I-130: Evidence of Bonafide Marriage

[Abbie and Rick 0]

Hi all,

I'm worried my evidence isn't enough since we don't own a property together or have a joint bank account. Can someone have a look of what I'm providing before I submit? Big thanks to this awesome community!

 

1. Evidence of bona fide marriage

   1. Copy of Joint Rental Contract  

   2. Sworn Affidavit from Petitioners Mother

   3. Sworn Affidavit from Beneficiary’s Mother

   4. Sworn Affidavit from Beneficiary’s Brother

   5. Cover Letter about relationship

   6. Timeline of Relationship including passport stamps

   7. Bank transfers between petitioner and beneficiary accounts

   8. Designated Emergency Contact of most recent place of work

   9. Wedding Ring Receipt and Appraisal

   10. Contract of same employers of where we met

   11. Engagement Congratulations Letter mailed  to shared address from the Petitioner’s Grandma

   12. Wedding Invite to shared address from Petitioners best friend  

   13. Postcard from Petitioner’s Grandma and Grandpa from Petitioner’s family cabin

[Crazy Cat 41,904]

To be completely honest, I think you opted for quantity over quality.  I would concentrate on 3 areas:

1.  Evidence of time actually together such as the rental contract., etc....documents showing same address for both people.

2.  Financial co-mingling such as bank accounts, etc.

3.  Legal documents which are normally created during a marriage (insurance, wills, trusts, health care, etc).

 

The personal affidavits, wedding ring receipts, engagement letter, postcard mean very little in my opinion.......  I don't mean to be critical, but I would concentrate on quality rather than quantity....

Good Luck on your journey.

 

 

[Rameda 81]

I would focus on pictures of you two together and you two with both sides of the family and friends.  Vacations together.  Wedding pictures.  Money sent to each other.  Plane tickets, hotel receipts, life insurance putting others as beneficiary.  

[Apple Bee 272]

1 hour ago, Abbie and Rick said:

Hi all,

I'm worried my evidence isn't enough since we don't own a property together or have a joint bank account. Can someone have a look of what I'm providing before I submit? Big thanks to this awesome community!

 

1. Evidence of bona fide marriage

   1. Copy of Joint Rental Contract  

   2. Sworn Affidavit from Petitioners Mother

   3. Sworn Affidavit from Beneficiary’s Mother

   4. Sworn Affidavit from Beneficiary’s Brother

   5. Cover Letter about relationship

   6. Timeline of Relationship including passport stamps

   7. Bank transfers between petitioner and beneficiary accounts

   8. Designated Emergency Contact of most recent place of work

   9. Wedding Ring Receipt and Appraisal

   10. Contract of same employers of where we met

   11. Engagement Congratulations Letter mailed  to shared address from the Petitioner’s Grandma

   12. Wedding Invite to shared address from Petitioners best friend  

   13. Postcard from Petitioner’s Grandma and Grandpa from Petitioner’s family cabin

Do you have any life insurance or retirement accounts? If so, you can add your spouse as a beneficiary for those. I think that coupled w/ the photos of me and my in-laws was some of the strongest evidence I provided.

[John & Rose 7,239]

2 hours ago, Rameda said:

I would focus on pictures of you two together and you two with both sides of the family and friends.  Vacations together.  Wedding pictures.  Money sent to each other.  Plane tickets, hotel receipts, life insurance putting others as beneficiary.  

They do need more proof of marriage than that.  You are correct for the K-1 but CR-1 can get tricky.

 

In our case it was impossible to intermingle finances.  I am not allowed on her accounts because I am not a citizen.  She is not allowed on my accounts because she doesn't have an SSN.  I can't add her to my lease because they need biometrics and a background check before they add her name.  I was able to add her and the kids to my work health insurance and she is a beneficiary of my life insurance.  I am hoping that the CO allows those as proof because we don't have a lit of other options.  Her passport has been changed to my name too.

[Rameda 81]

I added my husband to my bank account fine provided he has tourist visa to be in the states.

We sent money via PayPal and provided that as intermingling finances.  Our case was approved in 189 days and no RFE at Nebraska Sevice Center (straight forward case though no red flags besides different culture)

 

Here are the things we provided:

-My life insurance listing him as beneficiary 

-Pictures of wedding 3 to 4 pics

-Pictures of honeymoon 2 to 3

-Vacation pictures 

-Special occasions with the family (birthdays, new year, mother day, father day, outings with --the in laws,  anniversary vacation with in laws)

-Our visits to each other

-PayPal receipts

-Plane tickets of vacation sitting next to each other

-Sightseeing pictures in each other's country

-And a relationship letter telling how we met till how we got married. Etc just in one page

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[Happyfamily03 29]

On 12/17/2018 at 10:30 PM, missileman said:

To be completely honest, I think you opted for quantity over quality.  I would concentrate on 3 areas:

1.  Evidence of time actually together such as the rental contract., etc....documents showing same address for both people.

2.  Financial co-mingling such as bank accounts, etc.

3.  Legal documents which are normally created during a marriage (insurance, wills, trusts, health care, etc).

 

The personal affidavits, wedding ring receipts, engagement letter, postcard mean very little in my opinion.......  I don't mean to be critical, but I would concentrate on quality rather than quantity....

Good Luck on your journey.

 

 

This. 

 

And how long have you been married? Married 2 years before we applied and I submitted the following:

1. Marriage Certificate

2. Joint Bank Statement

3. Lease Contract

4. Travel Itinerary ( I actually submitted this to prove that we have been traveling to US each year as proof of domicile)