An escrow agreement whose only release condition is issuance of the visa, bank records showing the money left the investor's own account, and receipts for spending that could not be recovered if the venture failed. A deposit resting in the seller's operating account with no conditions attached shows the opposite.
Escrow terms and bank trails, not a signed offer
Hypothetical example: Tristan is buying a powder-coating line in the United States. His purchase agreement contains no visa-related condition, and the deposit he has already paid sits in the seller's operating account. He believes this demonstrates commitment; in fact it demonstrates a payment whose fate depends on nobody's decision but the seller's, and it gives him no evidence that his capital is at risk in the enterprise.
The stronger arrangement is an escrow account held by a neutral party, released to the seller on issuance of the visa and returned if it is refused, with the agreement itself in the file. Alongside it should sit the bank statements tracing the money out of his own accounts, the signed lease, quotations and invoices for equipment, and receipts for fit-out work already done. Where the seller resists escrow, that resistance is a commercial negotiation, not an immigration rule, and it is worth having the conversation before the deposit moves.