IN THIS GUIDE · Identify qualifying capital within a combined purchase budget
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Break the transaction into actual components
Hypothetical example: an acquisition budget combines a seller payment, financed equipment, working funds and professional charges. Identify the actual purpose and terms of each amount. E-2 requires substantial capital committed and at risk relative to the enterprise, without a universal fixed minimum.
Trace the funds and the security
Document lawful source and path and the actual borrower and collateral. Personal-asset-secured or unsecured loans may qualify, while debt secured by the investment enterprise’s assets does not qualify as invested capital. Mixed security needs review; the combined price should not conceal the financing structure. 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.
Connect payment with actual rights and enterprise facts
Assess qualifying treaty nationality of applicant and enterprise, generally at least 50% enterprise ownership by nationals of the relevant treaty country. Establish how the applicant will develop and direct a real operating nonmarginal enterprise. Payment size alone does not prove control or capacity beyond a minimal living for the investor and family or a significant economic contribution.
Describe commitment at the genuine stage
Identify funds already committed, actual conditions and proposed transactions accurately. A qualifying visa-contingent escrow may matter. Do not present a mere intention as completed investment or assume every purchase must close before its structure can be reviewed.
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.
Confirm the investment is substantial and irrevocably committed
The investment must be irrevocably committed, which is why funds sitting in the buyer's Canadian account do not count. The consular guidance looks for the investor to be in a position to develop and direct the enterprise, which ownership of at least half, or operational control through a managerial position or other corporate device, ordinarily shows. The investor has to be a national of a treaty country, which Canada is, and the enterprise itself must have the nationality of that treaty country, determined by the citizenship of the persons who own at least fifty percent of it. A fifty-five per cent owner whose management agreement hands all of that to a minority partner does not, in substance, direct the enterprise. Separate money already exposed to the enterprise from money that remains freely recoverable, and keep the transfer records with the governing contract. The decision is not whether a number sounds substantial in isolation, but whether the irrevocable commitment is proportionate to the undertaking and capable of loss. A separate forecast for household income prevents the business plan from disguising a marginal enterprise as a growth business. A plan that omits replacement customers, operating costs or hiring assumptions cannot show why the enterprise will avoid marginality.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.