Questions about CR-1/IR-1 Visa

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Over the last 6 months I have been trying to document as much as I can, for the things I need for this visa. I am finaly to the point I am trying to put this together, and now I have questions.

1. Do I have to have copies of my husbands passport?

2. I have not had my passport with my changed name yet. I have only traveled on the old one. So do I need to get my new one and have it copied too before sending in the petition?

3. I did not have a wedding party after we got married, as i was leaving the same day. The 2nd time going back I did not either, because it was after all the protesting and it was just more difficult with all the fighting between the religions and family just being cautious. So do I just do a written statement to explain this and have it notirized???

4. Do I need to send in birth certificates of my children or only children we have together?

5. Has any one sent in a list of realitives here in the states with address and phone numbers, this was in a RFE I seen. If you have why is it important?

Any help is greatly apperciated. Thanks

Nora

[KittyPollitt 284]

Over the last 6 months I have been trying to document as much as I can, for the things I need for this visa. I am finaly to the point I am trying to put this together, and now I have questions.

1. Do I have to have copies of my husbands passport?

2. I have not had my passport with my changed name yet. I have only traveled on the old one. So do I need to get my new one and have it copied too before sending in the petition?

3. I did not have a wedding party after we got married, as i was leaving the same day. The 2nd time going back I did not either, because it was after all the protesting and it was just more difficult with all the fighting between the religions and family just being cautious. So do I just do a written statement to explain this and have it notirized???

4. Do I need to send in birth certificates of my children or only children we have together?

5. Has any one sent in a list of realitives here in the states with address and phone numbers, this was in a RFE I seen. If you have why is it important?

Any help is greatly apperciated. Thanks

Nora

1.) Nope.

2.)If you send a certified copy of your birth certificate, you don't need it. It'd still be good to send in copies of the entry/exit stamps to Egypt, but in that regard, the name change doesn't matter.

3.) A written statement is fine, getting it notarized is not needed.

4.) Birth certificates of any children aren't needed, but if you have kids together and both your names are on it, this serves as proof of a bonafide marriage, not unlike shared bills and such.

5.) I have never heard of this. I have heard of relatives giving affidavits swearing to knowledge of the relationship, but never just a list of names and numbers.

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

I thought #5was a little weird too. But my friend from Morocco got a RFE and that was one of the things they wanted. Not sure what that has to do with our visa petition.

1.) Nope.

2.)If you send a certified copy of your birth certificate, you don't need it. It'd still be good to send in copies of the entry/exit stamps to Egypt, but in that regard, the name change doesn't matter.

3.) A written statement is fine, getting it notarized is not needed.

4.) Birth certificates of any children aren't needed, but if you have kids together and both your names are on it, this serves as proof of a bonafide marriage, not unlike shared bills and such.

5.) I have never heard of this. I have heard of relatives giving affidavits swearing to knowledge of the relationship, but never just a list of names and numbers.

[moroccogirlny 100]

Over the last 6 months I have been trying to document as much as I can, for the things I need for this visa. I am finaly to the point I am trying to put this together, and now I have questions.

1. Do I have to have copies of my husbands passport?

2. I have not had my passport with my changed name yet. I have only traveled on the old one. So do I need to get my new one and have it copied too before sending in the petition?

3. I did not have a wedding party after we got married, as i was leaving the same day. The 2nd time going back I did not either, because it was after all the protesting and it was just more difficult with all the fighting between the religions and family just being cautious. So do I just do a written statement to explain this and have it notirized???

4. Do I need to send in birth certificates of my children or only children we have together?

5. Has any one sent in a list of realitives here in the states with address and phone numbers, this was in a RFE I seen. If you have why is it important?

Any help is greatly apperciated. Thanks

Nora

Did his/your family not accept your marriage because of religion? If so you might want to address this with your petition.

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

no when we got married it was the day i was leaving, so no time. And the 2nd time i went was right after the revolution, and even though it appeared normal, it was not. And my huband 1st order of business was protecing me. And there for while the fghting between the 2 religions was bad. My in-laws came to us to spend time with us, because it was safer where we was. So gather and planning a wedding ceremony was not on the top of the list, and ppl there was still nervous.

And they aprove of our marriage, my husband and sister in-laws seen a softer and nicer side to there mother when I was there.

Did his/your family not accept your marriage because of religion? If so you might want to address this with your petition.

[Samoray 165]

Hi Angel

For starting the process you will need the following

1. form I-130

2. form G325A ( one for you and another for your husband )

3. Copy of original marriage certificate (Arabic)

4. Copy of divorce certificate/certificates, if you or your husband was married before

5. Copy of your passport ( doesn't matter with new or old name )

6. 2 passport size pictures of you and 2 of your husband

7. Proof of bona fide marriage, might include but not limited to

a) affidavits from relatives or friends that know both of you describing how they know about your relationship

b) pictures of you together

c) property or bank accounts that has both of your names

d) anything else that would establish that you had and have an ongoing bona fide relationship

Any documents that are not in English has to be accompanied by an English translation

Good Luck

[Aly174 9]

First off, congrats and good luck to you as you begin this process....luckily you are in a great place here, so many times I've been lost or at my witt's end about things :bonk:and found much needed help and support from my fellow members...

During this initial phase(I130 petition) you will not need copies of his passport however you will need 2 passport size photos of him and yourself to send with the petition and the g325 forms.

Your current passport with you previous name is fine as long as you have your other identifying documents that prove you are the same person and of course the copies of your entry/exit stamps along with ticket or receipts would be good to send.

I will come back to #3, as for the children's birth certificates...you only need to send the certificates for children you have together, at this point it is not necessary but as others have said it will add to your proof of bonafide marriage so why not go ahead and send them off.

* I have saved my response to #3 and 5, specifically because I did receive an RFE specifically addressing these items...and I had sent in a very good and detailed original petition package with what we and everyone else thought was the "kitchen sink" of evidence...of course anyone who read my post about my RFE probably agrees that it was almost entirely based on the idea that my husband had previously been here in the US, but I digress...:whistle:I am copy/pasting exactly what they asked for in regards to these two areas:

As for #5, I wasn't specifically asked to provide a list of relatives and their contact information however as you see above they did want notarized statements from these people as to why they did not go to Egypt and/or attend a wedding ceremony...so you may want to go ahead and get these type of statements and send them in with your petition just to save yourself a potential RFE down the road...also affidavits from your family here are very useful in establishing in their mind that you have a legitimate marriage and your family here not only is aware and supportive but also new of your relationship prior...they want to see that you didn't "rush" into anything, feel manipulated and that you have family support.

When I sent our petition I really felt like all of our tons of hard evidence was more than enough and in a lot of cases I've seen it would be, but apparently it depends on the CO reviewing the case and whether or not they are more impressed with subjective proof such as statements of people's feelings and atitudes and your reasoning for doing or not doing things...if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely go ahead and write up descriptive narratives for every aspect and send in from the beginning because not doing that has delayed approval of our I130 by at least 2 months.

My RFE was quite extensive and having gone for infopass appointment I got a lot of insight as to how best to respond so if you or anyone else wants to contact me I will be happy to pm you my personal contact and share my RFE as well as how I responded. I realize it's helpful to a lot of people but I try not to post too much personal info on the public forums.

Good luck to you and please feel free to contact me anytime.

Over the last 6 months I have been trying to document as much as I can, for the things I need for this visa. I am finaly to the point I am trying to put this together, and now I have questions.

1. Do I have to have copies of my husbands passport?

2. I have not had my passport with my changed name yet. I have only traveled on the old one. So do I need to get my new one and have it copied too before sending in the petition?

3. I did not have a wedding party after we got married, as i was leaving the same day. The 2nd time going back I did not either, because it was after all the protesting and it was just more difficult with all the fighting between the religions and family just being cautious. So do I just do a written statement to explain this and have it notirized???

4. Do I need to send in birth certificates of my children or only children we have together?

5. Has any one sent in a list of realitives here in the states with address and phone numbers, this was in a RFE I seen. If you have why is it important?

Any help is greatly apperciated. Thanks

Nora

[Aly174 9]

I apologize as I just realized that my attempt to copy/paste did not work....so I am attaching the rfe page specifically addressing this...hope it helps

[Samoray 165]

I hate that RFE , it delayed us for three months

Angel, follow the steps everyone offered so you can avoid any delays

Good Luck

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Thanks Sam, Samy and I thank u.

Hi Angel

For starting the process you will need the following

1. form I-130

2. form G325A ( one for you and another for your husband )

3. Copy of original marriage certificate (Arabic)

4. Copy of divorce certificate/certificates, if you or your husband was married before

5. Copy of your passport ( doesn't matter with new or old name )

6. 2 passport size pictures of you and 2 of your husband

7. Proof of bona fide marriage, might include but not limited to

a) affidavits from relatives or friends that know both of you describing how they know about your relationship

b) pictures of you together

c) property or bank accounts that has both of your names

d) anything else that would establish that you had and have an ongoing bona fide relationship

Any documents that are not in English has to be accompanied by an English translation

Good Luck

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

I will be pm'ing you, and thanks a lot.

First off, congrats and good luck to you as you begin this process....luckily you are in a great place here, so many times I've been lost or at my witt's end about things :bonk:and found much needed help and support from my fellow members...

During this initial phase(I130 petition) you will not need copies of his passport however you will need 2 passport size photos of him and yourself to send with the petition and the g325 forms.

Your current passport with you previous name is fine as long as you have your other identifying documents that prove you are the same person and of course the copies of your entry/exit stamps along with ticket or receipts would be good to send.

I will come back to #3, as for the children's birth certificates...you only need to send the certificates for children you have together, at this point it is not necessary but as others have said it will add to your proof of bonafide marriage so why not go ahead and send them off.

* I have saved my response to #3 and 5, specifically because I did receive an RFE specifically addressing these items...and I had sent in a very good and detailed original petition package with what we and everyone else thought was the "kitchen sink" of evidence...of course anyone who read my post about my RFE probably agrees that it was almost entirely based on the idea that my husband had previously been here in the US, but I digress...:whistle:I am copy/pasting exactly what they asked for in regards to these two areas:

As for #5, I wasn't specifically asked to provide a list of relatives and their contact information however as you see above they did want notarized statements from these people as to why they did not go to Egypt and/or attend a wedding ceremony...so you may want to go ahead and get these type of statements and send them in with your petition just to save yourself a potential RFE down the road...also affidavits from your family here are very useful in establishing in their mind that you have a legitimate marriage and your family here not only is aware and supportive but also new of your relationship prior...they want to see that you didn't "rush" into anything, feel manipulated and that you have family support.

When I sent our petition I really felt like all of our tons of hard evidence was more than enough and in a lot of cases I've seen it would be, but apparently it depends on the CO reviewing the case and whether or not they are more impressed with subjective proof such as statements of people's feelings and atitudes and your reasoning for doing or not doing things...if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely go ahead and write up descriptive narratives for every aspect and send in from the beginning because not doing that has delayed approval of our I130 by at least 2 months.

My RFE was quite extensive and having gone for infopass appointment I got a lot of insight as to how best to respond so if you or anyone else wants to contact me I will be happy to pm you my personal contact and share my RFE as well as how I responded. I realize it's helpful to a lot of people but I try not to post too much personal info on the public forums.

Good luck to you and please feel free to contact me anytime.

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Believe me I will. Showing proof of a bonafied marriage bothers me. But my imediate family and his family and a lot of friends can write statements and I can explain why we did not have a wedding. So I am sure we can do it.

I hate that RFE , it delayed us for three months

Angel, follow the steps everyone offered so you can avoid any delays

Good Luck

[Samoray 165]

Believe me I will. Showing proof of a bonafied marriage bothers me. But my imediate family and his family and a lot of friends can write statements and I can explain why we did not have a wedding. So I am sure we can do it.

It shouldn't bother, cause as long as you have a real relationship, you will be able to prove that whether you had a wedding or not

Good Luck for you and Samy

[Egypt's Heart 6]

It shouldn't bother, cause as long as you have a real relationship, you will be able to prove that whether you had a wedding or nott

Good Luck for you and Samy

angel eyes, did you include pics of you and him with his family? Pics always do help.

Amr and I are not having "wedding" ceremony, but are planning a reception dinner and 2 dinner parties later in the 2nd week when Im there with family and friends. And of course will take lots of pics at our apartment and his familys homes too.

[Angel Eyes Yuseef 5]

Igot some pics of me with his family at there home and our apartment. And i have pics of our dinner party too, with our close friends.

angel eyes, did you include pics of you and him with his family? Pics always do help.

Amr and I are not having "wedding" ceremony, but are planning a reception dinner and 2 dinner parties later in the 2nd week when Im there with family and friends. And of course will take lots of pics at our apartment and his familys homes too.