I-130 Petition for my husband

[alma r-f 0]

My husband and I were recently married. We waited until he left the U.S. to file the I-130 and so we will be filing within the next week or two. Many of you on the forums have lived with your spouse and have evidence of your bona fide marriage in bank statements, joint ownership of property, etc. However, as two young students or recently graduated students, we have never had the ability to jointly own property.

Our thoughts were to apply with some photos documenting our relationship from the beginning to the present (2.5 years with 7 visits to/from etc) as well as a number of affidavits from individuals who know us both in a number of ways in each country. We are thinking of submitting the following affidavits and the reasoning for each person is provided. Please give me thoughts as some feel that providing numerous affidavits lends a marriage to be doubted. We just want to be together as soon as we are able and finally begin our lives together. Thank you in advance for your thoughts and advice!

-Both of my parents - my husband as lived with me at my parents during my winter and summer breaks from school when he has been able to visit and so they have been witnesses to the growth and strength of our relationship over time. They were both also present at a very intimate wedding ceremony that we held.

-A very close family friend who was present at the ceremony (and her husband who was unable to be present due to the death of a friend) who have met my husband a number of times and spent time with both of us when they have visited from out of state...

-My best friend who knew of our relationship from the beginning and is one of the few people outside of my immediate family who knew of the marriage before it took place

-A work connection of mine who is also a member of the congregation of the pastor who married us - she announced our marriage on that Sunday to her congregation - she is also a friend of my mom and myself

-My husband's mother - I spent extended time with his family on my two visits to Argentina (when I lived with him there) and was invited to family celebrations (new year's, father's day, etc.) while I was there

- Two of my husband's friends who have both met me and spent time with me and who have heard him talk about our relationship and know of our marriage

We have not made our marriage super public as we are not super traditional folks. However, we love each other very much, and I want to make sure things work in order to reduce both our stress at not being together for 5-6 months at a time for the past two and a half years...

Thanks so much in advance!

Alma

[indiana_sweetie 120]

Did you both fly each time you visited each other? Do you have your ticket stubs, flight itineraries, receipts, do you have emails, chats, phone records? All those things mean more than affidavits because anyone can write a letter. Also, both your passports would have stamps as evidence. Correct me anyone if I'm wrong or missing something. It seems you have a good long history together, you just need to show the proof.

[alma r-f 0]

Did you both fly each time you visited each other? Do you have your ticket stubs, flight itineraries, receipts, do you have emails, chats, phone records? All those things mean more than affidavits because anyone can write a letter. Also, both your passports would have stamps as evidence. Correct me anyone if I'm wrong or missing something. It seems you have a good long history together, you just need to show the proof.

We did fly and I probably have some of the ticket stubs, etc. but he is not the type to save these things! Haha! I have tickets of places we've gone, concerts, etc. as well so that may be a good thing to submit copies of... We do have e-mails, chats, BBMessenger use, Skype use, etc. But I also have heard that giving them far too much can be dangerous and delay one's application so I am including in the cover letter that we are happy to provide evidence of Skype/data usage on phones, etc. if requested but I do not want to overwhelm the officer who receives our application either... We are submitting the entry/exit stamps on passport pages as additional proof of visits to each other....

Thanks for your response!

[LilyR 7]

My husband and I didnt really live together before we got married. But I scrounged around for everything i could think of and find to send to evidence our courtship and marriage.

* We both wrote affidavits outlining our relationship (how we met, how it progressed, how we decided to get married)

* Affidavits from 2 friends who spent time with us, 3 of our parents, my sister, & my coworker

* A long summary of our daily skype calls

* A printout of our email list

* A printout of our chat logs

* Copies of cards we have sent each other (mostly that I have sent to him)

* Screen shots of facebook posts about my husband and with friends and pictures of us together

* I added him as an authorized user on my credit card and sent that info

* I made him the beneficiary of a life-insurance policy I have and sent that info

* I sent copies of emails between me and other people regarding plans with my husband's visits

* Screen shots of a message board we frequented together where we mention each other and interact a bit with each other (beginning 2 years ago)

* Many pages of photos with friends and family with us

* Print outs of emails - airline reservation/confirmation for flights to visit each other

* Copies of passport pages with entry/exit stamps

* Print outs of an email between my husband and my sister discussing ideas for my birthday present

I just got my NOA1 12/21 so I am just hoping this evidence is enough to prove the validity of our marriage!

Good luck!

[lierre 224]

Hi Alma!

My husband and I currently live together but for 2 years, our relationship was peppered with trips to see each other every 2 to 3 months.

For our petition, I included proof, as follows:

- evolution of relationship letter (format we followed was here http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/260331-wife-speaks-no-english/page__p__3995116#entry3995116)

- first 2-3 emails we sent to each other when we first met

- pictures of us on our trips together PLUS copies of corresponding entry & exit stamps on our passports

- emails we've sent to each other (through facebook and yahoo), chose those that specifically showed an important aspect in our relationship, like our engagement

- plain copies of 2-3 postcards we sent to each other (we love sending postcards)

- 5-7 pictures from our wedding day with captions

- certified marriage certificate from our statistics office

- colored copy of our wedding invitations

- flight itineraries/boarding passes of my husband when he went to the wedding plus entry & exit stamps

- copies of his leave forms for the wedding (he's in the US military)

- copy of contracts we had with two wedding vendors (caterer/venue and photographer)

- my boarding passes for my flight to Japan, plus entry stamp

- monthly bank statements of our joint account

- paperwork that I am his beneficiary in all his insurance and investment accounts

- sponsorship letter from his military command that I'm his dependent

- entry and exit stamps of my stay here in Japan so far

- some more pictures from events we 've attended in Japan with captions

I actually had a similar topic before that you may wish to peruse http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/407137-i-130-proof-of-relationship-good-enough/ Some people commented I'm frontloading, but I'd rather do that haha

I didn't pursue affidavits just because we were constrained for time. I will probably ask for affidavits from our best man and his wife, and from one of my bridesmaids for the latter part of the process.

If you don't think you can give them a lot of evidence, your plan of asking this set of people who you will ask affidavits from sounds great. Just make sure they state stuff about you as a couple, and not just about the wedding

Edited January 19, 2013 by ivyanddan

[RFQ 110]

Time will tell if I should have loaded my I130 with amazing amounts of evidence right off the bat, but I hadn't spent much time on Visa Journey then. I sent in 2 letters/affidavits and I think one 8x10 print out collage of 6 photos from our Nikkah (wedding), a couple with family, and a couple with my children. We were approved 3 months later.

For the interview I have put together a portfolio for my husband with collections of ticket stubs, more photos, a random selection of facebook, email, skype, and phone records excerpts, flight itineraries from our visits here and there...

I'm sending in my NVC packet this coming week, and I will throw a couple pictures and recent flight stub in with that packet, even though I'm not sure it will do any good. Its been 6 months since our NOA2 came so I'm hoping they'll glance at it and notice the ongoing relationship. It will be 10 months since we filed the I130 with the initial evidence.

[alma r-f 0]

My husband and I didnt really live together before we got married. But I scrounged around for everything i could think of and find to send to evidence our courtship and marriage.

* We both wrote affidavits outlining our relationship (how we met, how it progressed, how we decided to get married)

* Affidavits from 2 friends who spent time with us, 3 of our parents, my sister, & my coworker

* A long summary of our daily skype calls

* A printout of our email list

* A printout of our chat logs

* Copies of cards we have sent each other (mostly that I have sent to him)

* Screen shots of facebook posts about my husband and with friends and pictures of us together

* I added him as an authorized user on my credit card and sent that info

* I made him the beneficiary of a life-insurance policy I have and sent that info

* I sent copies of emails between me and other people regarding plans with my husband's visits

* Screen shots of a message board we frequented together where we mention each other and interact a bit with each other (beginning 2 years ago)

* Many pages of photos with friends and family with us

* Print outs of emails - airline reservation/confirmation for flights to visit each other

* Copies of passport pages with entry/exit stamps

* Print outs of an email between my husband and my sister discussing ideas for my birthday present

I just got my NOA1 12/21 so I am just hoping this evidence is enough to prove the validity of our marriage!

Good luck!

Lily, how were you able to do a printout of daily Skype calls? As far as we can tell, you can only go back a year, and that includes chat messages, etc. I don't really want to include all of our chat messages but just the calls and I don't know that Skype will keep your call logs for two and a half years haha...

I am also going to change him as my beneficiary on my life insurance for work and make copies of this change, we did a printoff of our "Facebook friendship" which includes our relationship, photos of each time we visited, statuses where we mention each other, etc. We also are picking out a photo or two of each time we visited each other to document the different places we went and all that too... but if you could help with the Skype thing, that would be awesome! Thanks for your help!

[alma r-f 0]

Time will tell if I should have loaded my I130 with amazing amounts of evidence right off the bat, but I hadn't spent much time on Visa Journey then. I sent in 2 letters/affidavits and I think one 8x10 print out collage of 6 photos from our Nikkah (wedding), a couple with family, and a couple with my children. We were approved 3 months later.

For the interview I have put together a portfolio for my husband with collections of ticket stubs, more photos, a random selection of facebook, email, skype, and phone records excerpts, flight itineraries from our visits here and there...

I'm sending in my NVC packet this coming week, and I will throw a couple pictures and recent flight stub in with that packet, even though I'm not sure it will do any good. Its been 6 months since our NOA2 came so I'm hoping they'll glance at it and notice the ongoing relationship. It will be 10 months since we filed the I130 with the initial evidence.

Wow it sounds like your application is moving right along! Congratulations! I hope we are that lucky! I hope they approve stuff and I figure I don't want to overwhelm them, but I am also a detail oriented person, so it's hard not to give too much sometimes because I prefer a little too much over too little. Thanks for your note and inch allah you will have things come through very quickly!

[LilyR 7]

Lily, how were you able to do a printout of daily Skype calls? As far as we can tell, you can only go back a year, and that includes chat messages, etc. I don't really want to include all of our chat messages but just the calls and I don't know that Skype will keep your call logs for two and a half years haha...

I am also going to change him as my beneficiary on my life insurance for work and make copies of this change, we did a printoff of our "Facebook friendship" which includes our relationship, photos of each time we visited, statuses where we mention each other, etc. We also are picking out a photo or two of each time we visited each other to document the different places we went and all that too... but if you could help with the Skype thing, that would be awesome! Thanks for your help!

Sorry I didnt reply sooner, I just saw this now.

When I log in to skype and then click on my husband's name, across the top of the screen are options to "View Earlier Messages" and the options are 1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, all. So I can click "all" and see our entire skype history. I dont know if there is a way to just show the calls and not the messages as well - sorry!

[NickUSMC 3]

No big deal, we haven't lived together since we are married because I can't afford an apartment in the US because I can't work illegally, same for her she can't come over here because of her family. I visited her 5 times during the year, and finally now on Feb I have the interview at the US Consulate. But funny, one thing i noticed, on the email received from the Consulate they don't request proofs i.e. pictures, chats etc. We keep in touch everyday by phone with those cards you buy to call where ever in the world.