Evidence of Marriage

[tim131 14]

Hello All,

First would like to say, how helpful the guides and browsing forums has been to me and my fiancee, its brilliant, totally don't need to pay thousands for an attorey.

A little bit of background, to perhaps help with the question.

Me, Irish National, been living in the UK for the last four years, moving back to Ireland for the whole process (want to spend time with family before the big move, and its easier to get to the embassy etc, as opposed to the city I am in just now)

Her, Mexican Permanent Resident, on a holiday visa to visit me, upon return, will file for citizenship, but has moved from Texas to Florida, so will have to wait three month, upon return to Florida.

We got married a few weeks ago, over here (the UK) so officially Mr & Mrs, so happy, though she will change her name when we both end up together in the states.

We are going to send our I-130 in quite soon, so really excited for that, and hopefully the visas for spouses of permanent residents will hurry up, as I think they're still processing Sept 13? - does anyone have an educated guess when applications send in around now, would get seen?

My main question is;

We have nothing really in joint name, as we have never properly lived together, just visited, we have 6 pages of photos, going to send copies of passport stamps and the flight confirmation emails, also going to send our first message ever sent, a print screen of my skype, showing we have had many calls etc, and then a screenshot of our first facebook message. I just feel this isn't enough.

I know me being an Irish citizen, I'm from a low-risk country, but I dont want the application to be rejected for not enough evidence.

Can anyone give us some advice?

Thanks,

Tim

[Ryan H 3,796]

My main question is;

We have nothing really in joint name, as we have never properly lived together, just visited, we have 6 pages of photos, going to send copies of passport stamps and the flight confirmation emails, also going to send our first message ever sent, a print screen of my skype, showing we have had many calls etc, and then a screenshot of our first facebook message. I just feel this isn't enough.

USCIS as well as the Embassy does not and will not expect a couple living apart in separate countries to have joint finances, property, etc. Most people on here (myself included) only submit items such as evidence of travel, skype sessions, Facebook postings, email, etc. etc.

Evidence of time spent together in-person is always going to be your strongest evidence.

[tim131 14]

USCIS as well as the Embassy does not and will not expect a couple living apart in separate countries to have joint finances, property, etc. Most people on here (myself included) only submit items such as evidence of travel, skype sessions, Facebook postings, email, etc. etc.

Evidence of time spent together in-person is always going to be your strongest evidence.

Thanks for the response

Thats good to hear - now I'm sure you know yourself, it would take a literal tree worth of paper to print out conversations from skype and facebook on - what is the best way to tackle this, a screenshot or two?

Evidence of time spent together - e.g pictures of us, from our three seperate meetings?

We have fitted 3 pictures to a page, so for example

Page 1 - first meeting in Florida, 2 pictures of me and her then one of her and my mother

page 2 - again first visit - me and her and her friends

page 3 - second visit, me and her family

page 4 - proposal pictures

page 5 - her visiting Ireland/UK pictures of us and my friends

page 6 - pictures of me/her with my family.

Am I on the right track?

Sorry if I'm looking into it too much I just want to get it right first time

[Hollyday 122]

Thanks for the response

Thats good to hear - now I'm sure you know yourself, it would take a literal tree worth of paper to print out conversations from skype and facebook on - what is the best way to tackle this, a screenshot or two?

Evidence of time spent together - e.g pictures of us, from our three seperate meetings?

We have fitted 3 pictures to a page, so for example

Page 1 - first meeting in Florida, 2 pictures of me and her then one of her and my mother

page 2 - again first visit - me and her and her friends

page 3 - second visit, me and her family

page 4 - proposal pictures

page 5 - her visiting Ireland/UK pictures of us and my friends

page 6 - pictures of me/her with my family.

Am I on the right track?

Sorry if I'm looking into it too much I just want to get it right first time

You should concentrate on hard evidence like passport stamps and ticket stubs and hotel receipts. Pictures are secondary evidence.

We attached a coversheet with, among other things, list of all trips we made to see each other backed up with copies of passport pages with stamps. Only had a couple of pictures in the petition altogether.

[tim131 14]

You should concentrate on hard evidence like passport stamps and ticket stubs and hotel receipts. Pictures are secondary evidence.

We attached a coversheet with, among other things, list of all trips we made to see each other backed up with copies of passport pages with stamps. Only had a couple of pictures in the petition altogether.

The problem is, we don't have any ticket stubs really, just the emails from the airlines and our passport stamps! - as for hotels, again, just email confirmations - we really don't have a lot and its stressing us out. We have baseball tickets, but whats the point don't have our names on it, could be anybodys!

Not sure what else we can do?

[Hollyday 122]

The problem is, we don't have any ticket stubs really, just the emails from the airlines and our passport stamps! - as for hotels, again, just email confirmations - we really don't have a lot and its stressing us out. We have baseball tickets, but whats the point don't have our names on it, could be anybodys!

Not sure what else we can do?

Well, we didn't have even 1 hotel bill. Anyway, passport stamps matter more than tickets (can buy and not use?) - i'd match passport stamps with tickets e-mail printout to show trips.

Edited February 9, 2014 by Hollyday

[tim131 14]

Well, we didn't have even 1 hotel bill. Anyway, passport stamps matter more than tickets (can buy and not use?) - i'd match passport stamps with tickets e-mail printout to show trips.

Brilliant thanks, we will but them both together, and match the dates together!

As for the facebook and skype chats? any ideas, print all, print some, print one, print none? what are you supposed to do when you have vast amounts of chat logs, do they want to see the content or just that we talked everyday since we met?

Thanks again

[Hollyday 122]

Brilliant thanks, we will but them both together, and match the dates together!

As for the facebook and skype chats? any ideas, print all, print some, print one, print none? what are you supposed to do when you have vast amounts of chat logs, do they want to see the content or just that we talked everyday since we met?

Thanks again

Thinking back i'd include the FB Friendship page screenshot (where it shows A and B were friends since... mutual friends C and D, etc). Maybe a screenshot of all e-mails received from B with counter of how many e-mails are there from this person all in all. Maybe gift receipts? Like when you buy a birthday present online and have it shipped to them? Stuff like that.

We had some really good evidence for our case, like copies of powers of attorney for each other to take medical decisions and buy property, then we were in process of buying an apartment together, so also showed that. Did family affidavits, but i don't think it mattered that much.

[tim131 14]

Thinking back i'd include the FB Friendship page screenshot (where it shows A and B were friends since... mutual friends C and D, etc). Maybe a screenshot of all e-mails received from B with counter of how many e-mails are there from this person all in all. Maybe gift receipts? Like when you buy a birthday present online and have it shipped to them? Stuff like that.

We had some really good evidence for our case, like copies of powers of attorney for each other to take medical decisions and buy property, then we were in process of buying an apartment together, so also showed that. Did family affidavits, but i don't think it mattered that much.

Thanks a lot, I will try get a screeshot of when we first came friends on facebook, though I have a screenshot of our first message ever sent on another website we met on. I'll look for gift receipts too! thank you! So shouldnt really need to send in messages etc

though with the presents, will it really be that nessecary because it doesnt have her name on it, could have been buying them for my sister, etc

Edited February 9, 2014 by tim131

[Hollyday 122]

Thanks a lot, I will try get a screeshot of when we first came friends on facebook, though I have a screenshot of our first message ever sent on another website we met on. I'll look for gift receipts too! thank you! So shouldnt really need to send in messages etc

though with the presents, will it really be that nessecary because it doesnt have her name on it, could have been buying them for my sister, etc

Ah, it was different for me: i was having the gifts shipped to his address with a note.

You can send in some messages if you want, just don't send in hundreds and hundreds of pages of those.

[tim131 14]

Ugh, having no luck with the presents angle :/ - got a print screen of an order I made online for flowers to be delivered to her work, has her name and the date on it, and the amount of flowers, will definitely include that.

I was also thinking, she sent me a heap of card, I could photocopy them? though, all the cards I sent her are in the states, so cant get to them - is it ok, just sending in copies of the cards she sent me (eg valentines, birthday, random i love you's) ?

[Martobain 1]

Hey-oh hello,

When we filed for our fiancee visa, we hardly included any evidence. If I remember correctly we had

1) pictures of us together (only 2 in total)

2) copies of 2 letters I wrote her (how romantic!)

3) a copy of my passport with only 1 stamp in it, because my other stamps were in my old passport

4) copies of the initiary receipts (or however you spell that word) of all my flights there

5) written statements by witnesses who have seen us together. I haven't read about any of those in this thread yet, and I think that's a very important one! And fairly easy to get. We got about 6 of them from my parents, her mom, and some neighbors and other family. Most of them weren't signed but just prints of emails I asked them to write. Worth the shot for sure in my opinion!

They didn't ask for any more evidence, and in our case it only took them a week to process all the evidence we had given, after a request of evidence (our first application was just the application itself, before I found this website).

For what I can see, I think you have plenty of evidence to support your relationship!

[ShirahBet 42]

I sent in no receipts, but I did send in tons of emails, facebook chats, whatsapp chats and skype logs. I also sent in skype logs between my husband and my parents and copies of cards that my parents and grandmother sent to my husband and his family. They are looking for content on top of proof of person-to-person time.

Remember, it's up to you to prove a valid relationship - so just screen shots probably aren't a great idea. I sent in emails about nothing, and some that were really personal, talking about hopes, dreams, fears, family issues, etc. You know, things that married couples talk about.

You don't have to send every single email or chat in, but you want to prove continuity, so some from each month going back however long you want. I went back to our first emails.

Good luck!

[ShirahBet 42]

I sent in no receipts, but I did send in tons of emails, facebook chats, whatsapp chats and skype logs. I also sent in skype logs between my husband and my parents and copies of cards that my parents and grandmother sent to my husband and his family. They are looking for content on top of proof of person-to-person time.

Remember, it's up to you to prove a valid relationship - so just screen shots probably aren't a great idea. I sent in emails about nothing, and some that were really personal, talking about hopes, dreams, fears, family issues, etc. You know, things that married couples talk about.

You don't have to send every single email or chat in, but you want to prove continuity, so some from each month going back however long you want. I went back to our first emails.

Good luck!