Read the general investor planning overview
Hypothetical example: a Nashwaak auto-body technician is buying a small powersports and small-engine repair shop across the border for a modest price, and assumes that a modest price makes the investment easy to justify. The substantiality test works the other way round. It compares the amount invested with the total cost of acquiring or establishing that particular business, so the lower the cost, the higher the proportion expected before an investment counts as substantial.
Work out the total cost of the enterprise first
The comparison needs a denominator, and it is the total cost of buying an established business or of establishing a new one. For a repair shop that includes the purchase price, the equipment and diagnostic tools required, the parts inventory, the premises lease and deposit, licences and insurance, a service vehicle, signage, and the working capital needed until the business supports itself. List every item with a figure and a source for that figure — a quotation, an invoice, a signed lease. Then set the amount actually committed against that total. An investor who has paid the purchase price and nothing else has often committed a much smaller proportion than he believes.
Understand what is excluded from the amount invested
Capital counts when it is the investor's own, irrevocably committed and at risk. Assets acquired on a lease that can simply be handed back are not the investor's capital, and money borrowed on the security of the enterprise's own assets is not at risk in the way the test requires, because a default falls on the business rather than on the investor personally. A loan secured against the investor's own property, for which he is personally liable, stands differently. Sort the funding line by line before totalling it, because a headline figure that includes leased equipment and enterprise-secured debt can shrink dramatically once the exclusions are applied.
Make the commitment visible in documents
Proportion is proved with documents. Keep the signed purchase agreement conditioned on the immigration decision, escrow instructions releasing funds on approval, paid invoices and deposits for equipment and inventory, the executed lease with its deposit receipt, licence and insurance confirmations, and bank statements showing the business account funded and being drawn on. Reconcile that evidence to the totals claimed so that a reader can follow it without assistance. Where part of the plan is still unspent working capital, show when it will be spent and what it will buy. The investor and enterprise must also have treaty nationality, the enterprise must be real, operating and non-marginal, and the investor must develop and direct it, ordinarily through at least fifty percent ownership or operational control. Treaty-investor status does not itself create a route to permanent residence.
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.