Your ambition.Your enterprise.

Understand what marginal means and when it is measured

An enterprise is marginal if it does not have the present or future capacity to generate more than enough income to provide a minimal living for the investor and family. A new business may rely on future capacity, but only if it is likely to be reached within five years of the investor’s admission. The consular officer assesses this at the interview using the business plan, contracts and financial projections. A plan that shows the consultant billing enough to pay himself and nothing more will be read as marginal even if the numbers are accurate. Hiring and growth are not optional extras in the file.

Commit the money before the interview, not after

The US$150,000 must be irrevocably committed or actually spent by the time of the interview. Signed office lease with deposit paid, purchased monitoring hardware and licences, a funded U.S. business account, professional-liability insurance bound, and executed client agreements all show commitment. Money sitting in his Canadian savings with an intention to transfer does not. Because start-up costs for a services company are modest, the proportion committed relative to the total needed should be high, which supports substantiality; a low-cost business with only a fraction of its budget spent fails both tests at once.

Show development and direction with sole ownership

The consultant will own 100% of the U.S. company, which satisfies the requirement that the enterprise be at least half owned by Canadian nationals and that he develop and direct it. He must be coming to the United States to run the business, not to work for U.S. clients as a disguised employee. The file should include the formation documents, the share ledger, the operating agreement giving him control, and a description of his role as owner-manager. The E-2 spouse is employment-authorized incident to status, but her earnings do not count toward the enterprise’s own capacity.

What usually goes wrong for solo technology founders

Three patterns recur. First, the plan describes the founder doing all technical work indefinitely and hiring only if things go well. Second, the projections show revenue but no payroll line for anyone else. Third, the founder keeps most Canadian clients and plans to serve them remotely, so the U.S. enterprise is a shell around a Canadian practice. Each is cured by a dated hiring schedule with realistic wages, a payroll line from year two at the latest, and a client list showing U.S. contracts that require U.S. presence. E-2 does not lead to permanent residence by itself; long-term plans need a separate route.

The next decision is whether the spending plan leaves enough operating cash after the commitments are made. He should not spend merely to create receipts; each payment should advance a business that can open and hire. A contract with a return clause, an unexecuted lease, or equipment that remains cancellable may not show the required exposure to loss, so the file should explain precisely when each obligation became binding.