IN THIS GUIDE · Review the investor’s rights alongside the actual closing conditions
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Identify the person who will direct the enterprise
The investor needs relevant treaty nationality, and the enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of that treaty country. Development and direction can be established through at least 50% ownership or other qualifying operational control. Hypothetical example: a buyer negotiates a minority interest with management rights but the seller retains material vetoes. Read the actual rights before describing who controls operations; a funding percentage does not settle every governance question.
Distinguish committed capital from the overall budget
The lawful investment must be substantial, genuinely committed and at risk. Substantiality relates to the actual enterprise cost; there is no universal minimum dollar amount. Trace source and path through the real transactions. Personally unsecured debt or borrowing secured solely by non-enterprise personal assets may qualify on its terms, but enterprise-secured debt is excluded even if personal assets also secure it.
Read the contingency instead of relying on the escrow label
Properly structured visa-contingent escrow can be relevant to an investment in process. Identify who can recover funds, which conditions permit release and what has actually been paid. A draft clause is not an executed, funded arrangement. Do not treat every refundable promise as qualifying merely because it uses an escrow agent, or assume every visa condition necessarily defeats commitment.
Test the operating plan and intended stay
The enterprise must be real and nonmarginal: capable of more than a minimal living for the investor and family or a significant economic contribution. Future capacity generally must be realizable within five years of normal business activity. Explain the genuine revenue assumptions and operating resources. The applicant must intend to depart when E status ends; Canadians generally require an E visa. Closing the purchase does not itself authorize U.S. work.
Show a business beyond personal support
The investment must be substantial in relation to the total cost of purchasing or establishing the enterprise, judged proportionally rather than against a fixed figure. An applicant must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least fifty percent or by operational control through a managerial position or other device. A reviewer asks who borrowed, who is liable, what secured the borrowing, and which charges belonged to the enterprise rather than the household. The standard structure for a purchase is a signed stock or asset purchase agreement, with the purchase price deposited in escrow to be released to the seller on visa approval and returned to the buyer only if the visa is refused. 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. The test asks whether the enterprise has present or near-future capacity to generate income significantly beyond meeting the investor's own living needs, typically evidenced through job creation for U.S. workers or a credible expansion trajectory, not through the owner's personal draw alone.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-08. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.