IN THIS GUIDE · Explain how the investor develops and directs the enterprise during the proposed arrangement
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Describe the genuine operating role
Hypothetical example: an investor plans to coordinate a U.S. business while making periodic visits. Identify the actual decisions and responsibilities. Do not infer development and direction solely from ownership of a bank account or a planned itinerary.
Establish nationality and ownership
The principal needs qualifying treaty nationality and the enterprise generally at least 50% relevant treaty-national ownership. Canadian residence or incorporation does not alone establish those facts. Explain actual ownership and control rights.
Show qualifying capital and risk
Capital must be substantial, lawful, at risk and sufficiently committed; there is no universal E-2 minimum. Identify source and path and genuine transaction conditions. Properly structured visa-contingent escrow can require review, while unrestricted reserves do not automatically qualify.
Assess operations and financing
The enterprise must be real and nonmarginal, with capacity beyond minimal living for the investor and family or a significant economic contribution. Enterprise-secured borrowing is not qualifying capital; personally secured or unsecured funds require actual source and security analysis. A commute plan does not resolve these conditions. 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 a business beyond personal support
An applicant must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least fifty percent or by operational control through a managerial position or other device. The initial franchise fee, service vehicles, tooling, inventory, deposits on premises and paid build-out costs are investment when they are spent or irrevocably committed. The evidence that answers marginality is payroll: employees already on the books of an acquired business, or a staffing plan in a new one with dates, roles and wage figures that the enterprise's projected revenue can actually carry. The capital must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise and genuinely exposed to loss; a revocable promise or money still freely available for another use does not settle that issue. Substantiality is judged in proportion to the total cost of acquiring the enterprise, not against a fixed dollar figure, and there is no universal minimum. The test asks whether the enterprise has present or near-future capacity to generate income significantly beyond meeting the investor's own living needs, typically evidenced through job creation for U.S. workers or a credible expansion trajectory, not through the owner's personal draw alone. If part of the price is seller-financed, only the portion actually paid and any indebtedness secured by the buyers’ personal assets counts; a loan secured on the business itself does not. The capital must be committed rather than merely set aside, exposed to loss, and directed to an enterprise that is not marginal; a forecast should identify the assumptions that support those conclusions.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.