Read the general investor planning overview
A startup can own a folder of quotations and still hold no qualifying investment. A quote is a price someone is willing to accept; qualifying capital is money the investor has already put beyond recall into a specific enterprise. This worksheet sorts the paperwork of a planned opening into four piles, estimates, signed obligations, funds actually paid out, and services already delivered, and then tests only the last two against the treaty-investor conditions.
Identify what is actually arranged
Hypothetical example: an investor planning a Fort Erie customs-brokerage and cross-border freight desk holds equipment quotations, a draft services agreement with a bookkeeper, and two paid deposits. Sort them before writing anything. An estimate creates no obligation and either side can walk away from it. A signed contract creates an obligation but may still be conditional, and a condition the investor personally controls is not risk. A payment already made and non-refundable is committed. Goods received and installed are stronger still, because the money is gone and the enterprise holds the asset. Build the business account from the third and fourth piles, and describe the first two honestly as planned spending. An officer who finds a quotation counted as invested capital will reasonably distrust the rest of the schedule.
Show qualifying capital and direction
Canada is a treaty country for this category, so nationality is usually the easy part, but it is tested twice: once for the individual investor, and again for the enterprise, which is ordinarily treated as a treaty national only where nationals of the same treaty country own at least half of it. The investor must also develop and direct the business, normally through ownership of at least half of it, otherwise through a demonstrated operational controlling role. The capital itself must be lawfully sourced and traceable from that origin, substantial relative to what this particular business actually costs to buy or start, and irrevocably committed and exposed to loss. No published dollar floor decides any of this, and a supplier’s estimate does not become invested capital merely because it appears on the schedule.
Assess the real operation
Marginality is where a quotation-driven plan usually fails. The enterprise has to be real and operating rather than a shell waiting for funding, and it must do more than provide a minimal living for the investor and family, either by producing income beyond that threshold or by making a significant economic contribution such as employing others. Where that capacity still lies ahead, it should be reachable within about five years of normal trading, and the projection should be built from the freight desk’s own contracted volumes rather than from optimism. How the money was raised matters just as much. Borrowing on the investor’s personal credit, or against personal assets that form no part of the enterprise, can count according to its actual terms. Borrowing secured by the assets of the business itself never counts, and that exclusion holds even where personal collateral was pledged alongside those assets. A visa-contingent escrow can preserve commitment where it is genuinely structured, but a refundable holding account maintained for the investor’s convenience is not risk. Finally, a signed lease and a circled opening date authorise nothing. Canadians are among the few travellers who do need a visa in this category, and the applicant must still intend to depart when the status ends.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.