Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Read every release condition
Identify the escrow holder, deposited amount, release instructions and any remaining rights to cancel. A visa-related condition may be relevant, but do not assume that every refundable reservation is an irrevocable business commitment. Read the purchase agreement and escrow instructions together; a reassuring summary from one party does not change the operative terms.
Show the business beyond the escrow account
Explain what the applicant will acquire and operate once the conditions are met. Identify customers, assets, staffing and real management authority. Funds held with a third party do not themselves establish a nonmarginal enterprise or development and direction. Keep the buyer’s personal reserves separate from the amount genuinely committed to the transaction.
Apply the investor and financing requirements
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. 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.
Funds must be committed, not merely available
Properly structured visa-contingent escrow may qualify, but an optional or freely reversible proposal should not be described as equivalent. The category is available to a national of a treaty country, which Canada is, investing in an enterprise that is at least fifty percent owned by nationals of that same country, and the investor must be coming to develop and direct it. Owning the company does not by itself permit the investor to perform work in the United States; the E-2 role is to develop and direct the enterprise, and lawful status governs what any person may do. Substantiality is proportional rather than absolute: the committed capital is weighed against the total cost of buying an established enterprise of this kind, so a low-cost business demands a high proportion and there is no threshold to point at. Funds paid into escrow that releases on visa approval, equipment purchased, a lease signed and deposits paid, a franchise fee remitted: these are commitments at risk. The accepted structure is an escrow that releases to the seller only upon issuance of the E-2 visa and returns to the buyer only if it is refused. A useful review identifies the amount already irrevocably committed, the amount still exposed to loss, and the date on which each owner payment would leave the enterprise. The enterprise cannot be marginal, and the investor must be able to direct and develop its operations rather than merely hold a passive interest.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.