Read the general investor planning overview
Hypothetical example: an equine dentistry and farrier services business run from Sainte-Cécile-de-Milton wants to establish itself in northern New England. Its assets are a fitted truck, portable equipment and a client list, so replicating it across the border costs comparatively little. The owner assumes his modest budget disqualifies him. It may not, because substantiality is measured as a proportion. What his low cost base does instead is push the whole weight of the case onto a different requirement.
Substantiality is a ratio, and you must establish the denominator
The test compares the amount invested with the total cost of purchasing an established enterprise of that type or of creating one from nothing. For an asset-light service business that total is small, so a proportionately high percentage is achievable with a sum that would be derisory for a manufacturer. The work is to evidence the denominator credibly: quotations for the vehicle and equipment, insurance and licensing costs, working capital for the first season, and, if a comparable business were bought instead, what such businesses actually sell for. An unsupported guess at the cost of the venture undermines an otherwise sound file.
The low cost base moves the fight to marginality
An enterprise may not be marginal, which means it must have the present or future capacity to generate significantly more than a minimal living for the investor and his family. A one-truck operation whose entire output is the owner's own labour is the classic marginal case. The answers are structural rather than rhetorical: a second rig with an employed technician, contracts with boarding stables that guarantee volume, a training or supply line that earns when the owner is not personally working. The projection should show, within about five years, income or employment beyond the family's own subsistence.
Write the plan so a reader can check it
The document that carries this case is a business plan a stranger can audit. It should name the counties served and the driving distances, count the horses and the stables actually in them, state a realistic price per visit and a realistic number of visits per week, and derive revenue from those figures rather than from an assumed growth rate. Hiring plans should carry dates and wages. Where a forecast depends on a partner, a subcontractor or an anchor client, name them and attach whatever they have actually signed. Where equipment has already been bought and insurance already bound, the receipts belong in the same file, because commitments already made are what distinguish a plan from a proposal.
What else is on your mind?
Is there one minimum investment that guarantees E-2 eligibility?Is holding money or owning an asset enough for E-2?Editorial source review: 2026-09-07. General preparation guidance, not an individual assessment.