If you’ve been watching the U.S. immigration landscape this year, you’ve seen a lot of headlines — and not all of them flattering. The good news for treaty investors: the E-1 and E-2 visa categories remain stable. The requirements haven’t changed. Approval rates are still strong. And we are still getting people approved every single week.
What has changed in 2026 are a handful of practical details — how tariffs are affecting certain E-1 cases, where Canadian applicants stand on approvals, and how long applicants are waiting at specific consulates like London. Here’s what you actually need to know.
What Hasn’t Changed for the E-2 and E-1 in 2026
Let me start here, because it’s the most important thing: none of the E-2 or E-1 visa requirements have changed in 2026. The eligibility framework is the same. The investment expectations are the same. The treaty country list is the same. Adjudication for both categories is happening at roughly the same rate it has been for years.
If you read something on the internet telling you the E-2 visa was fundamentally changed this year, that’s not accurate. The underlying law and regulations are intact.
How New U.S. Tariffs Are Affecting E-1 Visa Cases
The one place we’ve seen a real-world ripple effect is on the E-1 — the treaty trader visa. The E-1 is designed for businesses that move substantial trade in goods or services between a treaty country and the United States.
For applicants whose business is built on importing goods into the U.S., the new tariff environment matters. Depending on the country of origin and the specific commodity, tariffs can change the math of a business case. We’re advising clients to look closely at their unit economics and how recent tariff changes affect them before filing.
Service-based businesses are unaffected. So far, the tariff conversation has centered on goods. We work with many Canadian service businesses — IT consultancies, marketing firms, professional service practices — and those files are still moving forward exactly as they did last year. We’ve successfully adjudicated several E-1s in the last twelve months. If you have the right fact pattern, this is still a tremendous visa option.
Canadian E-2 Approval Rates in 2026
Worldwide, the E-2 approval rate sits around 85–90% in any given year. Canadian applicants tend to land at or near the top of that range. Why? Three reasons.
- Toronto has a dedicated team that adjudicates E-2 visas regularly.
- Those officers receive specialized E-2 training, so they understand the nuances of the requirements.
- Toronto’s posture is fair. They evaluate the totality of your case, not just one weak spot.
We’ve had excellent results in Canada this year. If your case has any genuinely complicated elements, we sometimes recommend that clients also speak with a former U.S. consular officer for a second perspective. We work with three of them on referral. This is not the kind of expense that makes sense for every applicant, but for borderline or unusual fact patterns, that outside read can be the difference between approval and denial.
The Three Phases of the E-2 Visa Process
When someone asks me, “How long is the E-2 process?” the honest answer is that it depends on which phase you’re in. There are three phases, and they are controlled by very different parties.
Phase 1: Document Gathering (You Control the Timeline)
We give you a checklist of the documents we need for each of the six E-2 visa requirements. You then work through the checklist at your own pace. Some clients finish in eight weeks. Some take five years. The average is three to four months. The timeline here is entirely yours — we follow your lead.
Phase 2: Application Assembly (We Control the Timeline)
Once we have all your documents, we write the cover letter, organize the exhibits, tab everything, and assemble the application. This takes our team about ten to twelve business days.
Phase 3: Government Processing and Interview (Out of Anyone’s Hands)
After we file with the consulate, we are all waiting on the government. We have no control here. Neither do you. The timeline depends entirely on which consulate or embassy is handling your case.
Current Wait Times: Why London Is Taking Four Months
Speaking of consulate wait times, let’s talk about London — because we get asked about it almost every day.
Right now, the E-2 wait time in London is approximately four months from filing to interview. That is long. It is also out of our control and out of yours. This is a U.S. government processing reality.
It wasn’t always this way. Before August or September 2024, London was running on a five-to-eight-week timeline. The slowdown started in late summer 2024 and has held throughout 2025 and into 2026. We continue to hope they will speed things back up, but if you’re planning a UK-to-U.S. move on an E-2, you need to build that four-month wait into your timeline today.
Other consulates run at their own pace. Toronto has been moving in the six- to eight-week range. Melbourne and Sydney are reasonable. Some other posts — Bogotá, Istanbul, parts of the Middle East — are working through serious backlogs.
What to Do Next
If you’re considering an E-2 or E-1 visa in 2026, the macro story is positive: the visas are stable, approval rates remain strong, and the process works. The work is in planning around the realities of your specific consulate and the realities of your specific business case.
We handle E-2 and E-1 visas exclusively — no matter what treaty country you’re from or which state you want to live in. If you’d like to talk through your situation, send us a message and we’ll set up a consultation.
About the author
Angie Rupert is the founder of Rupert Law. Her firm works exclusively on E-2 and E-1 visas, helping investors and entrepreneurs from treaty countries move to (and stay in) the United States.
