There is a person on another forum who is Belgian, he obtained a 5 year E2 from the Belgian embassy having first been turned down by Madrid ( he lived in Spain) so that makes me think it must be a lot easier as Madrid is supposed to be easier than London. I got 5 years through Lisbon as I was living in Portugal, I think it was much easier than London. Go straight for the E2, quite apart from anything else there have been so many people doing B to E change of status that it has fallen out of favour with the embassies somwwhat, and if you stay on E2 status and never bother going for the visa you will be landlocked within the US.