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NIPISSING · E-2 FIELD GUIDE

Would buying a cabin-rental company qualify a Nipissing investor for E-2?

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THE DIRECT ANSWER

It can, if the company is a real and operating enterprise that provides services rather than a passive holding of property. E-2 also requires Canadian nationality of the investor and the enterprise's ownership, capital irrevocably committed and at risk, substantiality, non-marginality, and that the investor develops and directs the business.

Operating enterprise first, everything else second

The threshold question is the nature of the business. A company that manages cabins for owners, employs staff and earns service fees is an operating enterprise. A company that simply owns cabins and collects rent is a passive investment, and passive holdings of real estate are excluded from E-2 no matter how large.

Once that hurdle is cleared, the remaining conditions apply in the usual way. Anouk qualifies on nationality as a Canadian citizen, and the enterprise must itself be at least fifty per cent owned by treaty nationals. The capital must be irrevocably committed and genuinely at risk, and substantial relative to the cost of acquiring the business rather than measured against any published minimum, because none exists.

The enterprise must be more than marginal. And Anouk must develop and direct it, which is ordinarily satisfied by majority ownership or by documented operational control. E-2 gives no direct path to permanent residence.