Forms and Questions regarding Filing I-130 petition

[ks39208 0]

Hey

I would like to show you guys my list to see if I have everything for Step 1, filing for the petition.

- Form I-130

- Filing Fee of 420$

- USC petitioners US passport or birth certificate

- Copy of petitioners German residence permit (Military orders in my case)

- Copy of marriage certificate

- G-325 A form from the petitioner and beneficiary

- One passport photo of petitioner and beneficiary

- Copy of my passport and/or birth certificate ??? --> is that still needed?

- Evidence of bona fide marriage:

--> Joint income tax return

--> Joint bank account

--> (Wedding) photos

--> Joint rent of our apartment

--> Proof that he is my sponsor in form of my ID card and in case Tricare letter

Then I would have a couple questions..

1. Cover letter, yes or no? Some pages tell you to add it some don't mention it so I'm not sure what to do

2. Has anyone paid the fee with Credit Card? Preferably even here in Germany? Did you guys use the Credit Card Authorization Form?

3. My husband finishes his contract with the Army this July. We will only be living at our apartment here in Germany until around mid July. After which we will go back to the States to visit his parents for a couple weeks then return to Italy, where I'm from. Now I don't know how long they will take with the petition nor if they send any confimation letter ? but if they do so, should I add an extra page that states that they should send any letters after mid July to my address in Italy instead of the German address (where I won't be living anymore)?

Hope you guys can help me

Thanks everyone in advance!

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from IR-1/CR-1 Process & Procedures to DCF Discussion.

[awaywego 28]

You're filing direct Frankfurt, yes? They also ask for addresses and telephone numbers for the petitioner and beneficiary. (Information is in their I-130 Petition Checklist that you're likely following to assemble your packet. It's linked here if you don't already have it, and there's a second PDF for the armed forces with which I am not familiar.)

Your (beneficiary's) passport or birth certificate is not required.

For the evidence of bona fide marriage, no one here can really say what is enough or too little. Generally I agree with other posters who suggest focusing on evidence of time spent together and commingling of lives, since that's theoretically what spouses do. You have evidence of joint accounts, joint residence (which Frankfurt specifies that it wants to see), and that the military knows you are married. My suggestion would be to add some photos that aren't from the wedding to help show that you are together as a couple on more than just that one day.

To your questions:

1. As far as I've read, a cover letter is optional. We will probably send one, but it is not listed in the checklist and others who have posted on here have not.

2. The Credit Card Payment Form is linked from Frankfurt's site here.

3. I don't know the answer to this one, sorry. Hopefully someone else can explain how address change works in this situation. My understanding is that you will still interview at Frankfurt.

[ks39208 0]

Cool beans! Thanks for the answer

Do you perhaps know if the rental agreement can be german? Or does it have to be translated into English?

[ks39208 0]

Also does anyone know if the pages need to be american size or is european fine?

[Soup Dragon 104]

Hello

I have just been approved for my CR-1 via DCF Frankfurt.

My husband included a cover letter (optional) with the petition and aside from all the regular stuff we included the following as supporting evidence:

Husband's military orders

Rental agreement (in German translated into English. I see you are military, we are too, and our rental agreement is in English and German anyway so we submitted both)

Tricare documents showing me as beneficiary

Joint car insurance

Joint bank statement

Life insurance showing me as beneficiary

DD93 form showing me as my husband's next of kin

Plane tickets and hotel reservation for honeymoon

Plane tickets for our summer holiday to the US

Wedding photos and copy of wedding invitation

There may be a little more, I don't have my stuff to hand right now!! As for the paper size, ours was mixed depending on the size of paper in the photocopier or printer at the time! I put everything in a big clip and photos in a ziploc bag. I wrote date, location and who was in each pic on the back. Anything that was more than two pages I stapled together (my G-325A as I had to use extra paper for job history). I also included a contact details sheet for both of us which I put after the cover letter.

As for payment, I am not sure when submitting the I-130 now as we had an Infopass appointment and took it by hand and paid on the day, I think they stopped that in the New Year though. As for the visa fee itself, we also paid on the day of the interview.

Be warned, you most likely won't get a NOA1, we just got an approval letter in the snail mail about a month after submitting our petition, so don't panic if you don't hear anything for a little while!! From then on it can go pretty quickly so it's a good idea to start getting your other paperwork together. My German police certificate took a while because although I am an EU citizen I am classed as being on SOFA status so not registered as a regular resident in Germany. It confused the lady at our local rathaus as I was not in the system!

Can't help re change of address question, sorry! Hope everything else has been of help.

I found the Consulate at Frankfurt to be really efficient and quick and the interview was a breeze.

Good luck!

[awaywego 28]

For documents that accompany the I-130 submission, everything in another language should be translated into English. Anyone proficient in both languages can do the translation. That person will attach a statement to the translation certifying that he/she is proficient in both languages and that the translation is correct, see the template is on this USCIS page.

(For documents that accompany the visa application later on, the language can be either English or German. Otherwise, Frankfurt requires that you use a registered translator for an English version, see the Visa Application Checklist linked here.)

Edited April 8, 2015 by awaywego