Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify the premises rights being acquired
Read the lease, assignment and renewal conditions with the purchase agreement. Distinguish an enforceable right from the landlord’s informal willingness to discuss a new term. Do not describe renewal as completed while it remains unsettled.
Establish the investor and capital
At least 50% relevant treaty-country national ownership, development and direction, and substantial at-risk qualifying capital with lawful source and path remain necessary. There is no universal E-2 minimum. A purchase commitment alone cannot answer a missing nationality or control condition.
Support future business capacity
The real enterprise must meet nonmarginality, including more than minimal living for the investor and family or significant economic contribution under the applicable rules. E-2 does not impose ten jobs. Assess the effect of a possible move on the operating plan; Canadian citizens generally need an E visa for E-2 entry.
Committed funds and real control, alongside the marginality question
The applicant must be in a position to develop and direct the business, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least half of it or by having operational control through a managerial position or other corporate device. Borrowed funds can count as investment when the investor is personally liable and the loan is not secured by the assets of the enterprise being bought. The investment must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise and subject to partial or total loss if the business fails. Non-marginality may rest on present income or a credible capacity to contribute beyond minimal living for the family, so revenue and payroll figures matter. Loans are not banned, but collateral matters: financing secured by the enterprise's own assets is treated differently from borrowing secured by the investor's personal property. The second requires that the American business be at least fifty percent owned by nationals of the same treaty country. A prelaunch enterprise can qualify where commitments are credible, so signed leases, purchase orders, licences and hiring offers carry weight; the law does not universally require first sales or equipment already used in production. The enterprise cannot be marginal, and the investor must be able to direct and develop its operations rather than merely hold a passive interest.
Review the franchise agreement's own control and territory terms
Substantiality is judged in proportion to the enterprise, and no universal dollar minimum exists, so the honest starting point is what capital is genuinely available and lawfully sourced. Some properly structured visa-contingent escrow arrangements can qualify, but a freely refundable reservation is a different commitment. Franchise agreements set pricing rules, supplier requirements, territory limits, hours, staffing standards, and approval rights over transfers. Money sitting in a Canadian account, or held in an escrow that returns it if the visa is refused, has not yet been invested; the accepted approach is an escrow that releases to the seller on visa issuance and only that condition. Projections that assume a ten-year horizon are unsupportable if the agreement expires in three with renewal at the franchisor's discretion, and projections that assume expansion into a neighbouring town are unsupportable if the territory does not include it. A useful review identifies the amount already irrevocably committed, the amount still exposed to loss, and the date on which each owner payment would leave the enterprise. Bank transfers, escrow terms, invoices, ownership documents and cancellation clauses show what has truly been committed. Reconcile projections to seller tax returns, reservations, payroll, and seasonality; a growth forecast is persuasive only when the assumptions can be checked.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.