Can a Canadian citizen do a search fund in the US?

October 18, 2025

by a searcher from McGill University in Montreal, QC, Canada

Can you get financing from US lenders to buy a business? What visa would you need to search for and operate the company? Has anyone successfully done this cross-border? Would love to hear from anyone with experience or knowledge on this.

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Reply by a searcher
from INSEAD in Vancouver, BC, Canada

Hi Wassim, I've gone down this road and concluded that it's pretty tough to do a deal south of the border. E-2 is the typical visa required if you plan to be a "boots on the ground" operator. If not, ignore the the rest... 1) you need at least 25-35% of EV in the deal from your own funds (could be loans you're personally responsible for, such as a home equity loan) for anything more than a few hundred k of EBITDA. E.g. for a 1m USD EBITDA business selling at 3.5X, you'll need 875k USD - 1.25m USD in personal at-risk capital. They want to see that you have significant skin in the game. 2) expect 3-6 months before you can legally be boots on the ground with proper US work authorization >> Major transition risk in my books! SBA lending is pretty much a hard no-go unless you have a US-citizen business partner. Even then, it will probably compromise you on hurdle 1).

Reply by a searcher
from Columbia University in Miami, FL, USA

Hi ^redacted‌, I am a Canadian (and McGill alum too, hey). FYI: You probably won't be able to get an SBA loan however if you are buying larger businesses, with conventional debt, no problem. That's what I do.

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