither has been tightened — it is the exception rather than the norm. Some posts still take these cases readily. None of them are obliged to, and acceptance stays at the post’s discretion.
Which U.S. posts are most open to third-country E-2 applicants?
On our reading of published practice, Dublin, Toronto, Singapore, Amsterdam and Lisbon schedule outside applicants most readily. Lisbon is conditional: it takes treaty-country nationals only where they hold Portuguese permanent residence. That rating is ours, not the State Department’s, and it reflects willingness to schedule an appointment rather than any judgement about whether a case will be approved.
Does filing at a friendlier post make approval more likely?
No. The standard is federal and identical everywhere: 9 FAM 402.9 governs whether your investment is substantial, at risk and more than marginal, and a consular officer applies it the same way in Dublin as in Tokyo. What changes between posts is the document format, the page limit, the submission channel and how readily an appointment can be had.
What happens if I file at a post that does not want the case?
At best you wait. Posts that rarely take third-country cases may decline to schedule, may ask you to justify why you are not filing where you hold citizenship or residence, or may simply have no appointment availability for you. Confirm with the post before you build a filing plan, a travel plan or a lease around it.
Settle where you can file, then build the case
Wherever you file, the officer applies the same test: a substantial, at-risk investment in a real and operating enterprise that is more than marginal. That argument is the part we build.