Dear All,

New to this forum. Just got married; am a USC; need to file I-130 for my wife, and subsequently I-129F,etc.
For the I-130, what all proofs of bonafide marriage might I enclose?
(I live and work in NY; she lives & works in New Delhi, India; I am back in the US)

1. Documentation showing joint ownership or property: Do NOT have; CANNOT have (both live in apartments;-(
2. A lease showing joint tenancy of a common residence: Do NOT have; CANNOT have...
3. Birth certificate(s) of child(ren) born to you, thepetitioner, and your spouse together: Do NOT have; Will have in a few years, but hopefully won't have to wait for them until my wife comes here....
4.Documentation showing co-mingling of financialresources: HOW do I do this? CAN I do this? (with me being in NY and she in India?). Has anyone done this? Can I open a NRI (Non-Resident Indian account) with her as a joint account holder, or the Indian beneficiary of the account (I am not sure if there is such a thing, but anyone familiar with this, please help...)
Any other suggestions on what else I might show as evidence of co-mingling of financial resources???

5.AFFIDAVITS: Easy one; third party: does that mean our parents CAN give affidavits or No?? Also, do we have a sample of the affidavit on the forum, or site somewhere???

6. WHAT OTHER PROOF of the marriage does the INS consider kosher???? I have tonnes of marriage photos, our marriage invitation card, our marriage certificate, our honeymoon pics, my airline tkt to India, our airline tkts to our honeymoon, our marriage VCD's/DVD's: WHAT all should I include?????

THANKS!!!!!
Joe

Joe,

Submit a statement similar to what you have written here in your post. A recently married couple living on 2 different countries cannot be expected to have the evidence of a bona fide marriage that a couple living together would have.

Yodrak

I also didn't have much proof to send with my I-130 since I am a newlywed and we live in different countries. I asked my mom and sister to write an affidavit each where they said they knew of our relationship/marriage and that they supported it 100%. We were approved by CSC with no RFEs.

PM me if you want me to e-mail you a copy of the affidavits so you can have an idea.

Diana

Joe,
I was in the same situation as you and here is something that you can do:
Endorse your name in her passport as husband. I think it can be done by sending a copy of your US passport ( including the pages of Indian visa on your passport) and marriage certificate. That should get your name endorsed n her passport as spouse.
I was told by my cousin who also did it after he got a RFE.

So u may only need 4 things:
1) Marriage certificate
2) Copy of her passport with your name endorsed in it as spouse
3) Couple of pics from marriage
4) Wedding cards from both sides

that should do it for you.

Good Luck dude.Email me if you have any questions.

I didn't submit anything.and our case was approved with no problem.

I know, I really think that the marriage certificate is more than enough if you don't have anything else.

I think so too but be prepared to demonstrate bona fides of the relationship at interview. Mostly this is done evidence of visits and communication.

It is a new addition to I-130. When I filed more than 15 months ago, I-130 did not mention anything about it. But have parents and siblings prepare an affidavit with very plain langualge. Diana is ready to help anyone!

We filed our I-130 in late-March, so we included information about our relationship. We wrote a two-page summary of our visits that included pictures of us with our respective families and friends, and us from our vacations together. We also included two months of phone bills, copies of a few postcards we exchanged, and copies of airline or train tickets. We also included an affidavit from my friend who witnessed the wedding and a brief summary of the wedding, including photos and copies of our wedding licence fee receipt and the receipt from our rings purchase. For what we could get jointly, we send evidence that we are co-mingling finances and naming each other as beneficiaries.
Good luck!

Thanks LadyJane. Shall include some of this; should have the ring reciept, the banquet hall receipt from the marriage & the ring ceremony,etc along with tonnes of marriage pics.

What kind of things can we do to show co-mingling of financial resources??? (practically, is it a big deal? does it matter? on two different continents, what can we do to show 'co-mingling' of financial resources???)

Thanks,
Joe

Amen...
(Don't know why they added this stupid, "proof of bonafide marriage' requirement stuff, when they already were asking for the marriage certificate....)
Joe

hello

well i got married in december of 2006 and sent in the paperwork about a month later so we did not have much evidence...but since we had visited one another beforehand and talked A LOT (phone, online, etc)...i sent in pictures of the wedding, family pics, copies of airline tickets for visits and iteniraries, receipts, copy of the wedding on CD...haha it may have been a little too much but el hamdulillah we got approved just show them you love each other for the sake of love...do it your way i mean pictures and evidence can only show so much...i just hope you get a case worker who is not too tough on the approval! GOOD LUCK!! and i will be praying for you!!

Joe,
I was in the same situation as you and here is something that you can do:
Endorse your name in her passport as husband. I think it can be done by sending a copy of your US passport ( including the pages of Indian visa on your passport) and marriage certificate. That should get your name endorsed n her passport as spouse.
I was told by my cousin who also did it after he got a RFE.

So u may only need 4 things:
1) Marriage certificate
2) Copy of her passport with your name endorsed in it as spouse
3) Couple of pics from marriage
4) Wedding cards from both sides

that should do it for you.

Good Luck dude.Email me if you have any questions.
[/quote]

Hydrousc,
Thanks for the excellent suggestions!
How long does it take for the husband's name to be endorsed in the passport??
(This is different than a name change for her, right?). I think the name change would have taken a few months, which sucks. Does the endorsement happen right away (same day: wishful thinking!!!!), or does it take a while??

Wedding cards from BOTH sides?? (Any reason why? Just one would be fine also, right??)

Also, I was finding about a CitiNRI NRO account, where I may name her a mandate card holder, and maybe add her later as a joint account holder: good idea, or un-necessary hassle, not worth the effort???

Any other suggestions??

Joe




Thank you so much for being so kind, Dillydally!
We could use all the prayers.....
Joe

It appears the USCIS isn't that strict on the original I-130 submission bonafide marriage reguirements.
More ammo the better tho.
You can open a ITF [In Trust For] account without wifes signature or SSN. At least I did. Sent ATM card to her and it made it easy for her getting money also.
Get Life insurance also. Easy!

It appears the USCIS isn't that strict on the original I-130 submission bonafide marriage reguirements.
More ammo the better tho.
You can open a ITF [In Trust For] account without wifes signature or SSN. At least I did. Sent ATM card to her and it made it easy for her getting money also.
Get Life insurance also. Easy!
[/quote]

What are ITF accounts? Where can one open them??
Joe

Get your wife an ITIN, then you can file joint returns with the IRS.

Obviously this won't help you when sending in the I-130, but it does show proof of a legitimate marriage and might come in handy when she goes in for her interview.

We submitted sworn statements from various members of the family and friends and had them all notarized and that was pretty much all we had, but we did get a lot of them together

I think you have to file jointly and file for the ITIN [ W-7] WHEN you file your taxes to get a the ITIN.
I did so and my wife got the ITIN later but they wouldn't give one to my daughter.