Read the general investor planning overview
Hypothetical example: a Champlain trucking owner wants to buy a small U.S. freight brokerage, a business with few assets, a modest purchase price and revenue that depends on relationships. E-2 measures whether the investment is substantial by proportion to the total cost of establishing or buying that business, not by an absolute figure, so a low-cost business demands that the investor fund most or all of it. Marginality is then the harder question, because a brokerage that supports only the buyer's family, with no employees, may fail it.
Substantiality is a proportion, and for a cheap business the proportion must be high
The Foreign Affairs Manual applies a proportionality test: the amount invested is weighed against the total cost of purchasing an established enterprise or creating the type of enterprise proposed. For a capital-intensive business a lower proportion can be substantial; for a brokerage whose whole cost is a purchase price, licences, bonding, software and a few months of operating capital, the investor should be funding nearly all of it. Present the total cost honestly, including the broker's authority and surety bond, office lease, technology subscriptions and working capital, and show that the buyer's committed funds cover it. Under-stating the cost to make a small investment look proportionate is transparent and self-defeating.
Marginality is where a one-person brokerage usually fails
The enterprise must have the present or future capacity to generate more than enough income to support the investor and family, or to make a significant economic contribution, typically through employing U.S. workers, now or within five years. A brokerage the seller ran alone from a home office, earning a living and nothing more, is the definition of marginal. The plan must show how the buyer will grow it: carriers under contract, shippers won, dispatch or sales staff hired on a stated schedule, and projected margins that support those hires. The buyer's trucking experience is relevant here as a credible basis for the projections, not as a credential. Three years of the seller's returns set the baseline the projection must improve on.
Commit the money, keep control, and keep the trucking company out of it unless it is the investor
Fund the purchase through an escrow that releases only on visa issuance, and trace the money from its lawful source, which may be distributions from the Champlain trucking company documented through its corporate records. Decide whether the buyer invests personally or through the Canadian company; if the company invests, the enterprise's ownership must still be at least half Canadian and the buyer must be the person who develops and directs it. Licences and the surety bond must be in the U.S. entity's name and in place at closing so the business is operating on day one. The spouse may work incident to E-2 status; children may not. Ask the consulate about wait times before the seller sets a deadline.
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.