Read the general investor planning overview
A Stony Plain buyer should understand what each party can still change after the deposit. The account’s label is less informative than the signed release and return provisions.
Compare the operative agreements
List the operative documents with their executed dates: the purchase agreement and every amendment, the escrow or trust instructions, any financing commitment, and any side letter. Then find the conflicts between them, because escrow terms and purchase terms are frequently drafted by different people and do not always agree on who may cancel, what triggers release, and who is entitled to instruct the escrow holder. Ask the transaction lawyer and the escrow holder to state in writing the conditions on release and the circumstances in which funds return to the buyer — that is far more useful than lifting the most favourable clause into an immigration summary. Keep superseded drafts rather than discarding them, so the history of what was actually committed, and when, remains legible if the sequence is later questioned.
Trace the qualifying financial risk
The point of the analysis is whether the money is genuinely exposed to loss. An escrow arrangement structured so that funds release on visa approval and are otherwise applied to the business can be consistent with irrevocable commitment; an account the buyer may draw down at will, or unwind for convenience, is not the same thing, and no label on the account settles which of the two it is. Read the whole transaction. On borrowing, the security is decisive: a loan collateralized by the assets of the enterprise itself is not the investor’s capital at risk, even where the investor’s personal assets are also pledged, while a loan secured solely on personal property, or unsecured personal borrowing, may count provided the other conditions are satisfied. Keep the household’s living reserve and the fees of the lawyers, brokers and accountants on the deal distinct from the sum actually committed to the enterprise, and be able to say which bank account each figure came from.
Test the enterprise and the investor
The escrow question sits inside a larger test that has to be met in full. Check nationality on both sides of the case: the individual, and the ownership of the enterprise, which must be majority treaty-national. Establish that the applicant develops and directs, via at least half the equity or genuine control over operations. Show lawful origin, commitment that cannot be pulled back, actual risk, and an amount substantial for this business rather than for businesses generally, since no floor is specified. The enterprise must be real, operating and never marginal — it must exist for more than earning the owner a minimal living, so either it supports more than that for the investor and family or it contributes significantly to the economy — and where that capacity is still forecast it is normally tested against a five-year horizon of normal operation. The applicant must still intend to go when the status finishes. Hypothetical example: a Stony Plain buyer deposits the full price into escrow for an Idaho equipment-hire business, under instructions releasing the funds only on visa issuance and returning them in full otherwise. That structure can be presented, but it has to be presented as it is, with the instructions attached, rather than described as money already spent on a business the buyer does not yet own.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-08. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.