That decision requires understanding the actual commercial obligations and the effect of missing evidence on the immigration case. Closing does not guarantee the seller will later provide records or that the enterprise qualifies. Review the transaction terms and evidence gaps before making an irreversible commitment.
Identify what depends on the missing material
List the eligibility claims and operating assumptions that cannot yet be supported. Ask the relevant advisers about appropriate conditions or alternatives. Do not represent unavailable records as reviewed or begin unauthorized US work simply because ownership has transferred.
Sequence is the substance of this question. Capital has to be committed beyond recall, genuinely exposed to loss, and substantial in proportion to the cost of the enterprise before the case is decided, which pushes the money ahead of the outcome, while the records proving the business is real, operating and more than marginal come from the seller, who has the least reason to produce them once paid. Holding funds in escrow against approval is the usual way of reconciling those two pressures, and it has to be drafted so the capital stays at risk rather than freely recoverable; confirm the treatment under current guidance before signing. Two elements are not time-sensitive at all — treaty nationality for the investor and for the enterprise, and the investor's ability to develop and direct the business — since both rest on citizenship, ownership and governance documents that exist independently of any closing date. Duration is the smaller worry: E-2 admission and extensions run in defined periods and may be renewed while the enterprise continues to qualify.
Hypothetical example: A seed-laboratory buyer has a closing date four weeks out and no employment records for the two technicians the business depends on. Closing on schedule turns a diligence gap into a permanent one, because the only person able to issue those records stops being a counterparty the day the sale completes. Making the missing items a condition of closing costs a delay; skipping them costs the ability to evidence an element later. Transfer of ownership also changes nothing about authorization: the buyer cannot start operating the business in the United States before holding a status that permits it.