Bona Fide Marriage

[ivana.corsale 1]

Hello,

I am currently on F-1 and got married to a US citizen. We are filing for the green card application and I was wondering specifically what type of marriage evidence should be included in the application. We were thinking of including our joint lease and an affidavit from my husband's parents certifying and having personal knowledge of the marriage. Are photos of us necessary at this point of the application? Or are photos only needed during the interview process?

Thanks!

[Little_My 464]

What you choose to submit now is up to you, there really is no master list for items to use as proof of bonafide marriage.

I personally think that it is good to send a mix of "harder" evidence and "softer" evidence. By harder evidence I mean things that show co-mingling of finances, such as joint bank accounts, joint credit cards, joint insurance, being beneficiaries of each other's life insurance, joint phone plan, etc. You might not have all of the above, which is fine. Since your marriage is probably pretty recent and you might not have a SSN yet, it is understandable that you have not had the time, or you are not able to put you on bank accounts, credit cards etc. yet.

We did sent about 10 photos with our application, with captions explaining where they were taken and when. This was to establish a timeline and show that we had traveled together, as well as prove that we both had met each other's parents. I just put the photos on a word document in order, wrote the captions for each and printed in color. We had plain tickets to show trips together, and affidavits from both of our dads and 3 friends. We did not receive any RFEs.

Just including a joint lease and the affidavits probably won't be enough, so if that is ALL you were going to include, you should try to come up with something in addition to those.

[ivana.corsale 1]

Thanks for your response! In terms of "harder" evidence, we can provide a joint lease and affidavits. We can definitely provide photos and plane tickets that show a timeline of events and activities done together. I am just wondering if that would be enough evidence or if we should come up with more "harder" evidence..

[Little_My 464]

Can you add yourself to his bank accounts? Now that you are married, it should be possible. We did that as soon as we married. We also had a joint phone plan throughout the time I was here on an F1. What we sent was..

- Proof of joint bank accounts

- Proof of joint phoneplan

- Affidavits

- Photos

- Proof of mail coming to our apartment addressed to both of us

- Plain tickets

- Proof of him visiting me in Finland before I moved to the US (passport stamps + temporary residence permit)

[ivana.corsale 1]

I am wondering now if it makes more sense to show evidence of the joint bank account during the interview since we are almost ready to send the entire application. So, we can start the joint bank account now and actually show some history of that by the time the interview comes up.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

I am wondering now if it makes more sense to show evidence of the joint bank account during the interview since we are almost ready to send the entire application. So, we can start the joint bank account now and actually show some history of that by the time the interview comes up.

This make sense. We followed the instructions on the I-130 literally, and they say "attach one or more pieces of evidence" so we initially sent only a few things. You have the interview to show more (though what you send initially should be quality evidence). Good luck!

[ivana.corsale 1]

Nice! Thanks for all your advice! It helps a lot.

[Deputy Purple 1,294]

For a "new" marriage USCIS isn't going to expect a whole lot of evidence. What you need to show is at least the beginning of co-mingling your finances & lives. New joint accounts will do that.

Now when the time comes in 2 years to Remove Conditions they'll expect to see that you've maintained joint accounts for more than a few months and are sharing the expenses of your common residence.

[NinjaLadyBug 23]

Harpa Timsah, you mentioned sending in only a few things initially. Which peices did you send and how did you determine what to send?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Hi LadyBug, I will reply to your other thread in more detail, but from that thread, I gather you are not newlyweds, so I would send in more than a few things initially.