Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Distinguish enterprise nationality and individual direction
E-2 requires treaty nationality and at least 50% ownership of the enterprise by the relevant nationals. The applicant must also be able to develop and direct the business. Identify the actual voting, management and reserved-decision provisions; a percentage alone should not conceal an agreement that changes the practical authority being claimed. Nationality review should follow the chain of ownership as well as the applicant’s passport. The operating agreement, share register, purchase documents and board records should tell one consistent story about control. If a co-owner retains a protective right, the file needs to explain its commercial purpose and whether it prevents the applicant from directing the enterprise in the manner claimed.
Support the investment and operating case separately
Substantial lawful capital must be traced and at risk in a real nonmarginal enterprise. There is no fixed E-2 minimum or ten-job quota; nonmarginality means more than minimal investor-family support or the applicable significant economic contribution. Review actual financing and escrow terms, including potentially qualifying visa-contingent escrow and the distinction between personal financing and enterprise-asset-secured debt. Canadians generally require an E visa, and signing an ownership agreement does not itself authorize US work. E-2 is a temporary classification and provides no direct path to permanent residence. Funds must be irrevocably committed; they also must face a real possibility of commercial loss. The enterprise must not be marginal. A first review should distinguish a refundable deposit, a genuine visa-contingent escrow arrangement, paid equipment, and money still available for personal use. Forecasts, signed customer terms and a workable operating plan can help show why the business is more than a plan for investor-family support. The review should state plainly which expenses are already bound to the enterprise and which remain discretionary. That distinction helps avoid presenting borrowed, refundable or personally available money as though it carried the same commercial consequence as an operating commitment.
Test the fifty percent treaty ownership line
Ask the seller for three years of financial statements, the employee list with wage records, the equipment titles, the permits that must transfer and the lease assignment terms, because those documents feed the substantiality and marginality evidence. Personally held equipment, assets sitting on a Canadian company's books, and financed machines with a lender's security interest raise different questions. Inventory purchases, deposits and fit-out spending should be examined on their actual contract terms, since refund, escrow and revocation clauses differ. E-2 assessment also considers ownership: the investor's treaty nationality and whether treaty-country owners hold at least fifty percent of the United States enterprise. Non-marginality is assessed on the enterprise's present or projected capacity to generate more than a minimal living, or on significant economic contribution, so a delayed opening affects the projections as well as the cash. A prelaunch enterprise can qualify where commitments are credible, so document leases, purchase orders and licences rather than waiting for the first sale. Use the executed lease, service contracts, licences where required, pricing assumptions and staffing plan rather than a seller’s optimistic forecast. Decide whether a proposed loan is secured by the enterprise assets and whether repayment would leave the investor’s own capital exposed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.