The signed purchase agreement with its asset and contract schedules, the seller’s financial statements and payroll for the last two or three years, and evidence of any debt attached to the equipment. Together they establish what the enterprise is and what the price buys.
Get the seller’s records before you build your own
Request the tax returns and year-end statements for the last three years, the current accounts receivable and payable, payroll registers with employee names and roles, the customer list with contract copies and the equipment list with titles, serial numbers and financing statements. These show that the business is real and operating and let you calculate what portion of the price is truly the investors’ capital. Then add the documents on your side: the purchase agreement signed by both parties, proof that the deposit was paid, the escrow agreement, the yard lease assignment and the business plan with hiring projections.
Finally attach the source-of-funds chain — sale of Canadian equipment, a home-equity line, savings — with bank statements showing the movement into escrow. The consular officer will want to see each element in its own tab; a single bundle of unlabelled seller records forces the officer to reconstruct the case and rarely helps. A first review matches every dollar to its source record, account movement, and business use, then compares the ownership chart to the incorporation documents.
Hypothetical example: an enterprise providing industrial rope-access instruction is funded partly from a severance payment and partly from a spouse’s gift. The severance letter, bank entries, gift instrument, evidence of the spouse’s legitimate source, and corporate receipt establish the source and path. Gather them before combining the funds, because a later spreadsheet cannot fill an undocumented transfer gap.