A few questions regarding CR1 (merged topics)

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

23 minutes ago, BethyWink said:

Also all you Danes need to move to Seattle.... its similar to Denmark's climate, and we need more danish people! 

 

(We do have a huge norwegian population though) 

 

If we could afford to, I'd do Portland. It is in the back of my mind.

 

However you can't beat the houses in Minnesota for 50-100k with decent paying jobs to boot. 

It is colder than anywhere in Scandinavia in winter, but it is fine.

[Georgia16 2,858]

26 minutes ago, BethyWink said:

Also all you Danes need to move to Seattle.... its similar to Denmark's climate, and we need more danish people! 

 

(We do have a huge norwegian population though) 

Washington is beautiful but Seattle is way to expensive! 

[BethyWink 96]

1 minute ago, Georgia16 said:

Washington is beautiful but Seattle is way to expensive! 

Yep, I totally understand that one.  Honestly if we did not both work in Tech, I would want to be ANYWHERE else.  

[carmel34 3,576]

My husband's CR-1 visa was just approved at his interview in Rio last week, less than 11 months after I filed the I-130 petition on his behalf.  We had no RFE's or other delays, just the "normal" long waiting period involved because of the backlog at USCIS.  We're tracking his passport with the visa in it right now--today it is one major city away and should arrive in his hands later this week.  Then we can really celebrate and finalize travel plans for his trip here to California, most likely in August to give him time to give notice to his employer and to wrap up his affairs.

 

Here's what we sent with the petition in July of 2018 to show that our marriage was bona fide:

 

a few photos of each visit together, multiple visits over time (4 before filing petition)

four or five photos from the wedding, some with family and friends

passport stamps, boarding passes, hotel receipts, restaurant receipts as evidence of these 4 visits

joint credit card account statements showing that we are already co-mingling finances

documents showing my Brazilian husband as my beneficiary on life insurance, retirement accounts, investment accounts

evidence of my husband's health insurance, dental insurance based on my US employer's plan

evidence of my husband as my emergency contact at work, statement that he is my husband on employer's HR website

wills and living wills

Christmas cards addressed to both of us at my US address

copies of cards and letters we have exchanged since the beginning of our relationship

wedding ring receipts

email logs, phone call logs, video call logs to show continuous daily communication

representative chat records (few pages of sample chats) from WhatsApp, Messenger

printoff of our Facebook relationship with a few photos, comments from friends and family, words of congratulations on wedding day

affidavits from family members attesting to the nature of our relationship

 

required civil documents, marriage certificate, proof of US citizenship for petitioner, passport photos, payment of fee, everything stated on I-130 instructions, plus I-130A application

 

All of the above well-organized on plain paper, binder clips, with a cover letter/table of contents listing everything by page number, all pages clearly numbered for easy reference for the officers.

 

We uploaded more evidence at NVC stage (8 months after filing the petition) of 3 additional visits since filing the petition.  We filed our 2018 US tax return as married filing jointly and uploaded that to NVC with the affidavit of support and other financial documents.  We took more evidence to the visa interview of our trip to London and Paris in April, but the CO did not ask for any additional evidence--she had obviously made the decision to approve before the interview based on the short simple questions that she asked.  We see many couples here on VJ who do not submit enough evidence with the petition or at the NVC stage and when they take additional evidence to the visa interview, the officer does not want to see it because the decision has already been made whether to approve the visa or not.  The good news is that they usually give you a chance to send in any additional evidence they want to see before making a final decision.

 

I would suggest that your evidence of a bona fide marriage relationship should be proportional to the concerns you have about potential red flags in the relationship.  Look at it from the CO's perspective, the person who will be doing the interview and making the decision to approve the visa or not.  My husband and I have a large age gap and are from very different cultures and socio-economic backgrounds so we submitted lots of evidence to overcome those possible concerns.  If you don't have any red flags or your spouse is not from a high-fraud country like Morocco, Nigeria, or Pakistan, you won't need as much evidence.  Read the threads here on VJ about approvals and denials for a CR-1 visa and look for similar stories to your own, then submit the evidence that you have and hope for the best.

 

Good luck!

[NikLR 13,227]

Some of this answer really depends on where your wife is from.  It would be helpful to have a country flag at least on your profile. 

 

High fraud countries need more evidence.

Low fraud countries need much less. 

[NikLR 13,227]

For instance I'm Canadian and with the I-130 we sent: 6 photos of us together, a joint bank account statement, boarding passes of visits, some random receipts of things we did together on that visit (really this was pointless...) Joint car insurance cards, and 2 affidavits from family/friends. 

I didn't send any emails or chats or skype information.  I had those but decided to save it unless specifically asked.

Now if this was a high fraud country, those emails and chats for the duration of the marriage at the very least would have been included. 

[carmel34 3,576]

41 minutes ago, NikLR said:

Some of this answer really depends on where your wife is from.  It would be helpful to have a country flag at least on your profile. 

 

High fraud countries need more evidence.

Low fraud countries need much less. 

I just checked OP's posting history and it looks like he's from Denmark, a very low fraud country.  So much less evidence is needed, no chat logs or screen shots of messages would be necessary for them, just the required civil documents plus a few photos of the wedding and evidence of time spent together should be plenty.  He didn't mention a large age gap or any other red flags so that could be a factor as well...

[NikLR 13,227]

43 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

I just checked OP's posting history and it looks like he's from Denmark, a very low fraud country.  So much less evidence is needed, no chat logs or screen shots of messages would be necessary for them, just the required civil documents plus a few photos of the wedding and evidence of time spent together should be plenty.  He didn't mention a large age gap or any other red flags so that could be a factor as well...

I agree, minimal things would be needed for Denmark so don't worry about chat logs. 

[Nat&Amy 623]

14 hours ago, NikLR said:

I agree, minimal things would be needed for Denmark so don't worry about chat logs. 

OP might be required to provide more evidence depending on how citizenship was acquired. There has been a recent case in which an applicant from Italy was under much more scrutinity than usual because he was originally from Nigeria. 

[NikLR 13,227]

8 hours ago, Nat&Amy said:

OP might be required to provide more evidence depending on how citizenship was acquired. There has been a recent case in which an applicant from Italy was under much more scrutinity than usual because he was originally from Nigeria. 

That makes sense of course, always plan for whatever citizenship is your birth citizenship tbh. 

[Ryan H 3,810]

***Similar topics merged; please post all questions you have about the CR-1 visa process in this thread.***