plane tickets????

[Anh map 2,098]

I've never really understood why passport stamps and boarding passes are considered so important. What do they prove? Surely not that the couple met, because one could have gone to the other's country for whatever reason, not necessarily to spend time together. I'm not saying that you shouldn't enclose them as evidence, on the contrary copy them and put them in the envelope if that's what they want, we did it too and everything went smooth and without any problems. I'm just curious.

For VJ purposes they are accepted by USCIS and the Embassies/Consulates as evidence. That is why they are important to those of us going through the process.

Your point is valid. And those alone do not a bona fide relationship prove.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I know that CZ is just used as an example, but if it is a Schengen country like CZ and you are coming from the US, you won't have a POE stamp or an exit stamp from CZ. Only from your entry and exit points in Europe. In our case, I didn't bother to keep the boarding passes for most of the trips, but I do have the entry and exit stamps for China, pictures of us together in China and copies of the receipts for things we did together while we were there. I would disagree that copies of the receipts from the airlines are useless. They do serve as secondary evidence, but I would agree that you will need more than just that and the main thing will be the entry visas and the passport stamps.

I entered at Prague airport and so did Alla. We both had entry stamps. My passport is full of entry and exit stamps from EU counties...Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium to name but a few. It is true that if I enter in Germany and travel to Blegium I will not have a stamp from Belgium, but if that is where we met then I will probably have some other evidence I was in Belgium. At any rate I would have no boarding pass for Belgium.

RECEIPTS for purchase of plane tickets are not evidence at all of travel. They are proof you paid for a ticket only. There is NO requirement to buy a plane ticket to meet someone anywhere.

I met Alla completely by accident while we were both in Prague for business. Neither of us KNEW we would become engaged and I didn;t even know K-1s existed at that time (I did not find out about that until AFTER we got engaged) So, some months later she did not have her boarding passes but she DID have passport stamps. I had boarding passes still as they were kept in my files for travel reimbursement. Otherwise, passport stamps would have sufficed alone.

If you meet your fiancee in a country other than where she lives, you need to prove BOTH of you were there. Perhaps "prove" is too strong a term. You need to show evidence.

[Keo 0]

I kept all my travel docs from the last few years. In the interview they didn't even look at the folder of stuff I took all they cared about was how much my fiancée earned and if I was who I said I was. For me they didn't give a damn about us proving the relationship.

However if you don't take it you know they'll ask.

[Yellowhead 12]

I have only e-tickets from my trips to the USA, and only 2 passport stamps that prove I traveled there (despite being there 6+ times this year). Not every POE stamps the passport, and it depends which country you are coming from.

In my case, I included a print out of flight history with the airline from my frequent flyer miles, PLUS the itinerary, PLUS photographs from the trip. And any passport stamps acquired. This was for the I-129f. For the actual interview, I would suggest requesting boarding passes from future flights as primary proof, along with passport stamps. (I am making a habit of asking for a stamp from now on as well). If you don't have this evidence, you can't panick at the I-129f stage. Most people are unaware they will need these docs until engaged and looking into the K-1 process, only to gasp at the thought of throwing all of those docs out in the past. Work from this point forward to make the best case possible and you should be fine. The worst that will happen is an RFE in most cases, and that can usually be remedied with current documentation.

Speaking of required documentation - how would any of you suggest I compile phone records given this situation: I call him using skype only, or a calling card, and he calls me for a couple minutes at a time, and has me call him back immediately to avoid atrocious cell phone long distance charges. For the I-129f I included all calls from 2 separate phone bills of his, made to my number, and I included the records from our Skype conversations to his cell phone, but frankly they don't really prove that it is me calling his cell. Any suggestions? Technology is great most of the time, but when it comes to immigration - not so much!

[SuperDuper! 230]

For VJ purposes they are accepted by USCIS and the Embassies/Consulates as evidence. That is why they are important to those of us going through the process.

Your point is valid. And those alone do not a bona fide relationship prove.

And neither does a pregnancy: Only that 2 glands were urgently calling out to one another.

[pushbrk 12,886]

I've never really understood why passport stamps and boarding passes are considered so important. What do they prove? Surely not that the couple met, because one could have gone to the other's country for whatever reason, not necessarily to spend time together. I'm not saying that you shouldn't enclose them as evidence, on the contrary copy them and put them in the envelope if that's what they want, we did it too and everything went smooth and without any problems. I'm just curious.

Your argument is a reasonable one but doesn't matter. USCIS considers passport stamps and boarding passes or other PRIMARY evidence of being in the same country at the same time as sufficient evidence of meeting. I expect they use this more reasonable standard because people aren't usually prepared in advance to provide "proof of life" kinds of evidence.

[newlyweds2010 208]

Your argument is a reasonable one but doesn't matter. USCIS considers passport stamps and boarding passes or other PRIMARY evidence of being in the same country at the same time as sufficient evidence of meeting. I expect they use this more reasonable standard because people aren't usually prepared in advance to provide "proof of life" kinds of evidence.

Oh yeah I know it doesn't matter. It was just out of curiosity, because to me a stamp on a passport or a boarding pass don't show anything other than a person was on a plane that landed into a certain airport on a certain date. Nevertheless, we sent our nice photocopies of passport stamps and boarding passes because if that's what they want, that's exactly what they get.

[pushbrk 12,886]

Oh yeah I know it doesn't matter. It was just out of curiosity, because to me a stamp on a passport or a boarding pass don't show anything other than a person was on a plane that landed into a certain airport on a certain date. Nevertheless, we sent our nice photocopies of passport stamps and boarding passes because if that's what they want, that's exactly what they get.

So now do you understand why?