A verbal estimate alone may leave the business’s actual performance and prospects unsupported. Assess the available evidence and the applicable nonmarginality standard rather than treating the seller’s confidence as a determination. Projections should distinguish assumptions from established results.
Ask for records tied to the claim
Identify the period, gross revenue, expenses and business changes behind the estimate. Use relevant records and reliable explanations where available. Do not create a fabricated historical statement to fill the gap; if the evidence remains limited, address that limitation in the business and immigration review.
Nonmarginality is one eligibility element among several, and a revenue figure speaks only to that one. Treaty nationality is settled by the investor's citizenship and by who owns the enterprise, not by turnover; Canada is a treaty country for this purpose. Irrevocable commitment and exposure to loss are settled by how the purchase money actually moves, and substantiality by whether the committed sum is large in proportion to what this enterprise costs to buy or establish — there is no fixed figure. Develop-and-direct is settled by holding ordinarily at least half the ownership, or by demonstrable operational control. Nonmarginality then asks a narrower question about an enterprise that is already real and operating: whether it has the present or near-term capacity to produce more than a minimal living for the investor and dependants. Capacity has to be shown, and a seller's confidence is not a showing.
Hypothetical example: A decontamination contractor is weighing an American remediation firm whose owner says the business clears about a quarter of its billings but keeps no management accounts. The useful question is what proves capacity from a source the owner does not control — quarterly employment filings for the crew, awarded contracts, equipment leases. Where nothing independent exists, the honest position is that this element is not yet established, and a projection resting on the same opinion does not repair it. Because E-2 carries no direct route to permanent residence, an eligibility gap accepted now reappears at every extension.