US Immigration from Uzbekistan

Hello all! I'm hoping for some advice as to whether it's acceptable to draft a sworn statement on someone else's behalf for them to sign. I currently live with my spouse in their home country and we're preparing to submit our I-130 petition. Part of the evidence I plan to include is our 2023-24 lease agreement, current lease, and a sworn statement from our landlord that spouse and I live together. I need to include the latter because I'm the only one listed on the lease, not my spouse.

To save our landlord the hassle, and to make sure all the necessary information is included, I was planning to draft a statement for them, give them the chance to review it, and have them sign and notarize it if everything is acceptable to them. Is it acceptable to draft a statement for someone else like this, or is that a no-no? I understand in principle it might seem suspicious, but it seems like, as long as the party making the statement has knowledge of and swears to the truthfulness of the information within the statement, it shouldn't be a problem.

Hello all! I have a question as to what extent minor variations in transliteration from languages that don't use the Latin script are tolerated.

My wife's documents are mostly in Uzbek (written in Cyrillic script) and/or Russian. The problem is, there are inconsistencies in how Uzbek/Russian are transliterated from Cyrillic to Latin. Her given name is commonly transliterated two different ways, same for her patronymic (more or less her middle name), and her maiden name can be transliterated at least three different ways.

I'm mainly concerned with how my wife's maiden name is given on our marriage certificate. She has always preferred to write her maiden name in Latin script a certain way, for example, as her e-mail address. However, her maiden name is given (in Latin script) with a different transliteration on our marriage certificate. The translation service we're using has transliterated it in my wife's preferred style in our certified translation. In short, her maiden name is given one way in Latin script on the document itself, and another way in our translation. It's only a difference of one letter, but that is the initial letter, if that makes a difference. The same issue applies to her patronymic, which is transliterated two different ways in both her passport and on our marriage certificate. Again, it's a difference of only one letter, that letter being the initial letter. In both cases, the variation is close enough that I think it would be intuitively understood by someone who doesn't understand the context (K vs. Q and U vs. O), but it sill worries me.

Is this likely to be an issue, or does USCIS generally tolerate this kind of variation? I want to stick to one standard, but it's difficult due to the fact that her name (at least her patronymic) is spelled differently in her passport and on our marriage certificate. Would it be prudent to list all possible transliterations in the "beneficiary's name" section of the I-130, or would that just add confusion to the mix? Very grateful for any guidance you might be able to provide, and feel free to ask for follow-up if I haven't been clear enough.

Hello all! I'm hoping for some advice regarding the proof of relationship I plan to submit for my spouse's I-130 petition. For context, we've been legally married for just over a year now, we currently live together in spouse's home country (where our marriage took place) and plan to do so until they receive their visa.

Here's what I'm currently planning on submitting as evidence:

• Copy of marriage certificate with certified English translation
• Evidence of living together: lease from Aug 2023-Jul 2024 and current lease, along with a sworn statement from our landlord that spouse and I live together at the property (I'm only including the latter because my spouse isn't listed on the lease, only me)
• Evidence of comingled finances: most recent CC statement which shows spouse as an authorized user
• Evidence of international travel together on several occasions, consisting of passport stamps, airline ticket stubs, and hotel reservations
• Collection of ~30 pictures of us together at various points in our relationship, including pictures documenting that we've both met each other's parents/family

I was also planning to ask two of my close friends, both of whom have met spouse in-person and one of whom attended our wedding reception, to prepare a sworn statement that our relationship is genuine. However, I understand that these types of affidavits are generally considered among the weakest evidence. Given what we already have, do you think these would be unnecessary, or would it be beneficial to include them anyways? It certainly can't hurt to do so, right?

I also know that many people submit chat logs with their spouse as evidence. My spouse and I text in a mix of English and their native language, and it would be tedious to not only collect the necessary screenshots, but to then translate them, let alone pay a third party to do so and provide a certified translation. Would this help our application, or do you think the evidence listed above (with or without statements from friends) would get the job done?

On 8/7/2024 at 3:49 PM, Dashinka said:

I would not pull the current I130 as you are able to keep it is stasis indefinitely once it reaches the NVC stage until your plans become solid. She can also try for a B2 application that may or may not be approved.

Good Luck!

Kind of unrelated to the topic at hand, apologies for changing the subject, but could I ask you to elaborate on "keeping your I-130 petition in stasis indefinitely"? Is there no set period within which you have to submit your immigrant visa application after your I-130 petition is approved?

My spouse and I are currently living abroad and are unsure of when exactly we will relocate to the U.S. I haven't filed our I-130 yet for this reason, on the assumption that we would need to be ready to relocate ~2 years from when we file. Do you mean that we could take some time before proceeding with the NVC stage once the I-130 is approved?

Hello all,

I'm getting ready to submit our I-130 petition for my spouse. We're currently living together in their home country and intend to do so until they receive their CR/IR-1 visa. We've traveled internationally together several times both before and after we were legally married, so I'm planning to submit scans of our passport stamps as proof of our relationship. I just had a few questions in the hope someone might have some useful advice:

1. In addition to our travel together, we've both traveled internationally separately, for work and leisure. Should I include scans of all passport stamps over the course of our relationship, including solo travel, or is this unnecessary? Should I just go ahead and scan our entire passports, or would this be excessive?
2. I recently renewed my passport from abroad and still have my old passport, as my then-current visa was in my old passport. (I've since been issued a new visa in my current passport.) Some of the passport stamps I plan to submit, as well as previous visas demonstrating my continuous residence in spouse's home country, are in my old passport. I plan to submit scans of the bio pages for both passports, as well as the confirmation letter I received from the Consular Section when I received my new passport which includes both passport numbers. Will this be too confusing? Should I include a written statement explaining all this?

Thank you for any advice you can offer!