A few questions about evidence

[TheMilkyWay 4]

Background:

I am trying to get everything in order for my I-130 application, but feel as though my evidence may be lacking.

We were married in Italy in August this year. A month after we got married I had to come back to US to stay in compliance with Italian law. My wife is from Bolivia, but has lived in Italy for 8 years. She is NOT an Italian citizen and does not yet have permanent residency.

We lived together in her apartment after the wedding, but my name was not on the lease. We have no children (yet), have never co-signed a lease.

Basically, I feel like the only supporting evidence we could produce would be statements from witnesses to our relationship. My family has all met her and spent a week with us before the wedding, but she has never been to the US, so no other US citizens could really witness.

Questions:

Can our friends in Italy who are Bolivians, Peruvians, and Italians make acceptable statements? Do they have to be notarized? I would have to translate the statements from Italian and Spanish into English, is that OK?

When I get back to Italy in a few weeks I will try to open a joint bank account with my wife. Do we need to have a certain amount of money in the account for it to be valid? Or can we simply have a statement with details blacked out that shows we have an account together?

We are Mormon so comingling finances and living together before marriage are unacceptable if we want to be in good standing with the church. Can a statement from our bishop corroborating this serve as evidence?

Thanks for everyone's help, this is an overwhelming and nerve-racking process for me!

[JayJayH 546]

First of all, the most important thing - Are you going the correct route?

Your profile says you are going the K-1 route. K-1 visas are for engaged couples only - Not married couples. Married couples go the CR-1 / IR-1 route. You say you filed an I-130 so I believe that you are on the right track. Just making sure.

Second - They do not expect you to have lived together and started a life together at this point. The best evidence you can produce at this point are boarding passes and/or passport stamps showing your trips to Italy, pictures of you and your wife - some with family, some with the two of you in different places, various seasons etc. Pictures that span a large time frame basically. Phone records/bills showing you call Italy regulary will help. Anything else you can show to prove that you are a legitimate couple will help.

Evidence of actually having lived together and co-mingling of finances will not be expected until you file for removal of conditions of her green card. That will be almost 2 years after she has entered the US. So don't worry about it yet.

Edited December 7, 2013 by Yang-Ja

[JayJayH 546]

I'd like to elaborate and underscore the following when using pictures as evidence:

One picture from christmas, one picture from summer, and one picture with your family = 3 pictures total.

Those pictures alone say a lot. I would use more than three pictures, maybe 10 - 20, but you get the point.

I see too many people sending 200 pictures of themselves, taken on the same day, with indistinguishable backgrounds, and wonder why they weren't given any weight as evidence - Because all they prove is that you have access to a camera. Whereas the three pictures above go a long way to show that you have spent significant amounts of time together.

[NikLR 13,227]

At the bottom of this guide is a great list of secondary evidence you can use: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse

[TheMilkyWay 4]

Excellent responses from both of you. Thank you very much. I'm much more confident going into this now. I changed my profile to IR-1/CR-1 now, yes that's what I meant! I don't know why it doesn't appear.

Edited December 7, 2013 by TheMilkyWay

[Boiler 45,486]

What is your wife's status in Italy?

[TheMilkyWay 4]

What is your wife's status in Italy?

She has a Permesso di Soggiorno - next year she will be eligible for a Carta di Soggiorno - like a "permanent resident" card.