A $100K E-2 visa may qualify every driver on a trucking company's payroll. FMCSA couldn't explain it in court. 28 states under audit holds.
A federal appeals judge asked FMCSA a simple question this month: when a State Department consular officer processes an E-2 investor visa, why would they check the investor's driving record?
FMCSA's lawyer could not answer.
That matters because the E-2 loophole in FMCSA's own non-domiciled CDL ban means a $100,000 investment in a trucking company could potentially qualify every driver on that company's payroll for a non-domiciled CDL — through consular vetting that may never have checked their driving record.
North Dakota is issuing more non-domiciled CDLs after the ban than before it. Twenty-eight states are under formal FMCSA audit holds. A federal judge blocked DOT from obtaining 17 million CDL records for the second time on September 17.
Also this week: nuclear verdicts against trucking nearly tripled in 2025 — $3.4 billion across 12 cases. The 2026 data is not yet compiled.
FMCSA couldn't explain how the vetting works. Neither can the carriers using it.
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