Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Follow each asset and closing condition
Reconcile the purchase agreement, deposits, title or assignment rights and third-party consents. Explain what has become committed and what remains contingent. A signed asset schedule does not necessarily establish ownership, operational access or qualifying at-risk expenditure for every listed item.
Establish the treaty investment
E-2 requires qualifying treaty nationality at applicant and enterprise levels, generally at least 50% treaty-country enterprise ownership. Development and direction can be established through at least 50% ownership or actual operational control. Capital must be lawful, substantial and committed at risk in a real nonmarginal enterprise; there is no universal dollar minimum. Nonmarginality means capacity beyond a minimal living for the investor and family or significant economic contribution; projected capacity should generally be realized within five years of normal business activity. Intent to depart when E status ends remains necessary.
Review financing and the resulting business
Funds secured by enterprise assets are excluded even if personal assets also secure the debt. Personal-only secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify under the other investment conditions. Confirm that the operating plan uses assets and rights the business can actually obtain. Do not count the same purchase price and deposit twice.
Committed funds and real control, alongside the marginality question
E-2 is available to a national of a treaty country, which Canada is, who has invested in an enterprise at least fifty percent owned by nationals of that treaty country and who will develop and direct it. The applicant must be in a position to develop and direct the business, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least half of it or by having operational control through a managerial position or other corporate device. Substantiality compares what the investor has committed with the total cost of establishing this franchise territory, and a lower-cost business needs a higher proportion. Funds paid into an escrow that releases to the seller when the visa is issued and returns to the buyer if it is refused can qualify, because the commitment is irrevocable on the investor's side. Non-marginality asks whether the business can generate more than a minimal living for the investor and family; a cycle that produces surplus in three months and losses in nine is a different case from one that clears its costs throughout. Personally secured or unsecured loans may require a different assessment, including lawful source and path; seller financing is not a label that resolves those questions. The enterprise must be real and not marginal, while the investor must develop and direct it; E-2 itself does not provide a permanent-residence outcome. Where the buyers intend to borrow, distinguish borrowing they are personally liable for from a loan secured by the assets of the business being bought, because the latter is treated differently.
Show a business beyond personal support
Distribution agreements often arrive with escrow terms, refundable deposits, minimum purchase commitments and revocation clauses. Beyond the enterprise, the employee must hold the same treaty-country nationality as the qualifying owners, and must be coming either to fill an executive or supervisory position or to provide services requiring special qualifications essential to the enterprise's operations. The file should show non-marginality through present income, a credible five-year forecast, or evidence of a significant economic contribution; staffing can support that showing but is not an independent minimum. The funds must be lawfully obtained, irrevocably committed, exposed to genuine commercial risk, and substantial in relation to the particular enterprise. If part of the funding is borrowed, the security matters: debt secured against the business assets is not viewed the same way as personal collateral, so have the structure reviewed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.