Proof of marriage

[M n J 7]

Hi,

What holds more weight in proving marriage? We have the marriage certificate, affidavit, pictures, emails, but we don't have joint account/property.. What would be the best combination to provide?

Thanks!

[Saddle Bronc 124]

What you've got will work nicely--it's hardly commonplace that a foreign spouse who hasn't lived in the US prior would have joint accounts/property with a USC spouse.

[M n J 7]

Also, who would determine which center its processed at? We're closest to Vermont, will it be processed there? Or can we choose?

[M n J 7]

Thanks for the response. Would it be more beneficial to send email headers / conversations from different times of the year or just a group of emails from a single month? How many should be sent? As for the pictures, I would assume pictures with family and friends hold more weight than just pictures of the two of us? How many pictures are reccomended?

[brettdresseur 0]

It sounds like you have a good handle on proof. It isn't what works the best as much as it is convincing the officer that you have a true marriage. I sent everything you listed without and proof of merging of assets because he never lived in the US and we did just fine. I will say that if you use emails and pictures try to send a selection from the duration of your relationship. We were together for more than two years so we had to edit; we used a printout of our emails to show the years and not individual emails. Our pictures included photos over the duration of our relationship and included pictures of friends and family celebrating at our engagement party and wedding.

I also included copies of our boarding passes (lucky that I was a bit sentimental, otherwise I would have thrown them out) and copies of my passport pages to show my entries and exits from Turkey. Don't worry, USCIS understands that if the beneficiary has never resided here that he or she would not be able to (or have an extremely hard time) merging assets with the petitioner. Good luck!

[brettdresseur 0]

To answer your other questions...

You can't choose which center you are designated. I live in the southeast and we were sent to CSC. All you can do is mail your petition to the designated lockbox and that is it.

Footers are better than headers because they appreciate it when you use a 2-hole punch at the top of the documents so a footer is the most acceptable way to briefly explain what is going on in the documents. I did a footer with my full name, my husband's name and our date of births. I do believe that I added something else to the header but I can't remember it. I also used 2 color-coded tabs placed on the bottom of our documents to aid USCIS in distinguishing between the petitioner's required documents and the beneficiary's required documents.

Just send a group of emails. USCIS just wants proof that you all are in contact with each other; they are not interested in reading every detail. If you have been together less than a year, I would still print off the group of emails, but then use a little arrow(s) with a brief note saying something like (Jan. 2011, Feb. 2011, etc.). You want to make it very, very, very easy for them to get their hands on the documents that they need. When I submitted our packets to NVC, we received an RFE on documents that I know we sent it and I am pretty sure it is because I was not as tedious with NVC packets as I was with the I-130. I rushed because of a mistake on my part and just wanted to send it.

There is no hard and fast rule on pictures. I sent in about 2-3 pictures of us from every moment we were together and included the footer with a brief description of where we were and what time of the year it was. For example, Visiting Turkey May-July 2010, Wedding photo with the beneficiary's family and my family, Turkey 2010). Pictures of the both of you with friends and family sheds a very positive light on your case, but of course send in some pictures of the two of you. I chose mine according to what I would put in a regular family photo album.

Good luck, you're in the right place for help. Also familiarize yourself with your country's portal too because there is a wealth of specific information that you may need to know.