Operating records rather than registration documents: invoices, dispatch and load records, payroll, financial statements and tax filings covering a continuous period.
Show a business operating, not a company existing
The requirement is the regular, systematic and continuous provision of goods or services, and the documents that demonstrate it are the ones the business generates while running. For a trucking operation that means customer invoices across months rather than a single large contract, dispatch or load logs, driver payroll, equipment and maintenance records, insurance, and financial statements with tax filings behind them. A lease, a business licence and a telephone listing show presence, not activity. Where the United States entity is small or seasonal, presenting a full year of records that show a genuine seasonal pattern is more credible than selecting the strongest quarter, because the pattern is what an experienced reader expects to see in that industry anyway.
Hypothetical example: A commercial-laundry company transfers its Canadian operations director to a related United States plant. The evidence file should separate records proving business activity from documents merely showing incorporation. Consecutive invoices, bank deposits, payroll remittances, customer contracts, and operating permits together show ongoing trade. A first review should make a month-by-month index and identify gaps before filing. If a season has unusually low activity, explain the business cycle with records rather than omit it and leave the reader to infer that operations stopped.