Front loading CR1 petition

[smiles247 0]

Hello VJ members. I am the USC and getting ready to file for my husband. Here is our story:

1. We were denied a fiance visa last year and were told by the CO it was his believe that it was for immigration purposes. I had made one trip (for a week) during the two years and I was not able to be there for the interview. The CO told my husband, that I should come down to Lagos and marry him and apply for a spousal visa. The petition was sent back to the US early February. I got a letter saying the petition can't be reaffirmed because it had expired, but it gave me the option to file again.

2. We have been together for over three years. Recently, I was able to visit him again, we got married and spent two weeks with each other, with friends and family.

3. We have plenty of pictures, emails, chats, and phone records and about 15 letters from our families and friends regarding our "Bonafide" relationship. Some written before our marriage and some written recently.

4. My husband and I are writing letters which I will include in the package I am sending with the application. In this, I am addressing our "red flags" such as our age difference, my being white, my being married before, and my being at an age where baring a child is let say is difficult. We have discussed this with his family and we have indicated adoption as being an option.

What I want to ask is this, I have about a box full of chats, phone records, pictures, emails and etc. do I send all this with the application with the letters obtained from relatives and friends? I want to make sure our petition addresses all which needs to be addressed and contain everything needed from the start. What I don't want is to overwhelm the USCIS. Please help!! any advice and suggestions?

Thank you for your help1

[trojam227 18]

Just send a snapshot of your relationship starting from when you first started talking until now. Photos together are important but from different periods if possible. Chat & phone bills could be 1-2 pages for each month spent together, boarding passes and of course the affidavits but 15 is a lot, maybe just a few from people who spent the most time with you both together. The last thing you need is for them to look at your petition and roll their eyes, put it aside and work on an easier one. Keep the evidence to key pieces would be my reccommendation. Maybe someone who had a similar situation could give more input. Good luck this time around!

[Olomi_811 130]

Just send a snapshot of your relationship starting from when you first started talking until now. Photos together are important but from different periods if possible. Chat & phone bills could be 1-2 pages for each month spent together, boarding passes and of course the affidavits but 15 is a lot, maybe just a few from people who spent the most time with you both together. The last thing you need is for them to look at your petition and roll their eyes, put it aside and work on an easier one. Keep the evidence to key pieces would be my reccommendation. Maybe someone who had a similar situation could give more input. Good luck this time around!

Agreed

[patient2010 93]

frontloading is good when going through Lagos I would say send all there is never too much stuff when it comes to the COs in Naija.....welcome to VJ and Goodluck

[AlexBa 5]

My husband and I have a similar situation. I included with the I-130 a letter to the consular in Nigeria addressing every red flag that you did. You and I have much the same story. Unlike the I-129f this petition was really front loaded but not too much. LOL. My cover letter included all the forms required and then 3 sections for evidence. The first section was our wedding with pics, letters (husbands,mom & boss), cards. (all copies) The pics were copies too that I did at Staples. Also in that 1st section was our 1st trip together as husband and wife with boarding passes, receipts from hotel, restaurant and pics with family and friends. The second section contained our emails. I chose around 30 for my husband and about 25 from me. The last section contained our phone records. The only call records missing were my husbands which he finally received this week! Yeah!!. Because we were lacking phone records for the I-129f I included all of them. Since we have both been denied, put as much in that petition that you think will help your case! I pray that all of our hard work pays off and my husband will finally be here with me!

[smiles247 0]

My husband and I have a similar situation. I included with the I-130 a letter to the consular in Nigeria addressing every red flag that you did. You and I have much the same story. Unlike the I-129f this petition was really front loaded but not too much. LOL. My cover letter included all the forms required and then 3 sections for evidence. The first section was our wedding with pics, letters (husbands,mom & boss), cards. (all copies) The pics were copies too that I did at Staples. Also in that 1st section was our 1st trip together as husband and wife with boarding passes, receipts from hotel, restaurant and pics with family and friends. The second section contained our emails. I chose around 30 for my husband and about 25 from me. The last section contained our phone records. The only call records missing were my husbands which he finally received this week! Yeah!!. Because we were lacking phone records for the I-129f I included all of them. Since we have both been denied, put as much in that petition that you think will help your case! I pray that all of our hard work pays off and my husband will finally be here with me!

Thanks AlexBa. Did you enclose the full chat, such as if the particular chat was 10 pages long? or did you just enclose the first pages of each chat? We have so much that it is overwhelming. Good luck with your VJ. Thanks again for your reply.

[smiles247 0]

frontloading is good when going through Lagos I would say send all there is never too much stuff when it comes to the COs in Naija.....welcome to VJ and Goodluck

Thanks patient2010. When you say, send all, do you mean everything in content? I want to know if I should enclose the chats in full, such as the whole chat or just the first page of each chat? I wanted to enclose about three chats each week as evidence. Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[smiles247 0]

Just send a snapshot of your relationship starting from when you first started talking until now. Photos together are important but from different periods if possible. Chat & phone bills could be 1-2 pages for each month spent together, boarding passes and of course the affidavits but 15 is a lot, maybe just a few from people who spent the most time with you both together. The last thing you need is for them to look at your petition and roll their eyes, put it aside and work on an easier one. Keep the evidence to key pieces would be my reccommendation. Maybe someone who had a similar situation could give more input. Good luck this time around!

Thank you trojam227. It is my objective to submit enough evidence to show an ongoing correspondence over the years, but at the same time, as you indicated, I don't want them to get overwhelmed and roll their eyes and pass our application over without looking at it. When you say "key pieces" of evidence can you elaborate please. At Lagos, I hear the more the better. One or two pages each month might raise the CO's eye brows? I don't want to give them a reason to say, "where is the evidence in between this week and then next. It is nerve racking to deal with US Embassy in Lagos.

I appreciate your help.

[AlexBa 5]

Thanks AlexBa. Did you enclose the full chat, such as if the particular chat was 10 pages long? or did you just enclose the first pages of each chat? We have so much that it is overwhelming. Good luck with your VJ. Thanks again for your reply.

[AlexBa 5]

Really only had 1 chat at the time because we were new to Skype and my husband wasn't getting the hang of Yahoo chat. LOL. So we've basically stuck w/email. What I did was to print of the list of emails then chose the ones I wanted to send and printed only those. When my husband goes for his interview I will print all of them for him. Compared to others ours are small as power is such an issue where my husband lives. Hope the suggestions are of help to you. Congratulations on your marriage and hope the rest of the visa journey doesn't have too many bumps in it for you!

[trojam227 18]

Thank you trojam227. It is my objective to submit enough evidence to show an ongoing correspondence over the years, but at the same time, as you indicated, I don't want them to get overwhelmed and roll their eyes and pass our application over without looking at it. When you say "key pieces" of evidence can you elaborate please. At Lagos, I hear the more the better. One or two pages each month might raise the CO's eye brows? I don't want to give them a reason to say, "where is the evidence in between this week and then next. It is nerve racking to deal with US Embassy in Lagos.

I appreciate your help.

What I consider to be Key Pieces would be anything showing ongoing marital union. For example, including a couple wedding pics are fine, but boarding passes and pics from another trip over since the wedding might bear more weight. Co-mingling is tough but any proof of combining finances after the wedding is a plus. I had my husband added as beneficiary of my pension at work. I thought of it this way, anybody can put on a show and have a big wedding with all the bells & wistles but only a true marriage continues on & on. People who have been approved through Lagos should be able to give you a better idea of how much to include. England is obviously a different ball game...I didn't send one picture,chat or phone bill. No cover letter either. Only boarding passes, 2 affidavits from relatives, and a little co-mingling. I may have just been lucky, but I believe when they did the background checks they saw how many times I exited the US in the past 4yrs. with destination London.

[smiles247 0]

Really only had 1 chat at the time because we were new to Skype and my husband wasn't getting the hang of Yahoo chat. LOL. So we've basically stuck w/email. What I did was to print of the list of emails then chose the ones I wanted to send and printed only those. When my husband goes for his interview I will print all of them for him. Compared to others ours are small as power is such an issue where my husband lives. Hope the suggestions are of help to you. Congratulations on your marriage and hope the rest of the visa journey doesn't have too many bumps in it for you!

Sorry been busy putting the petition together. Thanks again for your help. Best of luck to all of us.

[smiles247 0]

What I consider to be Key Pieces would be anything showing ongoing marital union. For example, including a couple wedding pics are fine, but boarding passes and pics from another trip over since the wedding might bear more weight. Co-mingling is tough but any proof of combining finances after the wedding is a plus. I had my husband added as beneficiary of my pension at work. I thought of it this way, anybody can put on a show and have a big wedding with all the bells & wistles but only a true marriage continues on & on. People who have been approved through Lagos should be able to give you a better idea of how much to include. England is obviously a different ball game...I didn't send one picture,chat or phone bill. No cover letter either. Only boarding passes, 2 affidavits from relatives, and a little co-mingling. I may have just been lucky, but I believe when they did the background checks they saw how many times I exited the US in the past 4yrs. with destination London.

Thanks for the reply. I agree Lagos is very different when it comes to petitions. Few doesn't work with Lagos unfortunately.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

The basic rule of demial is that they can only deny you based on a fact they discover during the interview that was not covered in the original peition. If it was in the petition that fact was approved. So with Lagos you want to cover every "fact" of your relationship. Places like the UK where visas are handed out like candy only the most ill prepared petitions fail.