1. A treaty must exist between the United States and the foreign country under whose treaty the E status is sought;
2. Majority ownership or control of the investing or trading company must be held by nationals of the foreign country under whose treaty the E status is sought;
3. Foreign country citizenship of the country under whose treaty the status is sought must be held by each employee or principal of the company who is seeking the E status pursuant to the treaty.
   

1. Trade: The trading company has to be engaged in trade. Thus, you will be required to demonstrate the existence of such trade through evidence of the exchange, purchase, or sale of goods or services;
2. Substantial: You will need to demonstrate that the trade is substantial based on the volume of trade, the number of transactions, and the existence of a continued course of trade. Significantly, a small dollar amount can still demonstrate substantial trade when the aforementioned criteria (volume of trade, number of transactions, continued pattern of trade) have been met. Likewise, an extremely large dollar value may very well represent substantial trade, even where all of the aforementioned criteria do not, at fist glance, appear to be met. Note: Due to the requirement that the trading company demonstrate a continued pattern of trade, it is clear that trade must have already started prior to the application for treaty trader status;
3. Principally with the U.S.: You need to show that the business activity of the U.S. office consists primarily of trade between the U.S. and the treaty country. This means that more than 50% of the total volume of international trade of the U.S. enterprise has to consist of trade between the treaty country and the U.S. This requirement is deemed an ongoing requirement. Thus, at all times during an alien's E-1 stay, the trade needs to be principally between the U.S. and the treaty country. However, understandably, there may be occasions where it is necessary that the total volume of trade between the U.S. and the treaty country falls below the 50% threshold. It should be noted that such occasions must be temporary and infrequent, since long-term violations of this rule would result in a loss of status for the E-1 holder;
4. Appropriate Duties: The employee or principal must serve the company in a specified capacity: either in a supervisory or managerial capacity or in a capacity involving essential skills. What this means is that the employee must be performing executive or supervisory duties or, alternatively, must be serving in a minor capacity as a specialist who possesses skills that are essential to the successful operation of the enterprise. Notably, the treaty enterprise should not expect to staff its United States operations completely with treaty country nationals. Obviously, the closer to the uppermost levels of management the position is, the more likely that the person filling the position will qualify for treaty trader status. At lower levels, however, only positions requiring specialized, technical knowledge of the company's product (knowledge that is not readily available among U.S. workers) may be filled with aliens in E-1 status. It may be expected that, in this latter situation, the company train U.S. workers who will eventually fill the technical positions. Therefore, technical visas generally won't be renewed indefinitely.
   

1. Active Investment: The investor is required to make a commitment of funds that represents an actual, active investment. Moreover, this investment must be irrevocable;
2. Substantial investment: The investment must be substantial, taking into consideration only those financial transactions in which the investor's own resources are placed at risk. There is no minimum dollar amount necessary in order for the investment to be considered substantial. However, in order for an investment to be considered substantial, it must meet one of two tests:
   (1) It has to be proportional to the total value of the particular enterprise in question (a test usually applied to investment in existing businesses); or
   (2) It has to be an amount normally considered necessary to establish a viable enterprise of the type contemplated (a test normally applied to new businesses).
   Also, the larger the total value of the enterprise or the cost to start up the enterprise, the smaller the percentage of the total investment the investor must put up to meet the substantiality requirement. Of course, a multi-million dollar investment by a large foreign company will probably be viewed as being substantial regardless of its proportion to the total value of the enterprise.
3. Creation of jobs: The investment cannot be marginal in nature, that is, one which will only supports the investor and his or her family; in most cases it should create job opportunities for U.S. workers;
4. Essential Role in Enterprise: The person for whom treaty investor status is sought must fill a key role with the company, either as the investor who will develop and direct the investment or as a qualified employee necessary for the development of the investment.

For more information on the E-1, E-2 categrary, please click one of the following links:
What are E-1 and E-2?
What are the detailed requirements?
What are the application procedures?
What kind of information is needed for E-1 and E-2 applications?