Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Connect the price to the actual acquisition
Identify contractual rights, assets and operating arrangements included in the sale. Distinguish the purchase terms from unsupported forecasts. Do not assume every intangible label has an identical qualifying treatment without reviewing the actual facts. The agreement and its schedules usually settle what was purchased. Compare them with the licence, lease-assignment consent, supplier consent, and customer contracts rather than relying on a listing or a seller's description. If a necessary right has not transferred, the plan should say whether it is pending, optional, or unavailable. The buyer must decide whether the operating plan still works on the rights that are actually enforceable at closing.
Complete the E-2 framework
At least 50% relevant treaty-country national enterprise ownership, development and direction, substantial at-risk capital with lawful source/path, and a real nonmarginal business remain required. Nonmarginality includes more than minimal living or significant economic contribution under the applicable rules. There is no universal minimum or EB-5 ten-job quota; Canadians generally require an E visa. Review the source-and-use record alongside control documents. For E-2, funds must be irrevocably committed. They must also face commercial risk, and the applicant must be able to lead and manage the enterprise. Hypothetical example: a commercial-beekeeping entrepreneur signs to acquire a US honey-processing business, but the seller's largest grocery contract requires the customer's consent to assignment. The asset schedule and the customer's written response, not the goodwill allocation, decide whether that revenue belongs in the operating plan. The investor must choose whether to close before consent or revise the forecast to exclude the contract. Preserve dated copies of every revised schedule, consent request, and response so the business narrative matches the transaction record.
Committed funds and real control, alongside the marginality question
Confirm that treaty nationals hold at least fifty percent of the U.S. enterprise and that the applicant will genuinely develop and direct it — Canadian citizenship, not Canadian residence, supplies the treaty nationality. The applicant must be in a position to develop and direct the business, which is ordinarily shown by owning at least half of it or by having operational control through a managerial position or other corporate device. Because funds must be committed before the visa is issued, buyers commonly use escrow that releases on visa approval or a purchase agreement conditional on it, so that commitment is real but not lost if the visa is refused. Where debt was taken on, describe the security given, since debt secured by business assets is treated differently from borrowing backed by personal collateral. Substantiality is judged in proportion to the total cost of purchasing an established business of this kind, not against any fixed figure, and no universal minimum exists. Marginality asks whether the enterprise can do more than support the investor's family: the plan should show technicians on payroll or a credible hiring schedule within five years, and revenue beyond a household living. Two conditions govern the outcome and neither is arithmetic: the investment must be at risk, meaning subject to partial or total loss, and it may not be marginal, so the enterprise must have the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.