IN THIS GUIDE · Compare a new personal investment with the company’s expansion
Identify the actual investor and enterprise
Hypothetical example: a founder considers personally acquiring a U.S. business while the Canadian company explores a related operation. Keep the ownership, employer and funding in each proposal separate. Do not combine one arrangement’s corporate relationship with another’s capital as though they were a single transaction. Trace the order of events: record the original plan, the decision-maker, and the date on which an obligation became binding. That sequence often exposes whether a later explanation describes a fact or an aspiration.
Trace ownership and lawful funding
Identify treaty nationality, control and the actual source and path of committed funds. Explain any lawful movement from corporate funds to the investor. Account access alone does not establish personal ownership of company money. Test labels against evidence. Job titles, corporate descriptions, and sales language are useful starting points, but the underlying duties, authority, and transaction records resolve the legal question.
Review financing and commitment conditions
Personally secured or unsecured borrowing may qualify under applicable rules; enterprise-asset-secured debt does not count as the investor’s qualifying investment. Read purchase, escrow and cancellation terms and separate charges from capital. No universal fixed E-2 minimum applies. Use originals that can be dated and connected to a person or entity. A chronology should identify gaps, translations, and documents that contradict the preferred narrative before anything is submitted.
Assess the operating role and enterprise
Review substantiality, nonmarginality and the applicant’s role developing and directing the real business. The funds must be irrevocably committed and at risk, and development and direction ordinarily requires at least 50% ownership or operational control. A founder title or payment does not establish U.S. work permission. E-2 provides no direct path to permanent residence. Have the actual chosen arrangement assessed before relying on its commercial timetable. Separate a future forecast from current proof. A business plan, anticipated hire, or intended assignment may matter, yet it cannot silently become evidence that the fact already exists.
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. Finish with a decision record stating what is established, what remains conditional, and what must happen before the next immigration step. That record prevents a commercial deadline from dictating an unsupported filing position.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.