IN THIS GUIDE · Stage the commitment so diligence happens before exposure
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Settle who owns what before a draft agreement exists
Canada is a treaty country and the nationality requirement applies both to the individual and to the enterprise, which must be at least half owned by nationals of that treaty country. If a financing partner, a family member or a co-investor of different nationality is to hold equity, that has to be known before the agreement is drafted rather than discovered afterwards. Restructuring a completed transaction is expensive and the original documents are what a reviewer eventually reads, so the ownership decision belongs at the very front of the sequence. Use a closing checklist that distinguishes diligence deposits, escrowed funds subject to defined release, and payments that have become irrevocable. The distinction allows a buyer to explain exposure precisely. It also forces a decision on whether a contractual contingency still protects the buyer or has already ended.
Finish diligence before releasing anything
For a repair and inspection business the diligence questions are specific: the condition and ownership of equipment, any environmental obligations attaching to the premises, the licensing and certification the work requires locally, the state of the customer base and how much of it follows the departing owner, and what the filed accounts actually show over several years. Each of those can change the price or end the deal. Completing them before a deposit is released costs time and preserves every option; doing them afterwards means paying to learn something that could have stopped the purchase. For each diligence item, record the document that settles it and a deadline for the seller’s response. A licence, lease assignment, tax return, or environmental report answers a different question. This turns a vague instruction to “do due diligence” into a sequence of decisions that can stop the deal before more capital is exposed.
Then stage the commitment, with dates on paper
The evidence has to show money committed beyond recall and exposed to loss, which means an unconditional agreement, released deposits, equipment paid for and a lease carrying real liability. Work with the transaction lawyer to schedule when each of those becomes binding, and record the dates, because the schedule itself becomes the evidence. A conditional escrow can be compatible with the requirement where the conditions are documented and it is clear what has already passed the point of recovery. A seller who cannot accommodate any staging has effectively set the risk the buyer must accept. Build a first-year cash-flow sheet that includes the costs necessary to open, not only the purchase price. The decision is whether the remaining funds permit ordinary trading and planned hiring. If the answer is no, a lower price, more working capital, or another enterprise may be needed before the commitment is defensible.
Understand what the status will and will not give
The investment must be substantial in proportion to what this enterprise costs to acquire, and the business must be real, operating and more than marginal, with the present or near-future capacity to support more than a minimal living, usually through employment or demonstrable earnings. The investor must develop and direct it, ordinarily through majority ownership or documented operational control. This is a nonimmigrant classification with no direct path to permanent residence, and it depends on the qualifying investment continuing to exist. The spouse of an E-2 principal is employment-authorised incident to status. Write down who has authority to direct daily operations after closing and how treaty-national ownership will be shown. Those are business facts, not afterthoughts for a filing. The review should also identify the practical consequence if the visa request is refused after funds have become exposed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.