Not automatically. The actual security and terms matter; enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying investment capital.
Break down the financing
Do not present the full price as one undifferentiated cash investment.
Other E-2 elements sit beside this one: treaty nationality based on citizenship rather than Canadian residence, at least fifty percent treaty ownership of the enterprise, genuine development and direction by the investor, substantial capital committed and at risk, and a real operating commercial enterprise. A well-advised buyer negotiates protections: a deposit recoverable on several conditions, a price partly deferred and paid from the business's own earnings, security taken over the acquired assets. What matters is that the enterprise is active and commercial, producing goods or services, with substantial capital genuinely committed and at risk, and prospects beyond minimal support for the family. The investment must be substantial in relation to the total cost of the enterprise, so the relevant comparison is between what has been committed and what the business actually costs to establish or acquire, rather than an absolute figure. Non-marginality is assessed on the enterprise's present or future capacity, and a future capacity claim needs a stated period and evidence behind it rather than an open-ended assurance that trade will improve.