Read the general investor planning overview
Magog investors should explain the lawful source and complete funding path rather than replace legitimate intermediary accounts with a fictional direct transfer. A useful review ends with a funding ledger, the investor-of-record decision, and a commitment record that can be checked against the enterprise documents. That sequence prevents a truthful source from being described through the wrong owner or a refundable payment from being counted as a completed investment.
Establish ownership and entitlement
Identify the actual rights to funds in personal, joint or company accounts. There is no blanket requirement that every dollar pass through one personal account; the real arrangement needs evidence. The record that settles entitlement may be a sale agreement, dividend resolution, loan repayment record, shareholder register, or joint-account evidence. Choose the investor before the transfers begin, because the evidence must match the person or company that will own the U.S. enterprise.
Reconcile the qualifying contribution
Substantial at-risk capital and lawful source/path remain required. Several movements can describe one contribution, so distinguish the amount invested from the sum of all bank debits. Read the purchase agreement, escrow terms, lease, and equipment commitments together. The decision is whether the money has been placed beyond the investor’s discretionary recovery and exposed to business loss, not whether a bank balance looks large on one date.
Retain enterprise eligibility
At least 50% relevant treaty-country national ownership, development and direction, and a real nonmarginal business are necessary. Nonmarginality includes more than minimal living or significant economic contribution under applicable rules. No universal E-2 minimum or ten-job quota applies. Use operating records, signed customer work, staffing plans, and forecasts to test marginality. The investor must be able to direct and develop the business, while the plan must support more than the investor’s household over time; a bare incorporation certificate answers neither point.
Decide who the investor of record is: you or your company
Hypothetical example: a Magog online retailer of paddling and camping gear runs her business through a Québec corporation she owns entirely, and wants to open a warehouse and showroom in New Hampshire. Retained earnings sit in the corporation; her personal savings are modest. She must decide who invests. If the Québec corporation buys the U.S. entity, the corporation is the investor and takes its nationality from her Canadian ownership, and she enters as the owner who develops and directs it. If she invests personally, the money must first reach her: a declared dividend or a documented shareholder-loan repayment, each with its own tax consequence, followed by a transfer she can trace. What she cannot do is wire corporate funds to the U.S. account and describe them as her personal investment; either structure may use lawful funds, but the source and path must be documented accurately. Ask the accountant three questions before any money moves: which entity will hold the U.S. shares, how each dollar leaves the corporation, and whether any management fee or intercompany loan is irrevocably committed and at risk rather than revocable or secured by enterprise assets. Hypothetical example: a Canadian documentary-film editor owns a production corporation that has accumulated cash from completed projects and wants to acquire a U.S. editing suite. She must decide before closing whether her corporation will own the suite or whether funds will first move to her personally through a documented, lawful transaction. The ownership register, board resolution, bank trail, and acquisition agreement must all tell the same story. She also has to choose a commitment structure: a deposit refundable whenever she changes her mind is weaker evidence than terms that put capital at commercial risk. The business plan must show work beyond her own living, such as signed post-production contracts and a credible staffing or contractor plan. Calling corporate cash her personal investment after it is wired will not solve the mismatch.
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.