Final few questions before submitting I-130 package

[r060106 109]

Hi all,

Here are my last few questions before my wife and I submit our I-130 package. If I could get some input on all of them that would be great, but the first question is my primary concern as of late:

1. I've asked this question elsewhere on the forum but didn't as much of a response as I would have liked, and was hoping to get some more input. When we got married we put my wife's occupation on the Scottish Marriage Notice Form as Registered Midwife, even though she wasn't employed at the time. To both of us, the Occupation field was asking what she was (and still is), which is a Registered Midwife, not what she did currently. Because even though she wasn't employed she was actively seeking work and is stil technically a Registered Midwife both in Poland and in England. My mother agreed with our reasoning because she herself is a Registered Nurse and said that if she's unemployed she's still a Registered Nurse by occupation and could save someone's life if need be, just as my wife can birth children.

Scotland never questioned the issue so we thought we were in the clear. But today we filled out our G-325A forms at the same time and in the section on employment she put "Unemployed" in the top line and "Paid Student Midwife" in the second one, which is her only employment history the past five years. So that said, does anyone with a lot of experience on visajourney foresee USCIS having an issue with it showing Registered Midwife on our marriage certificate (July 6th wedding) but then showing unemployed on her G-325A? This is the only issue I'm really nervous about with our package. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I wanted to make sure I got it covered before submitting the petition. When I did post about this issue previously the few members who replied didn't foresee it as a problem, but I wanted some more input.

2. Should I submit a cover letter with the package, and if so, what should it entail? Should I explain the above situation with the marriage certificate or anything of that sort in the cover letter?

3. Should I give USCIS our relationship history, including how we met, how often we communicated, how often we've seen each other etc.? Or is that really not required?

4. Can sensitive information, like the bank account number on our joint bank statement, be redacted? Or will they see that as a red flag? I'm really neurotic about letting people, even the USCIS, see things like that.

Any and all input/advice is much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!

Ricky

[r060106 109]

Anyone?

[quitepainful 56]

if you are worried about letting the USCIS see things like that, well get used to not seeing your wife... :/

as bad as it is, they will get so deep into your personal life you will squeal...

on a side note, yes you should clearly indicate all the items which are in the package (cover page)... makes things easier, also you should DEFINITELY include items on how you met, your relationship, etc. your communication, logs, sample of chat messages.

see if you can look up one of my old posts which contained a sample of my cover page which included all the items in the package. I had approx. 170 pages and a good list of items. Anything you redact will look suspicious and the last thing you want to do is get an RFE for something you could have avoided.

Anyone?

also update your timeline so that people can give you more direct advice...

[r060106 109]

Thank you. I will surely do that. We haven't submitted anything, so I didn't think we needed to establish a timeline yet.

Edited August 20, 2013 by Rysiu227

[NikLR 13,227]

1) Whatever you put on your marriage license isn't a big deal. She is currently unemployed so she is unemployed, there isn't any way around that. I think you're overthinking it by a long shot

2) Yes a cover letter is a great idea to highlight what is in the file in what order.

3) for some countries this is a necessary thing for the interview (Vietnam comes to mind) but you can include it if you wish however, and it's not required for the USCIS.

4) The US government can see anything they want. You can redact the account number (save for the last 4) if you wish, there's no reason to though IMHO. Like I said, they can find this out if they want to plus the US govt employees like this go through very strict FBI checks and training. They seen over a million petitions or the like per year. But if you feel better redacting account numbers, you can, but try to leave the last 4 digits (you'll probably notice receipts do that as well.)

[r060106 109]

1) Whatever you put on your marriage license isn't a big deal. She is currently unemployed so she is unemployed, there isn't any way around that. I think you're overthinking it by a long shot

2) Yes a cover letter is a great idea to highlight what is in the file in what order.

3) for some countries this is a necessary thing for the interview (Vietnam comes to mind) but you can include it if you wish however, and it's not required for the USCIS.

4) The US government can see anything they want. You can redact the account number (save for the last 4) if you wish, there's no reason to though IMHO. Like I said, they can find this out if they want to plus the US govt employees like this go through very strict FBI checks and training. They seen over a million petitions or the like per year. But if you feel better redacting account numbers, you can, but try to leave the last 4 digits (you'll probably notice receipts do that as well.)

1) I'm just concerned about them looking at her work history seeing her as unemployed since July 2011 on the G-325A and then looking at the Marriage Certificate dated 07/06/2013 and seeing that her occupation is a Registered Midwife at that time. Didn't want them to think we lied on our marriage certificate or something because we didn't.

2) Alright, I'll make one then. Can I staple things together or is that not recommended? Maybe just paper clips and a nice folder with separate tabs? I'm trying to figure out how best to organize it for them.

3) Oh ok. Did you give one? I'm just curious.

4) Good point. I'll forget redacting it. If they wanted to steal my identity they could have done so already.

Thanks a lot for the response! They're much appreciated.

[pushbrk 12,824]

Hi all,

Here are my last few questions before my wife and I submit our I-130 package. If I could get some input on all of them that would be great, but the first question is my primary concern as of late:

1. I've asked this question elsewhere on the forum but didn't as much of a response as I would have liked, and was hoping to get some more input. When we got married we put my wife's occupation on the Scottish Marriage Notice Form as Registered Midwife, even though she wasn't employed at the time. To both of us, the Occupation field was asking what she was (and still is), which is a Registered Midwife, not what she did currently. Because even though she wasn't employed she was actively seeking work and is stil technically a Registered Midwife both in Poland and in England. My mother agreed with our reasoning because she herself is a Registered Nurse and said that if she's unemployed she's still a Registered Nurse by occupation and could save someone's life if need be, just as my wife can birth children.

Scotland never questioned the issue so we thought we were in the clear. But today we filled out our G-325A forms at the same time and in the section on employment she put "Unemployed" in the top line and "Paid Student Midwife" in the second one, which is her only employment history the past five years. So that said, does anyone with a lot of experience on visajourney foresee USCIS having an issue with it showing Registered Midwife on our marriage certificate (July 6th wedding) but then showing unemployed on her G-325A? This is the only issue I'm really nervous about with our package. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I wanted to make sure I got it covered before submitting the petition. When I did post about this issue previously the few members who replied didn't foresee it as a problem, but I wanted some more input.

2. Should I submit a cover letter with the package, and if so, what should it entail? Should I explain the above situation with the marriage certificate or anything of that sort in the cover letter?

3. Should I give USCIS our relationship history, including how we met, how often we communicated, how often we've seen each other etc.? Or is that really not required?

4. Can sensitive information, like the bank account number on our joint bank statement, be redacted? Or will they see that as a red flag? I'm really neurotic about letting people, even the USCIS, see things like that.

Any and all input/advice is much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!

Ricky

1. No problem. Don't give it another thought.

2. See the guide for a sample cover letter

3. I wouldn't bother for case coming from Europe.

4. Get over your neurosis. Your account number is on the bottom of every check you write. It's not like you can leave out your SS#, so quit worrying.

[NikLR 13,227]

triple agree with pushbrk!

[r060106 109]

1. No problem. Don't give it another thought.

2. See the guide for a sample cover letter

3. I wouldn't bother for case coming from Europe.

4. Get over your neurosis. Your account number is on the bottom of every check you write. It's not like you can leave out your SS#, so quit worrying.

1. Will do

2. Also will do.

3. Ok, I won't write one.

4. Well said. You make a very good point. I'll just forget about covering stuff up.

Thank you!

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Hi all,

Here are my last few questions before my wife and I submit our I-130 package. If I could get some input on all of them that would be great, but the first question is my primary concern as of late:

1. I've asked this question elsewhere on the forum but didn't as much of a response as I would have liked, and was hoping to get some more input. When we got married we put my wife's occupation on the Scottish Marriage Notice Form as Registered Midwife, even though she wasn't employed at the time. To both of us, the Occupation field was asking what she was (and still is), which is a Registered Midwife, not what she did currently. Because even though she wasn't employed she was actively seeking work and is stil technically a Registered Midwife both in Poland and in England. My mother agreed with our reasoning because she herself is a Registered Nurse and said that if she's unemployed she's still a Registered Nurse by occupation and could save someone's life if need be, just as my wife can birth children.

Scotland never questioned the issue so we thought we were in the clear. But today we filled out our G-325A forms at the same time and in the section on employment she put "Unemployed" in the top line and "Paid Student Midwife" in the second one, which is her only employment history the past five years. So that said, does anyone with a lot of experience on visajourney foresee USCIS having an issue with it showing Registered Midwife on our marriage certificate (July 6th wedding) but then showing unemployed on her G-325A? This is the only issue I'm really nervous about with our package. Maybe I'm overthinking it, but I wanted to make sure I got it covered before submitting the petition. When I did post about this issue previously the few members who replied didn't foresee it as a problem, but I wanted some more input.

2. Should I submit a cover letter with the package, and if so, what should it entail? Should I explain the above situation with the marriage certificate or anything of that sort in the cover letter?

3. Should I give USCIS our relationship history, including how we met, how often we communicated, how often we've seen each other etc.? Or is that really not required?

4. Can sensitive information, like the bank account number on our joint bank statement, be redacted? Or will they see that as a red flag? I'm really neurotic about letting people, even the USCIS, see things like that.

Any and all input/advice is much appreciated. Thank you very much in advance!

Ricky

1. Not a big deal. It is mostly biographic info. I'm sure they have some statistical motive to have that info. Unemployed, or house maker if you wish is perfectly ok

2. Always a good idea to list what is included (this is what most people has as a cover letter). No need to explain anything in the packet itself here.

3. Volunteering too much info to USCIS is not a good idea. Not that you are lying or covering something, but esentially you want to stick to what they want. Adding too much, specially a relationship story might end up being convoluted and might even appear contradictory in some cases (some of us are worst writers than others). At same time, you are giving them ammunition for questions later. As my wife always says: "just answer the question I'm asking instead of answering other 10 questions I'm not asking".

4. The governemnt has access to anything; if the USCIS wants to get you, they have their friends at IRS and other 3-letter federal agencies to do the job. Literally, everybody and their mothers either knows or can easily find your bank account, address, phone number if they want to spend 1.99 for a report online (that will include other niceties as judgements, bankruptices, etc). That said, I've read others here reporting that they redacted such info and had no problem. Plus, they already know at least one of your accounts: you paid the fee with a check

[r060106 109]

1. Not a big deal. It is mostly biographic info. I'm sure they have some statistical motive to have that info. Unemployed, or house maker if you wish is perfectly ok

2. Always a good idea to list what is included (this is what most people has as a cover letter). No need to explain anything in the packet itself here.

3. Volunteering too much info to USCIS is not a good idea. Not that you are lying or covering something, but esentially you want to stick to what they want. Adding too much, specially a relationship story might end up being convoluted and might even appear contradictory in some cases (some of us are worst writers than others). At same time, you are giving them ammunition for questions later. As my wife always says: "just answer the question I'm asking instead of answering other 10 questions I'm not asking".

4. The governemnt has access to anything; if the USCIS wants to get you, they have their friends at IRS and other 3-letter federal agencies to do the job. Literally, everybody and their mothers either knows or can easily find your bank account, address, phone number if they want to spend 1.99 for a report online (that will include other niceties as judgements, bankruptices, etc). That said, I've read others here reporting that they redacted such info and had no problem. Plus, they already know at least one of your accounts: you paid the fee with a check

1. Alright, makes sense.

2. Will do.

3. So if I go by what you're saying, if I give them x amount of evidence we're in a bona fide marital relationship that they'll use it against us in the interview or something? So I should give less than what other couples have given? Instead of emails, skype chats, skype screenshots, joint bank account statements, life insurance, pension and 401k beneficiary statements and a joint auto title I should just give a few photos and three emails? That makes no sense. How does one even know the threshold for how much to give and not self incriminate? What kind of ammunition are you referring to?

4. As others have pointed out, you make a good point. I won't be redacting anything.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Rysiu227

[Gosia & Tito 199]

1. Alright, makes sense.

2. Will do.

3. So if I go by what you're saying, if I give them x amount of evidence we're in a bona fide marital relationship that they'll use it against us in the interview or something? So I should give less than what other couples have given? Instead of emails, skype chats, skype screenshots, joint bank account statements, life insurance, pension and 401k beneficiary statements and a joint auto title I should just give a few photos and three emails? That makes no sense. How does one even know the threshold for how much to give and not self incriminate? What kind of ammunition are you referring to?

4. As others have pointed out, you make a good point. I won't be redacting anything.

On 3.

Not what I'm saying. What I've meant is that if there are doubts about your case and it comes to separate interviews; the info you provided voluntarily beyond what would be expected could be used to ask additional questions to which one of you might answer differently than the other. For example, if I state that my now wife met my brother X during a party we had at my parents house in November of 2012; which is completely accurate and true; a question could be: What is his wife name? (of the brother she met), which she won't know because she was not there and as far as I recall, we didn't have a debriefing on who was there or wasnt' and the names of direct relatives who were not there. Our particular family situation is that within my siblings we all live in different countries, so is not that we have met that much and someone wold know the names of everyone else -simply because we don't get together very often.

Another quesiton could be how many children this brother has. There were about 15 children in this party, and while my brother has 2, only one was there. There is a high possibiity that my wife would not remember correctly this information. Thus, in terms of proving bonafide, stick to things that are much more easier to keep in your head like whether there is a life insurance whose beneficiary is the spouse; or that we have X cars, or that we have joint title on the house. Of course, I would also have documentation of joint accounts and other that would give some evidence that in fact we are together. In my mind there is no one single document or artifact that solely proves bonafide, but a combination of several that shows a commingling across time.

There is no known (at least not that I know of) threshold to providing information, only suggestions that depend in the country of origin of the applicant, which then is correlated (not saying that is a good or bad thing) to the level of fraude in such country. Some couples have literally hundreds of documents, pages pictures, etc; some have much less, in the order of 10-20 with maybe an upper limit of 40-50. I know I sent 4 pics back in the K-1 petition and planning on doing 4-5 when ROC time comes. I never sent e-mail copies (not even samples), nor Skype logs though we talked daily and e-mail 2-3 tiems per day.

[r060106 109]

On 3.

Not what I'm saying. What I've meant is that if there are doubts about your case and it comes to separate interviews; the info you provided voluntarily beyond what would be expected could be used to ask additional questions to which one of you might answer differently than the other. For example, if I state that my now wife met my brother X during a party we had at my parents house in November of 2012; which is completely accurate and true; a question could be: What is his wife name? (of the brother she met), which she won't know because she was not there and as far as I recall, we didn't have a debriefing on who was there or wasnt' and the names of direct relatives who were not there. Our particular family situation is that within my siblings we all live in different countries, so is not that we have met that much and someone wold know the names of everyone else -simply because we don't get together very often.

Another quesiton could be how many children this brother has. There were about 15 children in this party, and while my brother has 2, only one was there. There is a high possibiity that my wife would not remember correctly this information. Thus, in terms of proving bonafide, stick to things that are much more easier to keep in your head like whether there is a life insurance whose beneficiary is the spouse; or that we have X cars, or that we have joint title on the house. Of course, I would also have documentation of joint accounts and other that would give some evidence that in fact we are together. In my mind there is no one single document or artifact that solely proves bonafide, but a combination of several that shows a commingling across time.

There is no known (at least not that I know of) threshold to providing information, only suggestions that depend in the country of origin of the applicant, which then is correlated (not saying that is a good or bad thing) to the level of fraude in such country. Some couples have literally hundreds of documents, pages pictures, etc; some have much less, in the order of 10-20 with maybe an upper limit of 40-50. I know I sent 4 pics back in the K-1 petition and planning on doing 4-5 when ROC time comes. I never sent e-mail copies (not even samples), nor Skype logs though we talked daily and e-mail 2-3 tiems per day.

Well if that's the case and they can use personal details to trip us up, details we might not remember they are from so long ago, then I don't think my wife and I will submit emails as evidence. We were going to send one email from me and one from her for each month we've known each other, which is around 22 months. But instead I think we'll just submit the skype log, chat and video screenshots, along with screenshots showing a list of all the emails we've sent, instead of sending the contents of the actual emails. How does that sound?

Thanks

[Gosia & Tito 199]

Well if that's the case and they can use personal details to trip us up, details we might not remember they are from so long ago, then I don't think my wife and I will submit emails as evidence. We were going to send one email from me and one from her for each month we've known each other, which is around 22 months. But instead I think we'll just submit the skype log, chat and video screenshots, along with screenshots showing a list of all the emails we've sent, instead of sending the contents of the actual emails. How does that sound?

Thanks

Exactly, that is why you give them what is reasonable, but without going overboard; except in cases where is advisable that couples front load petitions.

It is possible that they use few pieces of evidence to determine validity of a relationship and as long as those pieces correlate well, then they move on with the case.

[r060106 109]

Exactly, that is why you give them what is reasonable, but without going overboard; except in cases where is advisable that couples front load petitions.

It is possible that they use few pieces of evidence to determine validity of a relationship and as long as those pieces correlate well, then they move on with the case.

That's the million dollar question I guess. What exactly is reasonable in the eyes of USCIS? There's no set list and one will never know if they're giving the right amount to avoid an RFE or not. And then when they give too much they might get hassled during the interview because of it. It's kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Then again, what is the definition of overboard? Yet another million dollar question.