I-130 Cover Letter - What should be included?

[ElectricBlue30 0]

Hi All,

What exactly should be be including in our cover letter for the I-130?

The instructions say, "Cover Letter. Should include a description of what you are petitioning for (I-130), a table of contents (list everything in the packet). If you need additional room to explain your case, attach a separate sheet (list the attachment on the cover sheet). Make sure to sign and date the cover sheet).

The last two sentences (underlined) are what I'm most curious about.

Does anyone know how much weight the information we provide here at this stage holds weight?

Should we be listing the reason why we are wanting to move to America... from business reasons (better for the business we run), to the opportunities for the kids of my wife from a previous marriage (better school opportunities), to the family benefits (my parents can help out with the kids and our soon to be born daughter), etc.?

Should I list out the reasons we need to have this Visa process expedited?

When I applied for a visa to become a permanent resident in Australia (before my wife and I got married), we provided a TON of information... Supporting evidence of our relationship, hundreds of e-mails, statements from others about our relationship, pictures, etc.

Thank you,

[Shanelle 21]

My husband and I just finished sending in our I-130 pkg, and, I might have done a little "over-kill", however, in this instance, I thought "more is better".

Our covering letter had what you have shown above. Also, we sent in a LOT of supporting evidence, hundreds of emails, receipts, pictures, affidavits from people at wedding, etc. etc.,

I wish you well in your journey.

[NikLR 13,232]

A cover letter essentially just explains what is in the I-130 package.

• G-1145
• Cheque for $420
• I-130
• Copy of Marriage certificate
• ETC...

[mrskvelasco 30]

Hi All,

What exactly should be be including in our cover letter for the I-130?

The instructions say, "Cover Letter. Should include a description of what you are petitioning for (I-130), a table of contents (list everything in the packet). If you need additional room to explain your case, attach a separate sheet (list the attachment on the cover sheet). Make sure to sign and date the cover sheet).

The last two sentences (underlined) are what I'm most curious about.

Does anyone know how much weight the information we provide here at this stage holds weight?

Should we be listing the reason why we are wanting to move to America... from business reasons (better for the business we run), to the opportunities for the kids of my wife from a previous marriage (better school opportunities), to the family benefits (my parents can help out with the kids and our soon to be born daughter), etc.?

Should I list out the reasons we need to have this Visa process expedited?

When I applied for a visa to become a permanent resident in Australia (before my wife and I got married), we provided a TON of information... Supporting evidence of our relationship, hundreds of e-mails, statements from others about our relationship, pictures, etc.

Thank you,

No, you really don't need to provide all of your explanations and reasonings. Really at this point the I-130 is meant to validate your marriage (i.e., only provide supporting evidence of your relationship as you've mentioned above)

[tozzzzlerrrs 22]

We are still waiting for our NOA2 (within the estimated processing times) but followed the advice from another website for the contents of our cover letter.

We didn't include any further explanation why I'd like the husband to live with me in the US - it's self explanatory, I guess.

I don't believe that they would expedite your visa for business reasons. Couples are often separated and expecting a baby and that still isn't an acceptable reason for USCIS.

Financial loss is listed as one of the reasons for visas to be expedited ( http://www.uscis.gov/forms/expedite-criteria), so if you can justify your case to fall into that category, I guess it could work. The idea of "financial loss" is very wide to me: you could have gone bankrupt or could just be loosing potential markets (which is your case), so I'm not sure what USCIS would consider a reason for it to be expedited.

Also, I've noticed that many people responding on this forum that mentioned having "filed from abroad" have their processing times for the NOA2 (approval of the I-130 petition) just a few weeks long, while the usual and official processing time is up to 5 months. That may work for your benefit.

DATE

To: USCIS
ATTN: I-130
PO Box 21700
Phoenix, AZ 85036 (or to the Chicago Lockbox, depending on your case)

Subject: I-130 Petition for my spouse BENEFICIARY'S NAME (Original Submission)

Dear Sir/Madam:

I, PETITIONER'S NAME, a citizen of the United States, would like to file a petition I-130 for my spouse, BENEFICIARY'S NAME.

Please find enclosed the required and supporting documents, presented in the following order:

1. Completed and signed form G-1145

2. Completed and signed form I-130

3. Money order for I-130 filing fee

4. Completed and signed form G-325A and photograph (petitioner)

5. Completed and signed form G-325A and photograph (beneficiary)

6. Copy of petitioner’s birth certificate

7. Copy of our marriage certificate

8. Copy of beneficiary’s birth certificate (with translation) and passport

9. Proof of bona fide relationship

   1. Evidence A – A short summary of our story

   2. Evidence B – Photos

   3. Evidence C – Co-mingling of Financial Resources (Joint bank account statements)

   4. Evidence D – Joint Lease Agreement

Copies of the documents submitted are photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I or my husband may be required to submit or present original documents to an immigration or consular officer at a later date.

I kindly request you to process the above petition and to provide the receipt notice as soon as possible. If you have any questions or concerns on the above matter, please do not hesitate to contact me at the address below.

Thank you,

PETITIONER'S NAME (SSN xxx-xx-xxx)

Address / Email

[RWD 2]

For our cover letter, I included a list of each item that I included in the I-130 package. Also for several of those items on the list, I added a short description on why I included the items if I thought it might not be apparent.

[KierenHby 899]

Our cover letter for my wife's petition included an itemized list and a brief explanation for each set of documents. Signed and dated I130, G325A each for my wife and me, a copy of our marriage registration certificate, our passport bio pages alongwith recent travel stamps, as well as copies of flight itineraries and boarding passes. We also included copies of hotel stays for our travels after the wedding. And of course a selection of engagement, marriage and post-wedding photos with family and friends as well as phone\skype logs and emails.

All in all we had 15 documents itemized on the cover letter. As our wedding is fairly recent, we thought it was important to front load with as much evidence as we deemed sufficient. Our petition was approximately 200 pages, about an inch thick stack of paper. Of course each case is unique.

If you want to highlight something to the officer reviewing your petition, make it clear. My wife was uniquely never given or has used a last name, so we made that very clear in caps and italics at the start of the cover letter.

[ElectricBlue30 0]

Toozler: thank you for this response.

A few of our other reasons we could focus on in the cover letter is: family support (we don't have family around here and my family would be helping look after the kids while we work), my mother's cancer (I really don't feel good 'playing up on this', but it is something that's there. She is recovering fine after having surgery but it could be a good point about us wanting to be there incase of any complications), and business with the focus being on us losing money by not being around the networking and events that take place in California.

I'm curious, do you have any objective knowledge on if any of those might help?

Thank you!

Our cover letter for my wife's petition included an itemized list and a brief explanation for each set of documents. Signed and dated I130, G325A each for my wife and me, a copy of our marriage registration certificate, our passport bio pages alongwith recent travel stamps, as well as copies of flight itineraries and boarding passes. We also included copies of hotel stays for our travels after the wedding. And of course a selection of engagement, marriage and post-wedding photos with family and friends as well as phone\skype logs and emails.

All in all we had 15 documents itemized on the cover letter. As our wedding is fairly recent, we thought it was important to front load with as much evidence as we deemed sufficient. Our petition was approximately 200 pages, about an inch thick stack of paper. Of course each case is unique.

If you want to highlight something to the officer reviewing your petition, make it clear. My wife was uniquely never given or has used a last name, so we made that very clear in caps and italics at the start of the cover letter.

Kiran, thank you for your response. I'm curious if you've heard anything about too much information being a bad thing? On one hand I'm tempted to do the same as you and go overboard, so that just a simple scan through the information could give them the conclusion, "Yea, this couple is real. No way they're not!" But on the other hand I don't want a thick stack of papers to deter them.

Then again, I believe they process all visa petitions in the order they receive them, right? So perhaps length couldn't deter the decision due to the fact they just need to get through them.

[KierenHby 899]

ElectricBlue:

I think the bottom line is to present as much as or little as we feel to be sufficient evidence. Sorry to confuse you with all that. Too much can indeed be a bad thing at times.

a)One reason I submitted as much as we did is because the Consular Post that will process my wife’s application sees higher than average instances of, shall we say, non-genuine cases. b)The other reason is we made a conscious decision to document various aspects of our relationship from engagement ceremony to various marriage-related ceremonies, as well as our brief time together as a married couple. And we documented the involvement of family as is typical where we got married.

I don’t feel we submitted too much, it’s just we submitted a snapshot of various aspects of my wife and my fairly new relationship. In our case, variety was more important than quantity

[NikLR 13,232]

Toozler: thank you for this response.

A few of our other reasons we could focus on in the cover letter is: family support (we don't have family around here and my family would be helping look after the kids while we work), my mother's cancer (I really don't feel good 'playing up on this', but it is something that's there. She is recovering fine after having surgery but it could be a good point about us wanting to be there incase of any complications), and business with the focus being on us losing money by not being around the networking and events that take place in California.

I'm curious, do you have any objective knowledge on if any of those might help?

Thank you!

Kiran, thank you for your response. I'm curious if you've heard anything about too much information being a bad thing? On one hand I'm tempted to do the same as you and go overboard, so that just a simple scan through the information could give them the conclusion, "Yea, this couple is real. No way they're not!" But on the other hand I don't want a thick stack of papers to deter them.

Then again, I believe they process all visa petitions in the order they receive them, right? So perhaps length couldn't deter the decision due to the fact they just need to get through them.

No they don't always process petitions in the order they're received.

With both of you living abroad there is a good chance you may get an unofficial auto expedite from either California or vermont service centers. There is a thread dedicated to those living abroad with spouses.

Have you considered the affidavit of support yet though? Do you have enough savings or have a joint sponsor?

[biaobiao 40]

It would be ideal to have a cover letter. But do not worry to much on the cover letter. Worry more on the content.

Btw, my husband forgot to include a cover letter. And we got approved in uscis... I would make sure he wont forget ther cover letter in nvc.

[ElectricBlue30 0]

No they don't always process petitions in the order they're received.

With both of you living abroad there is a good chance you may get an unofficial auto expedite from either California or vermont service centers. There is a thread dedicated to those living abroad with spouses.

Have you considered the affidavit of support yet though? Do you have enough savings or have a joint sponsor?

NLR - first off, thank you for all your help. You've replied to several of my posts and it's incredibly helpful. I'm making sure I cross all the T's and dot all the i's at least 3 times each ;-)

The affidavit of support won't be a problem, I believe. My Dad is very well off and more than meets the requirements. He will be our joint sponsor.

Couple questions for you on this actually...

Do you know - if you've got a joint sponsor and they have well above the necessary requirements in funds, would there be any issue to have very little in your own personal funds? Here's where it's complicated - my wife and I run a business in Australia. It does well. 6 figures. Our company has paid me very little the last couple years, however it has paid my wife the majority. So she definitely have the funds too. I mean, technically we both do because it's OUR money ... but in terms of official taxation, to keep things as uncomplicated as possible, we gave her a higher wage through the company instead of distributing it evenly between the two of us. Thus, my U.S. tax returns reflect a very minimal income.

Also, when you say I might get an auto expedite from either California or Vermont service centers... How does that work exactly... cause I thought I had to submit this petition to the Chicago lockbox?

Thank you,

[NikLR 13,232]

If you have a joint sponsor then that's great and don't worry about personal assets. You have been filing your tax returns though right? In the USA? (Sounds like you have, yay!) You can use assets to qualify if you choose but having a joint sponsor may be easier. Either way that part is a few months off so concentrate on the i-130s at this point.

The Chicago lockbox is an intake facility. They take your packages, cash the checks, make sure the main reqirements are there, then send the packages off to a service center to be adjudicated. Your NOA1 for each petition will give you a case number. You can check their status online or by calling. The first 3 letters of the case number inform you of what service center is looking after the petitions. Send all 3 in the same envelope to make sure they stay together as much as possible.

Edited January 26, 2015 by NLR