A few followup questions before mailing in our papers

[draga 14]

We have been researching and filling out paperwork and attempting to get everything they may possibly need in the first packet. I have a few things I could really use help on. We married 6 months ago after, courted almost 4 years, introduced online by a mutual friend just over 5 years ago.

1) I haven't changed my last name yet, do you think that will matter to them at all? I wasn't going to change it until he qualified to adopt my children so that we would then all have the same last name.

2) I think I will need a co-sponsor. According to the 2014 poverty level chart, I do not qualify. What will my co-sponsor need to provide? It will be my mom, but the form only shows poverty guidelines for 2 or more people and she is a single person, no dependants. Is there a specific form for co-sponsors or do I provide the same form that I fill out?

3) I need help with evidence of a bonifide marriage.

-We don't have any joint ownership as I bought my house and car before we started dating.

-Since I am paying the mortgage on the house, there is no proof of lease, etc... He obviously lives with me when he comes to visit, but that is only a few weeks at a time.

-We had a joint bank account that closed due to lack of use. It was too difficult for him to wire money, at one time the money actually got "lost" and by the time it was recovered we lost quite a chunk of it to the exchange rate and fees. So instead he uses PayPal to send me money if I need it and brings cash on his visits and covers pretty much everything while he is here.

-No children born in the marriage.

So that leaves us with sworn affidavits from people who know of our relationship and any other suggestions you may have.

We can definitely get our family to write some. I have my mom, sister, brother, and dad. I may even be able to get my oldest child to write something, if that will help any. He has his mom and sister. Sadly we have lost touch with our friends and no longer have anyone who is not directly related to us. The only person that is not directly related to us that I can think of would be our pastor. He counseled us, baptized us, and married us. We've been going to the church off and on for almost 2 years now. Would an affidavit from each of the people I mentioned be the right thing to provide?

And what else might we provide as proof? We obviously have quite intimate discussions logged in our email accounts, plus photos spanning back to the first time we met. Including family portraits for every christmas since 2011, our engagement and wedding photographs.

Your help is much appreciated!!

[draga 14]

please let me know if I am posting these in the wrong area so I can have them moved.

[AmandaLane102 3]

We have been researching and filling out paperwork and attempting to get everything they may possibly need in the first packet. I have a few things I could really use help on. We married 6 months ago after, courted almost 4 years, introduced online by a mutual friend just over 5 years ago.

1) I haven't changed my last name yet, do you think that will matter to them at all? I wasn't going to change it until he qualified to adopt my children so that we would then all have the same last name.

2) I think I will need a co-sponsor. According to the 2014 poverty level chart, I do not qualify. What will my co-sponsor need to provide? It will be my mom, but the form only shows poverty guidelines for 2 or more people and she is a single person, no dependants. Is there a specific form for co-sponsors or do I provide the same form that I fill out?

3) I need help with evidence of a bonifide marriage.

-We don't have any joint ownership as I bought my house and car before we started dating.

-Since I am paying the mortgage on the house, there is no proof of lease, etc... He obviously lives with me when he comes to visit, but that is only a few weeks at a time.

-We had a joint bank account that closed due to lack of use. It was too difficult for him to wire money, at one time the money actually got "lost" and by the time it was recovered we lost quite a chunk of it to the exchange rate and fees. So instead he uses PayPal to send me money if I need it and brings cash on his visits and covers pretty much everything while he is here.

-No children born in the marriage.

So that leaves us with sworn affidavits from people who know of our relationship and any other suggestions you may have.

We can definitely get our family to write some. I have my mom, sister, brother, and dad. I may even be able to get my oldest child to write something, if that will help any. He has his mom and sister. Sadly we have lost touch with our friends and no longer have anyone who is not directly related to us. The only person that is not directly related to us that I can think of would be our pastor. He counseled us, baptized us, and married us. We've been going to the church off and on for almost 2 years now. Would an affidavit from each of the people I mentioned be the right thing to provide?

And what else might we provide as proof? We obviously have quite intimate discussions logged in our email accounts, plus photos spanning back to the first time we met. Including family portraits for every christmas since 2011, our engagement and wedding photographs.

Your help is much appreciated!!

Since no one has answered yet, I will try to answer you as best as possible though I am still early in the process as well, but by the first packet you are referring to the I-130, correct?

1) Not changing your last name is not a problem at all, as long as you have strong evidence of a bona fide marriage. Even if you never change your last name, they cannot and do not hold this against you, but sometimes it can help if you are lacking evidence in other areas.

2) Current poverty guideline for 2 people is $19,662. The reason they do not show the guidelines for 1 person is because the least amount of people included in the household size will be 2 since your beneficiary counts as a member of the household. So if your mom is single with no dependants it will be her + your beneficiary = household size of 2. Therefore, use the poverty guidelines for the household size of 2. Both you AND she will have to fill out form I-864 as the petitioner always has to sponsor even if they do not meet the poverty guidelines, and the joint sponsor will fill out the same form. Keep in mind - this form does not get sent in with your I-130 - it is only sent in once your petition is forwarded to NVC with the AOS (Affidavit of Support) package. You will both have to show tax return transcripts for either the most recent tax year or the last 3.

3) Do you have receipts from the paypal payments he has made to you? Include those. You may provide the affidavits you mentioned, but they do not hold much weight and are really only used when a person does not have other strong evidence, so in your case I would include them, including the one from your pastor. Photographs is a must - include as many as you can to show the evolution of your relationship from beginning to present. Label them with descriptions, names and dates. Photographs including your families or friends with you is also helpful. Photographs showing travel is also good. Include your wedding photos as well. I sent about 21 word document pages of photographs with 3 scanned on each page, so over 60 photographs.

Other evidence you can use for your case:

- Plane tickets, itineraries, boarding passes of your visits with one another

- Skype logs, emails, phone logs, conversations (don't include intimate conversations, I read somewhere it's best to include mundane everyday conversations that show you are a normal couple. For example, I sent in emails from the months we were apart with one sentence discussions about which flowers we should choose for the wedding, and how to set up the TV, etc.) Basically you are trying to show them that you have regular contact while apart, the content is not really relevant.

- If you have receipts or kept tokens of things you did together - movie tickets, or something, that's also helpful.

- you can also provide your wedding invitations, programs, etc.

- copies of any cards you exchanged - birthday cards, valentines cards, etc.

Hope this helps and good luck.