The full chain: where the money came from, how it was committed, and what happens if the business fails. Bank statements tracing the funds, the purchase agreement and escrow instructions, loan documents showing what secures any borrowing, and receipts for money already spent on the yard.
Risk is proved by what the paperwork does not promise
An adjudicator is looking for two things: that the capital is Yvon's and lawfully obtained, and that he can lose it. The first is answered by a trail — sale proceeds from the Richmond County yard, accumulated earnings with matching tax records, a mortgage advance with the instrument that created it — running unbroken into the account from which the purchase is funded. The second is answered by the transaction documents, and here the useful evidence is negative.
A purchase agreement with no unconditional right to a refund, escrow instructions that release funds into the business rather than back to the buyer, and loans secured on Yvon's Canadian assets rather than on the boatyard all show exposure. Money already irretrievably spent is the strongest evidence of all: a deposit paid, the travel lift refurbished, staff wages met, insurance bound, inventory purchased. Keep the invoices and the cleared payments, not just the contracts, because expenditure that has actually happened is harder to argue with than an intention to spend.
- USCIS: E-2 Treaty Investors
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty Trader and Treaty Investor visas
- Department of State: 9 FAM 402.9, Treaty trader and treaty investor guidance
- U.S. Department of State: Treaty countries
- eCFR: 8 CFR 214.2, Special requirements for admission, extension and maintenance of status