Cover letter itemized listing question

[I love San Diego 18]

When I put in my proof of having met + evidence of ongoing relationship, should I put each thing on one page and list it on the cover letter? For instance:

Boarding pass - Beneficiary - Beijing to Denpasar

Boarding pass - Petitioner - Los Angeles to Denpasar

Photo 1 - Bali, Indonesia - 1/1/2014

Photo 2 - Bali, Indonesia - 1/1/2014

Hotel Receipt Bali, Indonesia, 1/1/2014

Letter from Beneficiary to Petitioner mailed 1/1/2014

Letter from Beneficiary to Petitioner mailed 2/1/2014

Call logs between Beneficiary and Petitioner

Selected QQ Chat Logs

etc etc for every single item?

and do I need to make a cover letter for multi-page items like the call logs?

Thank you

[renni 5]

you can make the cover letter or something, at least it makes them easier to review our paperwork though..

[JE57 239]

When we put together that part of the application we spent HOURS on it and enjoyed the process. Your evidence of having met in person is easy. That part alone would be short. What I advise you to do is put together a 'small book' of your relationship. Pick some representative milestones in your relationship over a period of time ideally showing the growth of that relationship. So for example, you met in person in Bali. I would suggest,

Page 1 - A letter from you describing how you met. What attracted you to each other as compared to others you may have met previously, what each of you found unique about each other, how your families support your relationship etc. No evidence just a nice love story and how it developed.

Page 2 - Some selected sections from chat logs from the beginning of your relationship - Select chats that demonstrate in meaningful ways that you care about each other. Discussion of culture differences, notes about achievements of children in school, EXCLUDE any discussion about immigration to the USA the point is that the beneficiary wants to enter the USA because they love the petitioner not because they love the USA

Page 3 - Chat logs demonstating making of plans to meet in Bali.

Page 4 - Each of your boarding passes to Bali

Page 5 - Pictures of your together in Bali. Ideally these pictures uniquely identify the place as Bali and the two of you should be physically Together smiling and touching each other (Holding hands, arm in arm etc).

Page 6 - Receipts from Bali. Ideally with pictures.. For example if you went to a show or dinner and you have the receipt from that then include it as well as a picture

Page 7 - Chat logs from after your return showing discussions about what you did or enjoyed most.

Page 8 - Any evidence or chat logs etc of your engagement. (if this happened before Bali then include it earlier) Receipts from rings, discussions with family phone bills for discussion etc all work.

Page 9+ - If you have sent letters back in forth or bought flowers or sent money then include evidence of that but only if that supports the legitamacy of your relationship. For example if you sent money then what was it for? If you sent flowers then was there a love note, are there pictures of receiver with them

-

In any case, the point is your are building a story of the legitamacy of your relationship and it should be 'readable' and easy to follow and the table of contents should reference the page numbers for relevent parts of that story for example... First trip to meet in person, pictures and receipts - Pages 7 to 9

-

For first approval this is extreme overkill but when your package makes it to the counsulate this is called front loading and is generally considered to make the interview much easier on the beneficiary as the CO has already had a chance to review the evidence.

[I love San Diego 18]

Thank you for the nice reply. That made me think of another fairly simple question - how do you physically assemble the packet? 3-hole punched in a card stock folder?

I also want to ask a very particular question I am trying to decide on:

For every single item, should I have a sheet with a large header stating what the item below is as a separator? For instance, sheets would be like this

(page 1) Birth Certificate Separator

(page 2) Front of birth certificate

(page 3) Back of Birth certificate

(page 4) Form G-325A - Petitioner Separator

(page 5) Form G-325A

(page 6) Passport photo of petitioner

(page 7) Form G-325A - Beneficiary Separator

(page 8) Form G325A

(page 9) Passport photo of beneficiary

Or should I just stack all the papers with nothing separating the items?

[Verenaaa 3]

Hi there, please go on my profile - I just uploaded a picture of our I-129f and how we assembled it! Maybe it helps!!! Also we did not put an extra sheet with a header before every item as a separator. But for the 'proof of having met in person within the last 2 years" we did that. We had one page with a big headline stating 'proof of having met in person within the last 2 years", followed by a 'table of content" sheet listing all of the attached evidence (copy of passport stamps, boarding passes etc). We just included the copies then. For some of them though we put an extra sheet to explain the following item (ex flight itinerary date xx.xx.xxxx from xx to xx). Even though it should be self explanatory this way we made it VERY dummy proof

[Verenaaa 3]

Also: I copied for example the boarding passes on a preprinted paper where I stated at the bottom ex:

Date: xx,xx,xxxx

Subject: boarding pass New York - London for person xy

Occasion: me traveling to visit xy over summer

This way I did not need an extra sheet of paper to explain it but had all of it on one sheet.

As you can tell I am very detailed oriented - maybe a too much, but it's for my own sake and I feel better "over-doin" it than feeling like I missed something!!

[Zedayn 485]

When I put in my proof of having met + evidence of ongoing relationship, should I put each thing on one page and list it on the cover letter? For instance:

Boarding pass - Beneficiary - Beijing to Denpasar

Boarding pass - Petitioner - Los Angeles to Denpasar

Photo 1 - Bali, Indonesia - 1/1/2014

Photo 2 - Bali, Indonesia - 1/1/2014

Hotel Receipt Bali, Indonesia, 1/1/2014

Letter from Beneficiary to Petitioner mailed 1/1/2014

Letter from Beneficiary to Petitioner mailed 2/1/2014

Call logs between Beneficiary and Petitioner

Selected QQ Chat Logs

etc etc for every single item?

and do I need to make a cover letter for multi-page items like the call logs?

Thank you

Don't make separate entries in your cover letter for all these. You can just have an entry that says Proof of Meeting and another that says Proof of Relationship, with bullet points underneath. For example:

Proof of meeting

• Boarding passes, passport stamps

Proof of relationship

• Chat logs (Facebook, Skype,...)
• Emails
• Cell phone records and call logs
• Photos of us

Thank you for the nice reply. That made me think of another fairly simple question - how do you physically assemble the packet? 3-hole punched in a card stock folder?

I also want to ask a very particular question I am trying to decide on:

For every single item, should I have a sheet with a large header stating what the item below is as a separator? For instance, sheets would be like this

(page 1) Birth Certificate Separator

(page 2) Front of birth certificate

(page 3) Back of Birth certificate

(page 4) Form G-325A - Petitioner Separator

(page 5) Form G-325A

(page 6) Passport photo of petitioner

(page 7) Form G-325A - Beneficiary Separator

(page 8) Form G325A

(page 9) Passport photo of beneficiary

Or should I just stack all the papers with nothing separating the items?

You don't need blank papers in your petition. Just assemble the papers in the order that its in your petition. For example:

Birth certificate

G-325A form with photo (petitioner)

G-325A form with photo (beneficiary)

etc.

[LionessDeon 2,060]

This was the body of my cover letter that listed the contents of my packet:

Contents include:

- Payment in the amount of $340

- I-129F

- I-129F Supplement: Part 2, Question 34.a, explanation of meeting in person

- G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner)

- G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary)

- Birth certificate/US Passport (Petitioner)

- Copy of Final Divorce Decree (Petitioner)

- Letter certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary)

- Proof of having met in person in the past two years (boarding passes, hotel and recreation receipts, pictures)

- Proof of ongoing relationship (Verizon phone logs)

- G-1145

I tend to be simple and to the point

[I love San Diego 18]

Thanks everyone!!

[d3adc0d3 186]

I paid for a service (RapidVisa), and we didn't list the page number, as they typically dissemble everything anyways, the packet the paperwork service put together just had an itemized list, it listed the item and when it's not an official document (like a form), it would list how many pages long it was, or how many items were involved.

Example:

Contents include:

1. Payment in the amount of $340 (1 Items)
2. I-129F
3. I-129F Supplement: Part 2, Question 34.a, explanation of meeting in person (2 Pages)
4. G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner) (2 Items)
5. G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary) (2 Items)
6. Birth certificate/US Passport (Petitioner) (10 Pages)
7. Copy of Final Divorce Decree (Petitioner) (4 Pages)
8. Letter certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary) (2 Pages)
9. Proof of having met in person in the past two years (boarding passes, hotel and recreation receipts, pictures) (18 Pages: Boarding Passes - 2 pages, receipts - 5 pages, pictures - 11 items)
10. Proof of ongoing relationship (Verizon phone logs) (10 Pages)
11. G-1145

[Pitaya 2,577]

Don't make separate entries in your cover letter for all these. You can just have an entry that says Proof of Meeting and another that says Proof of Relationship, with bullet points underneath. For example:

Proof of meeting

• Boarding passes, passport stamps

Proof of relationship

• Chat logs (Facebook, Skype,...)
• Emails
• Cell phone records and call logs
• Photos of us

You don't need blank papers in your petition. Just assemble the papers in the order that its in your petition. For example:

Birth certificate

G-325A form with photo (petitioner)

G-325A form with photo (beneficiary)

etc.

Agree. Keep It Simple S... They are likely going to receive and deconstruct your planned publishing masterpiece anyway and put it in their own format. Save a tree or two.

Edited September 2, 2014 by A&B

[kehills 217]

We used sticky flags to separate sections (with the section information written on the tabs), rather than a separate page. Figured they were just going to dis-assemble the entire thing anyhow; we wanted to make it easy for them to find what they needed and move on. (We also trimmed all the non-US legal sized papers down to US legal, just for easy filing.)

(This is our AOS packet, but we did the same format for K-1.)

Edited September 2, 2014 by kehills

[I love San Diego 18]

I paid for a service (RapidVisa), and we didn't list the page number, as they typically dissemble everything anyways, the packet the paperwork service put together just had an itemized list, it listed the item and when it's not an official document (like a form), it would list how many pages long it was, or how many items were involved.

Example:

Contents include:

1. Payment in the amount of $340 (1 Items)
2. I-129F
3. I-129F Supplement: Part 2, Question 34.a, explanation of meeting in person (2 Pages)
4. G-325A and passport style photo (Petitioner) (2 Items)
5. G-325A and passport style photo (Beneficiary) (2 Items)
6. Birth certificate/US Passport (Petitioner) (10 Pages)
7. Copy of Final Divorce Decree (Petitioner) (4 Pages)
8. Letter certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary) (2 Pages)
9. Proof of having met in person in the past two years (boarding passes, hotel and recreation receipts, pictures) (18 Pages: Boarding Passes - 2 pages, receipts - 5 pages, pictures - 11 items)
10. Proof of ongoing relationship (Verizon phone logs) (10 Pages)
11. G-1145

Do you think RapidVisa was worth the cost in terms of time/worry spared?

[d3adc0d3 186]

Do you think RapidVisa was worth the cost in terms of time/worry spared?

Good lord, yes. I knew it was done right, and I'm a worrier, so it was a huge relief knowing it was done right. A lot of the people who work there went through the process themselves as well, so they have a lot of people on staff who are familiar with it, and they are there to answer your questions and help you.

Providing you give them accurate information, and your case is fairly straight forward, they're an excellent route if you're confused by the mounds of forms and vague instructions. You fill out a series of web forms, which pre-populate the official USCIS forms, and put everything together precisely how the USCIS prefers it. It was only about $400 for the service versus the $1500+ for a lawyer. So unless you have something which could cause potential issues down the road (criminal record, previous denials, etc) then it's definitely a good service for the worriers, those who are just confused, or the lazy (hahaha).

Edited September 2, 2014 by d3adc0d3

[d3adc0d3 186]

Good lord, yes. I knew it was done right, and I'm a worrier, so it was a huge relief knowing it was done right. A lot of the people who work there went through the process themselves as well, so they have a lot of people on staff who are familiar with it, and they are there to answer your questions and help you.

Providing you give them accurate information, and your case is fairly straight forward, they're an excellent route if you're confused by the mounds of forms and vague instructions. You fill out a series of web forms, which pre-populate the official USCIS forms, and put everything together precisely how the USCIS prefers it. It was only about $400 for the service versus the $1500+ for a lawyer. So unless you have something which could cause potential issues down the road (criminal record, previous denials, etc) then it's definitely a good service for the worriers, those who are just confused, or the lazy (hahaha).

I figured I'd drop the link here too for you:

http://rapidvisa.com/

They also have a money back guarantee:

http://rapidvisa.com/guarantee/

Our guarantee is a money-back promise if you are denied. Nobody can guarantee that your petition will be approved. However, if you are denied after we prepare and mail the documents, you answered everything 100% honestly with no omissions, you respond appropriately to all government requests and are not denied due to criminal history, we will refund 100% of the fees you paid to RapidVisa. Guarantee does not apply to fiancee visas if you have not met in person within 24 months of filing since these petition are rarely approved. Guarantee does not apply to proxy marriages.

Please note however that if we prepare all the documents for you and you then change your mind and decide not to pursue the visa, you would not be entitled to a refund since we have already done all the work.

That’s it…no fine print. Why do business with anybody who will not guarantee their work?

And the cost (at the moment) is $375 for the service, you can also use your CC to pay for the fees, and they'll mail the documents and the check to the USCIS lockbox for you. I paid extra for that so I wouldn't mess anything up.

Good luck!