CR1 Visa Questions

[Shy111 0]

Hello everyone,

 

I hope you're all doing well.

 

I have some questions regarding the CR1 Visa that I hope you can help me with.

 

I apologize that this post might be a little long, and I appreciate your time in reading this.

 

To give you some background on our situation:

 

We first met online when we were very young, but we didn't really keep in touch as we grew older. We only talked occasionally, maybe once or twice during holidays. However, as she was finishing high school and planning to study abroad in other countries, we happened to have a conversation about it. I suggested universities in the US and helped her through the college application process. Eventually, she got accepted to a college in the US and obtained an F1 visa and I20 from the college.

 

Due to the COVID-19 situation, all her classes were online for the first two years of her studies, so she didn't need to enter the US. During this time, we started talking a lot more and eventually entered into a relationship. She came to the US for her third year during the summer break. I offered her to stay at my home when school is not in section and used it as her mailing address for important mails. While we attend different universities, we stay in separate dorms during the school term. However, we always spend breaks and holidays and couple of weekends together at my home. As graduation approaches, she will have to return to her home country in a few months. Despite the distance, we are committed to continuing our relationship and plan to marry within the next year or two when we are ready.

 

Here are some questions that I have while doing researches on the process:

 

1. On the i130 form, it asks for addresses in the past 5 years. Should she include both the dorm address and my home address? (She listed my home on the F1 Visa and school is only in section about 7 months per year).

 

2. I'm suddenly a little worry that been with me and putting my address on the application when she first came to the states will create a red flag for the visa, but she does plan to return after graduation for at least a year. Do you think this will create a problem for cr1?

 

3. I have done researches on what others have regarding "Evidence of a Bonafide Marriage", I felt like we have a lot less and don't have enough, we currently have:

 

- More than three years of text messages and phone logs.

- Several photos of us together with friends and my family.

- A lot of gift receipts to each other.

- We could get affidavits from friends and families, but I heard it's not important.

- We have planned a trip to her country this summer in Europe to meet with her family. (We could take more photos)

- We planned to get a joint account and add her to my credit card since she had SSN from her part time at school.

 

- However, we are missing evidence regarding shared properties and proof of living together, thus I'm very worried.

 

But since we still have over an year to collect evidences, we will appreciate any recommendations that we could possibility do and add to the list while being long distanced.

 

I appreciate your times in reading this, and any help or advices is appreciated!

 

Thank you.

[Dashinka 24,481]

I don’t see the address thing as being a real big deal.  Students often times move around while they are in school.  Just go back the five years from when you are planning to file the I130 which appears to be in a year or so, and keep track of the addresses she lived at.

 

As to evidence of a bonafide marriage, it is good you are thinking about this now even though you are not yet married.  Young couples may not have a lot of property evidence to add to the process, but you can add her to things like bills, etc. once you actually get married.  Personally, I would not do a joint account until you are married.

 

Good Luck!

[Daphne . 1,852]

I don’t really see any issues with your case. Yes, she should include the US address. 
Send what you have, but no reason to go overboard by sending 100 pages of texts or something, just pick a few. 
 

Good luck! 

[Shy111 0]

On 2/9/2024 at 3:50 AM, Dashinka said:

I don’t see the address thing as being a real big deal.  Students often times move around while they are in school.  Just go back the five years from when you are planning to file the I130 which appears to be in a year or so, and keep track of the addresses she lived at.

 

As to evidence of a bonafide marriage, it is good you are thinking about this now even though you are not yet married.  Young couples may not have a lot of property evidence to add to the process, but you can add her to things like bills, etc. once you actually get married.  Personally, I would not do a joint account until you are married.

 

Good Luck!

Thank you for the response! I was considering doing a joint account because we already are sharing all our debit/credit cards regularly and I wanted to do the petition right after marriage, and I was thinking that having bank statements spanning a long period might be good evidence. Do you think this is a good idea?

[Shy111 0]

On 2/9/2024 at 6:55 AM, Daphne . said:

I don’t really see any issues with your case. Yes, she should include the US address. 
Send what you have, but no reason to go overboard by sending 100 pages of texts or something, just pick a few. 
 

Good luck! 

Thank you for the reassurance! Do you think the things that we currently have is enough for the evidence? I'm a little worry because we don't have the plan for a wedding before marriage due to our family traditions and I realize that most people includes wedding photos in their cases.

[ShazShaz 32]

On 2/15/2024 at 1:27 PM, Shy111 said:

Thank you for the response! I was considering doing a joint account because we already are sharing all our debit/credit cards regularly and I wanted to do the petition right after marriage, and I was thinking that having bank statements spanning a long period might be good evidence. Do you think this is a good idea?

My husband and I submitted the account opening document and one latest financial statement. The account had some money and almost no transactions, that was sufficient for our petition with no RFE. I guess it was doable as I’m from a low fraud country. If you share your girlfriend’s country, perhaps more VJ folks can comment on country specifics. 

[Shy111 0]

10 hours ago, ShazShaz said:

My husband and I submitted the account opening document and one latest financial statement. The account had some money and almost no transactions, that was sufficient for our petition with no RFE. I guess it was doable as I’m from a low fraud country. If you share your girlfriend’s country, perhaps more VJ folks can comment on country specifics. 

Thank you for the response! My girlfriend is a citizen from China, but she's born in Czech Republic and has been living there for years. The only thing I'm a little worry about in the process is getting evidences while being in different countries, thus we are trying to get as much evidence as possible before she leaves in a couple months.

[pushbrk 12,870]

16 hours ago, Shy111 said:

Thank you for the response! My girlfriend is a citizen from China, but she's born in Czech Republic and has been living there for years. The only thing I'm a little worry about in the process is getting evidences while being in different countries, thus we are trying to get as much evidence as possible before she leaves in a couple months.

Did she live in China more than a year after her 16th birthday?  Does she have a Czech birth certificate?

 

[Shy111 0]

3 hours ago, pushbrk said:

Did she live in China more than a year after her 16th birthday?  Does she have a Czech birth certificate?

 

She first moved to China from Czech in 2008 and returned to Czech Republic when she graduated middle school, I think around 15 or 16 years old, and she's been there ever since. She does have a Czech birth certificate too.

[pushbrk 12,870]

43 minutes ago, Shy111 said:

She first moved to China from Czech in 2008 and returned to Czech Republic when she graduated middle school, I think around 15 or 16 years old, and she's been there ever since. She does have a Czech birth certificate too.

You need to ask specifically if she lived in China for a year after her 16th birthday.   If she didn't, then no Chinese police report is needed.  Details matter in this situation.

[Shy111 0]

19 hours ago, pushbrk said:

You need to ask specifically if she lived in China for a year after her 16th birthday.   If she didn't, then no Chinese police report is needed.  Details matter in this situation.

I really appreciate the information, I have double checked with her and she's confident that she hasn't been to China for more than a year after she moved there.

[pushbrk 12,870]

5 minutes ago, Shy111 said:

I really appreciate the information, I have double checked with her and she's confident that she hasn't been to China for more than a year after she moved there.

The question was whether she spent a year in China after she turned 16.  You seemed unsure of her age "when she moved there".

 

[Shy111 0]

20 hours ago, pushbrk said:

The question was whether she spent a year in China after she turned 16.  You seemed unsure of her age "when she moved there".

 

Thank you for the follow up, she did confirm that she didn’t spend more than a year in China after 16.