The best franchises for E-2 visa investors, ranked on Item 7 investment, Item 19 disclosed revenue, and the Item 15 owner-participation language that changes the analysis.
Quick answer Nine franchise brands disclose an Item 19 median revenue above $600,000 on an Item 7 investment landing in or near the $100,000 to $400,000 range commonly cited in E-2 practice. Superior Fence & Rail leads at $2,598,212 across 93 franchisees. There is no statutory E-2 minimum, and an immigration attorney makes that call.
Neighborly’s nineteen North American brands all carry a version of the same sentence in Item 15 of their 2026 disclosure documents. You must obtain and maintain an immigration status that allows you to live, work, own and operate a business in the United States for the initial term of the franchise agreement and for any renewal term. Fall out of status and, in the document’s own words, the agreement “will immediately expire by its terms with no further notice or opportunity to cure.” No refund of fees. Every post-termination covenant, including the non-compete, still binds you.
That clause is the sharpest way into a point most E-2 shortlists skip. An FDD tells you nothing about whether a visa will be approved. It tells you what the business costs, what its units bill, what the franchisor demands of the person running it, and what happens contractually if your status changes. Three of those four feed the case your attorney builds. Only an immigration attorney can judge how any of it lands on a specific applicant, and nothing here is legal advice.
For treaty-country eligibility, escrow structure, and consular timing, start with the E-2 visa franchise buying guide. This post does the other half of the work: ranking brands on what their disclosures actually say.
Nothing in the E-2 regulations sets a dollar floor. The question is proportionality: is the investment substantial relative to the total cost of establishing the enterprise? That makes it a ratio. Put $140,000 into a business that costs $140,000 to open and you have funded it completely. Put the same $140,000 against a $900,000 build-out and you have funded a sixth of it.
Immigration practitioners commonly describe $100,000 to $400,000 as the band where franchise cases sit comfortably. Treat that as commentary on how cases tend to go, not as a rule anyone can cite to you. The FDD’s contribution is the denominator. Item 7 discloses the full estimated initial investment, low and high, line by line, and that table is what a business plan has to reconcile against. Item 5 and Item 6 tell you how much of it leaves your hands as fees rather than converting into equipment, inventory, or a lease.
The other recurring concern is marginality: a business with capacity only to produce a living for the investor and their family. Labor-employing service models answer that more legibly than solo operations, because payroll grows with revenue in a way an examiner can trace through the accounts.
Nine brands whose Item 7 ranges land in or just under that band disclose a median above $600,000 on a sample deep enough to mean something. Two of them, Home Instead and SYNERGY HomeCare, start below $100,000 at the low end, which is exactly the proportionality conversation to have with counsel rather than a reason to strike them off. Ranked by disclosed Item 19 median revenue, from 2026 FDDs:
| Brand | Item 7 investment | Item 19 median revenue | Franchisees in sample | What the sample covers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Fence & Rail | $134,400 to $278,300 | $2,598,212 | 93 | Multi-territory and single-territory franchisees combined |
| Home Instead | $92,640 to $350,550 | $2,261,503 | 611 | All franchised units |
| SYNERGY HomeCare | $80,245 to $164,091 | $1,763,025 | 523 | Multi-unit and single-unit, open 1 year or more |
| Homewatch CareGivers | $142,890 to $194,080 | $1,360,485 | 214 | Franchisees operating the full 2025 fiscal year |
| Right at Home | $94,330 to $176,239 | $1,334,579 | 390 | Franchised offices open one year or more |
| Mr. Electric | $159,500 to $357,425 | $1,022,586 | 169 | All units reporting a full 52 weeks, grouped by territory population |
| Mr. Handyman | $161,900 to $215,000 | $972,424 | 341 | All franchised units |
| Aire Serv | $113,808 to $271,708 | $944,801 | 172 | All franchised units |
| GarageExperts | $109,900 to $246,400 | $624,466 | 46 | Single-territory franchise owners |
Two caveats before anyone builds a plan on that table. Superior Fence & Rail’s median pools multi-territory operators with single-territory ones, so the figure sits above what a first territory should be modeled at. And Mr. Electric’s disclosure is grouped by territory population, meaning the median summarizes bands rather than a single comparable cohort. Read the footnotes in the actual Item 19 before either number goes into a business plan.
Sample depth is where home care separates from everything else here. Home Instead reports on 611 franchisees and SYNERGY HomeCare on 523, against 46 for GarageExperts. A median drawn from 611 operators tells you something about the middle of a system. One drawn from 46 tells you about 46 people.
Not sure which of these fits the territory you are targeting? Find my franchise filters the full database by investment range and disclosed earnings in a couple of minutes.
Home care agencies bill hourly against caregiver payroll, which means headcount and revenue move together and the staffing story writes itself. Home Instead’s $2,261,503 median across 611 franchisees, on an investment starting at $92,640, is an unusual combination of low capital and high billings in the same disclosure. SYNERGY HomeCare and Right at Home run the same model with lower medians and similarly deep samples. Our home care franchise breakdown goes further into how those systems differ on royalty and territory.
The trades work differently. Superior Fence & Rail, Aire Serv, Mr. Electric, and GarageExperts all carry crews and trucks, and their Item 7 ranges include vehicles and equipment that convert cash into visible business assets rather than fees. Aire Serv’s quartiles run from $576,772 at the 25th to $4,093,185 at the 75th, which is a reminder that HVAC outcomes spread hard by market. A licensed trade also raises a practical question worth asking early: who holds the electrical or HVAC license in your state, and can a new arrival hold it, or does the business depend on a licensed employee?
Brightway Insurance sits just outside this band at $43,425 to $186,900 with a $655,298 median across 272 franchisees. The low end is well under the range practitioners describe, and Item 15 requires a Designated Agency Principal who is licensed by the applicable regulatory authorities and dedicates 40 or more hours per week. State insurance licensing is a real gate for a recent arrival. Worth knowing before it costs you three months.
Owner participation language varies more than the brochures suggest, and the difference matters because E-2 turns on the investor directing or developing the enterprise.
SYNERGY HomeCare requires direct full-time supervision by a Designated Manager who does not need any equity, though the franchisee must maintain supervision of that manager. GarageExperts is similar: a General Manager acceptable to the franchisor, devoting full time solely to the business, with no ownership required. Home Instead accepts either personal supervision by the owner or a full-time, on-premises manager who has completed training and holds franchisor approval.
Right at Home goes the other way. Its Operating Principal must hold at least 25% of the ownership interests, make the business their primary business focus, and devote their best efforts to supervision. Homewatch CareGivers requires a Key Person owning at least 5% of the equity who may, at the franchisor’s discretion, be required to work on premises. Superior Fence & Rail requires direct on-site supervision by a Designated Business Manager who may be an employee, with a clause worth reading twice: if the franchisor believes you lack sufficient business experience, it can compel you to appoint one. For a buyer whose trade experience is entirely outside the United States, that discretion is not theoretical.
The Neighborly brands sit in a third position. Mr. Electric, Aire Serv, and Mr. Handyman all state that an individual franchisee must directly perform or supervise operations unless the franchisor consents otherwise, and a bona fide manager may substitute only with that consent. Our Item 15 guide covers how to read these clauses generally, including where semi-absentee models break down.
Bring your attorney the actual Item 15 text for any brand on your list. A structure that permits a salaried manager and one that requires an equity-holding principal on site are different businesses to describe in a filing, and the choice belongs to counsel rather than to a shortlist.
Most FDDs say nothing about immigration status. Silence is not permission. Franchise development teams vary widely in whether they will contract with an applicant who has not yet been admitted, and the ones who will not usually say so late.
Four questions, asked in writing, before you go deep on any brand: has the brand awarded a franchise to an E-2 applicant, will it sign an agreement contingent on visa approval, will it hold the initial fee in escrow until then, and will it provide the Item 7 and Item 19 detail your attorney’s business plan needs. A franchisor with no answer is not necessarily a bad fit, but you will carry more of the documentation work yourself.
Then mind the sequence. Federal law requires the FDD in your hands at least 14 days before you sign anything or pay any money, and the 14-day rule runs in parallel with nothing else. Layer on territory selection, a lease or an office commitment, attorney review of both agreements, and consular scheduling, and the realistic path from first franchisor call to open doors runs several months. Check your liquidity against the brand’s stated requirements early too, since the net worth and liquid capital thresholds franchisors enforce are separate from anything the visa asks. Assume every dollar comes from your own side of the table: SBA’s citizenship rule has locked nonimmigrant visa holders out of 7(a) and 504 financing since the 2025-2026 SOP and policy-notice changes, which now limit ownership to U.S. citizens and nationals.
The disclosure work is the part you can finish before you file. A VetMyFranchise report pulls Item 7, Item 15, Item 19, and the unit history for a single brand into one document your immigration attorney and your franchise attorney can both work from, which saves paying two hourly rates to read the same 300 pages.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
There is no minimum in the regulations. The test is whether the investment is substantial in proportion to the total cost of establishing the business, which makes it a ratio rather than a threshold. Immigration practitioners commonly describe $100,000 to $400,000 as the range where franchise cases sit comfortably, and that is commentary on practice rather than a rule you can cite. Item 7 of the FDD gives you the denominator: the full estimated initial investment, low and high.
A franchise gives you three documents an adjudicator tends to ask about, already written: a disclosed cost breakdown in Item 7, a disclosed earnings basis in Item 19, and a contractual description of your operating role in Item 15. What it does not give you is any assurance of approval. Nothing in an FDD speaks to visa eligibility, and franchisors are not permitted to advise on it.
No specific headcount appears in the regulations. The concern adjudicators raise is marginality, meaning a business with capacity only to support the investor and their family. Labor-employing service models address that concern more directly than solo operations. Home care agencies staff caregivers per client, fence and HVAC franchises staff install crews, and both scale headcount with revenue in a way an examiner can follow.
Home-based operation is not a disqualifier by itself, but it makes two elements harder to evidence: the at-risk deployment of capital, since there is no lease or build-out to point to, and the economic contribution, since payroll is often the only expansion signal. Several home care and trades brands run from small commercial offices at the low end of Item 7 and from a leased space at the high end. Ask which the franchisor expects in your territory before you file.
Ask Item 15 first, then ask the franchise development team directly and get the answer in writing. Neighborly's nineteen brands state the immigration-status requirement in Item 15 itself, which at least means their legal teams have considered it. Most FDDs say nothing, which is not permission. The questions worth asking are whether the brand has awarded a franchise to an E-2 applicant before, whether it will sign contingent on visa approval, and whether it will hold your fee in escrow until then.
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