Read the general investor planning overview
An L’Île-Cadieux investor may receive a chart showing business names without the ownership details needed for E-2. Explain the actual interests and rights rather than assuming a Canadian registration establishes treaty nationality. Attach a date to every ownership statement before relying on it. A chart shows a structure as somebody understood it on the day it was drawn, while the question being asked concerns the structure at the points the process examines, and those are rarely the same day.
Identify the real ownership evidence
Use genuine ownership and governance records and explain relevant intermediate entities. Hypothetical example: a chart labels one shareholder Canadian company but does not establish the relevant ownership behind it. Record the missing information instead of treating the label as a complete nationality analysis.
Keep nationality and direction distinct
The enterprise generally requires at least 50% relevant treaty-national ownership, alongside the applicant’s treaty nationality. The principal must develop and direct the business under the actual qualifying arrangement. A personal percentage or a management title alone does not answer every control question. Direction has a calendar as well. Ask who signs, who approves spending above a threshold, and who chairs whatever body settles the year's plan, then check those answers against the dates in the minute book rather than against a title on a chart. A person described as directing the business whose name appears in no resolution across a full year has been described rather than evidenced.
Preserve capital and operating conditions
E-2 requires substantial lawful funds committed at risk in a real nonmarginal enterprise, with source and path explained. There is no universal fixed minimum. Enterprise-secured debt is not qualifying capital; other financing and properly structured visa-contingent escrow require actual terms assessed. Ownership evidence does not itself grant work permission.
Ownership is a position on a date, not a settled fact
Shareholdings move. An option exercised, a founder bought out, a financing round closing or a transfer on an estate can each change who owns what, so the treaty-national proportion is a proportion at a moment rather than a permanent characteristic of the company. Ask for a recently dated share register extract rather than a chart, and ask separately what changes are expected over the coming year, since a closing scheduled during processing deserves discussion before it happens rather than explanation afterwards. Shareholders' agreements matter here as much as the register: an agreement can grant rights altering who effectively directs the business without changing a single percentage. Where the structure is expected to shift, ask counsel what a given change would do to the analysis before it is signed. A transaction structured for tax reasons can undo an immigration position that took months to build, and the order in which two documents are executed sometimes decides which of them governs.
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.