Do not assume it creates current ownership. The legal rights under the actual documents and applicable E-2 requirements need assessment.
Use the correct ownership date
Distinguish the right to purchase from a completed acquisition. Avoid presenting a future cap table as current merely because the applicant expects to exercise the option.
Begin with a closing-and-control chart: investor nationality, final owners, percentage interests, decision rights, purchase conditions and the activities the investor will direct. The principal investor must be in a position to develop and direct the business, which is usually shown by majority ownership or, in a 50/50 case, by the operating agreement or bylaws giving that person the deciding role in management. The E-2 investor must have treaty nationality, qualifying enterprise ownership, substantial funds already placed irrevocably at risk, and authority to develop and direct through fifty percent ownership or operational control. The remaining tests, committed capital, substantiality, a real non-marginal business and lawful funds, are decided by the purchase documents and financial records, not by the percentage. Fifty per cent is a floor rather than a target, and ownership by dual nationals and by persons resident in the United States raises further questions worth checking before shares are issued. Check the lease term and any renewal option against the period the investor expects to operate, since premises secured for a single year support a weaker picture of a continuing enterprise than premises secured for five.