Escrow treatment concerns investment commitment; it does not grant work authorization. The applicant’s current permission must be assessed before U.S. operating duties begin.
Keep the release event and the work start distinct
Identify who controls the commercial condition and what immigration step is still required. Canadians generally need the E visa, and the real enterprise and investor conditions remain necessary. A seller’s preferred date cannot promise approval or authorize activity while the process is pending.
Signing the purchase agreement first fixes the price and the asset list; funding the escrow immediately afterward creates the irrevocable commitment the application needs; the visa file is then assembled around those executed documents. The usual structure is an escrow arrangement whose release is conditional only on issuance of the visa, together with spending that has already happened and could not be recovered if the business failed: a signed lease, deposits on machinery, fit-out work, inventory. The second half traces commitment: the signed purchase agreement, escrow instructions if used, the closing statement, wire confirmations, and receipts for deposits, equipment, licences, insurance and pre-opening costs.