Your ambition.Your enterprise.

E-2 may suit a treaty national who will develop and direct a real U.S. enterprise after making a substantial investment. The investment must be committed in a way that places the funds at genuine commercial risk, and the enterprise cannot be marginal. There is no universal dollar threshold; substantiality is assessed in relation to the business cost and circumstances. Canadian applicants ordinarily need an E visa before seeking admission, so commercial closing plans should be coordinated with the immigration process. The evidence should make the transaction understandable from beginning to end: lawful source of funds, banking movement, binding commitment, ownership structure, operating need, and investor decision-making. A business plan needs to accord with purchase contracts, lease terms, invoices, and payroll assumptions. The applicant should not rely on a dormant company, a passive shareholding, or an unspent account balance as proof of an operating enterprise. Each commercial contingency should be described honestly because it can affect the degree of financial exposure. A workable review also identifies the investor's real management decisions, the enterprise's customers, expected staffing, and funds reserved outside the venture. That division avoids treating household living money as business capital or describing an intended manager as a passive owner. The first review should end with a source-and-transfer timeline, a costed commitment schedule, and an ownership-and-control analysis. Capital must be genuinely committed to the enterprise and exposed to commercial loss; it cannot be merely available in an account. Hypothetical example: a treaty national uses documented savings to acquire a mobile refrigeration-repair company. The central decision is whether the purchase and escrow terms place the funds at real commercial risk while leaving the investor able to direct operations.