Do not assume that result. The applicant must establish qualifying investment using the actual payments, obligations, ownership and risk.
Separate the payer from the beneficiary
A business may benefit from work funded by someone else. Explain the transaction rather than presenting the landlord’s expenditure as the applicant’s cash contribution.
Trace each fit-out dollar from its payer to the contractor and identify who bears loss if the lease ends. E-2 requires both investor and enterprise to have treaty nationality; Canadian citizenship qualifies, Canadian permanent residence does not, and treaty-country nationals must own no less than 50% of the enterprise. The investor must develop and direct it. Qualifying funds must be irrevocably committed and at risk. Substantiality is judged proportionally, with no fixed minimum. A new enterprise can qualify before opening if it will be real, active, and nonmarginal. The recurring mistake is adding the landlord’s budget to the investor’s contribution without examining risk.
Hypothetical example: A Russell artisan bakery investor signs a lease under which the landlord pays electricians directly and reimburses only certain ovens after inspection. She should separate the landlord’s payments, her unreimbursed equipment purchases, refundable deposits, and conditional reimbursements in a transaction schedule. The business plan and ownership records must independently establish treaty nationality, direction, substantial committed funds, and credible nonmarginality. Calling the entire construction allowance “invested” would obscure who supplied the capital and whether her money was genuinely exposed.