IN THIS GUIDE · Read the operating rights negotiated with other owners
Identify the actual decision rights
Hypothetical example: an investor provides significant funding while other owners retain vetoes over operations. Read voting, appointment and management provisions and explain how the business will actually be directed. Do not assume a funding majority and operational authority are the same fact.
Review nationality and ownership through the chain
Identify the actual owners and qualifying treaty nationality for the proposal. Provide governing records rather than a summary naming only the applicant. Ownership and control should be assessed on the complete arrangement, including restrictions and unresolved terms. Development and direction may be established through at least 50% ownership or other qualifying operational control; enterprise treaty ownership and the applicant’s control are distinct tests.
Trace the committed capital
Provide lawful source and path, actual transfers and purchase or subscription conditions. Personally secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify under applicable rules; enterprise-asset-secured debt does not count as the investor’s qualifying investment. Separate professional charges and future promises from qualifying capital at risk. Enterprise-asset security excludes the debt even when personal collateral also supports it; borrowing secured solely by non-enterprise personal assets must be assessed on its real terms.
Assess operations and intended activities
Review substantiality and a real nonmarginal enterprise; no universal fixed E-2 minimum applies. Explain the applicant’s role developing and directing the business. Signing a governance agreement or funding the enterprise does not itself authorize U.S. work.
Explain enterprise nationality and nonmarginality precisely
The enterprise generally must be at least 50% owned by nationals of the relevant treaty country; the applicant’s passport alone does not establish enterprise nationality. Nonmarginality includes capacity to provide more than a minimal living for the investor and family, with the alternative of a significant economic contribution. Apply those conditions to the real operating proposal rather than importing EB-5’s capital amounts or ten-job rule into E-2. Future nonmarginal capacity generally must be realizable within five years after normal business activity begins. The investor must intend to depart when E status ends, and Canadian citizens generally need an E visa.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.