GoSox

Hi everyone, You have all been immensely helpful to me already, so I am once again coming to you for help. At the advice of members of this forum, I have gone ahead and married my fiancee (👍). We are applying for a CR1 and will be filing the I-130 and I-130A online. There is a section of the online application that requests the beneficiary's information in their native written language. The exact instructions are copied in an attached image for reference. The problem is that my wife is from Belarus where her native language is Russian and her birth certificate is in Russian, but she currently lives in Czech Republic. There are no documents with "her name and foreign address in their native written language" (i.e. Russian). Would a copy of her original birth certificate in Russian and a copy of her lease be suitable for this section? I only worry because her birth certificate does not contain her foreign address. Thank you all in advance.

Thank you, I appreciate it! This seems like a pretty vibrant and active community. We are looking forward to being a part of it.

Yes, I am aware that they aren't all requirements, but when the list of suggested supplemental evidence includes things like "joint finances" and "children," it felt insubstantial, silly even, to only submit a few pictures of us vacationing in Europe, you know what I mean? Anyway, I appreciate the reassurance. We will likely go with a CR-1.

From the I-130 form instructions: (1) Documentation showing joint ownership of property; (2) A lease showing joint tenancy of a common residence, meaning you both live at the same address together; (3) Documentation showing that you and your spouse have combined your financial resources; (4) Birth certificates of children born to you and your spouse together; (5) Affidavits sworn to or affirmed by third parties having personal knowledge of the bona fides of the marital relationship. Each affidavit must contain the full name and address of the person making the affidavit; date and place of birth of the person making the affidavit; and complete information and details explaining how the person acquired his or her knowledge of your marriage; or (6) Any other relevant documentation to establish that there is an ongoing marital union. Our evidence would be entirely from 6 and maybe a few affidavits as described in 5. Having our documents be in the US seems like it might be helpful. It's honestly not even a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Not sure why I included it in the original post. It was the only other "perk" I could think of for K1.

Hi everyone, Looks like a pretty niche community I've been lurking for the past few months. I asked my girlfriend from Belarus to marry me early last month, so we are beginning process together. We were deciding between K1 and CR1, and the advantages of CR1 are obvious to me and don't need to be reiterated. My question is, the CR1 application's examples for evidence of bona fide marriage are things like cohabitation, joint finances, or even children. The K1 evidence is just evidence of "having met in the past 2 years." We have been together every month in 2022 with photographic evidence and documented flights and everything, so this will not be an issue. We do not have evidence of the sort expected for a CR-1 Visa, so we have tentatively opted for a K1. The other advantage of a K1 in our opinion is the consolidation of all legal documents into a single location (the USA). Everyone here seems pretty hell-bent on steering new applicants to a CR-1, but this issue has me a little nervous, because I would obviously hate to be turned down and restart this process all over again. Thanks!