Quick need for opinion about how much bona fide evidence is reasonable.

[Bug&Bug 143]

Hello everybody

I know there is a lot of posts about what to submit as evidence of bona fide marriage, Ive lost count of how many I read.

I just need some opinion of whats reasonable and what is not.

We have visited eachother so far more than 20 times (and we will still have some more before sending the package).

So we have got for all this 20+ visits:

-All flight itineraries,

-Many flight boarding passes,

-Many hotel and camping receipts and reservations (with only the name of either one or the other of us in it)

-All passport stamps

-Some few pictures of both together (maybe around 10) and pictures of each of us in the same location but not the same picture.

-Tickets of things we did, places we ate, etc.. but this things don't have our names on it.

I find it kind of too much to send all this for each of this visits, I mean..just the passport stamps by themselves say pretty much everything and the rest doesn't really give new information. Maybe the itineraries/boarding passes since they show the duration of the visits and that the final destinations are our home cities or common vacation destination.

¿Do you think its reasonable to leave some stuff out?

¿Like maybe just send all the flight itineraries + corresponding passport stamps + corresponding pictures of both (if available)? Maybe organize it cronologically with a very short descripton of the visit.

¿Do you think it is better to send boarding passes instead of itineraries? (i think I have most of them, but I know I have all itineraries in my email and its clearer to read and follow that several boarding passes).

¿Should I just go crazy and send everything and have the person reviewing it get pissed because its way too much?

I could take all the rest to the interview just in case.

I know there is no right answer, but opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Edited September 13, 2014 by Bug&Bug

[Smelserjl 137]

Honestly, I feel like the more the better. We submitted--in addition to the already requested paperwork--copies of letters that were notarized in support of us (personal letters from friends confirming bona fide marriage), pictures and I created a timeline. This timeline was easy to construct with Facebook's timeline features. I took screeen captures of moments throughout our relationship--when we became friends, screen captures of chats with dates on them, screencaptures of photos on our Wall, screencaptures with dates of conversations between my husband and family members, screencaptures of other dates like engagement, wedding, etc. A timeline--while they don't say you need it outright--can certainly make things a lot easier to understand. I even wrote paragraphs a certain dates with the timeline (like, when I would go to visit and friends visited and met my husband). I made all this in a word document. I made copies of tickets and itineraries and tickets to tourist attractions we visited together. The easier you make it all to understand your relationship, the less questions you have popup. We had no RFE and ours was approved in under 4 months. Good luck!

Edited September 13, 2014 by Smelserjl

[Ryan H 3,790]

OP, I've lined out the items in the list below that you will absolutely not need when you submit your petition and made some minor corrections regarding semantics.

These are the documents we sent with our I130 package. We got approved on 09/02/2014 from CSC.

1. Application filing fee -420$
2. Form G-1145(e-Notification of Application)
3. Form I-130
4. Evidence of my US permanent residential status (Green Card)
5. Form G-325A completed and signed by the petitioner (me name removed - VJ Moderation)
6. Two passport size photographs of name removed - VJ Moderation, replacing name with beneficiary
7. Form G-325A completed and signed by the beneficiary (my wife name removed - VJ Moderation)
8. Two passport size photographs of name removed - VJ Moderation, replacing name with beneficiary
9. Copy of our marriage certificate
10. Copy of beneficiary passport
11. Copy of beneficiary birth certificate
12. Copy of affidavit of change of name of my wife after marriage
13. Our wedding photographs
14. Other photographs together over a period of time
15. Family photograph
16. Boarding pass from Air India for Trip to India to marry beneficiary
17. Previous flight e-ticket receipt to India to meet beneficiary
18. Some facebook messages between us
19. Some excerpts of Gmail chat histories between us

Other information:

We also sent both of our facebook page link

Hope this helps.

The beneficiary's passport and birth certificate is not needed when filing an I-130

**Moderator hat on**

***Original post containing personal information removed. Post is quoted above with indications that the personal information has been removed.***

**Moderator hat back off**

OP, to answer your question about how much is needed. My opinion is that each individual themselves has to decide based on the evidence they have what they feel makes the most compelling case. However you choose to do that, focus on quality over quantity.

My two cents regarding your specific list is listed below your evidence list:

-All flight itineraries,

-Many flight boarding passes,

-Many hotel and camping receipts and reservations (with only the name of either one or the other of us in it)

-All passport stamps

-Some few pictures of both together (maybe around 10) and pictures of each of us in the same location but not the same picture.

-Tickets of things we did, places we ate, etc.. but this things don't have our names on it.

• Flight itineraries show nothing other than making arrangements, skip them
• Boarding passes show you actually took the trip. Furthermore, if you took trips together, boarding passes show evidence of travel together.
• Receipts are good but don't go overboard.
• Passport stamps are good, they show you entered the country. If you wish, you can use them in lieu of boarding passes.
• Don't submit multiple pictures of you in the same location.
• Tickets from things you did are good because it is evidence of time in the country and time spent together in-person.

Also, since the beneficiary is from Spain, there are not many cases of immigration fraud from there (i.e. low fraud country) so there may not be a need to include a pile of evidence compared to someone who is going through Nigeria or Morocco. With all that being said, I go back to what I said before, put together a package you feel makes the most compelling case.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Ryan H

[ritbiv 95]

OP, I've lined out the items in the list below that you will absolutely not need when you submit your petition and made some minor corrections regarding semantics.

The beneficiary's passport and birth certificate is not needed when filing an I-130

**Moderator hat on**

***Original post containing personal information removed. Post is quoted above with indications that the personal information has been removed.***

**Moderator hat back off**

OP, to answer your question about how much is needed. My opinion is that each individual themselves has to decide based on the evidence they have what they feel makes the most compelling case. However you choose to do that, focus on quality over quantity.

My two cents regarding your specific list is listed below your evidence list:

• Flight itineraries show nothing other than making arrangements, skip them
• Boarding passes show you actually took the trip. Furthermore, if you took trips together, boarding passes show evidence of travel together.
• Receipts are good but don't go overboard.
• Passport stamps are good, they show you entered the country. If you wish, you can use them in lieu of boarding passes.
• Don't submit multiple pictures of you in the same location.
• Tickets from things you did are good because it is evidence of time in the country and time spent together in-person.

Also, since the beneficiary is from Spain, there are not many cases of immigration fraud from there (i.e. low fraud country) so there may not be a need to include a pile of evidence compared to someone who is going through Nigeria or Morocco. With all that being said, I go back to what I said before, put together a package you feel makes the most compelling case.

Thanks for the moderation. I mistakenly sent the message without removing the names.

[NikLR 13,220]

Quality over quantity IMHO.

At the bottom of this wiki is a huge list of evidence you can send. Pick what gives quality to your relationship and leave out what doesn't. http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse

[Bug&Bug 143]

Thank you so much for your opinions!!

Smelserjl, I really like the timeline idea. But I am having hard time trying to underestand how you actually transformed that on word. Did you do it like with chapters on a book? like X pages about this visits, then this other pages about this months, etc?

Ryan what you said was really helpful. I think I will stick to boarding passes + passport stamps of the 20+ visits, and then for each location select maybe a picture of both of us in it, and/or some few receips from hotels, museums, etc, but without going crazy.

Ugh putting all this together between us both, scanning, photocoping and printing is going to take so much time!

Thanks again to all.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Bug&Bug

[altito 63]

Thank you so much for your opinions!!

Smelserjl, I really like the timeline idea. But I am having hard time trying to underestand how you actually transformed that on word. Did you do it like with chapters on a book? like X pages about this visits, then this other pages about this months, etc?

Ryan what you said was really helpful. I think I will stick to boarding passes + passport stamps of the 20+ visits, and then for each location select maybe a picture of both of us in it, and/or some few receips from hotels, museums, etc, but without going crazy.

Ugh putting all this together between us both, scanning, photocoping and printing is going to take so much time!

Thanks again to all.

I just sent two sworn affidavits from people who know us. That was enough. I don´t know if you are filing for a IR1-CR1 visa or K1

[Smelserjl 137]

I would take screen captures from various events or chats from our relationship from Facebook and then insert them into a word document. Thr word document would say something like:

January 1,2008: we met through mutal friends. And then I would insert a scren capture from my timeline on Facebook saying we became friends (usually you can find this in the relationship history part on Facebook). I did that with several important moments and visits, etc. All in one word document, all the while giving captions that explained eveything from the images.

I didn't make a table of contents or anything since it read quite easily, but that may have helped I hope this helps!

Edited September 14, 2014 by Smelserjl

[Bug&Bug 143]

Thankyou!!!