A couple of questions..

[Sunshine25 17]

Hi all.

On the photos, do you write details on the back or stick them to a sheet of paper and write on the paper? I have around 45 photos, enough or too much?

Also on documents, do you highlight both names and dates?

This is the list of evidence I have, please let me know if you think it is enough. Thank you!

-Joint tax transcripts 2012, 2013 (ordered and awaiting)

-Joint bank statements from 2012 to present.

-House title.

-Joint Car Insurance

-Joint Health Insurance.

-Cable bills in both names.

-Joint credit card statements.

-Letter from the Town assessing our property for Town taxes.

-Daughter's birth certificate

-Son's school papers, showing both parents

-Son's medical records, showing both parents

-Daughters medical records, showing both parents.

And 45+ photo's showing trip to England in 2013, trip to Niagara Falls with my parents, photos of us/and with family etc

[pgupta 19]

i pasted 2 photos on each paper and wrote below each picture.

on documents i highlighted names and important details

[Soup Dragon 104]

I wrote location, date and names of people in the photo on the back of each and put them all loose into a Ziploc bag.

I highlighted both our names on documents such as bank accounts, life insurance, car insurance etc

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

I highlighted whatever I wanted them to notice quickly which was mainly the names and date. You have many types of great evidence so pare it down to a size that is not overwhelming...meaning not 24 bank statements or 24 cable bills. I only used earliest, two from the middle and latest, as well as only the first page that shows names/date. No RFE.

45 photos is a lot if you are using 4x6. I put mine in a Microsoft Word document with the photos cropped and sized down so many fit on one page. Captions were in text boxes. Margins were half inch to get more in. I printed on plain paper. No problem with that. They don't give you more points for full size glossy prints.

[love&cinta 8]

I bought a cheap clear photo album and wrote the photo details on labels then stick them to each photo. Neat and well organized lol!!

[Berty 74]

I agree with Nich-Nick (which is, let's be honest, hardly a revelation) in that 45 is a lot if you're not paring down and (re-)formatting. Then again, like many others I didn't submit a single photo as it's all very secondary (see: affidavits), so in my instance 45 is 45 too many. She also beat me to the punch in regards to the 'less is more' approach; strong evidence, not 'the kitchen sink' evidence.

No will? You have a lot of solid items already so I'm not suggesting you need to include one (and if you don't have a will it's a bit late in regards to the date from marriage onwards), but hey, wills are always important in life... or death, I guess, depending on your point of view.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Berty

[Sunshine25 17]

I highlighted whatever I wanted them to notice quickly which was mainly the names and date. You have many types of great evidence so pare it down to a size that is not overwhelming...meaning not 24 bank statements or 24 cable bills. I only used earliest, two from the middle and latest, as well as only the first page that shows names/date. No RFE.

45 photos is a lot if you are using 4x6. I put mine in a Microsoft Word document with the photos cropped and sized down so many fit on one page. Captions were in text boxes. Margins were half inch to get more in. I printed on plain paper. No problem with that. They don't give you more points for full size glossy prints.

Hi Nich-Nick, nice to hear from you, you helped me out a lot through the K1 process! How are you?

The bank statements are mostly the first page, but I will take some out. The cable bills only go back 9 months, that's all I could print from our account and hubby was a bit quick with throwing earlier ones in the trash.

I've already printed the photo's out but I could cut them down to fit more on a page and edit a few out.

Do you think I have enough evidence?

[Sunshine25 17]

I agree with Nich-Nick (which is, let's be honest, hardly a revelation) in that 45 is a lot if you're not paring down and (re-)formatting. Then again, like many others I didn't submit a single photo as it's all very secondary (see: affidavits), so in my instance 45 is 45 too many. She also beat me to the punch in regards to the 'less is more' approach; strong evidence, not 'the kitchen sink' evidence.

No will? You have a lot of solid items already so I'm not suggesting you need to include one (and if you don't have a will it's a bit late in regards to the date from marriage onwards), but hey, wills are always important in life... or death, I guess, depending on your point of view.

Hi, thanks for the advice, I will scale the statements back!

We have not got around to doing a will yet, but it is important now we own a house together and have a child together.

How many affidavits did you send? I was thinking of asking my closest friend, a neighbor and maybe the local police officer or chief of police (who are friends too- we live in a very small town ) Do you think one official person is good or overdoing it? I could also ask my sons principle, whom I also worked for last year.

[Berty 74]

Hi, thanks for the advice, I will scale the statements back!

We have not got around to doing a will yet, but it is important now we own a house together and have a child together.

How many affidavits did you send? I was thinking of asking my closest friend, a neighbor and maybe the local police officer or chief of police (who are friends too- we live in a very small town ) Do you think one official person is good or overdoing it? I could also ask my sons principle, whom I also worked for last year.

Along with zero photos, I/we didn't send a single affidavit. As posted, they're honestly 'lesser' evidence and I felt that my package was strong enough as it was (ooh eer, missus). Still, if you feel like including one then definitely do so for peace of mind; every bank statement is overdoing it in regards to bulk, one affidavit less so. If you've known the local bobby or chief for a good length of time then that's a safe bet; they're in a position of authority and friends, which is the best of both worlds. Honestly, though, unless a person's evidence is poor I don't think it matters a great deal.

Don't worry about 'only' nine months of cable bills. Sure, they're not dated from the start of the marriage (although one presumes you have plenty of documentation there), but nine is still a good number and, really, the person reviewing your case is going to know that it takes time to get accounts co-mingled. Besides, when it comes to those kind of bills lots of people can't or simply don't do that. Actually, I think one set of our bills (possibly Comcast) still technically only has my wife's name on, it's just the customer support lady purposely fudged her first name to read 'and Berty'. Even utility bills aren't make-or-break.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Berty

[Ms Hogan 295]

I think forty five photos is way too much and not necessary. I did not print my photos on regular photo paper but used the digital photos and inserted them 2 per page into a PowerPoint or Word Document and neatly typed my comments with dates underneath each photo. Then I printed out the entire document. This made it a lot neater and way less bulky/heavy than having actual photos taped to a piece of paper.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Hi Nich-Nick, nice to hear from you, you helped me out a lot through the K1 process! How are you?

The bank statements are mostly the first page, but I will take some out. The cable bills only go back 9 months, that's all I could print from our account and hubby was a bit quick with throwing earlier ones in the trash.

I've already printed the photo's out but I could cut them down to fit more on a page and edit a few out.

Do you think I have enough evidence?

You have much better than we had. On your list, this is what we DIDN'T have

-House title

-Joint Health Insurance.

-Cable bills in both names

-Joint credit card statements. (I photocopied the cards since his name wasn't on bill)

-Letter from the Town assessing our property for Town taxes.

-Daughter's birth certificate

-Son's school papers, showing both parents

-Son's medical records, showing both parents

-Daughters medical records, showing both parents.

Also no affidavits from friends, no will, different last names. So you seem far ahead of us.

I photocopied both driver licenses to show same address at old house and new house. That's an easy one.

Boarding passes from two trips showing seats together. (Highlighted seat numbers)

Out cat child's rabies certificate that had both our names. (Was having to get creative for lack of those traditional things you have like human children.)

And various other oddball things, but it seemed to work. I think the key was the spread of dates, not the number of bank statements or auto insurance papers. I had saved things since the beginning.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Nich-Nick

[Sukie 1,464]

You have much better than we had. On your list, this is what we DIDN'T have

Our cat child's rabies certificate that had both our names. (Was having to get creative for lack of those traditional things you have like human children.)

I'm laughing my head off at this, as I have neatly put aside our cat's microchip application and certificate, a vet bill in my partner's name, and our cat's flight arrangements from Australia to the US in my name!!!!

We're too old for kids, but not too old for cats!

Sukie in NY

[tuckin14 58]

My recommendation, based on zero experience with immigration but just on general business experience, is to do the following:

Have a cover letter for the evidence, that would reference "Folder 1 - Evidence of cohabitation" - "Folder 2 - Evidence of financial comingling" - etc.

Then take a manilla folder and either staple or clip a piece of paper to the front or write on it something like :

Evidence of Cohabiation

a) Leases

b) Utility Bills

c) Correspondence with common address

Then inside, clip together all your leases, possibly with yet another cover note like:

1) Lease on 100 Main St., Aldusia, Pennsyltucky, March 33, 2012

2) Lease on 2222 Second St., Boilersburg Oklahio, September 84, 2014.

Basically, the idea is to make it really easy for the examiner to know what he has and to verify what it is. When you get down to it, he has a checklist, whether written or mental, and you are making it really easy for him to check everything off.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

That is very fancy and organized, but I can tell you that those folders will get thrown out by the contractors in the mail room and everything will get hole punched at the top and lumped in a standard government folder with Acco clips. Photo album pages and page protectors also in the trash. Probably the cover letter too. The adjudicator will never see the organization. I quit doing cover letters for Removing Conditions and Citizenship. Still got approved in a timely manner with no RFEs. I did put the whole application in a old tatty file folder, but that was just so I could squash it together and more easily slide it into the flat cardboard Priority Mail mailer. And I do mean throw away condition folder...label ripped off...coffee stain ring...random marks. The people who count didn't see it.

[Ms Hogan 295]

My recommendation, based on zero experience with immigration but just on general business experience, is to do the following:

Have a cover letter for the evidence, that would reference "Folder 1 - Evidence of cohabitation" - "Folder 2 - Evidence of financial comingling" - etc.

Then take a manilla folder and either staple or clip a piece of paper to the front or write on it something like :

Evidence of Cohabiation

a) Leases

b) Utility Bills

c) Correspondence with common address

Then inside, clip together all your leases, possibly with yet another cover note like:

1) Lease on 100 Main St., Aldusia, Pennsyltucky, March 33, 2012

2) Lease on 2222 Second St., Boilersburg Oklahio, September 84, 2014.

Basically, the idea is to make it really easy for the examiner to know what he has and to verify what it is. When you get down to it, he has a checklist, whether written or mental, and you are making it really easy for him to check everything off.

This also makes sense to me but only in the world outside the immigration process. They will simply tear it all apart and put it into their own folders in the order they want/need or can make sense of and rather than making it easier for them, we would be making it more frustrating for them because they have more to disassemble.

My goal along the way has been to make it simple for the person on the receiving end so they say "thank goodness" every time they open something from me rather than "####### is this?" All the extra effort we want to make because we are great at this stuff in applications other than immigration would be wasted in this process.