Request of Evidence

[Milka & Chris 2]

Hi everyone

After 13 months of waiting since we sent our I-130 petition my husband yesterday recieved and request of evidence. They want us to have more proof of our marriage. In our application that we sent last year we only had a couple letters from friends writing about our relationship. I think we have should send some pictures of too. I prepared now 9 pictures to send us as family and also some with friends and family. Now I am a little bit worried if thats a bad sign that they believe our marriage would not be legit? 😫 How long it takes them to respond on our application after we sent in the missing documents? 

[Verrou 1,962]

i assumed u already got married. i submitted 20 pics started when we are dating ( various pictures within 2 years with friends, family and also the 2 of us on vacation  ).+ 20 pics on marriage day. 

joint lease

joint credit card ( 3months billing statement )

joint checking account ( 3 months billing statement )

joint car's title 

the more joint financially the better. 

we didnt even submit avidavit from any friends / family 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Misscloud

[Milka & Chris 2]

1 minute ago, Misscloud said:

i assumed u already got married. i submitted 20 pics started when we date ( various pictures within 2 years ). 20 pics on marriage day. 

joint lease

joint credit card ( 3months billing statement )

joint checking account ( 3 months billing statement )

joint car's title 

the more joint financially the better. 

we didnt even submit avidavit from any friends / family 

Thank you for sharing your experience and how you did it! Since we're not living together yet we dont have any cards or bills we share together yet. this is all to come when we finally be able to live together. But we have a bunch of pictures to send in. from family, friends and just us as family (me, my husband and my/our daughter). 

[Verrou 1,962]

more pictures for sure. dont just do 9 pictures. chat logs, presents, letters, screenshot video calls, etc etc. the idea is give "more" is better than give "less" to USCIS

there's no right or wrong. whatever u can send to USCIS to proof ur marriage is bonafide the better

Edited March 11, 2021 by Misscloud

[JKLSemicolon 425]

Have you visited each other in person since sending in your initial petition? If you have, provide a copy of the flight itinerary along with boarding passes and passport stamps. If you don't have old boarding passes you can contact the airline and have them give you a "boarding letter" (the name of this will vary depending on the airline) that confirms you actually did take the flight(s).

 

Even if you haven't visited each other since sending in the petition, you can do the same thing for any previous in-person visits if you didn't do that the first time. If doing that I would make a cover sheet that summarizes whatever meetings you have evidence for (where/when/number of days, etc.) followed by the evidence itself.

 

Is your husband the one in the US? He should add you as an Authorized User to some of his credit cards. This is easy to do even without a SSN with some banks, and you don't need to be living together. Barclays and Chase were the easiest for me as they can be done online. Once that is done, make a copy of any confirmation from the bank about the Authorized User being added and send in a copy of the cards (yours and his), blacking out all but the last four digits of the card number. If this is difficult with any of his current cards he could sign up for a new card and add you as an Authorized User immediately during the application process. I would probably pick a card with no annual fee if going that route.

 

If your husband has any retirement accounts, etc. where he can name you as the beneficiary, have him do that (making sure to mark you as spouse) and provide that documentation (any letter from the institution that says they have updated the beneficiary information + printout of the beneficiary information on the account). Most of the time that can be done online very easily and without needing a SSN. In our case, even in the one account where it wasn't possible, I had the institution provide me a letter saying that my wife's information is on file and that she would still be entitled to any benefits in the event of my death provided that she had a SSN or TIN at that time, and I included that letter.

 

I sent 88 photos with our petition. That's probably much more than most, but they were over the course of 10 years. Photos with friends/family, that show you visiting different places together, celebrating holidays or special occasions, or that mark an obvious passage of time (different hair styles, etc.) will help. We even had some photos that we "time stamped" by standing in front of signs that had dates on them (like the dates for a museum exhibit), or holding tickets to something that had a specific date, etc. I labeled all of our photos by date and location.

 

 

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by JKLSemicolon

[Milka & Chris 2]

20 minutes ago, JKLSemicolon said:

Have you visited each other in person since sending in your initial petition? If you have, provide a copy of the flight itinerary along with boarding passes and passport stamps. If you don't have old boarding passes you can contact the airline and have them give you a "boarding letter" (the name of this will vary depending on the airline) that confirms you actually did take the flight(s).

 

Even if you haven't visited each other since sending in the petition, you can do the same thing for any previous in-person visits if you didn't do that the first time. If doing that I would make a cover sheet that summarizes whatever meetings you have evidence for (where/when/number of days, etc.) followed by the evidence itself.

 

Is your husband the one in the US? He should add you as an Authorized User to some of his credit cards. This is easy to do even without a SSN with some banks, and you don't need to be living together. Barclays and Chase were the easiest for me as they can be done online. Once that is done, make a copy of any confirmation from the bank about the Authorized User being added and send in a copy of the cards (yours and his), blacking out all but the last four digits of the card number. If this is difficult with any of his current cards he could sign up for a new card and add you as an Authorized User immediately during the application process. I would probably pick a card with no annual fee if going that route.

 

If your husband has any retirement accounts, etc. where he can name you as the beneficiary, have him do that (making sure to mark you as spouse) and provide that documentation (any letter from the institution that says they have updated the beneficiary information + printout of the beneficiary information on the account). Most of the time that can be done online very easily and without needing a SSN. In our case, even in the one account where it wasn't possible, I had the institution provide me a letter saying that my wife's information is on file and that she would still be entitled to any benefits in the event of my death provided that she had a SSN or TIN at that time, and I included that letter.

 

I sent 88 photos with our petition. That's probably much more than most, but they were over the course of 10 years. Photos with friends/family, that show you visiting different places together, celebrating holidays or special occasions, or that mark an obvious passage of time (different hair styles, etc.) will help. We even had some photos that we "time stamped" by standing in front of signs that had dates on them (like the dates for a museum exhibit), or holding tickets to something that had a specific date, etc. I labeled all of our photos by date and location.

 

 

 

Wow thank you for your reply and your time!

 

Yea after we married due to covid 19 we was able to meet 2 times and in a couple days its gonna be our 3th time after we married. I think I even have some tickets home that I kept as memory imma scan it and sent it to him so he can add that too. 

 

Your answer really helped me a lot! I just realized we didnt put enough evidence at all in our application when we sent it in. 

and yea my husband is the one from US, I am from Switzerland.

 

I just really hope after we send it up we will grt a response on our application asap.

 

Thank you so so much for you reply!!

[JKLSemicolon 425]

3 minutes ago, Milka & Chris said:

Wow thank you for your reply and your time!

 

Yea after we married due to covid 19 we was able to meet 2 times and in a couple days its gonna be our 3th time after we married. I think I even have some tickets home that I kept as memory imma scan it and sent it to him so he can add that too. 

 

Your answer really helped me a lot! I just realized we didnt put enough evidence at all in our application when we sent it in. 

and yea my husband is the one from US, I am from Switzerland.

 

I just really hope after we send it up we will grt a response on our application asap.

 

Thank you so so much for you reply!!

No problem!

 

If you have visited your husband in the US, one more thing that you can easily include is a copy of your I-94 travel history. Go to the I-94 website and look for the View Travel History link. You'll need to enter your passport information and it should give you a list of all of your arrivals and departures to/from the US for the last 5 years. Note that occasionally this does not get updated correctly, but hopefully yours will be complete. I would then print out the results as a PDF, making sure to include the web address on the printout (as a rule, I would recommend this where applicable for any evidence; it can be done easily from Chrome).

 

If including the I-94 history you would need to also attach a copy of your passport bio page so that it's obvious that the information is connected to you. This is because your name will not appear in the results, only the passport number and country. And in that case you would still want to include the other evidence of visits that I mentioned in my previous post.

[Milka & Chris 2]

5 minutes ago, JKLSemicolon said:

No problem!

 

If you have visited your husband in the US, one more thing that you can easily include is a copy of your I-94 travel history. Go to the I-94 website and look for the View Travel History link. You'll need to enter your passport information and it should give you a list of all of your arrivals and departures to/from the US for the last 5 years. Note that occasionally this does not get updated correctly, but hopefully yours will be complete. I would then print out the results as a PDF, making sure to include the web address on the printout (as a rule, I would recommend this where applicable for any evidence; it can be done easily from Chrome).

 

If including the I-94 history you would need to also attach a copy of your passport bio page so that it's obvious that the information is connected to you. This is because your name will not appear in the results, only the passport number and country. And in that case you would still want to include the other evidence of visits that I mentioned in my previous post.

Ok thats great! I'm definitely gonna do this and send it to my husband so he could add that too. What is about social media if we give our information about this too? because there you can also see clearly that we are a real couple. 

[JKLSemicolon 425]

7 minutes ago, Milka & Chris said:

Ok thats great! I'm definitely gonna do this and send it to my husband so he could add that too. What is about social media if we give our information about this too? because there you can also see clearly that we are a real couple. 

I wouldn't share social media handles and expect anyone to look at them, but for example: did either of you change your relationship status to married on Facebook, etc? You could include printouts of reactions and positive messages from friends/family there. Same goes for wedding photos or other photos of you together. Just as before, showing things from over a longer period of time, and that were shared with a variety of friends/family, would be better.

 

I didn't do that for the I-130 petition because we already had better evidence, but we had previously done the I-129f for a K-1 visa and I did include a couple of things from FB at that time. As I recall I had to take screen captures rather than printing out the pages to a PDF to make it display properly.

 

Edit: just make sure that anything from social media you share is appropriate for the adjudicator who would be reviewing your case.

Edited March 12, 2021 by JKLSemicolon

[Babu Frik 1,162]

16 hours ago, Milka & Chris said:

we only had a couple letters from friends writing about our relationship

These carry little to no weight because you can get anyone to write anything.

If that is all you sent, then it was no surprise you got an RFE.

 

Remember there is no absolute proof you can send to prove it's bonefide, but it must be convincing.

Your evidence must tell a story that convinces them it is bonefide.

 

Here are things that are always winning evidence.

- Boarding passes

- Quality photos, that is not just up close photos of you two, but also photos with friends and family, recognizable places in the background. Put them in order and date them and add captions.

 

Some people will just have that and they get by, but if you have other good evidence, always the better.

Things like leases or financial accounts you're both on.

 

Like the affidavits there is also other evidence that aren't highly regarded, things that are easy to add anyones name on, or don't necessarily show that a relationship is real.

 

[Crazy Cat 42,323]

17 hours ago, Misscloud said:

more pictures for sure. dont just do 9 pictures. chat logs, presents, letters, screenshot video calls, etc etc. the idea is give "more" is better than give "less" to USCIS

there's no right or wrong. whatever u can send to USCIS to proof ur marriage is bonafide the better

Not necessarily.  Quality is always better than quantity. ..always.  The best evidence a couple can submit is that of time actually spent together...in person.  That is just a fact.  Personal affidavits are of little value.  Anyone can product an affidavit for anything.  I suggest a FEW pictures, a few chat logs, passport stamps, boarding passes, and any documents which are normally generated during a marriage such as insurance, wills, trust, etc.  

Edited March 12, 2021 by Lucky Cat

[Crazy Cat 42,323]

17 hours ago, Milka & Chris said:

In our application that we sent last year we only had a couple letters from friends writing about our relationship.

The very best evidence you can provide is that of time actually spent together in person.  

[Verrou 1,962]

9 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

Not necessarily.  Quality is always better than quantity. ..always.  The best evidence a couple can submit is that of time actually spent together...in person.  That is just a fact.  Personal affidavits are of little value.  Anyone can product an affidavit for anything.

That’s absolutely correct. English is not my first language. Obviously quality is better than quantity, but the reason she got RFE because she ONLY submit personal affidavits. Hence my last sentence about anything to proof bonafide marriage is the better 

[SteveInBostonI130 3,483]

19 hours ago, Milka & Chris said:

Wow thank you for your reply and your time!

 

Yea after we married due to covid 19 we was able to meet 2 times and in a couple days its gonna be our 3th time after we married. I think I even have some tickets home that I kept as memory imma scan it and sent it to him so he can add that too. 

 

Your answer really helped me a lot! I just realized we didnt put enough evidence at all in our application when we sent it in. 

and yea my husband is the one from US, I am from Switzerland.

 

I just really hope after we send it up we will grt a response on our application asap.

 

Thank you so so much for you reply!!

 

18 hours ago, JKLSemicolon said:

No problem!

 

If you have visited your husband in the US, one more thing that you can easily include is a copy of your I-94 travel history. Go to the I-94 website and look for the View Travel History link. You'll need to enter your passport information and it should give you a list of all of your arrivals and departures to/from the US for the last 5 years. Note that occasionally this does not get updated correctly, but hopefully yours will be complete. I would then print out the results as a PDF, making sure to include the web address on the printout (as a rule, I would recommend this where applicable for any evidence; it can be done easily from Chrome).

 

If including the I-94 history you would need to also attach a copy of your passport bio page so that it's obvious that the information is connected to you. This is because your name will not appear in the results, only the passport number and country. And in that case you would still want to include the other evidence of visits that I mentioned in my previous post.

 

2 hours ago, Lucky Cat said:

Not necessarily.  Quality is always better than quantity. ..always.  The best evidence a couple can submit is that of time actually spent together...in person.  That is just a fact.  Personal affidavits are of little value.  Anyone can product an affidavit for anything.  I suggest a FEW pictures, a few chat logs, passport stamps, boarding passes, and any documents which are normally generated during a marriage such as insurance, wills, trust, etc.  

 

In addition to the above...wedding photos.   Receipt of your wedding rings as well, if you have them.

[Milka & Chris 2]

5 hours ago, Lucky Cat said:

Not necessarily.  Quality is always better than quantity. ..always.  The best evidence a couple can submit is that of time actually spent together...in person.  That is just a fact.  Personal affidavits are of little value.  Anyone can product an affidavit for anything.  I suggest a FEW pictures, a few chat logs, passport stamps, boarding passes, and any documents which are normally generated during a marriage such as insurance, wills, trust, etc.  

So we have pictures of family & friends and of as as family, we both have boarding passes at least for about 4 trips. we also gonna show that my husband put me as his wife in his military information and were gonna add some affidavits from friends that seen us together and spend time with us before. I hope this will be enough provement. also I screenshotet my and his facebook account since we both have profile pictures of us there and put in that were married.