IN THIS GUIDE · Identify the actual escrow parties and release conditions
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Read the actual arrangement
Hypothetical example: a draft says funds will be held pending several conditions, but the parties have not agreed who may withdraw them. Preserve that uncertainty. A proposed escrow and an executed funded arrangement are different facts.
Assess commitment and risk
Properly structured visa-contingent escrow may be relevant to E-2. That does not mean every refundable or conditional arrangement qualifies. Assess the real obligations, lawful source and path, substantiality and capital at risk.
Preserve ownership and enterprise conditions
Treaty nationality, qualifying relevant treaty ownership and development and direction remain necessary. The enterprise must be real and nonmarginal, with the applicable capacity beyond minimal family living or for significant economic contribution. Escrow does not establish these conditions by itself.
Keep financing and permission distinct
Enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying investment capital; other financing requires its actual terms. There is no universal fixed E-2 minimum that makes the funding structure irrelevant. Releasing money or closing a purchase does not itself authorize the investor’s U.S. work. 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.
Show the business beyond the escrow account
The evidence has to show money committed beyond recall and exposed to loss, which means an unconditional agreement, released deposits, equipment paid for and a lease carrying real liability. The capital must be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk, substantial in proportion to the cost of acquiring the business, and placed in a real, active operating enterprise rather than a passive holding. The clauses that matter here are different: who decides pricing, what the franchisor can require, whether the franchisee may choose suppliers or hire freely, what approvals are needed to sell, and on what grounds the agreement can be terminated. The buyer's eighty percent stake meets the ownership threshold, and the company remains a qualifying enterprise because it is majority-owned by a Canadian national. 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. If a U.S. partner will hold a share, the treaty-nationality ownership must still reach at least fifty percent. Amount is judged proportionally: substantial in relation to the total cost of purchasing an established enterprise or establishing a new one, which is why a modest sum can be substantial for a service business and inadequate for a production facility.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.