Country-wide policy
The United States Treaty Behind the E-2 Visa
This is the most-searched fact about Grenada and almost everything written about it is written by someone selling a passport. Here is what the instruments say. A treaty between the United States and Grenada concerning the reciprocal encouragement and protection of investment was signed at Washington on 2 May 1986 and entered into force on 3 March 1989. It is a bilateral investment treaty, not a treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation. Its Article II(3) lets nationals of either party enter and remain in the other for the purpose of an investment, subject to that party's own laws on the entry of aliens. The E-2 classification itself is United States law: the Immigration and Nationality Act requires a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation, and the State Department's own manual says such treaties may include bilateral investment treaties. The Department's treaty country list records Grenada for E-2 with an effective date of 3 March 1989, and for E-2 only - Grenada has no E-1 treaty trader status. None of this is Grenadian law and none of it does anything at a Grenadian counter.
Topics it changes
What it requires
- Grenadian nationality, which is what the treaty relationship attaches to
- Everything else is United States law and is applied by a United States consular officer, not by Grenada
- Nothing in Grenadian law confers, administers or guarantees any of it
At a glance
- Instrument
- A bilateral investment treaty, not a friendship, commerce and navigation treaty
Treaties and Other International Acts Series 89-303, signed at Washington on 2 May 1986.
- Entry into force
- 3 March 1989
Ratifications were exchanged at St George's on 1 February 1989 and the treaty entered into force on 3 March 1989, which is also the effective date on the State Department's treaty country list.
- United States classification available
- E-2 only
The treaty country list records Grenada for E-2 and does not record it for E-1, so there is no treaty trader route.
- What the treaty itself says about entry
- Entry and sojourn subject to each party's own alien laws
Article II(3). It is an obligation between two states, not a visa category, and it applies in both directions.
- Status in Grenadian law
- None
We found no Grenadian Act giving the treaty force of law, and no provision of Grenadian law referring to it. By contrast the Foreign Account Tax Compliance arrangement with the United States has its own Grenadian Act, No. 4 of 2017.
- Effect of how the nationality was acquired
- Not addressed in the manual we read
Nothing in the Foreign Affairs Manual section on treaty traders and investors conditions eligibility on how an applicant acquired the treaty country's nationality. That is what the page does not say, and we state it as such rather than as a clearance.
Find the instrument, not the marketing
The claim circulating everywhere is that Grenada has a treaty with the United States giving its citizens access to the E-2 investor visa, and that Grenada is the only Caribbean investment citizenship country with one. The first half is accurate if stated carefully. The treaty exists: it was signed at Washington on 2 May 1986, transmitted to the Senate as Treaty Document 99-25, consented to on 20 October 1988, ratified on 6 December 1988, exchanged at St George's on 1 February 1989 and entered into force on 3 March 1989. It is published by the Department of State as Treaties and Other International Acts Series 89-303. What it is not is a treaty creating a visa. It is an investment protection treaty with a clause on the entry and sojourn of nationals, and the clause is expressly subject to each country's own law on admitting foreigners.
Where the E-2 actually comes from
The visa is United States domestic law. Section 101(a)(15)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act requires a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation between the United States and the applicant's country. A bilateral investment treaty is not obviously such a treaty, and the question is answered by the State Department's own Foreign Affairs Manual, which says qualifying treaties may include treaties of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation and Bilateral Investment Treaties, and points to a list. Grenada is on that list, for E-2, with an effective date identical to the date the treaty entered into force. A reader who wants to check this for themselves needs three documents, not one, and the chain runs treaty, manual, list.
E-2 and not E-1
The treaty country list carries two classifications. E-1 is the treaty trader and E-2 the treaty investor, and many countries appear twice. Grenada appears once, for E-2. There is no treaty trader status for Grenadian nationals, which matters to anyone whose plan is substantial trade with the United States rather than investment in a United States business. Material that describes the treaty without distinguishing the two is describing something less than it implies.
What this is not
It is not Grenadian law. We found no Act giving the treaty force of law in Grenada and no Grenadian provision referring to it, which is the ordinary position for a bilateral investment treaty and is worth contrasting with the Foreign Account Tax Compliance arrangement with the same country, which does have its own Grenadian Act and commencement Order. It confers nothing in Grenada and gives a Grenadian citizen nothing at a Grenadian counter. It is a relationship between two governments which, combined with United States domestic law, makes a Grenadian passport useful for a particular American visa.
The question we cannot answer from the sources
Whether a person who acquired Grenadian nationality by investment is in the same position as one who acquired it by birth is the question every intermediary answers and no instrument addresses. The Foreign Affairs Manual section on treaty traders and investors requires the applicant to possess the nationality of the treaty country and says nothing about how that nationality was acquired. We searched the stored reading for any reference to investment citizenship, naturalisation or a residence requirement and found none. That is an absence in the page we read, not a ruling, and we record it as an absence.
What the law says
«3. Subject to the laws relating to the entry and sojourn of aliens, nationals of either Party shall be permitted to enter and to remain in the territory of the other Party for the purpose of establishing, developing, administering or advising on the operation of an investment to which they, or a company of the first Party that employs them, have committed or are in the process of committing a substantial amount of capital or other resources.»The provision everyone means when they say treaty. It is reciprocal, it is subject to each state's own immigration law, and it says nothing about a visa category. The Department's published copy is a scan of the signed text with a recognised text layer, so this quotation is marked as taken from a recognition rather than from a publisher's text.
«Entered into force March 3, 1989.»The same page records signature on 2 May 1986, transmission to the Senate on 3 June 1986 as Treaty Doc. 99-25, advice and consent on 20 October 1988, ratification on 6 December 1988 and exchange of ratifications at St George's on 1 February 1989.
«| Grenada | E-2 | March 3, 1989 |»One row, one classification. Countries with both appear twice in the table; Grenada appears once.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Publishes the list of countries whose nationals may be accorded E-1 treaty trader and E-2 treaty investor classification, with the effective date for each.
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited for the text or the terms of any treaty, which it does not reproduce, nor for whether a particular applicant qualifies, which is a consular decision under the Foreign Affairs Manual and 22 CFR 41.51. The list is the Department's determination of which treaties qualify and it changes without amendment to any treaty. Its page is heavy with client-side furniture that survives capture as noise, so a quotation should be taken from the table rows rather than from the surrounding prose.
We re-read it every 180 days. More about this source
«INA 101(a)(15)(E) requires the
existence of a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation between the United
States and a foreign State for E visa classification to be accorded to
nationals of that foreign State. Such qualifying treaties may include treaties
of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation and Bilateral Investment Treaties.»This is the link in the chain that most writing leaves out. The statute asks for a treaty of commerce and navigation; the Department's manual says a bilateral investment treaty can be one; the list then records which countries qualify.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Department's internal guidance to consular officers, carrying at 9 FAM 402.9 the rules on treaty traders and investors, including the statement that a bilateral investment treaty may be a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation for the purposes of INA 101(a)(15)(E).
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited as law. It is guidance to officers, it is revised by change transmittal without notice, and it confers no rights on an applicant. It must also not be cited for what it does not address: the section on treaty traders and investors says nothing about how an applicant acquired the treaty country's nationality, and that silence is an absence in the guidance rather than a ruling that investment citizens qualify. Nor for the regulations it implements, which are at 22 CFR 41.51.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
«a. (U) The treaty trader or
investor must, whether an individual or business, possess the nationality of
the treaty country.»Nationality of the treaty country is the gateway, which is why Grenadian citizenship is what people are buying when they buy it for this reason.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Department's internal guidance to consular officers, carrying at 9 FAM 402.9 the rules on treaty traders and investors, including the statement that a bilateral investment treaty may be a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation for the purposes of INA 101(a)(15)(E).
Standing: Applies the rule
Cannot be cited for: It must not be cited as law. It is guidance to officers, it is revised by change transmittal without notice, and it confers no rights on an applicant. It must also not be cited for what it does not address: the section on treaty traders and investors says nothing about how an applicant acquired the treaty country's nationality, and that silence is an absence in the guidance rather than a ruling that investment citizens qualify. Nor for the regulations it implements, which are at 22 CFR 41.51.
We re-read it every 120 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The treaty as published by the Department of State is a scanned document: pages four onwards are single greyscale images and the text layer is the Department's own recognition of them. The quotations here are marked as taken from a recognition rather than from a publisher's text, and a reader relying on exact wording should compare against the printed series.
The current state.gov page for the treaty refuses automated access. The copy we read is on the Department's own archived host for the 2021 to 2025 administration, which carries the same series number and the same text.
Nothing on this record states an investment amount, a processing time or a success rate for an E-2 application. Those are matters of United States practice and the regulations at 22 CFR 41.51, which we did not read.
The E-2 is a non-immigrant classification. Nothing in the treaty or in the manual section we read makes it a route to permanent residence in the United States.
Grenada's treaty relationship with the United States is not unique in the Caribbean in the way the marketing suggests - the list includes other Caribbean and Latin American states - but among the five Eastern Caribbean countries that sell citizenship, Grenada is the only one on it.