about to mail our package, questions

[Illusion1 0]

Hey guys, we're about to mail our package and we just wanna double check some info to make sure we don't make any mistakes.

First of all, it's been 5 years that we're married. Would the process go a bit faster because of that? I've seen some timelines of people that have been married for less than a year take 180 days to get their i-130 approved while some people with 3+ years of marriage getting approved in a month or so. Is this a trend or just luck?

Second, although we've been together for a long time, all we have to show as evidence are pictures (we printed about 20 of them to include in the package), since we never had the possibility to include her name on anything (no leases or rent bills), the only thing we could try to do is include her name on my bank account, but at least where I live banks make a huge deal out of that because shes foreign, so we never did anything so to avoid the bureaucracy. Would that be a problem or will the marriage certificate + pictures be enough?

[Ms Hogan 295]

Where are you filing? Are you in Brazil?

I don't think being married longer hurries up the process in any way. It means though that once approved you won't have to remove conditions in 2 years as she would be granted an IR-1 instead of the conditional CR-1.

I don't know for certain but I would hope that a marriage certificate from so many years ago would support the validity of your marriage since it is not something new you are trying to prove. Do you have other things with both your names? Do you take trips together? Do you have children together?

[Illusion1 0]

Where are you filing? Are you in Brazil?

I don't think being married longer hurries up the process in any way. It means though that once approved you won't have to remove conditions in 2 years as she would be granted an IR-1 instead of the conditional CR-1.

I don't know for certain but I would hope that a marriage certificate from so many years ago would support the validity of your marriage since it is not something new you are trying to prove. Do you have other things with both your names? Do you take trips together? Do you have children together?

My wife is the petitioner, we're in brazil.

Well, we do have some other stuff, like tickets from trips we took, the problem is that they don't really prove anything, it's just receipts stating that we bought 2 tickets, our names aren't there so we feel that it's not something valid. We don't have children. We do have a a few envelopes from packages that we sent to each other before she moved to brazil, so we'll include those.

What we have is the marriage certificate, the envelopes, and a ton of pictures. We have over 400 pictures of all the dates and trips we took in the past 5 years, so we tried to include a few from the most important dates (first time in the beach, after marriage party, first anniversary party) and a few of random dates and trips.

We could also include stuff like chat logs from skype and whatsapp/snapchat or get an additional credit card with her name in it if that would work.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Illusion1

[Dohan 133]

Check if Brazil allows DCF (Direct Consular Filing) that might make things go faster, but I am not sure if Brazil is one of the countries where this is done.

[Ms Hogan 295]

My wife is the petitioner, we're in brazil.

Well, we do have some other stuff, like tickets from trips we took, the problem is that they don't really prove anything, it's just receipts stating that we bought 2 tickets, our names aren't there so we feel that it's not something valid. We don't have children. We do have a a few envelopes from packages that we sent to each other before she moved to brazil, so we'll include those.

What we have is the marriage certificate, the envelopes, and a ton of pictures. We have over 400 pictures of all the dates and trips we took in the past 5 years, so we tried to include a few from the most important dates (first time in the beach, after marriage party, first anniversary party) and a few of random dates and trips.

We could also include stuff like chat logs from skype and whatsapp/snapchat or get an additional credit card with her name in it if that would work.

I don't know for sure but I think having a lot of pictures over the years will be valuable. You might consider having some friends write affidavits regarding their knowledge of your relationship and marriage. You can have them on standby in case you are asked for more evidence. Do you have a will? Benefits of any type that would name her as a beneficiary? Any type of insurance that has both of your names on it? I don't know what type of options you will have in Brazil.

I'm not an expert so I'm sure someone else will share some insight. I still believe that the fact you've been married as long as you have carries a lot of weight. it is those of us who are only newly married that should be required to work hard to prove our relationship. When I applied we had only been married for a couple of weeks however we had 3 years of a relationship to show. But being actually married with a certificate from 5 years ago is more valid, in my opinion.

My suggestion would be to put together some additional evidence if you have it available just to give them some variety. Make sure you have notes under the photos that explain when and where they are. I felt I benefited from being able to show my children with my husband over the 3 years because you could see them growing up in the pictures (they were only 1 & 4 when my husband and I got together) but because you and your spouse probably haven't changed that much in those 5 years it would help to label them well to share details.

Good luck!

[Illusion1 0]

Check if Brazil allows DCF (Direct Consular Filing) that might make things go faster, but I am not sure if Brazil is one of the countries where this is done.

Sadly you can only file for a DCF here if they consider it to be a special case (health is in jeopardy, late pregnancy etc)

I don't know for sure but I think having a lot of pictures over the years will be valuable. You might consider having some friends write affidavits regarding their knowledge of your relationship and marriage. You can have them on standby in case you are asked for more evidence. Do you have a will? Benefits of any type that would name her as a beneficiary? Any type of insurance that has both of your names on it? I don't know what type of options you will have in Brazil.

I'm not an expert so I'm sure someone else will share some insight. I still believe that the fact you've been married as long as you have carries a lot of weight. it is those of us who are only newly married that should be required to work hard to prove our relationship. When I applied we had only been married for a couple of weeks however we had 3 years of a relationship to show. But being actually married with a certificate from 5 years ago is more valid, in my opinion.

My suggestion would be to put together some additional evidence if you have it available just to give them some variety. Make sure you have notes under the photos that explain when and where they are. I felt I benefited from being able to show my children with my husband over the 3 years because you could see them growing up in the pictures (they were only 1 & 4 when my husband and I got together) but because you and your spouse probably haven't changed that much in those 5 years it would help to label them well to share details.

Good luck!

Here in brazil anything like adding her to a will etc would cost a lot of cash (that we don't have atm) so we rather not do it unless its super necessary. What we can do is get additional debit/credit cards with her name in it, and like you said get my in-laws and friends to make affidavits, although i'd just do that if necessary.

We've met each other in 2008, and we have 3 letters around that time proving it, so in total it's been nearly 7 years that we're together. All our pictures have notes are dated, with a description included. She hasn't changed much in the past years, but I used to have long hair, which I kept cutting it shorter and shorter until now where I keep it very short, so I guess you can see a time difference there.

Edited February 19, 2015 by Illusion1