What evidence should I include in my unique circumstance? [merged threads]

[roughlyworried 5]

Hello,

 

so I’m actually writing this from the airport in the third country we’ve lived in for a year. My wife just left on the plane and I’m due to leave back to america in another few hours. Anyways, just a few questions I had that I’ve been meaning to ask when I got the time.

 

the evidence I have for us living together in Thailand is 3 things:

1. pictures.

2. lease agreement with owner for an apartment we stayed in part of the time I was here

3. Passport stamps

 

for the lease agreement, I attached it below with personal info blocked out. Curious if you guys think this is good for the interview, since it doesn’t exactly look professional due to the landlord not speaking/typing native English. I guess it’s optional considering all the pictures and the passport stamps we have. I guess it couldn’t hurt?

 

 

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by TBoneTX

[roughlyworried 5]

I should also ask, should I upload my additional evidence now? Or wait?

[carmel34 3,621]

If you have already filed the I-130 petition without this additional evidence, then the best time to add it to your file would be at the NVC stage after the I-130 is approved, unless you get an RFE before then asking for more bona fide marriage evidence.  Then submit it in response to the RFE.  I also suggest including original boarding passes, plus any financial co-mingling evidence you may have such as utility bills for the time you lived together, joint bank or credit card accounts, plus your health insurance in the US showing your wife as covered on your policy.  Good luck!

[roughlyworried 5]

21 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

If you have already filed the I-130 petition without this additional evidence, then the best time to add it to your file would be at the NVC stage after the I-130 is approved, unless you get an RFE before then asking for more bona fide marriage evidence.  Then submit it in response to the RFE.  I also suggest including original boarding passes, plus any financial co-mingling evidence you may have such as utility bills for the time you lived together, joint bank or credit card accounts, plus your health insurance in the US showing your wife as covered on your policy.  Good luck!

Hello. As far as co mingling of finance, the only evidence I have is sending money here to third country for us to live on. I sent it from my bank to hers. As far as utility bills, they sadly don’t list the persons name on them, only the address and how much it was. I did save these, though. The main evidence I have is money being sent from my bank to hers, passport stamps and plane tickets showing we were both in Thailand, about 40-60 pictures together, as well as the lease agreement. I hope this is sufficient.

[Hmoobphajej 13]

The following was evidence I used for me and my wife to get our I-130 approved. It may be more than is required but I rather provide as much information as I can vs getting a RFE a few months down the line and hitting a delay.

• - Marriage License / Marriage Evidence
  • Pictures of our Marriage Ceremony
  • Pictures with me and her Family Member
  • Pictures with her and my Family Member
• - Financial Documentation/ Support
  • US Income, Wife added as Beneficiaries to my 401k/IRA/etc.
  • Screenshots / Capture of you transferring money to your Wife, Mines was via MoneyGram
• - Additional Documented Travels
  • My travel history to see my wife abroad (flights, ticket stubs, stamps in passport)
  • Any itinerary of us traveling together (Hotel rooms with her name and mines, flights with both our names, etc.)
  • Pictures of us together (Not too many but a few from each different trips was what I picked)
• Additional Relationship Documentations
  • Snippets of Conversations via Messenger, Line, WhatsApp, etc.

 

If your wife was in Thailand for more than 12 months I would recommend preparing to get a Police Certificate down the road as well. It'll take some work as it takes them 30 days to process and probably even longer for someone not currently in the country.

Edited November 14, 2022 by Hmoobphajej
Additional Information

[roughlyworried 5]

So little back story. 
 

wife and I met online a few months after the pandemic started while in our own countries. After  about 2-3 months we got married online through Utah. We never met in person before getting married online, and we only ever knew each other online before marriage. I am personally concerned they may question how we could be a real couple, although frankly it was the best decision I’ve ever made. 

 

we met in person for the first time about half a year after being married. We were together for about 3 months in that third country. I left to the US and then came back to that third country and filed for the I-130 shortly after getting back to living with her. lived there for another year with her. Because of personal circumstances, I had to go home again, and she went back to her home country. 
 

my question is, considering the unique circumstance of never meeting in person before getting married online, is there any other evidence I may have that I should be focusing on since I want to upload evidence at the NVC stage? I have a lease agreement in both of our names for one of the apartments we stayed in. Pictures of course. Sending lots of money to the bank account she had while in the third country for us to live on. And more pictures. We didn’t chat much at all online while there, except things like “get this from the store for me” and the like. I feel like there maybe another evidence that I have that I’m overlooking and could be useful. If anyone has any experience or even thoughts it would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

[pushbrk 12,876]

Lease is good, but would need translation if not in English or the her local language.  You spent enough time together after the marriage to satisfy any Consular Officer of your marriage bona fides.  Just concentrate on evidence of time together in person, like passport stamps showing you were both in the same place.  Stamps from BOTH passports.

[roughlyworried 5]

9 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Lease is good, but would need translation if not in English or the her local language.  You spent enough time together after the marriage to satisfy any Consular Officer of your marriage bona fides.  Just concentrate on evidence of time together in person, like passport stamps showing you were both in the same place.  Stamps from BOTH passports.

Ok great. Yea I’ve just been worried because the of the rapidness of marriage after meeting online and never meeting in person before marriage and if there is a larger burden on us to prove the genuineness of our relationship. 

 

lease agreement has Thai AND English on it, like next to the Thai it already has English. Passport stamps I have and actually have the leaving stamp on both of our passports the same day and the arriving stamp a day apart (since she arrived after midnight)

 

im thinking of going to visit her in her home country, meet her family and such, and live there for a few months. Maybe even wait outside when she has her interview and if she gets approved fly back to the states with her. Hopefully it’ll possible because we are hating being apart after a year together.

[TBoneTX 45,267]

Similar-themed threads are merged.

Edited December 23, 2022 by TBoneTX

[powerpuff 6,697]

~~ Duplicate thread removed. Please keep all related questions (in this case evidence of bona fide relationship/marriage) in one thread. Thank you. ~~
 

18 minutes ago, roughlyworried said:

So two part question here.

 

First, All our chat history before marriage a few weeks after is gone. I tried everything to get it back, but no way to access it. All I have is screenshots of us video calling before marriage. No pictures or meeting in person before marriage either. Most of these screenshots you can’t actually see me since it was night time here and daytime in China (some pictures you can see me). Question regarding this, is this an adequate substitute for missing chat records?

 

second, what did others do when some apps don’t allow export of chat history and the only way is screenshots? After marriage, I have almost 2 years worth of chat history that all I can do is screenshot, and that’s frankly unrealistic because it would be thousands of pages. 
 

 

simple - do not submit any.

 

You have much more quality evidence like actually living together. I really don’t understand the need for chats and screenshots of calls. @pushbrk gave best advice - focus on actual valuable evidence like time spent together in person (which you have plenty of). 

Edited December 28, 2022 by powerpuff

[roughlyworried 5]

On 12/21/2022 at 9:17 AM, pushbrk said:

 You spent enough time together after the marriage to satisfy any Consular Officer of your marriage bona fides. 

Coming back to this a little late, but had a specific question since I’ve seen you comment on NVC and interview brought evidence before in VJ.
 

Regarding both NVC and hand brought evidence to the interview, I’ve seen it mentioned that COs are not required to consider either, and only required to consider what’s in the initial I-130 petition. Considering our original I-130 petition only included our first ~3 month trip together, and not our subsequent trips, would this still be considered enough time on its own? Further, would they completely ignore the clear evidence that we’ve been together for much longer? Specifically with China if you have knowledge of that. 

 

 

 

Just some concerns as our fate date draws closer

[pushbrk 12,876]

2 hours ago, roughlyworried said:

Coming back to this a little late, but had a specific question since I’ve seen you comment on NVC and interview brought evidence before in VJ.
 

Regarding both NVC and hand brought evidence to the interview, I’ve seen it mentioned that COs are not required to consider either, and only required to consider what’s in the initial I-130 petition. Considering our original I-130 petition only included our first ~3 month trip together, and not our subsequent trips, would this still be considered enough time on its own? Further, would they completely ignore the clear evidence that we’ve been together for much longer? Specifically with China if you have knowledge of that. 

 

 

 

Just some concerns as our fate date draws closer

Bring the evidence to the interview.  It's Taiwan, not Guangzhou.  Right?

 

[roughlyworried 5]

13 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

Bring the evidence to the interview.  It's Taiwan, not Guangzhou.  Right?

 

Just noticed my consulate is Taiwan for some reason. Let me change that. It’s Guangzhou where the interview will be.  
 

Seems like Guangzhou would be different in that case?

[pushbrk 12,876]

Just now, roughlyworried said:

Just noticed my consulate is Taiwan for some reason. Let me change that. It’s Guangzhou where the interview will be.  
 

Seems like Guangzhou would be different in that case?

GUZ can be tough but they are fair.

 

Just now, roughlyworried said:

Just noticed my consulate is Taiwan for some reason. Let me change that. It’s Guangzhou where the interview will be.  
 

Seems like Guangzhou would be different in that case?

GUZ can be tough but they are fair.

 

[roughlyworried 5]

8 minutes ago, pushbrk said:

GUZ can be tough but they are fair.

 

GUZ can be tough but they are fair.

 

I just tried updating my country but it was already set to China. I tried changing consulate. Not sure why it was showing taiwan.

 

Fair as in they will consider evidence in the interview in addition to my highly unusual case as described earlier? My wife is middle class and from a good area in China (Guangdong). 
 

seen all these horror stories on here of people in high fraud countries getting denied without additional evidence even being considered they submitted at the NVC and interview. Don’t know if China/Guangzhou is one of those though.

Edited April 23, 2023 by roughlyworried