Notes on the copies for the !-129 Application

[yankepeach 2]

Ok maybe I am being paranoid, but after coming to this site and reading all that I have and seeing how little the USCIS actually tells you about what you need and needn't, I wanna make danged sure that any notes I put onto the sheets that contain the copies of this or that to clarify what it is .... isn't gonna be rejected because I neatly put the date and a short explanation as to what the copy was of. Or do I need to actually use post-it notes for each note needed and leave the copies totally blank as to what they are...or is what I was doing until the thought crossed my mind that they are very very picky about what they want ...OK? Better safe then sorry so am checking. Silly or not. And what about highlighting stuff as well?

Edited March 24, 2010 by yankepeach

[JimVaPhuong 4,864]

Ok maybe I am being paranoid, but after coming to this site and reading all that I have and seeing how little the USCIS actually tells you about what you need and needn't, I wanna make danged sure that any notes I put onto the sheets that contain the copies of this or that to clarify what it is .... isn't gonna be rejected because I neatly put the date and a short explanation as to what the copy was of. Or do I need to actually use post-it notes for each note needed and leave the copies totally blank as to what they are...or is what I was doing until the thought crossed my mind that they are very very picky about what they want ...OK? Better safe then sorry so am checking. Silly or not. And what about highlighting stuff as well?

Post-it notes is a bad idea. They can (and do) fall off.

It's usually not a problem to write notes on copies of documents and evidence. It's probably best if you don't write over the image of the document or evidence itself, though. Keep your notes in the margins, or on a separate piece of paper. For example, you could make a sheet which contains copies of a few boarding passes, and then write your notes beneath the image of each boarding pass, but it's better if you don't write over the image of the boarding passes themselves. First, it puts the adjudicator in the position of figuring out if the markings were added to the copy or were written on the original document (if he happens to think that's relevant). Adjudicators aren't always good at this, as evidenced by the fact that people have gotten RFE's because the adjudicator thought a document containing their signature was a copy and not the original. Second, it's a good idea to give the adjudicator an unobstructed view of your evidence, which means don't obscure portions of the image with your own markings.

Hi-liting is usually not necessary, unless you think an adjudicator is going to have a hard time finding an important piece of information. Even if that is the case, it's better if you can write in the margins to point out where the information is, rather than marking over the image of the document itself. That said, people have gotten RFE's because the adjudicator couldn't find what he needed (he couldn't tell a document was a certified divorce decree, for example), and they've responded by resubmitting copies of the same evidence with the relevant information hi-lited, apparently without problems. For me personally, I wouldn't mark over the image of a document unless I thought there was no way the adjudicator was going to find what he was looking for without my help.

I made a cover sheet for each separate attachment listed on my cover letter. I labeled the cover sheet with my name, the attachment number, and specifically what was included in the attachment. For example"

JimVaPhuong, Attachment 8

Form G-325A Supplement: Copy of birth certificate (Petitioner)

Other than the cover sheet, I didn't put markings of any kind on copies of full-page documents, like birth certificates and divorce decrees. For other evidence, like boarding passes, receipts, etc., I labeled each page as described above, and also added a page number (Page X of Y pages). I didn't add a description of each item on the page unless it wasn't completely obvious what it was. I put photos in full-page plastic photo pocket sheets, and wrote the date and description on the back, and then labeled the top of the page as described.

Reading the cover sheet and page labels, it was pretty obvious what everything was.

[yankepeach 2]

Post-it notes is a bad idea. They can (and do) fall off.

It's usually not a problem to write notes on copies of documents and evidence. It's probably best if you don't write over the image of the document or evidence itself, though. Keep your notes in the margins, or on a separate piece of paper. For example, you could make a sheet which contains copies of a few boarding passes, and then write your notes beneath the image of each boarding pass, but it's better if you don't write over the image of the boarding passes themselves. First, it puts the adjudicator in the position of figuring out if the markings were added to the copy or were written on the original document (if he happens to think that's relevant). Adjudicators aren't always good at this, as evidenced by the fact that people have gotten RFE's because the adjudicator thought a document containing their signature was a copy and not the original. Second, it's a good idea to give the adjudicator an unobstructed view of your evidence, which means don't obscure portions of the image with your own markings.

Hi-liting is usually not necessary, unless you think an adjudicator is going to have a hard time finding an important piece of information. Even if that is the case, it's better if you can write in the margins to point out where the information is, rather than marking over the image of the document itself. That said, people have gotten RFE's because the adjudicator couldn't find what he needed (he couldn't tell a document was a certified divorce decree, for example), and they've responded by resubmitting copies of the same evidence with the relevant information hi-lited, apparently without problems. For me personally, I wouldn't mark over the image of a document unless I thought there was no way the adjudicator was going to find what he was looking for without my help.

I made a cover sheet for each separate attachment listed on my cover letter. I labeled the cover sheet with my name, the attachment number, and specifically what was included in the attachment. For example"

JimVaPhuong, Attachment 8

Form G-325A Supplement: Copy of birth certificate (Petitioner)

Other than the cover sheet, I didn't put markings of any kind on copies of full-page documents, like birth certificates and divorce decrees. For other evidence, like boarding passes, receipts, etc., I labeled each page as described above, and also added a page number (Page X of Y pages). I didn't add a description of each item on the page unless it wasn't completely obvious what it was. I put photos in full-page plastic photo pocket sheets, and wrote the date and description on the back, and then labeled the top of the page as described.

Reading the cover sheet and page labels, it was pretty obvious what everything was.

Thank you very much!