Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Map what each closing stage changes
Identify who owns and controls the enterprise at each point and what funds have actually been committed. E-2 requires treaty nationality, at least 50% relevant national ownership of the enterprise, and the applicant’s ability to develop and direct it. An equipment purchase does not automatically settle enterprise nationality or the investor’s authority under a later ownership agreement. The review normally produces a source-and-path schedule, bank records, contracts, invoices, ownership documents and a practical operating plan. Read every contingency: money that can be freely recovered before a decision may not demonstrate the required exposure to loss. Separate personal funds, qualifying borrowing and funds secured by business assets. The reader must decide which expenditures belong to the enterprise and which remain merely preparatory.
Assess real commitments rather than the future headline price
Capital must be substantial, lawfully sourced and traced, and at risk in a real nonmarginal enterprise; there is no fixed E-2 minimum or ten-job quota. Nonmarginality requires more than minimal family support or an applicable significant economic contribution. Review actual escrow and financing terms: visa-contingent escrow may qualify, while enterprise-asset-secured debt is not equivalent to qualifying personal financing. Canadians generally need an E visa, and payment alone does not authorize US work. Capital must be committed so that it cannot simply be withdrawn at will and must face commercial loss; the enterprise must not be marginal. Test the projected revenue, staffing and owner role against the actual cost of launching the business, not a hoped-for sale years later. A treaty-country national must retain the required ownership and control, and the applicant must direct and develop the enterprise. E-2 is temporary classification and does not itself create permanent residence.
Test the fifty percent treaty ownership line
Cancellation clauses, refundable deposits, escrow arrangements, and conditions that let either side walk away all affect whether capital is genuinely at risk. Substantiality is proportional rather than absolute: the investment is weighed against the cost of buying an established business of this kind or of creating one from nothing, so a small enterprise needs a smaller sum, not an excuse. Signed office lease with deposit paid, purchased monitoring hardware and licences, a funded U.S. business account, professional-liability insurance bound, and executed client agreements all show commitment. Non-marginality can rest on capacity to generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family, or on significant economic contribution; either argument is stronger when the projection shows which lines produce that capacity and when. Get the escrow instructions drafted by someone who understands both the deal and the visa, because a clause that lets the buyer walk away for reasons unrelated to the visa converts a committed investment into an option. If a U.S. partner will hold a share, the treaty-nationality ownership must still reach at least fifty percent. Where the corrected numbers no longer show capacity beyond a minimal living, that is a finding to face before filing rather than a reason to restore the unpaid labour to the spreadsheet.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.