First off, my wife and I got married at the end of January and sent off her 1-130 Petition in late February to kick of the K-3 process. Once we receive further correspondence with the USCIS, we will move along with the I-129F. Everything is rocking on that side of things.

What I am not so comfrotable about is when it comes time for us to go to her interview. I am from Ohio, but I have lived in Cancun since June 06...and I've lived with my wife here since we got married. However, I do not have an FM3 that is required for me to have a bank account here. So obviously this was a problem with the I-130 in proving the validity of our relationship. We countered this with 3 third party notarized and translated affedavits attesting to it's validity. Also, we rent an apartment here in Mexico, so there are no utility bills or phone records with our names on them. This type of evidence just is not there. But what we do have a ton of is photographic documentation (which also was included in the I-130 petiton). We have loads of pictures of us with each other's families that date all the way back to June 2005.

Where I am going with all of this is this: What do they find most important in these interviews? I have heard before that photos are often most important. Is that true? If so, I'm feeling good. If they want more of the contemporary proof, I have to find a way to make that happen before our interview.

Any help or advice on this subject would be of much help to us. Thank you.

Andy F.

I would think that living together during this process is pretty good proof! Does your apartment lease show both your names? Do you have mail addressed to yourself and your wife and the same address?

How about your marriage license and evidence from your wedding or marriage ceremony. Photos? Cards?

As said above, do you have any letters addressed to the both of you? Just keep some of that junk mail, like credit card offers and such. Or maybe when you have an online dvd rental, keep something from that. You have to get creative

The first important piece of evidence is your marriage certificate, which you had to send with your I-130, then you can add to that pictures, affidavits, letters, maybe hotel receipts from vacations you've taken, airfare, that kind of stuff. But it sounds like you have enough evidence already to prove that you have a legitimate marriage.

I would think that living together during this process is pretty good proof! Does your apartment lease show both your names? Do you have mail addressed to yourself and your wife and the same address?

Yes, exactly. We have photos that document our relationship ever since June 2005. The problem comes up with the apartment and paying rent. There is absolutely no documentation with our names anywhere on any piece of paper showing that we rent together. To combat this when we sent in the I-130 packet, I asked my landlord to include in his affedavit that we jointly pay rent and bills. It is typical in Cancun for renting to be completely informal and without documentation. This is one of the primary reasons I was nervous about the interview.

One other really good thing about the photos we have that date back to June 2005 is you can genuinely see me losing weight all the way up to the present. There is no way the photos could be confused in any sort of dating order. The proof is in my cheeks.

How about your marriage license and evidence from your wedding or marriage ceremony. Photos? Cards?

We are golden on this. We have an officially translated marriage certificate. A copy of it went in with the I-130, a copy will go with the I-129F, and the original and copy will go with us to Ciudad Juarez for the interview. We also have the entire ceremony video recorded, and we have photos from the whole thing. There were no invitations or anything since it was a house wedding. It was primarily family and 4 witnesses that came. So beyond the certificate and the photos and video, there isn't much more.

As said above, do you have any letters addressed to the both of you? Just keep some of that junk mail, like credit card offers and such. Or maybe when you have an online dvd rental, keep something from that. You have to get creative

Very little or no mail gets to us. In our neighborhood in Cancun, there are no such things as mail boxes...mail is just stuffed in a gate or fence. What mail does get there is all addressed to our landlord. We don't do much online when it comes to rentals, but I suppose we could open a local joint blockbuster account or something. I'm just now getting the creativity muscles in my brain rolling.

The first important piece of evidence is your marriage certificate, which you had to send with your I-130, then you can add to that pictures, affidavits, letters, maybe hotel receipts from vacations you've taken, airfare, that kind of stuff. But it sounds like you have enough evidence already to prove that you have a legitimate marriage.

I agree. The marriage cert. is very important. We will take originals and copies to Juarez. And we did send a translated copy with the I-130. We are golden on pictures and affidavits (the same affidavits from the I-130 we used), and we have some birthday and holiday cards to and from each other. Also, we have letters my Mom wrote to my wife.

I guess our weakest area is receipts from things with both our names on them. We hardly ever travel, just due to money issues. But I suppose we could travel locally just to get more evidence.

I appreciate all the suggestions and help. I think we will be okay, but I figure that while I have time, I should strenghten our case as much as possible. I agree that it's fairly air-tight considering we live together; I just don't want to be caught off balance by something that other people know from experience to be very important or essential for K-3 approval.

If anyone has any other info or suggestions, please let me know.

Thanks again!
Andy F.

Oh man, you're cool with all that stuff. I'd sit back, chill and wait for an approval.