Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Reconcile the real money movement
Trace lawful source and path through the outgoing payment, return and completed transfer. Identify actual capital at risk and business commitments. Preserve the banking history instead of omitting the return because the first debit looks sufficient.
Assess the enterprise and investor
The investor must be a national of a treaty country; Canada qualifies, and at least 50% of the enterprise must have the relevant treaty-country ownership. The returned-wire reconciliation does not replace proof that funds are irrevocably committed and at risk, substantial relative to the business, and placed in a real, active, operating enterprise that is not marginal. The investor must develop and direct it, ordinarily through at least 50% ownership or operational control. E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence.
Hypothetical example: a bicycle-shop purchase and a compliance hold
Hypothetical example: a Sidney investor agrees to buy a US bicycle repair and rental shop. The purchase price is wired to the seller’s lawyer, held for eleven days by an intermediary bank’s compliance review, and returned without explanation. She wires it again through a different bank and closing proceeds. The reviewer’s first question is what the returned entry was: the bank’s return notice, its stated reason, and the credit back to her account belong in the file beside the second wire, so the officer can see one purchase price paid once, not two payments of which one is missing. What usually goes wrong is an application that shows only the successful wire, leaving an unexplained outgoing debit in the statements that looks like an undisclosed transfer to someone else. The funds are her own savings from twelve years of employment, traced through her tax filings and savings history; the return did not change their source, only their path, and the path must be complete.
Which document decides the amount at risk
The asset purchase agreement with its closing statement fixes what was paid and for what: inventory, workshop tools, the rental fleet, goodwill and a lease assignment. That figure, together with any working capital deposited to the business account and committed to operations, is the investment; a bank’s temporary hold is not an investment, and neither is the price of a building she did not buy. Substantiality is judged against the cost of this business, not a universal threshold, and the money must be irrevocably committed, which closing achieves. The enterprise must be real and operating, more than marginal, at least half owned by Canadian nationals, and directed by her; a rental fleet run through an app with no staff still needs to show capacity to earn more than a minimal living or to make a significant economic contribution.
Sequence the closing and the application
Close first, obtain the closing statement and the lease assignment, then apply at the consulate with the complete banking history; a Canadian generally needs the E-2 visa before seeking admission, and each admission is for up to two years. Her spouse is employment-authorized incident to E-2 status and may work in the shop or elsewhere. E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence, so a longer plan needs a separate immigrant route. One more sequencing point: if the seller wants a deposit before closing, pay it under an escrow or purchase agreement that releases it to the seller when the visa is granted or the sale completes, and keep the escrow terms in the file; a deposit the buyer can freely recall is not at risk, while one committed under those conditions is. The same discipline applies to any pre-closing spending on inventory or signage, which should be receipted in the business’s name so it can be counted.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.