The label does not decide the case. Assess the real enterprise, investment, control and operating plan under E-2 requirements.
Explain responsibilities across the arrangement
Identify what the provider does and what the investor directs. An outsourced warehouse does not eliminate the need to show actual business operations.
The investment must be substantial in proportion to the total cost of acquiring or establishing the business, and irrevocably committed and at risk, which normally means an agreement conditioned on the decision with money held in escrow. The regulation instead asks whether the enterprise has the present or future capacity to produce more than a minimal living for the investor and family, and it allows future capacity to be shown where it is likely to be reached within five years. Corinne's Canadian citizenship settles the nationality of the investor, but the enterprise must also be majority owned by treaty nationals, which the proposed equal split with an American partner would defeat. The elements remain nationality, ownership of at least fifty percent by treaty nationals, substantial capital genuinely committed and at risk, a real operating commercial enterprise, non-marginality, and a develop-and-direct role. Majority ownership is the usual proof, but a franchise agreement that reserves most operating decisions to the franchisor can undermine it, so the agreement's control clauses are examined alongside the share percentage.