IN THIS GUIDE · Explain who directs the business after the seller’s training ends
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify retained seller rights and actual direction
Hypothetical example: a purchase includes temporary seller training and continuing approval rights over some decisions. Read the actual ownership and management provisions. Explain how the investor will develop and direct the enterprise rather than assuming possession of keys establishes control.
Trace capital and financing
Provide lawful source and path, actual payments and loan security. Personally secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify under applicable rules; enterprise-asset-secured debt does not count as the investor’s qualifying investment. Distinguish seller-service charges and living reserves from actual qualifying capital. Debt secured partly by enterprise assets is excluded even when personal assets are also pledged; personal-only secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify on its actual terms.
Assess the operating enterprise
Review qualifying treaty nationality, substantiality and nonmarginality using the real business. No universal fixed E-2 minimum applies. Identify who provides services when training ends and what supports the forecast, without treating planned revenue as a guarantee.
Keep the transaction separate from work permission
Closing or completion of training does not itself authorize U.S. work. Describe the investor’s intended activities and any family participation for review. A commercial handoff is not a substitute for the appropriate immigration process and actual status.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country; the applicant’s passport alone does not establish enterprise nationality. Nonmarginality includes capacity to provide more than a minimal living for the investor and family, with the alternative of a significant economic contribution. Apply those conditions to the real operating proposal rather than importing EB-5’s capital amounts or ten-job rule into E-2. The investor must also intend to depart when E status ends; business ownership does not replace that individual requirement. If relying on future capacity, it should generally be realizable within five years after normal business activity begins.
Trace the investor’s nationality, capital and control
The investor must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, ordinarily evidenced by holding at least half the ownership or by other operational control such as a managerial position or a legally recognised device giving control. The nursery qualifies as a Canadian enterprise only while treaty nationals own at least fifty percent of it. Inventory purchases, deposits and fit-out spending should be examined on their actual contract terms, since refund, escrow and revocation clauses differ. Sequence ownership and spending evidence carefully: confirm treaty nationality, document qualifying ownership, trace funds, then show the investor’s role in directing and developing the operation. Properly structured visa-contingent escrow may qualify, but a plan to fund the enterprise later is not automatically equivalent to an existing qualifying commitment. E-2 requires that the capital be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk, and that the enterprise be more than marginal, so a plan leaving the business unable to operate answers neither point well. Funds sitting in an escrow that returns to the investor if the case is refused are generally treated differently from funds already spent on stock, fit-out and wages, and the distinction deserves a lawyer's attention before any transfer is made.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.