Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Describe what each activity requires
Identify premises, equipment, contracts and responsibilities for sales and service work. Separate actual operations from forecasts. Explain how the activities fit the enterprise the applicant will develop and direct.
Establish nationality and investment
Relevant treaty-country nationals must own at least 50% of the enterprise. Substantial qualifying capital must be at risk with lawful source and path. E-2 has no universal minimum; do not count the same shared asset twice merely because it supports both activities.
Support the economic-capacity assessment
Nonmarginality includes more than minimal living for the investor and family or significant economic contribution under the applicable rules. E-2 does not require EB-5’s ten jobs. Canadian citizens generally need an E visa, and a business registration does not itself authorize the applicant’s US work.
Seller financing secured on the business is not investment
The investor must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, ordinarily evidenced by holding at least half the ownership or by other operational control such as a managerial position or a legally recognised device giving control. Funds must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise and subject to partial or total loss if it fails. Substantiality is judged against the cost of the particular United States enterprise; there is no universal minimum figure and no ten-job rule. Review financing and collateral accurately; borrowing secured by enterprise assets is treated differently from qualifying personal funding arrangements. The investment must be committed in a manner that is irrevocable and exposed to loss; a plan cannot rest on funds that remain freely withdrawable. At least 50 percent of the enterprise must be owned by nationals of the treaty country, so record each owner's citizenship and exact percentage before the ownership agreement is signed. Borrowed money can qualify where the investor is personally liable and the loan is not secured by the assets of the business being purchased, since a loan secured that way puts the lender's capital at risk rather than the investor's. The enterprise cannot be marginal, and qualifying control must place its development and direction with the investor rather than leave a passive or nominal interest.
Funds, escrow and revocation need fact-specific review
Funds must be genuinely committed and exposed to commercial loss, so deposits, escrow terms, refund rights and revocation clauses require fact-specific review rather than a blanket assumption. Because funds must be committed before the visa is issued, buyers commonly use escrow that releases on visa approval or a purchase agreement conditional on it, so that commitment is real but not lost if the visa is refused. Non-marginality asks whether the business can generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family; a cycle that produces surplus in three months and losses in nine is a different case from one that clears its costs throughout. Get the escrow instructions drafted by someone who understands both the deal and the visa, because a clause that lets the buyer walk away for reasons unrelated to the visa converts a committed investment into an option. Trace nationality through to individuals, then total the percentages against the fifty percent requirement rather than eyeballing them. Use credible forecasts, staffing plans, contracts, pricing assumptions, and a timeline for revenue growth; then test whether the numbers can sustain more than household expenses. A lawful Canadian permanent resident who is not a Canadian national does not acquire treaty nationality through residence, and an ownership structure can affect the enterprise's nationality as well as the individual's eligibility. Marginality is answered with a credible five-year projection showing staff beyond the two owners, supported by realistic wholesale and café revenue assumptions rather than an optimistic template.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.