Periods of admission and visa validity are set separately, the latter according to the reciprocity schedule for the applicant's nationality, and extensions are available in principle without limit. Each renewal reopens the substantive questions rather than rubber-stamping the first approval.
Renewable is not the same as settled
Investors hear that E-2 can be extended indefinitely and plan as though the status were permanent. It is renewable and it is not permanent, and the difference shows up at the second application. A renewal examines whether the enterprise is still real and operating, whether it is still not marginal, and whether the investor is still developing and directing it.
A business that shed its employees during a slow year and now supports only the family has a marginality problem it did not have on day one. Hypothetical example: an investor from Saint-Joachim-de-Shefford closes the lesson programme after two seasons, keeps boarding on a smaller footprint, and arrives at renewal with a payroll of zero. Keep the evidence current rather than reconstructing it later: annual accounts, payroll filings, tax returns for the business, and a record of what the investor personally decided and directed.
Plan around the ceiling that is not a time limit at all. Because the category offers no direct path to permanent residence, a household that wants to stay indefinitely should be examining immigrant options in parallel, not at the end.