Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify the security that actually applies
Review the note, guarantees, security agreements and any effective releases together. Establish which debt and funds each document concerns. A lender’s informal expectation of releasing collateral is not the same as an executed change; do not describe a future event as already complete.
Apply the borrowing rule
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. If the security changes, assess the actual resulting arrangement and evidence rather than promising that one document automatically cures the entire investment case.
Retain the full treaty-business conditions
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.
Ownership at fifty percent still has to produce control
Funds held in escrow can still be irrevocably committed when a purchase is conditioned on issuance of the E-2 visa, provided the agreement creates a solid commitment and the assets are released or transferred once that condition is met. Some properly structured visa-contingent escrow arrangements can qualify, but a freely refundable reservation is a different commitment. E-2 is available to nationals of treaty countries, which includes Canadian citizens, who have invested or are actively investing a substantial amount in a real operating U.S. enterprise that they will develop and direct. The investor must develop and direct the enterprise, ordinarily by owning at least fifty percent or by holding operational control through a managerial position or other corporate device. Substantial capital is judged in proportion to the total cost of establishing this particular enterprise, not against a benchmark borrowed from another industry. Substantiality is proportional: the amount invested is compared with the total cost of buying this dealership, and a purchase of all the shares at fair value for a business with inventory, a building lease, and a service shop will ordinarily be substantial. A lawful Canadian permanent resident who is not a Canadian national does not acquire treaty nationality through residence, and an ownership structure can affect the enterprise's nationality as well as the individual's eligibility. A revenue projection alone does not settle marginality; the record should explain how the enterprise will support more than personal subsistence or make a significant economic contribution.
The money conditions are unchanged by the franchise structure
Deposits held in an escrow that releases only on approval of a visa application are a familiar structure, and an escrow conditioned on the immigration outcome is generally acceptable, whereas money simply sitting in an account under the buyer's control is not. A franchise agreement does not remove ownership, and it does not by itself defeat the requirement, but it does constrain decisions: menu, suppliers, pricing structures, branding, hours, refurbishment cycles. If the seller keeps forty per cent and the general manager's chair, write the shareholders' agreement and the buyer's job description so that hiring, pricing, bidding and capital spending sit with the buyer, and file both documents.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.