How to organize the "evidence" for the K-1 package.

[mimi&eddie 0]

Should we organize our evidence trip by trip or by type?

Put all photos together? Put all plane tickets and hotel bills together?

or

Put everything from the Istanbul trip in one folder. Put everything from Paris in one folder. Put everything from Bodrum in one folder. Put everything from the U.S. in one folder.

We dated for a year in the U.S. when I was in college. I came back home in May 2008. He visited me in Turkey that summer. We met up in Paris this fall. He was last here this April and he booked a new trip for August.

Should we organize the "evidence" trip by trip? Like put everything from the Paris trip (tickets, photos, hotel bills) in one folder, and everything from the Istanbul trip in another. Or should we put all the primary evidence in the same folder (plane tickets, hotel bills, phone bilss)? And the secondary evidence (the photos, the letters, the chats, the cards) seperately?

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated. But I'm not sure what's acceptable and what's not. How did you organzie yours?

Thanks everyone!

[Carlawarla 1]

Should we organize our evidence trip by trip or by type?

Put all photos together? Put all plane tickets and hotel bills together?

or

Put everything from the Istanbul trip in one folder. Put everything from Paris in one folder. Put everything from Bodrum in one folder. Put everything from the U.S. in one folder.

We dated for a year in the U.S. when I was in college. I came back home in May 2008. He visited me in Turkey that summer. We met up in Paris this fall. He was last here this April and he booked a new trip for August.

Should we organize the "evidence" trip by trip? Like put everything from the Paris trip (tickets, photos, hotel bills) in one folder, and everything from the Istanbul trip in another. Or should we put all the primary evidence in the same folder (plane tickets, hotel bills, phone bilss)? And the secondary evidence (the photos, the letters, the chats, the cards) seperately?

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated. But I'm not sure what's acceptable and what's not. How did you organzie yours?

Thanks everyone!

You haven't filled in your timeline, so I'm not sure if you mean organizing everything for your interview or for the actual petition filing? I'm thinking it's for the filing of the petition.

You're not going to be sending folders anyway. You want to prepare one package, with those Adecco fasteners, with two holes punched into the top of your package. Keep your boarding passes, pictures, etc. together. For an example, put copies of your boarding passes together no matter what trips, they're going to be dated anyway. Copies of passports together, copies of whatever together. Outline in a covering letter what you're including.

Your intial package should be documentation to prove that you've met at least once in the last two years. Evidence of at least one meeting.

At your interview, you will be providing documentation and evidence that you have an on-going relationship.

Hope this helps.

[baron555 934]

Chronological order

[mimi&eddie 0]

Should we organize our evidence trip by trip or by type?

Put all photos together? Put all plane tickets and hotel bills together?

or

Put everything from the Istanbul trip in one folder. Put everything from Paris in one folder. Put everything from Bodrum in one folder. Put everything from the U.S. in one folder.

We dated for a year in the U.S. when I was in college. I came back home in May 2008. He visited me in Turkey that summer. We met up in Paris this fall. He was last here this April and he booked a new trip for August.

Should we organize the "evidence" trip by trip? Like put everything from the Paris trip (tickets, photos, hotel bills) in one folder, and everything from the Istanbul trip in another. Or should we put all the primary evidence in the same folder (plane tickets, hotel bills, phone bilss)? And the secondary evidence (the photos, the letters, the chats, the cards) seperately?

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated. But I'm not sure what's acceptable and what's not. How did you organzie yours?

Thanks everyone!

You haven't filled in your timeline, so I'm not sure if you mean organizing everything for your interview or for the actual petition filing? I'm thinking it's for the filing of the petition.

You're not going to be sending folders anyway. You want to prepare one package, with those Adecco fasteners, with two holes punched into the top of your package. Keep your boarding passes, pictures, etc. together. For an example, put copies of your boarding passes together no matter what trips, they're going to be dated anyway. Copies of passports together, copies of whatever together. Outline in a covering letter what you're including.

Your intial package should be documentation to prove that you've met at least once in the last two years. Evidence of at least one meeting.

At your interview, you will be providing documentation and evidence that you have an on-going relationship.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your helpful reply. We are just about ready to send in our petition. Do we have to punch holes on the forms and other materials? Is that the standard procedure?

[Nik+Heather 121]

In the petition, you need to prove that you have met the requirements, which are merely that you have met in person one time in the past 2 years. You need to provide PRIMARY evidence of this (Passport stamps for entry to her country, or a common 3rd country with similar dates).

Make sure that this part of your evidence is clearly and prominently displayed. Don't go burying it back in the middle of a bunch of stuff that they don't need to see in the petition and may not bother to look at closely - where they might miss it!!

The interview in a few months is where you provide evidence of an ongoing relationship: ie letters, trips, pictures etc. You can include all the things you are suggesting so that they will hopefully be in your file when it gets to this stage; VJers call this "front loading" the petition.

[TBoneTX 45,329]

The interview in a few months is where you provide evidence of an ongoing relationship: ie letters, trips, pictures etc. You can include all the things you are suggesting so that they will hopefully be in your file when it gets to this stage; VJers call this "front loading" the petition.

Highly recommended, in many if not most instances.

[mimi&eddie 0]

Do we put everything in an envelope, attach everything together with paper clips? Do we have to punch 2 holes on the top of the forms??? Do we have to turn it in that way?

For example, the I-29F is 3 pages. Can we staple them together?

The G-325 is multiple pages, do we staple or put them in loose?

Thank youuu.

[Rainschild 0]

I organized them in a chronological order and by type. So all boarding passes, from the most recent down, same for pictures and other types of evidence.

[feelinglucky 1]

Hi, you shouldn't be to analitical ,just stapled it,(i-129f) then staple the G-325A Paper clip all 3 forms or addco or preference. Please dont ask later what color paperclips you should use. USCIS officers are well trained to dismantle your petition and assemble in the oder they want. Give them some credit, even though USCIS itself inefficient. Yes i agree to front load, as i have done with my 2nd petition, great advice from members here. Here my suggestion in regards to your statement of intial meeting. Throw everything in your breif (at least 1.5 pages not that little blank they provide.) Your brief will now be your timeline injected into your file without any objections from the officer. Also, in your brief you will tie in all the evidence that backs up your timeline, and therefore any officer can references evidence from that. The main purpose of frontloading to make your case as compelling as possible not to uscis, that the easy part, but rather to the consulate officer. If you have that mindset, then your approve petition once recieve by the consulat will carry more weight. Also, it will negate protential denials that CO will come up with. Old saying , " Once of prevention is worth a pound of cure". My final thought is, your love story should be written with the intention, not to satify uscis, but rather try and make the CO grab for the tissue box.

Good Luck,

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

USCIS offers some good general information on assembling your package.

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

The actual way you organize and assemble your package is NOT critical. They are going to take your package apart and assemble it into their own filing system anyway. The recommendations on the USCIS site help THEM when reassembling your package. Not following every suggestion on the USCIS site is not going to result in your petition being denied, but anything you do to help them increases the chances of the adjudicator being in a good mood when he starts evaluating your petition.

I used the two-hole ACCO fasteners as they suggested, and mounted the whole mess on an 8.5"x11" piece of cardboard in order to help protect the documents in shipping. I also printed a divider sheet for each attachment section, and put label tabs at the bottom of the divider sheets, as suggested on the USCIS site. On the very top was my cover letter, which included a table of contents for the rest of the package.

[DaleandPat 0]

Should we organize our evidence trip by trip or by type?

Put all photos together? Put all plane tickets and hotel bills together?

or

Put everything from the Istanbul trip in one folder. Put everything from Paris in one folder. Put everything from Bodrum in one folder. Put everything from the U.S. in one folder.

We dated for a year in the U.S. when I was in college. I came back home in May 2008. He visited me in Turkey that summer. We met up in Paris this fall. He was last here this April and he booked a new trip for August.

Should we organize the "evidence" trip by trip? Like put everything from the Paris trip (tickets, photos, hotel bills) in one folder, and everything from the Istanbul trip in another. Or should we put all the primary evidence in the same folder (plane tickets, hotel bills, phone bilss)? And the secondary evidence (the photos, the letters, the chats, the cards) seperately?

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated. But I'm not sure what's acceptable and what's not. How did you organzie yours?

Thanks everyone!

Something you can do in assembling the whole package is go to the guides page of this site: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;page=k1guide

I just followed what they had only in addition to what they showed, I saw at the USCIS site to use ACCO fasteners to bind everything together, the two hole ones at the top. Then at the bottom use tabs to divide things so it is well organized and easy to find with your table of contents. They say the bottom because using the sides the tabs can get in the way when it goes into a folder. Here is the link: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Hope this helps.

[Steve S 2]

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated.

I just followed what they had only in addition to what they showed, I saw at the USCIS site to use ACCO fasteners to bind everything together, the two hole ones at the top. Then at the bottom use tabs to divide things so it is well organized and easy to find with your table of contents. They say the bottom because using the sides the tabs can get in the way when it goes into a folder. Here is the link: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Hope this helps.

Oh, ####### - I used a combination of paper clips and staples. No holes punched. No Acco fasteners. Hope this doesn't meet we have to start over!

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Should we use a stapler or paper clips? I don't want anything to get lost or seperated.

I just followed what they had only in addition to what they showed, I saw at the USCIS site to use ACCO fasteners to bind everything together, the two hole ones at the top. Then at the bottom use tabs to divide things so it is well organized and easy to find with your table of contents. They say the bottom because using the sides the tabs can get in the way when it goes into a folder. Here is the link: http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

Hope this helps.

Oh, ####### - I used a combination of paper clips and staples. No holes punched. No Acco fasteners. Hope this doesn't meet we have to start over!

Don't worry. The information at the USCIS site for assembling the package are suggestions to help USCIS. They aren't requirements. They're going to remove your staples and paper clips, punch holes in your papers, and assemble the package into their own filing format anyway.

[gf97 1]

How to make the I-129 F petition folder to send to Immigration: how I did it:

Ok. This is what I had: the US Citizen will be the one doing all the work at this stage. All the foreigner has to do is sign 4 sheets of paper and submit passport pix to the US Citizen, so that the US citizen can start putting the application together.

First, I bought a manila folder, the kind that opens up, like this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_folder.

On the cover of the folder I glued a sheet of paper that said, " I-129F petition" . And I put our names on it.

Ok, now the inside of the folder:

First I put 2 holes at the top and I two hole punched everything, all the papers.

I fastened everything with the ACCO fasteners—

http://www.instaoffice.com/2-piece-paper-f...992-ctn.0.7.htm

Then I had dividers, the kind you put in a Binder with the colored tabs, they are three hole punched on the sides, but I 2 hole punched the top.. these kind of dividers: http://www.jiffysupply.com/servlet/the-298/Dividers/Detail

With these dividers they come with the sheet of paper that allows me to write in what the topic is on the tab.

Ok, so now for assembling—everything I am saying applies to the US Citizen—

A. The first thing you will put in the folder will be the I 129 Cover letter. This letter will look like the following (look below for example - edit it based on your needs. And make sure you put the right USCIS address on it—vermont, Ca, or somewhere else):

US Citizen name,address, number

United States Department of Homeland Security

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Accurate address

Date

Nature of the submission: I-129F ORIGINAL SUBMISSION

To whom it may concern:

Enclosed please find my form I-129F, Petition for K-1 Fiance(e) Visa for (put your fiance(e) name here), and supporting documents.

Contents Include:

-Payment in the amount of $XX – whatever the current amount is—look here--it was 455, but it always increases:

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00045f3d6a1RCRD

-I-129F Petition

-I-129F Supplement: Part B, Question 18, Explanation of meeting in person

-G-325A and Passport Style photograph (petitioner)

-G-325A and Passport Style Photograph (Beneficiary)

Letter Certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary)

Petitioners Birth Certificate

Petitioners Passport –(copies of passport and all the entry /leave stamps that sghow you visited your persons country)

-Letter Certifying intent to marry (Petitioner and Beneficiary)

-Proof of having met in person in the past two years (state the proof you are including)

Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and I understand that I may be required to submit original documents to an immigration or consular officer at a later date.

Sincerely,

your name, sign it

---------------------

Ok, so lets talk about the contents of the package:

1. The petition –the I-129F petition- you the US Citizen will sign that petition.

2. i-129 F supplement: this is just a brief detail of how you met your honey.thats all—just type it up on a sheet of paper because that box they give you in the petition is too small. Sign it and date it.

3. the G 325 A- the Us Citizen will fill out 4 copies of it and sign each copy. The immigrant also needs to sign four copies of it and sign it. You will see how each copy says something different in the left bottom corner, like consulate, etc. Make sure you, the US Citizen send immigration the copies with the ORIGINAL signatures. So if you need to send the immigrant the forms to sign and then have that person send them back to you in the mail, that is what you will have to do.

Make sure you fill out these forms accurate and accordingly. Look here for

examples of how to fill out the form right.

This website is GOLD!!! Look at it because it gives you EXACT examples of what you will need: Look at how they filled out the I-129F petition and the G-325A.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;page=examples

4. You and your honeys passport pictures. Write your name in pencil on the back of your passport picture and on the back of the foreigners picture, write their name and " No alien number" on the back of the foreigners pix cuz they probably dot have an alien number... When your foreigner goes to take his/her passport picture , make sure HE/She tells the photographer that it is for a US PASSPORT/Immigration, so that the photographer will give the foreigner the picture in the RIGHT size. It needs to be the right size.

So when you have the picture, and you have written on the back, stick it in a clear Ziploc bag. Zip up the Ziploc bag. Print a sheet of paper that has your name on it. Put the picture in the bag. And staple the bag to the sheet of paper that has your name on it. Do it for both pictures.

Proof of relationship:

You , the US Citizen, can include: used phone cards, copies of envelopes you have been sent through the mail, some emails, some Skype calls, pictures, your plane itinerary when you went to the foreigners country, the boarding pass, the stamps in your passport are proof, receipts of things you may have purchased while in the foreign land, the stickers they stick on your suitcase that show the destination, copies of the money receipts you have sent to the foreigner- like money gram or western union, post office receipts that show you sent something to the foreign country.

On the back of the photos, make sure you write your names, date, and where you were in the photo.

ASSEMBLING

So you will have the manila folder and all your stuff will be 2-hole punched at the top. Don't STAPLE ANYTHING – only staple the Ziploc bag with the picture to a white sheet of paper that has your names on it. So you will only use two-3 staples.

Ok, you have your manila folder:And all your papers, including the dividers that are 2 hole punched at the top

1. get your cover letter , the one that says what is in the folder, example above. Type this letter (US citizen) and date it and sign it. turn it over.

2. get the divider and write i-129F on the white tab that comes with it. Turn it over.

3. get your 1-129F petition form. Make sure it is signed and dated by the US citizen, Hole punch it and turn it over. Take your 1-129F supplement, sign and date it and turn it over

4. get the divider and write G325A. turn it over

5. get the US Citizen G-325 As. There should be 4 with the same exact data,all with the original signatures and all signed. All 2 hole punched at the top . Flip them over

get the US Citizen photo. Write the name in pencil on the back. Stick it in a Ziploc bag. Staple the bag (make sure you don't staple the actual picture) to a sheet of paper that has the US citizens name on it. Flip it over

get the foreigners G-325 As. There should be 4 with the same exact data,all with

the original signatures and all signed. All 2 hole punched at the top . Flip them

over.

Get the foreigners pic. Write the name in pencil on the back and write ,"no alien number". Stick it in a Ziploc bag. Staple the bag (make sure you don't staple the actual picture) to a sheet of paper that simply has the foreigners name on it. Flip it over

6. Get the divider and write : Letter of intent on the tab

7. print out the letter of intent to marry which should have original signatures by both of you. This is simply a three sentence letter stating that you and the other person plan on getting married within 90 days of receiving the K1 visa. The Us citizen can type the letter and email it foreigner. Foreigner prints it, signs it, and sends it through the mail to U S citizen. Then Us citizen gets that letter and signs his/her signature too—this way two signatures will be on the same page. Hole punch this letter and flip it over.

8. Divider – write birth certificate or passport . Flip it over on top of everything else that is flipped over.

9. Us Citizens birth certificate. If you don't have it, you can submit a copy of the pages of your passport (copies- do NOT send the original of these document). On the copies of your passport pages, highlight the stamps which show when you visited the country of your foreign fiancé. Hole punch the copies and flip them over.

10. get divider tab and write : Proof

11. Now, put a sample of your phone cards on a photocopy machine and photocopy the front and back, if you have any. Hole punch, flip over.

B. Print phone records of the times you have called your foreigner or/anf when the foreigner called/texted the US American. Hole punch,flip over

C. Us citizen should photocopy plane itineraries, boarding passes, luggage tags. Hole punch the photocopy and flip over.

D. US Citizen should photocopy envelopes he/she has received from foreigner. Hole punch and flip over.

E. US citizen should photocopy money receipts he/she has sent. Hole punch and flip over.

F. US citizen should photocopy some emails that have been sent to each other. Hole punch and flip over.

G. US Citizen should photocopy receipts from post office showing he/she sent packages/letters to the foreigner.

H. US Citizen should submit pictures of the couple together – at least 2. Make sure you write your names and locations on the back of the pictures..Put these pictures in an envelope or a strong Ziploc bag.Seal the bag and punch two holes in the bag so you can fasten it. Flip it over.

That's it. Now flip everything over and put it on the fasteners – the two pronged fasteners. Get a paperclip and attach your check/money order to the cover sheet in the folder. Everything is in order – make sure your pictures are not backwards. Make sure the check is the right amount.

Now, make two copies of this file—the petitioner and the beneficiary will need EXACT copies of the file. So now you, the US Citizen, will have 3 files which are IDENTICAL. Us citizen keeps one for themselves, foreigner will eventually get the other copy when the US citizen gives it to him/her, and the copy with the live check will go to USCIS.

Send it off in a waterproof enevlope--staples has them. Send it through the post offuice and get some type of signature confirmation so that you know for sure that it was received.

Send it off and wait.

[MikenMuffin 0]

Where do you find dividers with tabs at the bottom? I've always seen them on the side. And are they blank or the pre-numbered ones?