IN THIS GUIDE · Distinguish contracted startup resources from a list of intended providers
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify what is genuinely arranged
Hypothetical example: a buyer has quotes for supplies and administrative support. Distinguish quotes, signed obligations and services already delivered. Do not present all proposed providers as current operating resources. For each material quote, identify its expiry, the item or service covered, whether the supplier has accepted an order and what remains unpaid or conditional. A quote can support a cost assumption while proving neither delivery nor a binding commitment. Ask how the business would operate if that provider were unavailable at closing; distinguish an available alternative from an unconfirmed plan. This review connects the real operating proposal to its transaction evidence without inventing a universal requirement to sign every possible supplier before applying.
Show qualifying investment and risk
Capital must be lawful, substantial, at risk and sufficiently committed, with source and path evidence. There is no universal E-2 minimum. Money reserved for possible purchases is not automatically invested; appropriately structured visa-contingent escrow requires review.
Preserve nationality and direction
The principal needs treaty nationality and development and direction, with generally at least 50% relevant treaty-national enterprise ownership. Outsourcing does not itself prove or remove direction; identify the actual responsibilities and authority.
Assess the complete business capacity
The enterprise must be real and nonmarginal, with capacity beyond minimal living for the investor and family or significant economic contribution. Review actual costs and financing security. Enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying capital; other borrowing requires its own analysis. Personally unsecured borrowing or borrowing secured solely by non-enterprise personal assets may count under its actual terms. Debt secured by enterprise assets is excluded even when personal assets also secure it.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
Enterprise nationality generally requires at least 50% ownership by nationals of the relevant treaty country. The investor must develop and direct the business through at least 50% ownership or other qualifying operational control. If nonmarginality rests on future capacity, that capacity generally must be realizable within five years after normal business activity begins. The investor must intend to depart when E status ends; Canadian citizens generally need an E visa.
Confirm the investment is substantial and irrevocably committed
Money counts toward the E-2 investment when it has been spent on the business or is irrevocably committed to it: purchased equipment, a signed commercial lease with rent paid, inventory, permits, professional fees and funds held in escrow that release on visa approval. Substantiality compares what the investor has committed with the total cost of establishing this franchise territory, and a lower-cost business needs a higher proportion. An employee of a treaty investor may qualify where the employee holds the same treaty nationality as the enterprise's owners and is coming to fill an executive or supervisory role, or to perform duties requiring skills essential to the enterprise's operations. Substantial capital is judged relative to the cost of the particular enterprise, not against a fixed minimum, so the spending pattern should match the plan you are presenting. Share registers, operating agreements, voting provisions, and closing documents establish who owns the enterprise and whether treaty nationals hold the required majority. Trace nationality through to individuals, then total the percentages against the fifty percent requirement rather than eyeballing them. 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.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.