I-130 Evidence of Bona fide marriage

[recentgrad1 0]

Hi everyone,

I am very close to submitting my application, and this forum has been tremendously helpful so far, so thank you everyone.

I have a nuanced question regarding the evidence of bona fide marriage that I couldn't find a satisfactory response for in previous posts.

Context: My wife and I started dating last year in November. I proposed to her in October, and we had a city hall registration in November. We have had an engagement function, but our actual religious wedding ceremony will be held in February 2012.

Situation: For proof of marriage, I am currently planning on sending in i) a copy of our marriage certificate, and ii) a joint bank account that we opened 1 month ago (which has a nominal balance of $1-2k). We don't have a joint lease or joint property.

Do you think this is sufficient at this point? Should I send in a couple of affidavits? Do they need to be notarized?

Thanks again for the help!

[Anh map 2,098]

Hi everyone,

I am very close to submitting my application, and this forum has been tremendously helpful so far, so thank you everyone.

I have a nuanced question regarding the evidence of bona fide marriage that I couldn't find a satisfactory response for in previous posts.

Context: My wife and I started dating last year in November. I proposed to her in October, and we had a city hall registration in November. We have had an engagement function, but our actual religious wedding ceremony will be held in February 2012.

Situation: For proof of marriage, I am currently planning on sending in i) a copy of our marriage certificate, and ii) a joint bank account that we opened 1 month ago (which has a nominal balance of $1-2k). We don't have a joint lease or joint property.

Do you think this is sufficient at this point? Should I send in a couple of affidavits? Do they need to be notarized?

Thanks again for the help!

You are currently married, not registered. The celebration in February won't make you any more married in the legal sense.

For a newly married couple there often isn't much joint property. Show as much commingling of your lives as you can. Mail addressed to the both of you. Some photos. Joint memberships, car insurance. Drivers license with the same address.

[PinkMelody 1]

As long as I know, affidavits need to be notarized.

Do you have any car titles, car/life insurance or utility bills under both names?

Edited December 23, 2011 by PinkMelody

[Vanya_Mac 2]

the affidavits must be legalized,if they are not issued in the states....I had three of them,both were issued in the states,they needed only an Apostille,and that was it.The one that was issued here,in Bulgaria,had to be translated and legalized.

[UK_Fan 192]

many ppl dont realize that without a social security number there's not much you can have put in your name... we are attaching a letter of explanation why our only evidence are a bunch of pictures and sworn affidavits...

i dont have drivers license - therefore no insurance will put my name on a policy, dont have SSN - no bank will put me down on my husbands account.. it's sorta a no win situation. just hope and pray that what little you have is enough.

[ceadsearc 516]

Send what you have. Our only "joint" evidence that we mailed with our application was a joint bank statement and our daughter's birth certificate. By interview time, we had more because my husband already had his social and EAD and we had had time to gather more. You probably will as well.

[Macbook 2]

Don't send anything accept forms and marriage license! When you go for an interview than bring pictures, notarizes affidavits hopefully some bills and income tax. Open credit card and add your spouse as user (most credit card's don't ask for SSN on secondary holder).

Also Bank of America will add person without SSN as secondary account holder!

More documents you can provide better. If your marriage is bona fide they can not deny your case. Don't forget that they need to prove that you marriage is not legit!

i'm not attorney and this is not legal advice! This is just my personal opinion!

Edited December 24, 2011 by Macbook

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Some misinformation here. According to the I-130 instructions, you should send at least one piece of evidence showing a bona fide marriage. The above advice to send in no evidence is incorrect. Evidence of a joint bank account is fine. If that is all you have now, then send that in.

Also, affidavits do not need to be notarized or apostilled or anything. The instructions on how to write them are in the form instructions themselves.

USCIS know that newlyweds don't have a lot of evidence.

[Soapz 14]

You might want to consider sending in pictures of the ceremony and the engagement, also if you have printed invitations for the ceremony or anything in paper in regards to the wedding that comes up - receipts for down-payments, seating charts, invitation lists, etc... I would send them everything that shows your life together as well as your future plans. It won't hurt to do so and it shows the IO that you made an effort to supply evidence even though you don't have much. I don't think you can ever send too much but rather not enough, so anything you can think of - mail it in.

If it helps, there are several posts here in the forum that show what can be used as evidence, so do a search and see what you have to send to USCIS. Good luck!

Edited December 27, 2011 by Soapz

[Up and Away 10]

I agree with some of the above commenters that the best course is to send in as much evidence as you have right now, and to continue to collect evidence that you can bring to the interview. The I-130 instructions don't specify that the affidavits have to be notarized, but an affidavit is usually notarized, so for safety I submitted 3 notarized affidavits (and 2 non-notarized affidavits because I knew it would be really hard for those people to find a notary).

Don't say that you registered at city hall --you got married in a civil ceremony at city hall. You're married now!

[Monday Jones 6]

My husband and I talked about our interview recently, and we both agreed that IO seemed to think we were bonafide even before we stepped into the office. Our interview was very relaxed, and he got approved on the spot. I think this is because we sent in a lot of evidence. It was easier in our case because my husband had a SSN so we were able to get a joint account together. But there were other things we did, like I had him as my life insurance beneficiary. He was on my health insurance. We had a video membership together. A few (less than 10) pictures of you together over time would help, if you have that. The IO also asked who prepared the documents, and seemed to like that it was I, the USC, that did so.