i-130- Evidence of Bonafide Marriage supporting docs

[smcfendez 0]

Hello! I'm working on the i-130 for my husband and getting together our evidence. We have lived together outside of the US since our marriage in 2017 and have only been apart for short periods of time when I have traveled back to the US to visit family. I am putting together lots of things, but I want to make sure not to include unnecessary elements and to keep it as concise as possible.

 

So far, for evidence I have:

1) Marriage certificate with translation

2) Lease documentation with our names showing we have lived together for the last 6.5 years>> two of our leases are 5-6 pages each- do we include all pages, or just the signatures pages?

3) Copy of work visa information from Singapore showing that I was a dependant on my husband's visa

4) Copy of my current work contracts showing he is my dependent for all benefits>> The contract is 33 pages- do I need to include the whole thing, or just the page from the Schedule of Allowances where it states they consider him my dependant spouse? I have two separate contracts covering our current stay in China, so it would be close to 70 pages total for both docs.

5) Evidence of trips we have taken together ourselves and with friends and family

• Photos- 2ish photos per trip, with other people, with notable landmarks in the background
• E-tickets for some of the trips, AirBnB/Trip/Booking.Com receipts for some flights/hotels- do I just merge a big PDF, or put screenshots into a document and annotate this?
• Passport stamps showing we traveled together>> is this necessary? Is it better than photos? How would I organize this? Just scan both of our passports?

6) PDFs of a few emails with our financial planner with some details regarding our planning for retirement together- we do not have any joint financial accounts

 

Photos question: I currently have 1 doc with photos that is 8 pages long. It includes one page with a collection of wedding photos (photographer shots and some from guests) and then the rest of the pages are photos of trips of ours starting from when we were dating and including two or three general "life" photos at sites and with friends and family both in Singapore and China. Should I keep these all together in one document because I think they kind of show our relationship story that way? All photos are dated and labeled clearly.

 

Messages/Texts/Chats question: Should I still be including screenshots of texts/messages throughout our relationship even though we have been living together? If so, how many/ with what frequency?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice/wisdom!!

[Dashinka 24,657]

6 minutes ago, smcfendez said:

Hello! I'm working on the i-130 for my husband and getting together our evidence. We have lived together outside of the US since our marriage in 2017 and have only been apart for short periods of time when I have traveled back to the US to visit family. I am putting together lots of things, but I want to make sure not to include unnecessary elements and to keep it as concise as possible.

 

So far, for evidence I have:

1) Marriage certificate with translation

2) Lease documentation with our names showing we have lived together for the last 6.5 years>> two of our leases are 5-6 pages each- do we include all pages, or just the signatures pages?

 

I would include all pages in a PDF.

 

3) Copy of work visa information from Singapore showing that I was a dependant on my husband's visa

4) Copy of my current work contracts showing he is my dependent for all benefits>> The contract is 33 pages- do I need to include the whole thing, or just the page from the Schedule of Allowances where it states they consider him my dependant spouse? I have two separate contracts covering our current stay in China, so it would be close to 70 pages total for both docs.

 

I would PDF the entire document.

 

5) Evidence of trips we have taken together ourselves and with friends and family

• Photos- 2ish photos per trip, with other people, with notable landmarks in the background
• E-tickets for some of the trips, AirBnB/Trip/Booking.Com receipts for some flights/hotels- do I just merge a big PDF, or put screenshots into a document and annotate this?

I would arrange it in a Powerpoint with captions and then PDF it.

• Passport stamps showing we traveled together>> is this necessary? Is it better than photos? How would I organize this? Just scan both of our passports?

Passport stamps are better than photos since they are official government stamps and photos can be faked fairly easily.  Just copy all passport pages with stamps.

 

6) PDFs of a few emails with our financial planner with some details regarding our planning for retirement together- we do not have any joint financial accounts

 

Photos question: I currently have 1 doc with photos that is 8 pages long. It includes one page with a collection of wedding photos (photographer shots and some from guests) and then the rest of the pages are photos of trips of ours starting from when we were dating and including two or three general "life" photos at sites and with friends and family both in Singapore and China. Should I keep these all together in one document because I think they kind of show our relationship story that way? All photos are dated and labeled clearly.

Photos are secondary evidence, I would keep them all in one document.

6 minutes ago, smcfendez said:

 

Messages/Texts/Chats question: Should I still be including screenshots of texts/messages throughout our relationship even though we have been living together? If so, how many/ with what frequency?

 

Thank you in advance for any advice/wisdom!!

 

Good Luck!

[JeanneAdil 6,590]

Further down the road you will need to show that USC filed federal tax returns if worked outside the US
If no US income,  joint sponsor will be needed

 

immigrant will need criminal reports from all countries lived in 

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html

 

Criminal reports per USCIS needed:

Are 16 years old or older	Lived in your country of nationality for more than 6 months at any time in your life	Your country of nationality
Are 16 years old or older	Have lived in your country of current residence (if different from nationality) for more than 6 months

[smcfendez 0]

Ok, so I've been editing/working on our documentation.

I have the following documents:

1) Merged PDF of leases and tenancy info for last 7 years

2) My merged employment contracts from the last 4 years listing my husband as a dependent

3) A PDF of passport stamps and visas with annotations- my passport pages on the left, his on the right with a colored outline to identify the stamps we are referring to and a note with the location where we went and the date. Included all visa stickers and stamps from places we've lived together and visited.

4) PDF of the few AirBnB/ hotel bookings and flight itineraries that I have- I don't have this documentation for all trips.

5) PDF of emails with financial planner

6) PDF of a collection of wedding photos, 2-3 photos from every vacation since we started dating and 3 or so photos from each country we've lived in together showing daily life. Photos are varied in activities and poses and show us with family and friends. 8 pages total.

Do I need evidence of texts/chats? Should I include whole PDFs of both of our passports here as well, since my stamps document is screenshots and cropped, or is what I have enough?

Does this sound ok?

[Dashinka 24,657]

48 minutes ago, smcfendez said:

Ok, so I've been editing/working on our documentation.

I have the following documents:

1) Merged PDF of leases and tenancy info for last 7 years

2) My merged employment contracts from the last 4 years listing my husband as a dependent

3) A PDF of passport stamps and visas with annotations- my passport pages on the left, his on the right with a colored outline to identify the stamps we are referring to and a note with the location where we went and the date. Included all visa stickers and stamps from places we've lived together and visited.

4) PDF of the few AirBnB/ hotel bookings and flight itineraries that I have- I don't have this documentation for all trips.

5) PDF of emails with financial planner

6) PDF of a collection of wedding photos, 2-3 photos from every vacation since we started dating and 3 or so photos from each country we've lived in together showing daily life. Photos are varied in activities and poses and show us with family and friends. 8 pages total.

Do I need evidence of texts/chats? Should I include whole PDFs of both of our passports here as well, since my stamps document is screenshots and cropped, or is what I have enough?

Does this sound ok?

This sounds like a very comprehensive list.  I would not worry about text/chat history for the petition, but you may want to keep them handy for the eventual interview.  Honestly I think the fact that you have been living together for the past 6-7 years since marriage will be the biggest proof of your wedded relationship.  You will also need to put together the package to show your plans to repatriate back to the US, but you won't need that for the petition (I130), but rather at the consulate phase.

 

Good Luck!