The capital account should reflect the funds’ actual disposition and qualifying commitment.
Track the refund instead of hiding it
Explain whether money was returned, redirected under a genuine commitment or retained as operating funds. Each treatment needs its own factual support; simply leaving the earlier total unchanged risks double counting.
Revise the capital ledger whenever purchase money returns. Trace the refund, identify whether it remains personally controlled, and count a later use only when a genuine obligation makes the funds irrevocably committed and exposed to commercial loss. Never count both the original deposit and replacement expenditure. Beyond the amount, E-2 requires qualifying treaty nationality and enterprise ownership, a substantial investment, and a real operating business that is not marginal. Direction usually comes from owning half or otherwise controlling operations. Budget for necessary assets and evidence, not an artificial round number. The classification has no direct route to permanent residence.
Hypothetical example: An entrepreneur near Sainte-Catherine-de-Hatley receives part of her deposit back after an artisanal-soap factory’s filling machine is excluded from the sale. She records the credit, reduced closing wire and account balance, then evaluates a binding purchase of a replacement machine that production actually requires. If she keeps the refund freely available for personal use, the schedule removes it from invested capital. Her Canadian passport, majority-interest records, lease and sales plan address different E-2 requirements. Hiding the repayment would overstate risk; buying unsuitable equipment merely to preserve the old total would weaken the enterprise narrative and waste working resources.