Evidence for Interview

[amykathleen2005 441]

I want your opinion about what we have for our AOS interview.

1. Bank statements of joint account and cancelled check from account

2. Pictures of us together before and after marriage

3. Wedding album and invitation

4. Facebook conversation since he arrived on K-1, we message throughout the day while I'm at work

5. ID's showing common address

6. Joint credit cards

7. Joint debit cards

8. My life insurance with him as beneficiary

9. Statement from my mom saying we are living in her house and are paying rent

10. Affidavit from mom about relationship

11. Affidavit from friend about relationship

12. Mail with both our names together

13. Cards and notes from each other

14. Documents from our Disney trip at the end of October

15. Hotel reservations and receipts from honeymoon and other trips together

16. Letter from my employer and documents showing him as emergency contact and beneficiary

17. POD for other bank account

18. Marriage license and contract from church

Anything I am not thinking of? We have prepaid cell phones so no bills there and we live with my mom so the house and all the bills are in her name. He does not drive so there is no point in him being on the car insurance, etc.

[fiestagirl 7]

Good lord that is a lot of evidence. I'd say you'll have no problem. I went in with 15 pictures, joint health insurance and a joint bank account and was never asked for more.

P.S. why submit correspondence between the two of you, doesn't it feel weird that they'd be reading that?

[grinchus 11]

Good lord that is a lot of evidence. I'd say you'll have no problem. I went in with 15 pictures, joint health insurance and a joint bank account and was never asked for more.

P.S. why submit correspondence between the two of you, doesn't it feel weird that they'd be reading that?

That's all I have: 26 pictures of our wedding (not even in an album). I can probably scare up a few more if I have to. Both my husband and I are really bad at remembering to take pictures of anywhere we go or anything we do, so I'm afraid we don't have much photographic "evidence"; however I have put him on my insurance at work, we have a joint bank account, and we have a family cell phone plan. We will do fine in the interview since we talk all the time about everything and therefore really should know the answer to any questions about each other's families, lives, etc. Our interview is at the end of October.

[Tom_Jim 40]

Your evidence appears to be very convincing. Other pieces of evidence may also include health care proxies indicating either spouses as arbiter of medical decisions and a living will.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I am not a professional, but I venture to guess that you have at least 3 locks on your house's front door.

That's such an overwhelming amount of -- for the most part unneccesary -- evidence that it may make the I.O. wonder what you are trying to hide.

I would get rid off 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. What's left is bordering on complete overkill.

Well, you asked.

[amykathleen2005 441]

I am not a professional, but I venture to guess that you have at least 3 locks on your house's front door.

That's such an overwhelming amount of -- for the most part unneccesary -- evidence that it may make the I.O. wonder what you are trying to hide.

I would get rid off 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17. What's left is bordering on complete overkill.

Well, you asked.

Not trying to hide anything, I just feel that I might as well do all I possibly can to make sure the process goes smoothly and that I did not overlook something they might ask for. I certainly am not going to just dump it all onto the IO's desk, but if they ask for more than I have it at least. Thank you for your response.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

I believe you when you say that you don't want to hide anything.

But there's a thin line between genius and madness, hence the term mad genius.

If you arrive at the border and the customs officer ask you for your passport and your Green Card to check if everything is in order, and you show him your birth certificate and school report cards and photos from your child years, you are not helping in making the process go "smoothly." On the contrary!

In a case like yours, AOS is a mere formality. Here's what happens at AOS:

They want to see your passports, your wedding certificate, and your wedding album with photos. Unless you two look like people trying to pull wool over the I.O.'s eyes, you're in and out in no time. But put a stack of 100 papers on the I.O.'s desk, and you'll see him getting out and bringing in a co-worker. They will all shake their heads and bring a camera to show their family members at home. Then the supervisor will show up and you see them whispering. Then they'll check for hidden cameras, fearing they're about to be punked by a TV crew. You get the idea, or don't you?

I'm a big believer in helping to get things done smoothly. In my opinion that's done by giving them some quality evidence that gets the job done, not keeping them occupied for hours trying to sort through a stack of papers.

Just my 2 cents.

[Nik+Heather 121]

The problem with "unless you look like you're trying to pull one over the IO, you don't need that" is: What if your lovely SO totally blanks on relatively easy questions, like Nik did when he completely bombed the question about his trip in 2009 (We had a FANTASTIC trip to Hawaii!), and everything else was brought into question. It was good to have some more concrete evidence on hand. That being said, I do agree that your complete list IS a little bit overkill, I think a balance between you and Bob would be better....

Anyway, given our rocky start in the interview part, here's our experience with your list... I would add for 5/6/7 that it would be a good idea for you guys to make a copy of those cards with the financial information redacted already on hand - As dramatic as it was for us to empty out our wallets with identical credit & debit cards, health & dental & car insurance cards onto the IO's desk, I got all nervous when she wanted a copy!!! What if some mail room lackey stole that info?? She did let me scribble on it for 5 or so minutes with a pen though...

(Did not have) 1. Bank statements of joint account

(Had and showed to the IO) 1a. cancelled check from account

(Had and showed to the IO) 2. Pictures of us together before and after marriage (Also ones during the wedding )

(Did not have) 3. Wedding album

(Had, but did NOT show): 3a. invitation

(Did not have) 4. Facebook conversation since he arrived on K-1, we message throughout the day while I'm at work

(Had and showed to the IO) 5. ID's showing common address

(Had and showed to the IO) 6. Joint credit cards

(Had and showed to the IO) 7. Joint debit cards

(Did not have) 8. My life insurance with him as beneficiary

(Did not have) 9. Statement from my mom saying we are living in her house and are paying rent

(Did not have) 10. Affidavit from mom about relationship

(Did not have) 11. Affidavit from friend about relationship

(Had, but did NOT show) 12. Mail with both our names together

(Had, but did NOT show) 13. Cards and notes from each other

(Did not have) 14. Documents from our Disney trip at the end of October

(Did not have) 15. Hotel reservations and receipts from honeymoon and other trips together

(Had, but did NOT show) 16. Letter from my employer (in case I-864 wanted updating)

(Did not have) 16a. and documents showing him as emergency contact and beneficiary

(Did not have) 17. POD for other bank account

(Had and showed to the IO) 18. Marriage license

(Did not have) 18a. contract from church

Edited October 4, 2010 by Nik+Heather

[Liam and Kara 6]

i was asked for all the same stuff for my interview, we were there for less than 15 mins, they looked at pics wedding cert and passports..done. good luck all will be fine.

[grinchus 11]

In a case like yours, AOS is a mere formality. Here's what happens at AOS:

They want to see your passports, your wedding certificate, and your wedding album with photos.

How about just wedding photos? Are we required to have an album? We have two online albums that our friends put together for us on Picasa and Flickr, from which I have ordered some prints to bring to the interview, but we don't have an album. Is a specific medium supposed to prove we are bona fide? We have our wedding cert, passports, birth certificates, photos (wedding and some others), and we can answer any questions about our relationship and each other. Enough?

[Nik+Heather 121]

How about just wedding photos? Are we required to have an album? We have two online albums that our friends put together for us on Picasa and Flickr, from which I have ordered some prints to bring to the interview, but we don't have an album. Is a specific medium supposed to prove we are bona fide? We have our wedding cert, passports, birth certificates, photos (wedding and some others), and we can answer any questions about our relationship and each other. Enough?

We had been (still have been) lazy and haven't gotten the physical album together, so we just printed some out 4-6 per page on regular paper with the color printer. Some from the before wedding (w/all sorts of family) some from the wedding, some from stuff we had done together after as well. I think this was the best way to go, as it was just another regular sheet of paper she could very easily add it straight into our file.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

Peoples,

I give you one very valuable advice here: spend $25 and part of your next weekend on creating a wedding album. If you don't put it together now, you never will. The added advantage is that it will make your AOS interview so much smoother. I know it's the digital age, but online dating isn't comparable to intercourse and digital photos don't have the same impact as a lovingly created photo album.

[Nik+Heather 121]

Peoples,

I give you one very valuable advice here: spend $25 and part of your next weekend on creating a wedding album. If you don't put it together now, you never will. The added advantage is that it will make your AOS interview so much smoother. I know it's the digital age, but online dating isn't comparable to intercourse and digital photos don't have the same impact as a lovingly created photo album.

Awwww, Bob, you are the last person I would have expected to see such a comment from. I see you do have a soft spot for some sentimentality after all!

[grinchus 11]

Hi all,

I actually have another question about this topic. On the appointment letter there is a check-list of docs to bring to the interview. Two of the items, the completed medical examination (I-693) and completed affidavit of support (I-864) with accompanying docs (tax returns, letter from employer and evidence of sponsor's citizenship) are listed as requires "unless already submitted." I submitted these with the I-485 application itself. I'm assuming that means I *do not* have to bring these to the interview. Right? They will know I have already submitted these things?

Our interview is on Oct. 27th at the crack of dawn (or so it seems; we have to be there by 7:45 a.m. - ugh)

Thanks!

[Nartaki 7]

Yeah. You dont to bring those documents to the interview unless already submitted.

We brought them anyway to the interview, and nobody asked to see them.

Also, the immigration folks are more concerned about the quality of evidence, rather than quantity of evidence.

High quality evidence includes joint financial assets and liabilities (mutual funds, IRAs, bank accounts, mortgage, life insurance, car insurance, health insurance, house, car, tax returns, credit cards, cell phone, utilities), children and a large wedding with hundreds of guests.

Medium quality evidence includes wedding photographs, joint vacations, same address on drivers licenses, name change

Low quality evidence includes affidavits, emergency contact, cards, notes, records of phonecalls, letters, chat logs, emails

Its good to have a mix from each category.