IR-1 / CR-1 Both spouses living abroad, when does the separation occur?

[egaralmeida 0]

Hi there,

I'm Egar from Argentina. My wife (naturalized american citizen) and I live together in Argentina and we are about to send the i-130 package as soon as we get the translations, pictures, and maybe more evidence of our bona fide marriage since I'm not convinced what we have now would be enough.

I've been reading the guides but I can't find information for when both spouses live abroad and there's no DCF in the country. My question in particular is: At what point in the whole process is the petitioner required to move back to the US? And, what's left after that? Any time estimates would be really helpful too.

We started our relationship as a long distance relationship for a year, and now that we are married we really don't want to go through that again.

Thanks in advance!

[Marco&Bettina 502]

Hi there,

I'm Egar from Argentina. My wife (naturalized american citizen) and I live together in Argentina and we are about to send the i-130 package as soon as we get the translations, pictures, and maybe more evidence of our bona fide marriage since I'm not convinced what we have now would be enough.

I've been reading the guides but I can't find information for when both spouses live abroad and there's no DCF in the country. My question in particular is: At what point in the whole process is the petitioner required to move back to the US? And, what's left after that? Any time estimates would be really helpful too.

We started our relationship as a long distance relationship for a year, and now that we are married we really don't want to go through that again.

Thanks in advance!

I wasn't under the impression a separation needs to occur. But I'm certainly no expert in Spousal Visas.

[NikLR 13,220]

No separation needs to occur. You'd need to show you're attempting to reestablish domicile by interview date.

The only requirement beyond the AOS really is that you enter before or at the same time as the beneficiary.

[egaralmeida 0]

No separation needs to occur. You'd need to show you're attempting to reestablish domicile by interview date.

Thanks! How do we show that and at what point? Thanks again.

[NikLR 13,220]

Look up domicile issues on the board especially in your regional forum. It can vary. Hopefully you left bank accounts etc intact in the US?

As I stated, by interview. Some domicile is needed around the NVC time but the CO makes the decision at interview.

[egaralmeida 0]

Look up domicile issues on the board especially in your regional forum. It can vary. Hopefully you left bank accounts etc intact in the US?

Yes, she has her bank account there, we use it.

The domicile of that account is her parents', and it's the same address we'd use for the application.

[awaywego 28]

You don't need to separate. As NLR said, your wife can address the domicile requirement of the I-864 while living abroad so long as she returns to the US no later than when you enter. There are (basically) two options for domicile: she has maintained a US domicile or she intends to reestablish a US domicile. The I-864 instructions go over each option, and the NVC Process wiki here includes a letter with examples of both. The suggestion to check how strict is your embassy is a good one, as they vary.

The USC petitioner living abroad thread addresses filing from abroad when the country does not offer DCF. You might find useful information there.

For evidence of bona fide marriage, focus on evidence of time spent together, then intermingling of lives and planning for the future. You don't need every item on the list of suggestions to make a strong case that your marriage is bona fide. Very few couples, especially if recently married, have every item.

[egaralmeida 0]

Thanks NLR and awaywego!

The suggestion to check how strict is your embassy is a good one, as they vary.

I checked the regional forum but couldn't find anything for my embassy on this topic. My embassy used to ve very strict 9 years ago when I requested my first tourist visa, but have loosened up since then. Might not be a good indicator since these are different processes, though.

For evidence of bona fide marriage, focus on evidence of time spent together, then intermingling of lives and planning for the future. You don't need every item on the list of suggestions to make a strong case that your marriage is bona fide. Very few couples, especially if recently married, have every item.

What we have is a rental contract for the place where we live, which the landlord never bothered to certify so it's basically a piece of paper with several signatures, a letter from the bank stating that we have a joined account, which is also a piece of paper that just states that, and we are gathering affidavits... My biggest fear is that the marriage certificate states that we both have different addresses, because she had her legal domicile somewhere else at the time, and none of these things actually proves we live together and have been since she moved here.

For time spent together we could have a lot of info, should I include that in this stage? We traveled several times to her parent's house for Christmas and New Year's, had our honeymoon, and made other trips. For all of this we have e-receipts, pictures and credit card statements maybe.

Thanks again for all your help!

[awaywego 28]

Thanks NLR and awaywego!

I checked the regional forum but couldn't find anything for my embassy on this topic. My embassy used to ve very strict 9 years ago when I requested my first tourist visa, but have loosened up since then. Might not be a good indicator since these are different processes, though.

What we have is a rental contract for the place where we live, which the landlord never bothered to certify so it's basically a piece of paper with several signatures, a letter from the bank stating that we have a joined account, which is also a piece of paper that just states that, and we are gathering affidavits... My biggest fear is that the marriage certificate states that we both have different addresses, because she had her legal domicile somewhere else at the time, and none of these things actually proves we live together and have been since she moved here.

For time spent together we could have a lot of info, should I include that in this stage? We traveled several times to her parent's house for Christmas and New Year's, had our honeymoon, and made other trips. For all of this we have e-receipts, pictures and credit card statements maybe.

Thanks again for all your help!

You can also try embassy reviews for info on how they treat domicile. It's separate from their take on tourist visas. (Cycle through the ratings to get all of the reviews.)

I don't know how leases work in Argentina, so I can't say anything about what the landlord's failure to get it certified means. If you're worried, you can show that you've been paying rent using rent receipts, direct debits from the joint bank account, etc. You can also show the active, joint address using bills, mail, the address on your joint bank account, etc.

The translation of the bank letter can be done by anyone who speaks both languages. The certification is a little block of text that says the person speaks both languages and translated correctly.

Wisdom here is that affidavits don't count for much. Anyone can write anything, and no one ever says something negative. They can be included, but other pieces of evidence have more weight.

I don't know much about suggestions on keeping evidence for later vs sending it all now, as I'm doing a slightly different process where that's not really a thing. I'll let others answer that question.

Edited March 4, 2016 by awaywego