Build a timeline with two tracks: the commercial conditions (financing, licence transfer, lease execution, handover) and the immigration steps. Canadian citizens generally need an E-2 visa, so allow for evidence assembly, application and an interview where required. Neither track has a guaranteed date, so decide in advance what happens if the seller wants to close first.
Plan for a closing that lands before the decision
Discuss with counsel and the seller how deposits and conditions are structured, since a purchase that can be unwound at will is harder to present as committed capital. Ask what a delayed handover does to the lease start date and to payroll. Remember that a visa's expiry date and the authorized period recorded on admission differ.
Set review points — evidence complete, application submitted, keys received — rather than promising staff one fixed opening day. Decide in advance which track waits for the other, and write the answer down. If the commercial closing must go first, identify what protects the investor should the immigration step not succeed; if the immigration step comes first, identify what holds the seller to the deal meanwhile.
Review points work better than target dates because they can be reported honestly: evidence complete, application lodged, decision received, keys held. Keep the difference between a visa's validity period and the period of stay recorded on admission clearly in view, since planning built on the wrong one of those two produces a deadline nobody is watching.