Lack of primary evidence

[kuro 0]

What do you do when you don't have passport stamps or boarding passes? We live within driving distance (Seattle/Vancouver) so we have been driving across the border. What we do have are a couple of hotel receipts from the beginning and some bus ticket receipts from when I used to take the bus. Is that enough primary evidence?

I know they keep some kind of log of each time you drive across the border. I wonder if the USCIS will look at their own records to confirm that I have traveled.

Also, as a supplement to Question 18, we are thinking of doing a chart with Date/Event/Evidence instead of writing a paragraph. Is that going to work?

[reeses16 8]

Maybe you could attach a separate sheet of paper briefly explaining that you live in driving distance, so you don't have boarding passes & passport evidence. Maybe you can show photos of the two of you together. And provide a credit card statement or bank statement showing purchases in Seattle and his accounts showing purchases in Vancouver.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Also, as a supplement to Question 18, we are thinking of doing a chart with Date/Event/Evidence instead of writing a paragraph. Is that going to work?

That should work, yes:-)

If you are concerned about proving you have met within the last two years you can always arrange to get your pictures taken together holding up an edition of a local newspaper showing the date :-). Try using the bus tickets and photos of the two of you together - since you are so close together USCIS will probably be fairly reasonable about the evidence. Reeses16 also had some good suggestions.

Good luck!

Edited April 30, 2009 by Kathryn41

[Ling Ling 22]

They most likely won't go through their records on your behalf. Evidence of the relationship is your responsibility. How about telephone records, pictures.

,birthday cards, emails, chat logs, credit card bills for purchases made across the border? Letters from friends and/or family who have knowledge of your relationship, can also count as evidence.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about a lack of evidence. In your supplement to question 18 they will be able to see that you drive across the boarder and thus, its understandable you won't have any boarding passes or passport stamps. I think the chart itself is a really good idea, but you may also want to talk about the circumstances in how you first met in an additional paragraph, just so there's no confusion. Like the others said, if you have any pictures of you together it would be a good idea to include those. What better evidence than photographs of you together?

I was actually quite surprised that at our interview the officer was flipping through our original I-129F petition and stopped to read our answer to question 18. She never asked us how we met or when since it was so well laid out in the original petition. Just a side note! Good luck

[kuro 0]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about a lack of evidence. In your supplement to question 18 they will be able to see that you drive across the boarder and thus, its understandable you won't have any boarding passes or passport stamps. I think the chart itself is a really good idea, but you may also want to talk about the circumstances in how you first met in an additional paragraph, just so there's no confusion. Like the others said, if you have any pictures of you together it would be a good idea to include those. What better evidence than photographs of you together?

I was actually quite surprised that at our interview the officer was flipping through our original I-129F petition and stopped to read our answer to question 18. She never asked us how we met or when since it was so well laid out in the original petition. Just a side note! Good luck

We met online on a dating site then met in person a few months later so he will mention that. I am just confused about submitting as much information as possible. I thought you only need to submit proof that you have met and the rest is for the interview. Does the Canadian consulate accept more evidence at the interview than was included with the original I-129 petition? Or should we be including everything from the beginning for proof of ongoing relationship.

[Ontarkie 14,507]

Also gas receipts are helpful if you used any credit cards. We also used the bus tickets when i came down, he used all sorts of receipts for just about anything we could think of since he drove up to see me and no passport stamps or hotel receipts come to think of it.

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about a lack of evidence. In your supplement to question 18 they will be able to see that you drive across the boarder and thus, its understandable you won't have any boarding passes or passport stamps. I think the chart itself is a really good idea, but you may also want to talk about the circumstances in how you first met in an additional paragraph, just so there's no confusion. Like the others said, if you have any pictures of you together it would be a good idea to include those. What better evidence than photographs of you together?

I was actually quite surprised that at our interview the officer was flipping through our original I-129F petition and stopped to read our answer to question 18. She never asked us how we met or when since it was so well laid out in the original petition. Just a side note! Good luck

We met online on a dating site then met in person a few months later so he will mention that. I am just confused about submitting as much information as possible. I thought you only need to submit proof that you have met and the rest is for the interview. Does the Canadian consulate accept more evidence at the interview than was included with the original I-129 petition? Or should we be including everything from the beginning for proof of ongoing relationship.

The USCIS is mainly concerned with you proving you have met within the past 2 years, that's true. I personally think you should also also include some evidence that you have an ongoing and bonafide relationship with the petition as well. There has been some debate about this on the forums, but the K-1 guide suggests you do this, so I and many others did just that. This will also make things easier on you later in the process. Montreal will allow you to provide more prof at the interview, sure, but you if you provide extra in the petition they won't bother asking you for additional evidence at this stage. So preparing now makes things easier on you later! This doesn't mean you need to provide a lot, but just enough to prove your point. We submitted airline itineraries, about 5 photos of us together, and about 4 months of phone bills from him and that was it.

[rooster 1]

Honestly, I wouldn't worry to much about a lack of evidence. In your supplement to question 18 they will be able to see that you drive across the boarder and thus, its understandable you won't have any boarding passes or passport stamps. I think the chart itself is a really good idea, but you may also want to talk about the circumstances in how you first met in an additional paragraph, just so there's no confusion. Like the others said, if you have any pictures of you together it would be a good idea to include those. What better evidence than photographs of you together?

I was actually quite surprised that at our interview the officer was flipping through our original I-129F petition and stopped to read our answer to question 18. She never asked us how we met or when since it was so well laid out in the original petition. Just a side note! Good luck

We met online on a dating site then met in person a few months later so he will mention that. I am just confused about submitting as much information as possible. I thought you only need to submit proof that you have met and the rest is for the interview. Does the Canadian consulate accept more evidence at the interview than was included with the original I-129 petition? Or should we be including everything from the beginning for proof of ongoing relationship.

The USCIS is mainly concerned with you proving you have met within the past 2 years, that's true. I personally think you should also also include some evidence that you have an ongoing and bonafide relationship with the petition as well. There has been some debate about this on the forums, but the K-1 guide suggests you do this, so I and many others did just that. This will also make things easier on you later in the process. Montreal will allow you to provide more prof at the interview, sure, but you if you provide extra in the petition they won't bother asking you for additional evidence at this stage. So preparing now makes things easier on you later! This doesn't mean you need to provide a lot, but just enough to prove your point. We submitted airline itineraries, about 5 photos of us together, and about 4 months of phone bills from him and that was it.

I completely agree. The evidence that Huggle sent was similar to what we sent with our K-1. The CO looked at our packet and didn't ask for anything else from us at the interview. Although we had plenty extra with us just in case. I know "front loading" evidence has been debated on here but, I personally believe in it. I have also seen others that had disagreed with it in the past, who now think it is the right thing to do.

Edited May 5, 2009 by rooster