Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Describe the initial operation accurately
Identify the location, premises, equipment and staffing actually arranged. Keep later sites and development deadlines separate. A right to expand does not establish present customers, operations or capital for the whole territory.
Meet nationality and investment conditions
At least 50% relevant treaty-country national enterprise ownership, development and direction, and substantial at-risk capital with lawful source and path remain necessary. There is no universal E-2 minimum. Do not count every future unit’s estimated cost as already invested.
Assess the supported business plan
Nonmarginality includes more than minimal living for the investor and family or significant economic contribution under the applicable rules. E-2 does not impose the EB-5 ten-job quota. Canadian citizens generally need an E visa, and a development-rights agreement does not authorize US work.
Show qualifying capital in the buyer’s actual enterprise
The investor must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least half or by holding operational control through a managerial position or other device. Once the labor assumptions are honest, review what changed: the capital needed, the hiring schedule, and whether the enterprise still shows capacity beyond minimal living for the investor and family. Loans are not automatically excluded, but collateral matters: funds secured against your personal assets are treated differently from money secured only by the enterprise. A seller's note secured only by the resort's own assets typically does not represent capital the investor has placed at risk, because the exposure sits with the business rather than the buyer. Confirm that at least fifty percent of the U.S. enterprise is owned by treaty nationals and that the applicant will genuinely develop and direct it. E-2 looks for a substantial amount irrevocably committed and at risk in a real, operating enterprise, and no fixed dollar figure satisfies that test on its own. Examine actual working-capital, supplier and visa-contingent escrow terms; debt secured by enterprise assets is different from qualifying personal financing. A revenue projection alone does not settle marginality; the record should explain how the enterprise will support more than personal subsistence or make a significant economic contribution.
Apply the treaty-investor conditions to the real enterprise
Substantial capital is judged in proportion to the total cost of establishing this particular enterprise, not against a benchmark borrowed from another industry. The enterprise must be a real, active and operating commercial undertaking, not a paper organization or a passive holding, and it must not be marginal. A reviewer asks who borrowed, who is liable, what secured the borrowing, and which charges belonged to the enterprise rather than the household. The usual approach is an escrow that releases to the seller on visa issuance and returns to the buyer if the visa is refused; this is accepted as irrevocable commitment when the only condition is the visa. The standard structure for a purchase is a signed stock or asset purchase agreement, with the purchase price deposited in escrow to be released to the seller on visa approval and returned to the buyer only if the visa is refused. Proceeds from the equipment auction should therefore move into the transaction, into purchased assets, or into an escrow whose release conditions are outside the buyers' control. Share registers, operating agreements, voting provisions, and closing documents establish who owns the enterprise and whether treaty nationals hold the required majority. The investor’s nationality, funding and direction of a real enterprise must be assessed alongside substantiality and non-marginality; a promising customer relationship is not the entire case.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.