aos Questions about filing for AOS before co-habitation

[Tellurous 19]

Hi all,

I am currently a Malaysian citizen on an F-1 Visa as a doctoral student in Texas, and will be graduating in May 2021. I am currently engaged to a US Citizen in Florida; we have been dating long distance for over 2 years, and we will be getting married in mid-January 2021. However, because of my degree's graduation requirements, I cannot move-in with her yet until I am done with my degree in early-May 2021. I plan on moving-in with her in Florida as soon as I am able to by late-May 2021.

My questions are:
1) Should I wait until we move in together and have more evidence of co-habitation before filing for Adjustment of Status?
2) Or is it a better idea to have it filed soon as soon as possible after we get married? (currently planning for early February to early March to file)
3) What would be the pros and cons for each?
4) If option 2 is viable, what more evidences can we get to make our bona fides for marriage at the time of submission more solid?

At the moment, we have the following evidences for a bona fide relationship:

- My life insurance policy with my fiancee as one of the beneficiaries
- Her life insurance policy with me as one of the beneficiaries.
- I am listed on her cell phone bill, which we share lines with along with her immediate family.
- A joint savings account.
- An AirBnB "lease" with both our names listed for when we stayed with each other in Texas for 2 months over a summer.
- My fiancee as an authorized user on one of my credit cards.
- Plane tickets from the 17 times (so far!) we have flown to visit each other for anywhere between 3 days to 2 months.
- Gas station and hotel receipts there and back for the one time I drove out to visit her during the height of the pandemic.
- Photos of the trips we took together, we did a lot of sightseeing at each other's home states.
- Photos of us and her family from when we attended her brother's engagement party.
- Photos of us and her family from when we attended her brother's wedding.
- Call logs of the daily calls we make to each other.
- At least 10 cards we've sent to each other for our birthdays and anniversaries and other holidays.
- Receipts for the engagement ring, and our wedding bands, and other gifts we've sent to each other.

Shortly after getting married, but before we move-in with each other in May 2021, we will also have the following evidences:

- Affidavits from friends and family of our relationship
- Photos from the courthouse wedding
- Receipt for the wedding photographer
- Letter from our respective employers clearly showing each other listed as an emergency contact

I hope this is the right forum for the questions I have.

[pushbrk 12,883]

No need to delay filing once the marriage certificate is in hand.  Your evidence looks good, but no need to bother friends about affidavits.  At best, they are meaningless and the actually CAN make you look desperate.  Concentrate on evidence of time spent together in person.  That's the strongest.  You'll be living together for quite a while before any decision is made at your joint interview.

[Ryan H 3,812]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to Adjustment of Status from Work, Student, & Tourist Visas forum.