First seek available contemporaneous records, then explain genuine gaps with specific, honestly dated statements from people who know the facts. Do not alter dates, recreate originals or hide uncertainty behind generic assurances.
Create a transparent evidence map
Identify what each document proves and what remains unsupported. Payroll may establish payment without proving duties; project correspondence may establish involvement without proving a full qualifying year abroad. Combine relevant sources carefully and ask the reviewer whether the total record is sufficient.
Where a missing fact is central to eligibility, further evidence may be necessary before filing. Every exhibit needs a custodian who can say where it came from. Payroll registers come from the system of record, not from a spreadsheet retyped for the petition; project files come from the repository with their dates intact; appraisals come from the personnel file.
When a document is a reconstruction, the person who built it should say so and explain the basis, because an undisclosed rebuild discovered later damages the credibility of everything filed alongside it. Hypothetical example: A grain brokerage cannot retrieve the assignment correspondence for a trader’s first year abroad, so the operations manager compiles a dated summary from the trade blotter and labels it as exactly that, rather than presenting it as contemporaneous material. Deciding whether the assembled record meets the burden is counsel’s task; producing it honestly is the company’s.