I-130 proof of relationship: Good enough?

[lierre 224]

No we got married in last year, and i just completed the I 130 now dealing with the NVC process mainly long distance just travel back when my work allows me to take vacation for 2 or 3 weeks 2 times a year.

I see. Thanks for your input. Still, I wanna leave no doubt in their mind.

[caly 48]

Wow! That must have been a lot. We also met online, through a dating site. I guess I can just print out emails from when we first started talking. And whew, glad I was such a sentimental girlfriend and I kept a lot of my boarding passes when we flew all over Asia to see each other. haha!

Thank you so much for your input!

We actually didn't submit a lot of stuff quantity-wise. For the communication bit, I only ended up sending 8 pages of chat history spanning 4 years (or one page every 6 months ) and 5 emails just to show that we have been in touch over the years.

I'm quite a pack-rat so had 4 years of chat history backed up and still hadn't thrown out the later travel related stuff. I even had my luggage tags from when I came to visit him in NY.

But as leszeku1 said, don't sweat it too much. People have been approved with a lot less.

Edited January 4, 2013 by caly

[The Mean Lady 604]

The I-130 is more for establishing if you have a legal marriage between the two of you, and that the applicant is not some wanted criminal or doesn't have a history of bringing people to the US and dropping them like a rock kind of thing.

They also do a check on the beneficiary to make sure they weren't previously in removal proceedings or overstayed.

It's not so much to establish how genuine your relationship is, so for one to say that they 'only supplied 2 pieces of evidence and were fine' when they aren't at the step that establishes that part is unfair.

This evidence is used for later parts of the process that haven't yet been reached and still don't know how it will affect them.

Sure, I'm sure there are some people that only provided a couple pictures and that was it and got all the way through, but it doesn't mean it's the case for everyone or even the majority.

For an evolution of relationship, no, it doesn't have to be notarized.

None of your affidavits have to be notarized.

I provided an evolution of relationship as well.

History of chats/emails are a great thing to provide.

[CJ8611 6]

Hi!

For our case, as evidences, we sent about 40 photos collated from our visits to each other (including the wedding) from 2008-2011. I was being cheap so I had the photos arranged as 8 photos per page, so had a total of 6 pages worth of photos. Then got sworn statements from 6 individuals (2 from my side, 2 from his side, 2 common friends), photocopy of the marriage certificate.

You actually have a good list already! However, maybe the contracts from your wedding suppliers may be a bit of an overkill as you will be providing photos from your wedding already? And since you already have your marriage certificate, perhaps you can forego the marriage license as the marriage license is a legal document which allows you to get married, while the marriage certificate is the legal document that says you are married.

You don't have to send everything, a few from each will do just like what the other members suggested.

Good luck!

Hello everyone! This forum has been really helpful with our I-130 petition package. I just want to get your opinion on what we currently have.

Quick background:

We met online. Met in person 5-6 times. Got married in my country (Philippines) 2 years after meeting each other.

I currently live with him near a military base outside the US. I have been here as his dependent for almost 7 months now.

We have no kids. We have a joint bank account with a US bank.

What we intend to send as proof of relationship + some questions I have:

2-3 photos from our wedding day, with dates and some explanation

1-2 photos each from the 5 countries we have traveled in together (or will boarding passes weigh more?)

Joint bank account statement

Photocopies of 2-3 cards & their envelopes which has our names on it

Marriage certificate

2 or 3 contracts from our wedding suppliers (caterer's, photographer's, my gownmaker's)

Copy of our marriage license (from Manila)

Boarding passes/itinerary emails of his flights to and from Manila for our wedding

Entry and exit stamps to the Philippines on his passport

My letter from their military command regarding my stay here near their base

My entry stamps to Japan (where we currently live)

My boarding pass/itinerary email to Japan

Questions:

We are already married and living together. Do I have to send proof of how we met? Like maybe his receipt from the dating site where we met? Or pictures from when we first saw each other in person? Or does that not matter since we are already living together?

Should I ask for affidavits attesting to our relationship? Like from our best man (who's his best friend) or from my mother-in-law (who was at the wedding)? Or we don't really need it anymore?

Really hope to get more info... We don't wanna get an RFE.

[lierre 224]

Hi!

For our case, as evidences, we sent about 40 photos collated from our visits to each other (including the wedding) from 2008-2011. I was being cheap so I had the photos arranged as 8 photos per page, so had a total of 6 pages worth of photos. Then got sworn statements from 6 individuals (2 from my side, 2 from his side, 2 common friends), photocopy of the marriage certificate.

You actually have a good list already! However, maybe the contracts from your wedding suppliers may be a bit of an overkill as you will be providing photos from your wedding already? And since you already have your marriage certificate, perhaps you can forego the marriage license as the marriage license is a legal document which allows you to get married, while the marriage certificate is the legal document that says you are married.

You don't have to send everything, a few from each will do just like what the other members suggested.

Good luck!

The I-130 is more for establishing if you have a legal marriage between the two of you, and that the applicant is not some wanted criminal or doesn't have a history of bringing people to the US and dropping them like a rock kind of thing.

They also do a check on the beneficiary to make sure they weren't previously in removal proceedings or overstayed.

It's not so much to establish how genuine your relationship is, so for one to say that they 'only supplied 2 pieces of evidence and were fine' when they aren't at the step that establishes that part is unfair.

This evidence is used for later parts of the process that haven't yet been reached and still don't know how it will affect them.

Sure, I'm sure there are some people that only provided a couple pictures and that was it and got all the way through, but it doesn't mean it's the case for everyone or even the majority.

For an evolution of relationship, no, it doesn't have to be notarized.

None of your affidavits have to be notarized.

I provided an evolution of relationship as well.

History of chats/emails are a great thing to provide.

We actually didn't submit a lot of stuff quantity-wise. For the communication bit, I only ended up sending 8 pages of chat history spanning 4 years (or one page every 6 months ) and 5 emails just to show that we have been in touch over the years.

I'm quite a pack-rat so had 4 years of chat history backed up and still hadn't thrown out the later travel related stuff. I even had my luggage tags from when I came to visit him in NY.

But as leszeku1 said, don't sweat it too much. People have been approved with a lot less.

I guess what's making me paranoid is the fact that I come from one of the high fraud countries. I know that we're for real, but I also don't want them to doubt our relationship. But, yeah, it's their job to do so! Hahaha

I have amassed quite a collection of papers and photos. I will trim them down in the next few days and might go with this set:

- evolution letter to be made by my husband

- first 2-3 emails we sent to each other when we first met

- pictures of us on our trips together PLUS copies of corresponding entry & exit stamps on our passports

- emails we've sent to each other (through facebook and yahoo), maybe will get one every 3 months

- plain copies of 2-3 postcards we sent to each other (we love sending postcards)

- 5-7 pictures from our wedding day with captions

- marriage certificate from our statistics office

- colored copy of our wedding invitations

- flight itineraries of my husband when he went to the wedding plus entry & exit stamps

- copies of his leave forms for the wedding

- copies of the lease contract for the apartment he stayed in during the wedding

- copy of the receipt for his wedding ring and his tuxedo

- copy of contract from my wedding gown supplier (excessive?)

- my boarding passes for my flight to Japan, plus entry stamp

- bank statement of our joint account

- paperwork that I am his beneficiary in all his insurance and investment accounts

- sponsorship letter from his military command that I'm his dependent

- entry and exit stamps of my stay here in Japan so far

- some more pictures from events we 've attended in Japan with captions

For consideration, a letter/affidavit about our relationship by my husband's best friend & best man... But maybe this is excessive. Hmmm

Please give your opinions on this, too.

Do any of you have sample layouts or copies of the affidavits? Or can it be made out like a letter but just with the letter-writer's info?

As for the photos, did you send the actual photos or only photocopied them (colored or black & white)?

Thank you so much for your responses! This is all very exciting, but nerve-wracking!

Edited January 5, 2013 by ivyanddan

[CJ8611 6]

We just printed the photos on regular letter size paper, in color. I just copied and pasted the photos on powerpoint, re-sized to fit 8 photos in 1 page (was being cheap, haha). Photos were grouped according to visit dates, in chronological order - it was some sort of a story photo collage --> his 1st visit to the PH (where we got re-connected), his 2nd visit, his 3rd visit, my 1st visit to the US, his 4th visit (the proposal), my 2nd visit, his 5th visit (the wedding), my 3rd visit (after the wedding).

You have a lot of ammo, already, I think. Just make sure you organize your files in a way wherein the one who'll check the application won't have a hard time reviewing.

Good luck!

PS. I didn't know PH is considered as a high-fraud country, lol!

[luisa1625 0]

Hello everyone! This forum has been really helpful with our I-130 petition package. I just want to get your opinion on what we currently have.

Quick background:

We met online. Met in person 5-6 times. Got married in my country (Philippines) 2 years after meeting each other.

I currently live with him near a military base outside the US. I have been here as his dependent for almost 7 months now.

We have no kids. We have a joint bank account with a US bank.

What we intend to send as proof of relationship + some questions I have:

2-3 photos from our wedding day, with dates and some explanation

1-2 photos each from the 5 countries we have traveled in together (or will boarding passes weigh more?)

Joint bank account statement

Photocopies of 2-3 cards & their envelopes which has our names on it

Marriage certificate

2 or 3 contracts from our wedding suppliers (caterer's, photographer's, my gownmaker's)

Copy of our marriage license (from Manila)

Boarding passes/itinerary emails of his flights to and from Manila for our wedding

Entry and exit stamps to the Philippines on his passport

My letter from their military command regarding my stay here near their base

My entry stamps to Japan (where we currently live)

My boarding pass/itinerary email to Japan

Questions:

We are already married and living together. Do I have to send proof of how we met? Like maybe his receipt from the dating site where we met? Or pictures from when we first saw each other in person? Or does that not matter since we are already living together?

Should I ask for affidavits attesting to our relationship? Like from our best man (who's his best friend) or from my mother-in-law (who was at the wedding)? Or we don't really need it anymore?

Really hope to get more info... We don't wanna get an RFE.

Affidavits of Witnesses of your Wedding. as me and my husband we are just newly married 9 months exact. So far we only send that one. As a proof because we dont have yet any joint bank account yet. which has a stamp from the solicitor. We got married here in Singapore my stamp came from philippine embassy in Singapore. pictures together and flight itenerary. Im patiently waiting for my noa2 in Gods Time

[lierre 224]

Affidavits of Witnesses of your Wedding. as me and my husband we are just newly married 9 months exact. So far we only send that one. As a proof because we dont have yet any joint bank account yet. which has a stamp from the solicitor. We got married here in Singapore my stamp came from philippine embassy in Singapore. pictures together and flight itenerary. Im patiently waiting for my noa2 in Gods Time

Hi luisa1625! Are you living together already or not? My husband and I have been married for less than 7 months, but we started living together almost immediately after the wedding. And we set up a joint account and he named me as beneficiary in all his insurance and investment accounts.

I feel like affidavits might be overkill. Hmmm... And I also don't think we have enough time to get that ready. His best man is actually stateside for work, so I don't wanna bug him to make an affidavit.

We just printed the photos on regular letter size paper, in color. I just copied and pasted the photos on powerpoint, re-sized to fit 8 photos in 1 page (was being cheap, haha). Photos were grouped according to visit dates, in chronological order - it was some sort of a story photo collage --> his 1st visit to the PH (where we got re-connected), his 2nd visit, his 3rd visit, my 1st visit to the US, his 4th visit (the proposal), my 2nd visit, his 5th visit (the wedding), my 3rd visit (after the wedding).

You have a lot of ammo, already, I think. Just make sure you organize your files in a way wherein the one who'll check the application won't have a hard time reviewing.

Good luck!

PS. I didn't know PH is considered as a high-fraud country, lol!

It is! Hahaha... Kept reading posts on here that said it was. So, I always thought it was. And also... We have to apply for visas to practically everywhere!

Thank you for the idea! All our photos are digital. I was planning to have it printed at a photostudio. But now, I'm just gonna lay it out like you did. did you eventually have to print the photos on photopaper for the interview stage?

By the way, with the massive amount of paperwork, what kind of envelope did you use? And how were you able to make the files so easy for them to peruse?

Edited January 5, 2013 by ivyanddan

[caly 48]

We just printed the photos on regular letter size paper, in color. I just copied and pasted the photos on powerpoint, re-sized to fit 8 photos in 1 page (was being cheap, haha). Photos were grouped according to visit dates, in chronological order - it was some sort of a story photo collage --> his 1st visit to the PH (where we got re-connected), his 2nd visit, his 3rd visit, my 1st visit to the US, his 4th visit (the proposal), my 2nd visit, his 5th visit (the wedding), my 3rd visit (after the wedding).

We did ours the same way. Our trip related stuff was also arranged in the same chronological order.

You have a lot of ammo, already, I think. Just make sure you organize your files in a way wherein the one who'll check the application won't have a hard time reviewing.

Totally agree!

did you eventually have to print the photos on photopaper for the interview stage?

I already had the developed photos at that point, so I basically just glued the developed prints onto regular paper so it was easy to put into a folder.

By the way, with the massive amount of paperwork, what kind of envelope did you use? And how were you able to make the files so easy for them to peruse?

Our petition fit in a regular USPS envelope.. Not sure about your options in Japan though!

[CJ8611 6]

It is! Hahaha... Kept reading posts on here that said it was. So, I always thought it was. And also... We have to apply for visas to practically everywhere!

Thank you for the idea! All our photos are digital. I was planning to have it printed at a photostudio. But now, I'm just gonna lay it out like you did. did you eventually have to print the photos on photopaper for the interview stage?

By the way, with the massive amount of paperwork, what kind of envelope did you use? And how were you able to make the files so easy for them to peruse?

I just brought our wedding album and our travel photo book (which I did back in 2011) to the interview. The CO just asked if I he can take a look at some wedding photos and I showed the album, flipped through a few pages. Then that's it. Was not asked for anything else, not even chat logs, remittances, etc.

I think my husband just used the regular USPS envelope. Our papers amounted to about 35 pages perhaps, including the required forms. Just used paper clips to group papers together.

[lierre 224]

I just brought our wedding album and our travel photo book (which I did back in 2011) to the interview. The CO just asked if I he can take a look at some wedding photos and I showed the album, flipped through a few pages. Then that's it. Was not asked for anything else, not even chat logs, remittances, etc.

I think my husband just used the regular USPS envelope. Our papers amounted to about 35 pages perhaps, including the required forms. Just used paper clips to group papers together.

Thank you! I was thinking of using plastic folder thingies too. But, that might add to the weight, eh? Hmmm

I already had the developed photos at that point, so I basically just glued the developed prints onto regular paper so it was easy to put into a folder.

Our petition fit in a regular USPS envelope.. Not sure about your options in Japan though!

Alright. Developed photos prior to interview it shall be

Yey! We do have USPS here. We live near US bases.

I am soooo sending this package this week!!!

Thank you so much for your help, ladies! (ladies, right?)

[The Mean Lady 604]

I didn't do anything special in regards to sending all of the paperwork.

Don't remember how many sheets I had, maybe 15-20 pieces of paper.

The only thing I did was put all of the paper in (1) file folder so it was easy to take out of the envelope.

Other than that, everything was just separated into sections with some pretty paperclips because I only had fancy ones that I used for decorations on our wedding invites (2)+ years ago =X

Oh and I sent everything fedex but that's because I didn't have money at the time and we can use our company fedex number and it just comes out of our paycheck lol

[lierre 224]

I didn't do anything special in regards to sending all of the paperwork.

Don't remember how many sheets I had, maybe 15-20 pieces of paper.

The only thing I did was put all of the paper in (1) file folder so it was easy to take out of the envelope.

Other than that, everything was just separated into sections with some pretty paperclips because I only had fancy ones that I used for decorations on our wedding invites (2)+ years ago =X

Oh and I sent everything fedex but that's because I didn't have money at the time and we can use our company fedex number and it just comes out of our paycheck lol

I see. Hmmm, one file folder might be enough then and oooh i will probably have to buy paperclips.

We're going with USPS. Maybe do it express mail?

By the way, please... If anyone can answer, how did you deal with bank statements? We have a joint account and my husband printed all our daily statements since day one! Hahaha! It's a ton of paperwork. I shouldn't submit everything, right? What did you do?

Edited January 6, 2013 by ivyanddan

[The Mean Lady 604]

I see. Hmmm, one file folder might be enough then and oooh i will probably have to buy paperclips.

We're going with USPS. Maybe do it express mail?

By the way, please... If anyone can answer, how did you deal with bank statements? We have a joint account and my husband printed all our daily statements since day one! Hahaha! It's a ton of paperwork. I shouldn't submit everything, right? What did you do?

If you're mailing from abroad, definitely use express mail of some sort, but I'd be inclined to tell you to use fedex/dhl/ups.

If you're mailing from in the US, then just make sure it has tracking.

[lierre 224]

If you're mailing from abroad, definitely use express mail of some sort, but I'd be inclined to tell you to use fedex/dhl/ups.

If you're mailing from in the US, then just make sure it has tracking.

It will be mailed from a PO outside continental US (Japan, to be exact). So, we will definitely consider tracking and express will check out presence of private couriers here,