Address and Roman Alphabet

[josh7942003 0]

Hello all,

I am beginning the I-130 and I have a couple questions....

First off, the Roman Alphabet. On the forms it speaks of typing using the Roman alphabet, which I am, however her name and city of birth have accent marks in them. Should These be placed on the form, or no? For instance, her last name is Rodríguez. Should I include an accented I or no?

Also, she is hispanic and has the typical dual last name thing going on. Do I include both on here, or should one go in the maiden name section?

Second, the Address. Where she lives, the addresses are very different. They don't have house numbers, nor according to her, street names. Her address is the name of her neighborhood, and a description of the color of her house and where it is located in relation to the nearest grocery store. Has anyone had any experience with this, maybe could help enlighten me here?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, we just got married April 6th and I miss her dearly.

[speedwell 224]

Hello all,

I am beginning the I-130 and I have a couple questions....

First off, the Roman Alphabet. On the forms it speaks of typing using the Roman alphabet, which I am, however her name and city of birth have accent marks in them. Should These be placed on the form, or no? For instance, her last name is Rodríguez. Should I include an accented I or no?

Also, she is hispanic and has the typical dual last name thing going on. Do I include both on here, or should one go in the maiden name section?

Second, the Address. Where she lives, the addresses are very different. They don't have house numbers, nor according to her, street names. Her address is the name of her neighborhood, and a description of the color of her house and where it is located in relation to the nearest grocery store. Has anyone had any experience with this, maybe could help enlighten me here?

Any and all help is greatly appreciated, we just got married April 6th and I miss her dearly.

I was a typographer and copy editor, so you can trust me. Accent marks are part of the so-called "Roman" alphabet. The bureaucrats mean to differentiate between the alphabet style we are using in this forum, and others such as Cyrillic or Cherokee or hiragana or an abugida. That said, they will likely leave off the accent marks when they transcribe your forms. Don't worry about it. I'm of Hungarian descent and there are accent marks galore, and they matter. But they don't matter in the US. Do what you like with the accent marks so long as the use or non-use won't confuse matters.

The maiden name is the name she had before she married you. The married name is the name she had after she married you. In my case, it's more complicated; I am using the same surname as I had before the wedding, which happens to be the name of my ex-husband, and I'm using my birth surname as my middle name. Don't ask. The Social Security Administration didn't bat an eyelid. I'll change it to the name of my new husband once he is safely home and we don't have to worry about screwing up the immigration paperwork. I sorely miss my dude as well.

Her address is the place where she receives mail, when mail is successful in reaching her. My husband's address in Northern Ireland contains a house number, street name, a sessiagh, a ballyboe, a townland, a village name, a county name, a province name, and a country name, and I think I forgot one. In practice we use half of those.

Edited April 22, 2013 by speedwell

[josh7942003 0]

Awesome, that is all wonderfully helpful. I am incredibly nervous about this whole process, and I don't want to mess anything up in the slightest and cause a delay. I think I might see about using her sisters address, as she lives in the city and is more likely to have a street name and house number. My wife is just finishing her job as a live in nanny and therefore doesn't really have a permanent address at the moment anyway.

Also, her name didn't change once we got married. Should I still put it down as her current name, and then maiden name as well?

Any other advice you can think of with the initial I-130 packet? Since we don't have any kids and have never lived together I am going to have to go with the sworn letters from friends. Should I not use family with this, and is it okay to include wedding pictures?

Thank you again for the help, this is apparently a long and difficult process. I hope yours comes to a close soon, it's already difficult on us and we just started, I can't imagine how it is for you

[speedwell 224]

Awesome, that is all wonderfully helpful. I am incredibly nervous about this whole process, and I don't want to mess anything up in the slightest and cause a delay. I think I might see about using her sisters address, as she lives in the city and is more likely to have a street name and house number. My wife is just finishing her job as a live in nanny and therefore doesn't really have a permanent address at the moment anyway.

Also, her name didn't change once we got married. Should I still put it down as her current name, and then maiden name as well?

Any other advice you can think of with the initial I-130 packet? Since we don't have any kids and have never lived together I am going to have to go with the sworn letters from friends. Should I not use family with this, and is it okay to include wedding pictures?

Thank you again for the help, this is apparently a long and difficult process. I hope yours comes to a close soon, it's already difficult on us and we just started, I can't imagine how it is for you

What country is your wife from? It makes a difference in how we advise you to process certain things. Please fill out your timeline and put your country information in your forum details.

I appreciate the good wishes; I am sending in the immigrant visa forms today and need all the good thoughts I can get Also indicate whether your wife is currently in the US or in another country.

Edited April 22, 2013 by speedwell

[josh7942003 0]

Ok, I added a Timeline and I think I edited everything properly. She is from Costa Rica and I am obviously from here in the good ol U S of A. I hope that helps. I really am very nervous about all of this. Especially with the lack of a solid address. I am worried they aren't going to understand that her address is 300 meters south of the church, the black and green house.

Definitely positive thoughts sent your way today.

[speedwell 224]

Ok, I added a Timeline and I think I edited everything properly. She is from Costa Rica and I am obviously from here in the good ol U S of A. I hope that helps. I really am very nervous about all of this. Especially with the lack of a solid address. I am worried they aren't going to understand that her address is 300 meters south of the church, the black and green house.

Definitely positive thoughts sent your way today.

Josh, don't worry too much about that. They need the address for two reasons; to send your wife notifications about the case if necessary, and to facilitate the FBI name check that usually takes several weeks to do. They need to differentiate one "Rosa Perez from Tibás" from another if necessary and they use the address to do this (among other information such as birth date and photograph). Later in the procedure your wife will need to provide a police report showing whether she has ever been arrested in any place where she's lived for 6 months or more and/or if she's ever been arrested at all, and those forms may require a valid address.

But don't worry, Immigration has dealt with weird addresses before and your situation is by no means unusual. I remember that when I was in Dubai teaching oilfield engineers, the local headquarters of my international company was in a high-rise building with an address format similar to "CompanyName, BuildingName, Behind the Local Landmark", as is usual in Dubai even for high-class commercial areas. It took the taxi driver fifteen minutes to find a building I could see from my hotel room window. It happens. Just do the best you know how and be as truthful as you can, and you can't be blamed.

Oh, I also have not changed my name; it's too much hassle because I have a British work visa to replace (at my own expense rather than my company's) if I do. I'll change it in August when that visa expires. I use my pre-married name on everything for now. The name doesn't matter; there are so many naming conventions. You may get asked if she intends to take your name and you can say, for example, "we didn't want to complicate things by providing paperwork in two different names", which is the case for me.

Thanks for the good thoughts and the same to you.

Edited April 23, 2013 by speedwell

[NikLR 13,232]

Please include as much evidence of an on-going relationship as possible. Emails, chats, facebook chat, phone records, skype records/screen shots, photos, cards, envelopes addressed to each other from one another and both of you, boarding passes, passport stamps. In other words what people call "Front loading" Any financial sharing is good, so is having each other on insurance like life insurance, car insurance, health insurance etc... Joint credit cards and bank accounts and filing taxes as joint.

If she has not ever changed her name then both of her last names go into the Last name spot. If she has been married before but changed it back, that married name would go under "other names". It sounds complicated but it's not. If she has two names for her last name, then she has two names for her last name. It's not uncommon.

[speedwell 224]

Oh, as far as what to include in the I-130 packet, your marriage is still so new they will understand if you don't have that much. Nevertheless, I would take the time before filing to make sure you have added your wife to your HR file at work, your utility bills, your insurance (life, car, and health if possible), your apartment lease or mortgage if possible, your bank account as a secondary accountholder, and your car title. Supply flight itineraries and other evidence showing how many times you visited each other and your families. Things like that. Wedding pictures are excellent, and you should include those as well as other pictures over the course of your relationship showing you as a happy, bonded couple. Affidavits of friends and family are nice but not that valuable. We did not supply those at all and were still approved.

In fact, we had a brain fart and did not supply any supporting documentation at all on the I-130, believing it was "optional". It is not optional. Nobody was more surprised than we were when my I-130 was approved anyway without it, but the UK is a low fraud country. My IV packet contained supporting documentation an inch thick. We did not enclose any Skype records because we didn't want to embarrass the interviewer. We don't use credit cards. We don't send cards (he hates them as useless wastes of money). We filed joint taxes this year, but that will not apply to you till next year.

Edited April 23, 2013 by speedwell

[josh7942003 0]

Wow thank you guys so much for all of that incredible information. You are right, we don't have very much 'shared' supporting info at the moment such as insurance and shared bank accounts, but we sure do have a lot of pictures and phone records and things like that. I will be sending a substantial amount of that along with all the necessary stuff.

As far as the address thing, I was just mostly concerned with the pickiness I have heard about, and didn't want any delays. Since the form said 'number and street' I wasn't sure if I should put the info I have or not directly on it, or add an attachment of some sort.

Ok, once again, thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart and hers. I will be posting again as soon as I have the packet ready to send, or if I have more questions.

[speedwell 224]

Wow thank you guys so much for all of that incredible information. You are right, we don't have very much 'shared' supporting info at the moment such as insurance and shared bank accounts, but we sure do have a lot of pictures and phone records and things like that. I will be sending a substantial amount of that along with all the necessary stuff.

As far as the address thing, I was just mostly concerned with the pickiness I have heard about, and didn't want any delays. Since the form said 'number and street' I wasn't sure if I should put the info I have or not directly on it, or add an attachment of some sort.

Ok, once again, thank you so very much from the bottom of my heart and hers. I will be posting again as soon as I have the packet ready to send, or if I have more questions.

You are very welcome. Cheers and the best of luck to you

[Done--Really 331]

As to the address, use an attachment with the specifics just as they are used in CR...also add an explanation to the attachment that there are no street names or numbers in CR. We had our first attachment bounced back because we didn't explain the address situation.

And it isn't just her current address--it includes past addresses as well as her work addresses.

Also, there will be NO mail sent to her--almost no one in CR has mail delivery. The embassy works entirely by telephone and email. Be absolutely sure that you provide her cell phone number.

[speedwell 224]

As to the address, use an attachment with the specifics just as they are used in CR...also add an explanation to the attachment that there are no street names or numbers in CR. We had our first attachment bounced back because we didn't explain the address situation.

And it isn't just her current address--it includes past addresses as well as her work addresses.

Also, there will be NO mail sent to her--almost no one in CR has mail delivery. The embassy works entirely by telephone and email. Be absolutely sure that you provide her cell phone number.

Excellent information! Thanks!