Read the general investor planning overview
For a North Hatley investor, the financed purchase price needs explanation rather than automatic inclusion in a single capital total. A usable review ends with a source-and-commitment schedule: what the applicant owns, how each amount travelled, what agreement put it beyond the applicant’s unrestricted reach, and what the business received. The immediate decision is whether to close, use a properly conditioned escrow, or wait until the documents can prove a real exposure to loss without misdescribing unfinished financing.
Reconstruct the transaction in real terms
Record the invoice, credit agreement, down payment, balance and security. Explain any interest or price changes and trace the lawful source and route of actual contributions. Enterprise-secured borrowing and qualifying personal financing are not interchangeable. Avoid presenting future operating payments or duplicate accounting entries as cash already invested. Separate the source question from the at-risk question. A sale agreement, tax return or loan document may explain where money came from, while wire records, escrow instructions and executed contracts show where it went. Review the security for every loan. Personal assets pledged by the investor can produce a different analysis from debt secured only by the purchased enterprise. Do not call a line of credit invested merely because it is available; trace the draw and the downstream payment.
Assess the business beyond the invoice
The investment must be substantial and at risk, with no universal dollar minimum. At least 50% relevant treaty-national enterprise ownership, the applicant’s development and direction, and a real nonmarginal business remain required. Nonmarginality considers more than minimal family living or the applicable significant economic contribution standard. Working capital and visa-contingent escrow turn on their actual terms, not a blanket exclusion or guarantee. The business records should answer both proportionality and operating viability. Use signed contracts, an itemized start-up budget, lease obligations and payroll assumptions to establish the actual cost. Then test whether the applicant will develop and direct the enterprise, whether relevant treaty nationals own the required share, and whether the enterprise will be more than marginal. The decision is often whether to revise a proposed deal before committing, not whether to inflate a forecast after the money moves. Hypothetical example: a North Hatley maker of specialty diagnostic-lens cases plans to buy a small Oregon packaging workshop. She can pay the inventory and machinery from a documented sale of her shares in a Canadian manufacturer, but the seller wants the remaining price in a note secured by the workshop’s own presses. She must decide whether to claim the full price as her investment. The share-sale agreement, tax records, account statements and outgoing wires settle the source and path of her cash. The security agreement settles the other point: a note secured only by enterprise assets is not the same as capital she personally has placed at risk. She may negotiate a larger cash closing, give security in personal assets, or reduce the claimed amount and assess whether it remains substantial. Her operating plan must also show how she will direct the workshop and why projected customers and hires support a business that is not marginal.
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.