Records that trace every dollar from its origin to the investment: tax returns, employment and pension records, property sale documents, brokerage and bank statements, gift or inheritance documents, and the wire confirmations linking them. The trail must be continuous, not merely plausible.
Every gap in the trail is a question the file must answer
USCIS requires evidence of the lawful source of capital and of the path the capital took to reach the enterprise. Both parts matter. Source evidence shows how the money was earned or received: several years of Canadian tax returns and notices of assessment, employment records, a pension plan's statement of commuted value, a property's purchase and sale documents, or a formal gift letter and the donor's own source records.
Path evidence shows where the money went afterwards: statements for each account the funds passed through, currency conversion records, and the outgoing wire to the escrow or enterprise account. Hypothetical example: a Lac-Beauport couple sold a house years ago and moved the proceeds among several accounts before consolidating them; each transfer between accounts must be shown with statements from both sides, because a deposit appearing without an identifiable origin invites a request for evidence. Translations of French-language documents should be certified.