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Hypothetical example: Hélène runs a mobile grain-drying and custom-harvest operation from Saint-Lucien and proposes to start a similar business across the border, contributing three machines she already owns rather than cash. Her assumption is that their value is her investment and the file is therefore complete. Equipment can indeed form part of a treaty investment, but only once several separate questions have been answered: what it is worth, who owns it now, whether it has genuinely been committed, and what remains at risk if the venture fails.
Transferring a machine and investing its value are different acts
Driving a dryer across the border does not by itself place capital into an enterprise. The transaction has to be structured: the equipment is sold or contributed to the American company, a value is recorded, shares or capital accounts reflect it, and the transfer is documented in the corporate books of both entities. An independent appraisal carries far more weight than the owner’s estimate, particularly for used agricultural machinery whose value varies with hours and condition. Customs and tax treatment on importation is a separate matter with its own paperwork, and it produces documents that either corroborate the recorded value or contradict it.
Time and effort are not capital
Investors frequently want to count the months they will spend building the business, and the requirement does not accommodate that. What is examined is capital irrevocably committed and placed at risk of partial or total loss, and unpaid personal labour is neither committed in that sense nor capable of being lost as capital. The same caution applies to equipment retained personally and merely lent to the company, which stays recoverable and therefore is not at risk. If Hélène wants the machines counted, ownership has to pass and the transaction has to be real. Half-measures preserve her assets and weaken the file simultaneously.
Substantial against this business, and provable
Substantiality is proportional to the cost of establishing this particular enterprise rather than measured against a published figure, so a custom-harvest operation is assessed against what such an operation actually costs to set up. Three appraised machines may represent most of that cost, which is a strong position, or a fraction of it if the plan also needs a yard, a shop and working capital. The enterprise must also be real and operating and more than marginal, meaning it should be capable of supporting more than the investor’s own household, which for a seasonal business usually means showing contracted acreage or customer commitments rather than a projection.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.