Commercial authorization and immigration work permission are separate. An opening notice does not itself permit the applicant to work in the United States.
Coordinate contracts with the real immigration process
Review the actual investment commitment and business readiness without inventing an approval timetable. Identify what the agreement requires if opening is delayed, and seek appropriate case advice before taking on U.S. operating duties. A franchise deadline does not remove E-2 nationality, control or temporary-intent conditions.
Keep a proposed opening date separate from an expected government decision, and have any change in ownership, funding or operations reassessed rather than making the transaction irreversible to follow a generic timeline. Some qualifying arrangements involve an investment-in-process or escrow structure, so the proposed terms should be reviewed before deciding on the sequence rather than assuming every purchase must be fully closed first. A seller's preferred closing date is commercial pressure, and it cannot convert collateral over enterprise assets into qualifying capital, so a timetable with no room to redraft is a risk to the transaction as much as to the application. After closing, the practical sequence runs from irrevocable commitment of the funds, to assembling the source and path evidence, to the application itself, with processing times depending on the route.