IN THIS GUIDE · Examine an enterprise whose operating plan depends on customer contracts
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Describe the contract actually available
Hypothetical example: an investor proposes a U.S. service enterprise with one signed customer and several expected accounts. Identify the terms, permitted activities and termination conditions of the signed work. Keep prospective revenue separate from the current record rather than presenting the whole pipeline as contracted business. The customer’s nationality does not establish the enterprise’s treaty nationality. At least 50% of the enterprise must have the relevant treaty nationality through ownership, and the applicant must develop and direct it through at least 50% ownership or other qualifying operational control.
Explain the resources needed to deliver
Show who would perform the work, what operating resources are required and how the investor would develop and direct the enterprise. Compare the business cost with the investment proposed. There is no universal minimum amount that substitutes for the E-2 substantiality assessment.
Trace funds and commitment conditions
Document the lawful source and path of the applicant’s capital and the actual purchase, loan or escrow terms. Borrowing secured by the investor’s own non-enterprise property and personal unsecured borrowing may count. Debt secured by enterprise assets does not count, even if personal assets are additional collateral. Qualifying investment-in-process arrangements require assessment; an expected contract payment should not be treated as investment already committed.
Test the operating assumptions
Identify what the plan assumes about customers, staffing and costs. Support the non-marginality discussion with the relevant evidence and distinguish forecasts from results. A contract cancellation may change the commercial proposal and require reassessment. Immigration preparation is not a guarantee that the business is financially resilient. Stress-test cancellation against nonmarginality: the enterprise needs present or future capacity beyond a minimal living for the investor and family, or a significant economic contribution, with projected capacity generally achievable within five years. The investment must be committed and at risk. The applicant must intend to depart when E status ends; Canadian citizens generally require an E visa.
Irrevocable commitment usually means escrow with a single condition
A scaffolding services company whose profit covers only the investor's household, with no other employees and no documented growth plan, looks on paper like exactly the kind of marginal enterprise the requirement exists to screen out. An E-2 enterprise must be at least 50 percent owned by nationals of the treaty country, and where the owner is a company, the consular officer looks through it to the natural persons who own that company. Substantial capital is judged in proportion to the total cost of establishing this particular enterprise, not against a benchmark borrowed from another industry. The usual approach is an escrow that releases to the seller on visa issuance and returns to the buyer if the visa is refused; this is accepted as irrevocable commitment when the only condition is the visa. Signed office lease with deposit paid, purchased monitoring hardware and licences, a funded U.S. business account, professional-liability insurance bound, and executed client agreements all show commitment. Build the transaction account in the order the money moved: the buyer's own funds, their lawful origin, the escrow deposit, the amounts released at closing, and the balance the seller carries.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.