Hi there,

I just want to know if the support letters from family and friends are absolutely necessary. I don't mean to sound cheap or anything but seriously the filing fee is over 500 dlls and notarizing letters is going to be close to 100 dlls, I mean, it's a lot of money, I know that I don't want them to give them a reason to reject my petition but I am not rich, if you guys know what I mean. Thanks guys.

Do a search in this forum for "affidavits" to get lots of info on the topic.

Short answer, no, letters or affidavits aren't necessary, provided you have a reasonable amount of other evidence. Plenty of people report approvals without them. Others have included them.

You may want to search this forum to see what other people are submitting as evidence. If you think your collection falls somewhere in the range of what other people are submitting succesfully, then don't worry too much about affidavits. If you think your collection is weaker than most, you may want to beef it up with affidavits.

If THEY think your evidence collection is weak, they'll normally give you an RFE and give you an opportunity to submit more evidence.

Why would a couple notarized letters cost 100 bucks?
My bank notarizes for free!
More ammo the better!

Yep here too, check your local bank where your bank accounts are setup. I'm sure they will do it for you.

I am a Notary in Illinois and I don't charge a dime for notarizing. If someone is charging $100 then depending on the laws of the state in which they are a notary it may not even be legal.

From page 6 of the Illinois Public Notary Handbook:

1. Support letters are not necessary. They are weakest evidence anyway.
2. Notary services are free. You might find free notary services at local bank, credit union, at your work, at apt rental office etc....

I wanted to have evidence from a broad range of areas, so I included 4 notarized letters of support. IMHO, it adds a bit of a personal touch to my petition.

No letters here. We have a baby together, bought a home together, went on trips together, have joint insurance through my employment, joint accounts and file joint taxes. If that doesn't do it, a few letters from friends are not gonna turn the tide.

That's exactly how I see it, too. I will have no problems providing Affidavits if they ask for them later, but I really think we have enough evidence proving we're a real couple more than a couple of letters.

We included a couple of letters, one from our best man and one from my hubby's boss, which were notarized for free. I don't think they will have made a difference either way on the approval, but we wanted to make sure all our bases were covered to avoid getting any RFEs later on (we didn't get any). Good luck!

My friend's AOS was initially denied for "lack of evidence" (after hearing what she took for evidence, the adjudicator must have been -- well, I won't finish the sentence) -- affidavits helped to get her eventual approval. I chose to be proactive.

AOS or Removal of Conditions?

If the latter, tell us more!

good question, I am not sure if after the whole thing was over with if she received her conditional or 10 year card. I assume 10 year, since they had been married 5 years before applying for it (long story!) -- however, they had to go in for interviews (2 in total), so who knows. I'll have to ask her for specifics. All I know is that she was initially denied, but she went back armed with more evidence, including a bunch of affidavits, which helped in getting her approval.