I-130 question: does this count as having lived together?

[dbca 0]

In 2021 my wife and I rented a house in her home country (Colombia), where I would say we "lived" together for 4 months. As an American, I was subject to a visa-free policy for up to 6 months. We had a notarized rental agreement which we both signed. When we rented the house it was my intention to apply for a residential visa to stay there with her for the next year or two. But our plans changed and we decided to travel abroad to third countries and see the world, which we are still doing. We have spent every day together for the past couple of years, but since we left Colombia I wouldn't really say we've been "living" together, simply traveling together for a very long time.

I have read knowledgeable members of this forum state that to be considered to have "lived together" one must have a residential permit for the country in which one "lived". That makes sense. But it also seems counterintuitive to say that we did not live together despite having a joint rental contract and the intention to pursue a residential permit while not specifically being on a tourist visa, but rather inside of a visa-free period. It also seems downright misleading to list only my long-term home in the US on the list of places I've lived in the past five years while I had a rented house in Colombia where I spent every day with my wife.

Please help me sort this out. I want to include the rental agreement as evidence of a bona fide relationship, but I want to be technically correct about how it is included and not contradict myself while listing our addresses.

Some additional questions if you happen to know the answers: does the rental contract, which is in Spanish, need to be translated? And should any of the temporary rentals we've stayed in (some for nearly 3 months at a time) deserve to be included in the list of places we've "lived" despite having been there under visa-free regimes and with no intention of pursuing residency permits?

Thanks for your time and help.

[SteveInBostonI130 3,434]

What specific question on I-130 do you need advice with?

[Allaboutwaiting 2,503]

You have lived together all this time, including the places where you have traveled. 

 

It might get confusing when it comes to residence which for immigration purposes means: "The person's principal actual dwelling place in fact, without regard to intent. A person is not required to live in a particular place for a specific period of time in order for that place to be considered his or her “residence.” However, the longer a stay in a particular place, the more likely it is that a person can establish that place is his or her residence."

 

I would list addresses of places where you've stayed 3 months or more and/or places where you have signed a lease for. 

 

And regarding evidence in a language other that English, it must always include a certified translation.

[dbca 0]

"Where did you and your spouse last live together?" would be the main question on the I-130 I'm asking about.

As well as our individual address histories for the past 5 years.

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

1 hour ago, dbca said:

does the rental contract, which is in Spanish, need to be translated?

Any evidence sent to USCIS must be accompanied by an English translation certified by someone fluent in bot languages.

[SteveInBostonI130 3,434]

6 hours ago, dbca said:

"Where did you and your spouse last live together?" would be the main question on the I-130 I'm asking about.

As well as our individual address histories for the past 5 years.

 

I do not recall seeing that question on the I-130.

 

There are questions regarding your current address and previous addresses, and separate questions about the beneficiary's address and previous addresses.

[Lil bear 4,201]

42 minutes ago, SteveInBostonI130 said:

 

I do not recall seeing that question on the I-130.

 

There are questions regarding your current address and previous addresses, and separate questions about the beneficiary's address and previous addresses.

Starts at # 59a. BUT  living together is not essential..

 

 i think the time referred  to by OP would be seen as living together .. no documentation is required.. just enter the address and dates as required on the form 

[pushbrk 12,878]

8 hours ago, dbca said:

"Where did you and your spouse last live together?" would be the main question on the I-130 I'm asking about.

As well as our individual address histories for the past 5 years.

You don't have to live together.  It's a question, not a requirement.  I don't see a problem with including a four month stay as living together.  No need to document it with a rental agreement.  Your passport stamps showing you were in country together will be sufficient.  Use that as evidence of "being together".  It doesn't really matter whether you rented a house with a temporary address or not.

 

 

[dbca 0]

Thank you all for these replies. I think our passport stamps alone will provide strong evidence of the authenticity of our relationship. (We're also including about 30 photos from our travels, and the times when my family has come to visit us abroad.)

Just a couple more questions:

(1) If we include the handful of addresses where we have stayed for 3 months or more, what should we put for our residences for the periods between those? For example, I was at home in California before going to Colombia, and then after that we spent a couple weeks in Istanbul. So, should the list of my residences go California->Colombia->California? Since I had no other residence during our time in Istanbul, even though I did not physically return to California? Or is it acceptable to have gaps in the list of residential addresses?

(2) Even though the rental contract from Colombia is not necessary to demonstrate that we were together during those months, would it still be worthwhile as evidence of:

• A lease showing joint tenancy of a common residence, meaning you both live at the same address together;
• Documentation showing that you and your spouse have combined your financial resources;

All of the other hotel and Airbnb do not specifically mention my wife's name, and we do not share a bank account or have property owned in common. Would it the inclusion of the rental contract (with certified translation) help to make our case significantly stronger?

Thanks again for your guidance.

[dbca 0]

(3) One more question:

"Is your current mailing address the same as your physical address?"

I'm putting my house in California as my mailing address while we're on the road, so should I put our current hotel/Airbnb at the time of submitting the I-130 as my "physical address" or say it is the same as the mailing address?

Edited May 1, 2023 by dbca

[Redro 4,611]

Personally, I would list the address in you home country as your place of residency and omit your stays in other countries around the world. 

Especially if you both have a fixed address you will return to and your wife wants to interview in her home country. 

Whichever address is listed last for your wife will be the embassy/country you are assigned to for the visa interview. Even if you list another country as the place you want to interview. 

You also want to be consistent and when it comes to the DS260 in the future the different countries your wife traveled to will trigger CEAC wanting police clearance certificates.

Then for bonafide evidence you can upload photos of your passports showing you are together and if you want you can include a timeline/paragraph explaining you have been traveling the world together. 

AGAIN: Whatever you list on the I-130 for your wife stay consistent and list it on her DS260. 

 

Another issue with listing addresses you stayed in when you were only a tourist will trigger to the requirement to acquire police background checks for those countries for your wife at NVC stage. 

You will have to compose explanations stating you are not required to upload the PCCs because 1) your wife was a tourist 2) your wife was in the country for less than 1 year.  An easy thing to overcome but personally speaking if you can omit having to enter a lot of addresses and have the DS260 time out/ keep asking you about gaps in your address history when completing that section of the form... the better. 

 

Good luck! Remember the I-130 is also for beneficiaries living inside the US with their spouses. I wouldn't worry too much about showing you live together I would focus on showing time spent together through passport stamps and a few photographs in different places and the two of you with different people. 

 

[FriendlyUser 42]

2 hours ago, dbca said:

(3) One more question:

"Is your current mailing address the same as your physical address?"

Travelling together for such a substantial period of time IS an evidence you are actually together. No need for official rental contracts in each place you went to together etc..

 

1) As for the first question (residence), I would state your address in California and her address in Colombia. Do they have a separate question for travelling abroad? If they do, I would include those travels with your wife there. If they don't, I would include all the dates and destinations with mutual trips as additional evidence in an online application: Country->[maybe Cities within one country if you travelled for a substantial time within one country]->Dates->Stamps in both passport (airplane/train/bus tickets if you have them)->Mutual Photos in listed locations (one per location is enough). In this case they will see the whole picture, when you both have a separate address in your own counties, but you've been spending most of the time during these years together through travelling. Stating rentals in countries you travelled to as "official residence" is not accurate and may raise certain issues, in my not legal opinion. 

2) As for the second question, collect all additional evidence you can for the interview, just in case they ask for it. I personally wouldn't upload Columbia four-month rental contract; I would only provide it as additional evidence if they bring it up during the interview (e.g. so you spent 4 months in Columbia together: where you stayed and what did you?). If they ask later (which may not even happen), why only one mutual address evidence, I would tell them the truth that the rest of the rentals were just in your name. It's totally fine because your photos and passport stamps (or airplane tickets or visas for the same destination at the same time etc.) will be enough as evidence of truthful union. 

3) Your travel address is not your physical address (unless you live at a certain hotel abroad year round). So put your actual USA address. 

[pushbrk 12,878]

Use your US mailing address as your mailing address, and if you've never had a status other than "visitor" in another country, leave it off.  Just use that as evidence of time spent together.  You are not required to have lived together, ever.  So, no need to contrive such evidence by saying you lived together as "visitor".

[dbca 0]

I really can't thank you guys enough. These replies have been extremely helpful. We've been racking our brains over this for a while but now it's clear how to proceed. We'll include only our permanent residences in our home countries as the places we've lived, say we have not lived together yet, and then include passport stamps, photos, boarding passes, etc. as evidence of having spent time together traveling.

I'm going to upload separate pdf files for our passports, including every page of each one (I have one that expired recently but has most of my stamps for our travels together). But in addition to this, should I combine all the various types of evidence for each trip together into one file, including photos of us in a single country alongside the boarding passes to and from that country, and also the passport stamps from both out passports for entering and exiting that country? Or upload one pdf file with all the travel photos from all the different countries, another with all the boarding passes, and let them connect the dots themselves so to speak? I have a lot of passport stamps from solo trips before we met so it might be a slog for them to search through it all.

[Redro 4,611]

2 hours ago, dbca said:

I really can't thank you guys enough. These replies have been extremely helpful. We've been racking our brains over this for a while but now it's clear how to proceed. We'll include only our permanent residences in our home countries as the places we've lived, say we have not lived together yet, and then include passport stamps, photos, boarding passes, etc. as evidence of having spent time together traveling.

I'm going to upload separate pdf files for our passports, including every page of each one (I have one that expired recently but has most of my stamps for our travels together). But in addition to this, should I combine all the various types of evidence for each trip together into one file, including photos of us in a single country alongside the boarding passes to and from that country, and also the passport stamps from both out passports for entering and exiting that country? Or upload one pdf file with all the travel photos from all the different countries, another with all the boarding passes, and let them connect the dots themselves so to speak? I have a lot of passport stamps from solo trips before we met so it might be a slog for them to search through it all.

I would do it per trip. Try to think of the person looking at the submission. You want it to be easy to understand and don't want them trying to put the puzzle pieces together.