IN THIS GUIDE · When a marina purchase is genuinely committed and when the money can still walk back
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Capital that can be recalled at will was never committed
The investment must be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk of partial or total loss if the business fails. Holding funds in escrow with release conditioned solely on approval of the classification is a recognized way for a buyer to protect himself, because the commitment remains irrevocable but for the immigration decision. A clause that also lets Wendell withdraw for any other reason turns the arrangement into a deposit he controls, and a deposit he controls is not an investment. The same reasoning defeats loans secured by the assets of the business being purchased, since money that the enterprise itself guarantees is not the investor's money at risk. Funds borrowed against his Ontario home or his existing company, where he is personally liable, are treated differently. The test is exposure to loss, not the size of the transfer.
Substantiality is measured as a proportion of what the business actually costs
There is no published minimum. The amount invested is weighed against the total cost of purchasing an established enterprise or establishing a new one, and the required proportion rises as the total cost falls, so a modest marina services business demands a very high percentage while a capital-intensive acquisition can qualify at a lower one. The investment must also be of a magnitude that supports the likelihood of successful operation. For Wendell this means the analysis does not stop at the purchase price: working capital for a season's payroll before revenue arrives, insurance, dockage leases and the cost of replacing tired equipment all belong in the total, and a purchase that consumes every dollar and leaves nothing to operate on argues against likelihood of success rather than for scale.
Real, operating, non-marginal, and directed by him
The enterprise must be a real and active commercial undertaking producing services for profit, not a passive holding of property or an idle entity, and it must not be marginal, which means it cannot exist solely to provide a minimal living for Wendell and his family. An acquired marina business with existing employees and a service book usually answers marginality on its present figures, and a thinner case is met by showing a present or future capacity, ordinarily within five years, to generate more than that minimal living. Nationality runs through the whole structure: he must be a treaty national and the enterprise must be at least fifty percent owned by treaty nationals, with him developing and directing it through ownership or operational control. One consequence is often overlooked. E-2 is a nonimmigrant classification that offers no direct path to permanent residence, however many times it is renewed.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.