The E-2 visa allows investors and their families to live and work in the United States. It is one of the oldest U.S. visas, having been in use in some form for over 200 years and predates modern immigration laws. Historically, the E-2 visa arose out of a treaty between the U.S. and a given foreign country, known as a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce, and Navigation. The oldest such treaty is that signed with the United Kingdom in 1815 to promote commerce between the two previous warring countries.

Treaty of Ghent, signed after the War of 1812 which helped lay the groundwork for the modern E-2 visa

In 1924, the E visa category began to be codified into law with the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1924 which introduced the E-1 treaty trader class to help facilitate trade by foreign merchants. The treaty trader class saw a large increase in foreign investment and in 1952 the Immigration and Nationality Act created the E-2 treaty investor class which put into law the modern use of the E-2 visa.

President Coolidge signing the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1924

Currently, there are 80 E-2 treaty countries with some of the recent additions being Chile and Singapore, among others. E-2 visas first saw an increase in popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s when many large Japanese firms such as Honda, Panasonic, and Toyota began to open up factories and offices in the United States. This migration saw the need for Japanese engineers and specialists to accompany the new US-based Japanese firms, and the E-2 visa was an ideal fit for many of those employees. The E-2 visa has continued to grow each decade from about 19,000 visas in the 1990s to 35,000 visas by 2013 and over 43,000 visas issued in 2019. Japan is still the largest user of E-2 visas by a large margin with South Korea, Germany, and Mexico also being large users.