IN THIS GUIDE · Documenting installment sale proceeds and timing an E-2 capital commitment around realized funds
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Separate realized proceeds from future receivables
Build a simple ledger of the sale: total price, amounts already received, dates, and the schedule of remaining payments. Support it with the purchase agreement, closing statement, promissory note or installment schedule, escrow releases, and the bank credits matching each deposit. A signed agreement showing a large headline price does not show money in hand. Reviewers look for realized funds the investor can actually commit to the United States enterprise. Where the sale involved a business rather than a single asset, the ledger should also show what was sold: shares, assets, goodwill, a client list, equipment. That characterization decides which documents exist and how the proceeds were taxed. Hypothetical example: an environmental drilling business is sold as an asset sale with the rigs valued separately, so the closing statement itemizes equipment the buyer pays for over eighteen months while the goodwill was settled at closing.
Trace source and path for every installment
Each payment needs a lawful original source and a traceable path, not just a healthy balance on a statement date. Show what was sold, how the investor came to own it, the buyer's payments, tax filings or accountant records reflecting the sale, and each transfer between accounts and across the border. Where an installment funded another asset first, document that step too, so the money reaching the business is continuously identifiable. Where an account has been closed or a bank has merged, request certified historical statements early, since institutions often take weeks and sometimes cannot reach back as far as the file needs. Keep each currency conversion visible with its rate and date, so a reviewer comparing a Canadian-dollar receipt with a United States dollar expenditure does not have to reconstruct it. A gap that is named and explained is far easier to address than one discovered late.
Decide what is genuinely committed and at risk
Substantiality is judged against the cost of the particular United States enterprise; there is no universal minimum figure and no ten-job rule. Funds must be genuinely committed and exposed to commercial loss, so deposits, escrow terms, refund rights and revocation clauses require fact-specific review rather than a blanket assumption. Borrowed money is not automatically disqualified; what the loan is secured by matters. Ask counsel to assess the actual instruments. Read the note itself before assuming the balance is safe: whether it is secured, against what, what happens on default, and whether the buyer may prepay or set off. Those terms decide how much weight the remaining payments can carry in planning. Where part of the price sits in escrow against warranty claims, treat it as contingent rather than realized until the release conditions are met and documented.
Set the enterprise timetable around receipts
Prelaunch spending can count when the commitments are credible: a signed lease, equipment orders, licensing steps, inventory contracts, hiring plans. First sales are not universally required before an application. Map which installment funds which commitment, and keep receipts, invoices and transfer confirmations as they occur. The business plan should also show capacity, present or projected, to produce more than a minimal living for the family, or a significant economic contribution. Write the timetable as a two-column table: on the left, the date each installment is contractually due; on the right, the commitment it is meant to fund and the deadline that commitment carries. The table shows at once where a late payment would leave the plan exposed, and it is the document to revisit whenever a payment slips. Keep a written note of what would be done if a payment did not arrive at all.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.