providing excess information - a bad thing?

[maoyu 0]

Hello all.

I've got most of my material together for i-129f packet, and like many of you, it goes beyond the call of duty. However, after asking a number of people who have also submitted k-1 visas for Chinese fiances, many of them have told me to submit just the required amount for the i-129f (leave out proof of relationship, evidence of having met, and so on). One individual said he purposefully took the minimalist approach so as to avoid suspicion. What do you guys think about this comment? Can providing too much be deleterious?

Thanks

[AbbynSheryl 0]

hey when i sent my I-130

i included the phone bills for 6 months,

i incluced about 50 photos and all the other stuff

it was about 100 plus papers together.

in my opinion it was worth the extra effort.

good luck

abby n sheryl

[pushbrk 13,639]

Hello all.

I've got most of my material together for i-129f packet, and like many of you, it goes beyond the call of duty. However, after asking a number of people who have also submitted k-1 visas for Chinese fiances, many of them have told me to submit just the required amount for the i-129f (leave out proof of relationship, evidence of having met, and so on). One individual said he purposefully took the minimalist approach so as to avoid suspicion. What do you guys think about this comment? Can providing too much be deleterious?

Thanks

Whether extra information helps or hurts depends on the information but evidence of having met in person is not extra. It's REQUIRED.

Follow the guides. Adding a few pictures together never hurts but otherwise, I'd save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview unless there are some red flags to be addressed.

[maoyu 0]

Hello all.

I've got most of my material together for i-129f packet, and like many of you, it goes beyond the call of duty. However, after asking a number of people who have also submitted k-1 visas for Chinese fiances, many of them have told me to submit just the required amount for the i-129f (leave out proof of relationship, evidence of having met, and so on). One individual said he purposefully took the minimalist approach so as to avoid suspicion. What do you guys think about this comment? Can providing too much be deleterious?

Thanks

Whether extra information helps or hurts depends on the information but evidence of having met in person is not extra. It's REQUIRED.

Follow the guides. Adding a few pictures together never hurts but otherwise, I'd save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview unless there are some red flags to be addressed.

Thanks you guys for the timely responses. AbbynSheryl, my i-129f also, when it's all said and done, I calculate will be around 80-100 pages...but almost half of this are passport scans (and a lot pages with nothing on them), as I have seen a number of members include all pages of both parties' passports...

Pushbrk, you say to save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview. By leaving that out of the i-129f, I don't run the risk of getting a RFE?

I want to be thorough enough so I don't get a RFE, but at the same time I don't won't to be so thorough as to put off the officer and further delay processing (if this is a possibility). ugh

[Gary and Alla 3,696]

Hello all.

I've got most of my material together for i-129f packet, and like many of you, it goes beyond the call of duty. However, after asking a number of people who have also submitted k-1 visas for Chinese fiances, many of them have told me to submit just the required amount for the i-129f (leave out proof of relationship, evidence of having met, and so on). One individual said he purposefully took the minimalist approach so as to avoid suspicion. What do you guys think about this comment? Can providing too much be deleterious?

Thanks

No such thing as "too much gun". Particularly with difficult consulates it can be to your advantage to provide more now. Though not needed, anything you submit know is sent to the consulate by the USCIS. They cannot decline to accept any evidence sent to them by the NVC. It gets it "on the other side of the glass" so to speak. See what Yu&Dan and Pushbrk suggest regarding China, but I would never consider it a "bad thing"

[pushbrk 13,639]

Pushbrk, you say to save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview. By leaving that out of the i-129f, I don't run the risk of getting a RFE?

No, because there is no requirement to provide evidence of a bona fide relationship in an I-129F filing. The only required evidence is that of having met in the past two years, you being a US Citizen and both of you being free to marry. Bona fides are dealt with at the visa interview. If there are red flags to address, then add some evidence of bona fides to address those specific red flags. Regardless, I-129F petitions don't get RFE's for evidence of bona fides because no such evidence is "required".

Copies of all pages of passports is overkill except in the case of a USC using it instead of a birth certificate to show evidence of citizenship. No copies of any pages of the foreigner's passport are needed unless they are needed as evidence of meeting in person. Consular officers will look at the actual passport during the interview if they want to.

See the guides and follow them. That's what they are provide for.

[maoyu 0]

Pushbrk, you say to save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview. By leaving that out of the i-129f, I don't run the risk of getting a RFE?

No, because there is no requirement to provide evidence of a bona fide relationship in an I-129F filing. The only required evidence is that of having met in the past two years, you being a US Citizen and both of you being free to marry. Bona fides are dealt with at the visa interview. If there are red flags to address, then add some evidence of bona fides to address those specific red flags. Regardless, I-129F petitions don't get RFE's for evidence of bona fides because no such evidence is "required".

Copies of all pages of passports is overkill except in the case of a USC using it instead of a birth certificate to show evidence of citizenship. No copies of any pages of the foreigner's passport are needed unless they are needed as evidence of meeting in person. Consular officers will look at the actual passport during the interview if they want to.

See the guides and follow them. That's what they are provide for.

Thanks again for your timely input.

[Tom and Milaren 0]

Pushbrk, you say to save the evidence of a bona fide relationship for the interview. By leaving that out of the i-129f, I don't run the risk of getting a RFE?

No, because there is no requirement to provide evidence of a bona fide relationship in an I-129F filing. The only required evidence is that of having met in the past two years, you being a US Citizen and both of you being free to marry. Bona fides are dealt with at the visa interview. If there are red flags to address, then add some evidence of bona fides to address those specific red flags. Regardless, I-129F petitions don't get RFE's for evidence of bona fides because no such evidence is "required".

Copies of all pages of passports is overkill except in the case of a USC using it instead of a birth certificate to show evidence of citizenship. No copies of any pages of the foreigner's passport are needed unless they are needed as evidence of meeting in person. Consular officers will look at the actual passport during the interview if they want to.

See the guides and follow them. That's what they are provide for.

I agree with this. You prove the relationship at the interview. At that time bring everything you have. I have a list of what we had available if you want to see it. How much of it you need to provide depends on the interviewer.

Good luck!!

[maoyu 0]

After spending about a month to gather documents, looking at how to fill out forms, and dealing with more specific issues which required much research, I pulled an all nighter last night filling everything out and organizing it. This morning I double checked everything, took pictures, and sent it off. Here is how I did things. I hope it helps someone. Keep up with my time line to see how things are going. I fully expect for something to go wrong, but I'm hoping for the best.

First regarding this thread, I ended up sending about half of what I originally intended, so 60 pages instead of 100. However, I still did send in some evidence regarding proof on ongoing relationship in the form of just 5 email screen shots. I put explanations on each page noting email highlights. 2 of these emails showed content, each from me to beneficiary, one in english and one in chinese (did not translate word for word b/c had some english content which made it self explanatory). The other 3 screen shots were samplings of all the emails from the beneficiary to me shown over our 5 year relationship span (I did this by searching my in-box and filtering out her email). I also cut back on recent pics of us, sending 12 instead of 30.

Now, the reason I did not go all out with tons of information like originally planned is b/c I spent a couple of hours going through the RFE master list. What you will notice is that whether or not you followed the guides, went overkill, minimal, or, of course, provided too little, everyone has gotten an RFE. This concerned me, b/c I didn't want to get a RFE after going overkill and from there not knowing where to turn, I decided to leave myself a little breathing room. Obviously, less paperwork should help processing time too.

Now, my TOC. Afterward I will talk about a few snagging points I came across during the process and few things I did b/c I read about them and thought they were good ideas.

I-129F Table of Contents

Cover Letter

-Petitioner & Beneficiary (2) Passport Pictures ATTACHED

-$455 check ATTACHED

1-2. Table of Contents (this page)

3-5. I-129F

6. I-129F Supplement: Part B, Question 2: Address

7. I-129F Supplement: Question 15: Your Fiancé(e)’s address abroad

8. I-129F Supplement: Question 18: Has your Fiancé(e) met and seen you

9-16. G-325A (Petitioner & Beneficiary) (4 Copies each)

17-20. G-325A Supplement: Question: Applicant's residence last five years (Petitioner)

21-24. G-325A Supplement: Question: Applicant's employment last five years (Petitioner)

25. Birth Certificate Copy (Petitioner) (one sided document)

26-27. Letter(s) of Intent to Marry (Petitioner & Beneficiary)

Evidences of Petitioner's and Beneficiary's stay in Wuhan, China

28-38. Passport Copies (Petitioner & Beneficiary)

-Petitioner US Passport Copy

-note China issued resident permits on pages 14/15 and tourist visa on page 13

-Beneficiary China Passport Copy

- note “Hubei” (Province of Wuhan) is birthplace/passport issued

39-44. Petitioner's airplane and train ticket itineraries/copies

- first trip (pg. 39-40)

- second trip (pg. 41)

- third trip (pg. 42-44)

45-46. Petitioner academic studies in Wuhan, China 2005-2007 (copy of degree)

47-48. Beneficiary academic studies in Wuhan, China 2002-2006 (copy of degree)

Evidences of Having Met Within 2 Years and On-Going Relationship

49-53. Original Pictures (Captions on back)

Leaving china - summer 2007 (2 pictures)

Meeting family - summer 2009 (2 pictures)

Trip to Beijing and Xi’an - summer 2009 (4 pictures)

Engagement ring and proposal pictures - summer 2009 (2 pictures)

Post-engagement pictures - summer 2009 (2 pictures)

54. Petitioner and Beneficiary Summer 2009 Travel Destination Receipt Copies

55-59. Email Screen Shots (Explained and Translated)

60. Beneficiary Address Envelopes (for convenience)

I 3 punched everything and stuck it in a binder, I don't recommend doing this, and recommend doing what USCIS says. I used a cover sheet on front of the binder. I wrote little page numbers in the bottom right hand corners of all the pages that were not official forms. I typed out the I-129f and G-325a, but hand wrote in certain fields (like dates). My fiance's g325a was all hand written. For all fields that had supplements, I just wrote “see attached”, even if there other fields in that question, I did not fill them in and addressed everything fully in the supplement. I signed and dated all supplements. Try to avoid attachments, but my fiance's mailing address was like 4 lines long, even with abbreviations there was no chance it was fitting. For all names thats needed to be left blank or whatever such as “other names used” I filled in as (none), I saw a couple people get “none” as their middle names lol. For non-names and numbers, like the A# or street addresses, I just wrote “none”. Really, the only thing I wrote N/A for was regarding my name being written in characters other than english. I had to correct some entries on my fiance's g325a, she put n/a for middle name and all other names used, probably would not have been an issue, but I neatly crossed it out and wrote (none). I did not initialize any corrections. I also hand corrected her letter of intent to marry by changing the texas service center address to the vermont one. All my passports were color copies. I scanned every page, but I shrunk the size of my blank passport page scans and just fit them on one page together, still very readable. I did not scan every page for her, just the first few and the last. All scanned evidence was printed in color except for itineraries, plane tickets, and email shots. I included copies of mine and her degree b/c I mention it in the I-129f supplement. Also, I thought that would give more proof on how we were there at the same time. I hand wrote on the travel destination receipts and train tickets describing what each was. For g325a “applicant's residence last five years”, I put down all the places I lived at in the last 5 years. I being a recent college grad, I never lived in a place for more than a year, and alternating b/w locations in China and America, I had a lot of places to write. I even put down that those few short summers of living with my parents. For g325a “applicant's employment last five years”, again I was very thorough. For the 2 years I was living in China as an exchange student, I wrote “unemployed (exchange student)”. Finally, I printed all my old digital pictures from a kodak machine, dated them, and noted people and places.

Well I think that's about it guys. Hope this saves someone a bit of headache. Be sure to triple check everything. I found out at the last minute that I forgot to hand write in the answer to g325a “this form is submitted in connection with an application for” other: thingy. Also, always have a little notepad handy so you can jot down ideas and reminders as your researching. For the most part I followed the VJ guide.

Good luck to all! Thanks to the VJ community for help and support thus far.