Our Story

[loosegee 3]

Hi again all. My second post so be gentle. If you good folks wouldn't mind i'd like to quickly run mine and my wife's story by the other members just to get a rough idea of how easy or hard our process might be. My wife is a US citizen and i am a British citizen

Ok,

My wife and i first got to know each other in a yahoo chatroom mid 2006.

We chatted for around a year, typing and voice chats.

We first physically met in July 2007 in San Francisco and spent 10 days together.

I flew to the US again in november 2007 for a week for Thanksgiving.

She then visited me for 4 days in January 2008 and then again for 4 months over the summer of 2008. She first met my parents during these trips. We got engaged in July 2008

I returned home to the US with her for 3 weeks in September 2008 and first met her parents and stayed at her parents home. She still lives with her parents.

I visited the US again over March/April 2009 for 5 weeks and again November/December 2009 for 5 weeks. Both times staying at her parents home. I get along with her family very well.

I visited again for 6 weeks in July/August 2010.

I am posting this while in California at the moment and i am returning home to the UK in the morning.

During this most recent visit we got married. We weren't supposed to be married until 2012 after she brought me here but her mother was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer so we got married back in May this year.

At the moment we are printing all our forms out and gathering everything together for the I-130 petition and we are just wondering about a few things from reading various posts on here and peoples different experiences.

THINGS WE HAVE

Quite a lot of email correspondence.

Some Skype call records

Some airline information and itineraries and boarding passes for our separate trips and of 2 trips we took together.

Passport stamps of all our trips.

Lots of photos mostly of me in various places around San Francisco and in her parents home.

Lots of wedding pictures of both of us with a lot of her family and my parents who came over for the wedding.

We will have affidavits of support from her family and my family and some friends. Her brother is a San Francisco Police Officer. We'll have a letter from him.

She has kept a blog for the past 4 years with is basically a blog about me. Lots of pictures of me and stories and things we've done, places we've gone and what we've got up to.

THINGS WE DON'T AND WONT HAVE

Any kind of financial records or documents with both our names on it.

No real estate or rental agreements or utility bills with our names on them. We have never lived together before to get these things.

Apart from the wedding pictures we don't have very many pictures of us both over the 6 years. It's usually her taking pictures of me and 1 or 2 of her with her back turned because she hates having her picture taken.

Any of the early chat records because neither of us use the accounts we used back then. They are most likely deleted and if not we'd have no idea what the passwords were anyway. We mostly used voice chat.

Given all of the above may i ask for your various opinions on how our petition might go? Not expecting anyone to foresee the future but does it seem like a pretty straight forward case?

Thanks in advance

Edited July 17, 2011 by loosegee

[kali1229 6]

The things that you listed are mostly for evidence of a bonafide marriage. To prove this you can use all of the information that you have and if you don't have your chat history from when you first met then you can do a quick letter such as what you shared with us about your relationship. It's been 6 years, even if it were only one or two, it would be enough. It seems like your case shouldn't have any problems at all. You have plenty of evidence and the rest is easy peasy.

I hope you get more feedback from more experienced members!

[little_g 35]

As long as you leave the country as you stated you plan on doing you'll be fine. Your relationship is clearly legit and I assume you have loads of material proof to show this. Just have her file for your CR-1 as soon as she can because from what I have seen it can take from 5 to 6 months or more to get. If you need help figuring out how to do all this there is a lot of great information on the website and the people on here have "been there done that" so you got a good support base In the mean time here is a link for you to check out: http://london.usembassy.gov/immigrant-visas/immediate-relatives.html

Edited July 17, 2011 by little_g

[Done--Really 331]

It is a piece of cake. You are from a low fraud country and have far more evidence than many folks, so USCIS will zip you right through in 4 - 6 months assuming you make no mistakes filling out the forms and providing the MANDATORY documents.

Best wishes.

[Ryan H 3,812]

OP: I will echo what magical told you.

Best wishes to you!

[JoannaV 174]

You don't need a tonne of proof at the first stage. Marriage certificate, I guess you could include the airline tickets/itineraries from the two trips you took together, and then as you don't have any other concrete documents also include at least 3 affidavits from people who know you. For the I-130 petition they're more concerned about proving that you are legally married and eligible to apply than anything else.

The Embassy stage is where it's more about proving that your marriage is bona fide. However, for the UK you won't need much beyond the key documents they request. So you can take your photos and chat logs and the like to the interview, but it's highly unlikely anyone will want to see them :-)

[Shermeen&Adam 0]

You don't need a tonne of proof at the first stage. Marriage certificate, I guess you could include the airline tickets/itineraries from the two trips you took together, and then as you don't have any other concrete documents also include at least 3 affidavits from people who know you. For the I-130 petition they're more concerned about proving that you are legally married and eligible to apply than anything else.

The Embassy stage is where it's more about proving that your marriage is bona fide. However, for the UK you won't need much beyond the key documents they request. So you can take your photos and chat logs and the like to the interview, but it's highly unlikely anyone will want to see them :-)

Couldn't agree more. When she files the I-130 they will have a list of documents they require. Just stick to the list. If they want any extra evidence (unlikely) they will ask for it. At the interview stage you can bring documents to support your relationship but again, it is unlikely they will ask for it.

I'm in the middle of the CR1/IR1 process currently and you just have to stick to what they ask for. The process looks scary and complicated at first but once you familiarise yourself with the terminology, you'll be fine. It is pretty straightforward in fact. The wait will be the most difficult to deal with!

[edsotherhalf 1]

I am from Canada and my husband from USA. We too had none of the things you have. No joint checking account, my name isn't on the house yet, none of htat stuff and we got through just fine. He did the affidavit of support and that was it. We had the tickets, wedding pics etc and it worked. You will be fine.

Hi again all. My second post so be gentle. If you good folks wouldn't mind i'd like to quickly run mine and my wife's story by the other members just to get a rough idea of how easy or hard our process might be. My wife is a US citizen and i am a British citizen

Ok,

My wife and i first got to know each other in a yahoo chatroom mid 2006.

We chatted for around a year, typing and voice chats.

We first physically met in July 2007 in San Francisco and spent 10 days together.

I flew to the US again in november 2007 for a week for Thanksgiving.

She then visited me for 4 days in January 2008 and then again for 4 months over the summer of 2008. She first met my parents during these trips. We got engaged in July 2008

I returned home to the US with her for 3 weeks in September 2008 and first met her parents and stayed at her parents home. She still lives with her parents.

I visited the US again over March/April 2009 for 5 weeks and again November/December 2009 for 5 weeks. Both times staying at her parents home. I get along with her family very well.

I visited again for 6 weeks in July/August 2010.

I am posting this while in California at the moment and i am returning home to the UK in the morning.

During this most recent visit we got married. We weren't supposed to be married until 2012 after she brought me here but her mother was recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer so we got married back in May this year.

At the moment we are printing all our forms out and gathering everything together for the I-130 petition and we are just wondering about a few things from reading various posts on here and peoples different experiences.

THINGS WE HAVE

Quite a lot of email correspondence.

Some Skype call records

Some airline information and itineraries and boarding passes for our separate trips and of 2 trips we took together.

Passport stamps of all our trips.

Lots of photos mostly of me in various places around San Francisco and in her parents home.

Lots of wedding pictures of both of us with a lot of her family and my parents who came over for the wedding.

We will have affidavits of support from her family and my family and some friends. Her brother is a San Francisco Police Officer. We'll have a letter from him.

She has kept a blog for the past 4 years with is basically a blog about me. Lots of pictures of me and stories and things we've done, places we've gone and what we've got up to.

THINGS WE DON'T AND WONT HAVE

Any kind of financial records or documents with both our names on it.

No real estate or rental agreements or utility bills with our names on them. We have never lived together before to get these things.

Apart from the wedding pictures we don't have very many pictures of us both over the 6 years. It's usually her taking pictures of me and 1 or 2 of her with her back turned because she hates having her picture taken.

Any of the early chat records because neither of us use the accounts we used back then. They are most likely deleted and if not we'd have no idea what the passwords were anyway. We mostly used voice chat.

Given all of the above may i ask for your various opinions on how our petition might go? Not expecting anyone to foresee the future but does it seem like a pretty straight forward case?

Thanks in advance

[theharbor 1]

All of the evidence you will provide should be sufficient. My husband and I decided to elope on a visit and when we submitted his I-130 we included pretty much the same evidence you have. I did not, however, send emails because I literally have THOUSANDS. His I-130 is still pending, and if they ask for further evidence, then I will gladly send the emails. I've actually saved all of the emails to my computer and have started a little evidence file, just in case. If they don't ask for it (which I hope is the case because I don't want the process to slow down), then he can just take it all to his interview. Anywho, you should be fine. Good luck preparing and submitting your application :-)

Edited July 18, 2011 by theharbor