Often yes. Pre-launch readiness can be shown through binding commitments — lease, supply contract, equipment orders, licence applications, staffing plan — rather than completed sales. What matters is committed capital and an enterprise genuinely ready to operate. Canadian citizens generally need an E-2 visa, and processing times are not guaranteed, so sequence orders and delivery dates accordingly.
Be ready to open, without operating first
Preparatory steps such as negotiating supply terms, arranging premises and organizing finances differ from running the business day to day. Decide who receives and stores the shipment if the investor is not yet authorized to be there working. Keep in mind that a visa's validity period and the stay recorded at admission are separate, and that temporary intent — leaving when status ends — remains part of the assessment.
Set the supplier's delivery obligations against the steps that must finish before anyone may lawfully receive the shipment and work with it. Agreements written around a target opening date rarely allow for a step whose duration nobody controls, and a delivery clause penalising late acceptance shifts that scheduling risk onto the investor. Ask whether the agreement permits a deferred delivery window, and get what the supplier agreed to in writing rather than on a call.
Hypothetical example: an importer of overhauled aircraft components signs a supply agreement fixed to a target opening month. Should authorization not be in place when the container lands, someone else must receive it, and that person's role belongs in the plan rather than being improvised.