IN THIS GUIDE · A generous-looking shareholding that would hand the treaty test to the seller
Start with the E-2 eligibility and application overview
Nationality attaches to the enterprise as well as to the investor
E-2 requires the investor to be a national of a treaty country, which Canada is, and it requires the enterprise itself to have that nationality. An enterprise takes its nationality from the citizenship of the persons who own at least fifty per cent of it, traced through to individuals rather than stopping at a holding company. Under the letter of intent as drafted, a majority of the American company would be owned by an American, so the business would not be a treaty-national enterprise and no amount of effort by Yvon would cure it. Fifty per cent is a floor rather than a target, and ownership by dual nationals and by persons resident in the United States raises further questions worth checking before shares are issued.
Develop and direct, which is a different question from owning half
The investor must be coming to develop and direct the enterprise. Ownership of more than half of it establishes that plainly; an exactly even split does not, and has to be supported by something else. Where two parties each hold fifty per cent, the mechanism usually has to be found in the constitutional documents: a casting vote, the right to appoint the managing officer, a shareholders agreement giving operational control, or a deadlock provision that resolves in the investor's favour. Yvon should decide what control he actually needs to run a yard — hiring, pricing, capital spending, choice of subcontractors — and have those powers written down rather than assumed from the fact that he will be the one on site every day.
Irrevocably committed, at risk, and substantial in proportion to this business
The capital must be the investor's, must be subject to partial or total loss if the business fails, and must be irrevocably committed to the enterprise. Money sitting in a personal account is not committed, and a purchase agreement that lets Yvon walk away with his deposit intact does not commit it either; conditional escrow arrangements are workable but must be drafted so that the funds are genuinely released into the business on approval. Substantiality is proportional, weighed against the cost of buying an established business of this kind or of establishing a new one, so a modest yard needs less than a shipyard. Loans secured against Yvon's own assets can count; a loan secured by the boatyard's own assets moves the risk off him and generally does not.
Real, operating, more than marginal, and going nowhere in particular
The enterprise must be a real and active commercial undertaking producing goods or services for profit, not an idle investment such as undeveloped land or a portfolio of securities. It must also be more than marginal, meaning it has the present or future capacity to generate more than a minimal living for Yvon and his family, ordinarily demonstrated within five years by employing people beyond the household. An operating yard with existing staff answers that far more easily than a start-up projection does. One structural fact should be settled before anyone becomes attached to the plan: E-2 status is renewable while the qualifying conditions continue, but it provides no direct path to permanent residence, and a family whose real object is settlement should say so at the outset.
Sources reviewed 2026-09-07. This guide covers a preparation focus; it is not an individual eligibility assessment.
- USCIS: E-2 Treaty Investors
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty Trader and Treaty Investor visas
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.9, Treaty trader and treaty investor guidance
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty countries
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2, Special requirements for admission, extension and maintenance of status