Document Check List for I-130 petition

[immihelpseeker 1]

Dear Fellow VJ's

As part of Step 1 for obtaining a GreenCard, I was in the process of filing an I-130 petition for my spouse. I am enclosing the following documents with the cover letter -

1) Personal Check $420 for the fee

2) Copy of my G.C (front+back)

3) Copy of Passport (Self +spouse)

4) Marriage certificate in English

5) 1 Passport size photo each of self and spouse

6) G325 (Self + spouse)'

7) Marriage invitation card

8) 3 pictures with parents and family of the wedding day

9) Form G-1145

Questions -

1) Is the above list of documents sufficient for this purpose?

2) I see the instructions for I-130 say that "one or more of the following may also serve as evidence". These include - Joint ownership of property, joint lease, Comingling of financial resources, Affidavits from persons and other relevant documents. My question here is that I do not have any of these, does anyone see this as a potential problem if all primary documents are in order?

3) Do the copies of original documents being sent with I-130 need to be notarized/certified?

Thank you in advance to everyone.

Best

[Da&De 23]

well... I wish I had enough experience, but here's what I have:

when I first applied I put a lot of evidence (lease of joint tenancy, copies of our back accounts, receipts for the gifts and so on)
but this was rejected for no reason and sent back and i never received it. so the second time i filed I just put what they say we MUST attach.
and this encluded:

1. Check

2. G-1145 for I-130

3. Form I-130

4. Copy of naturalization certificate

5. Copy of passport page with name and photo

6. Copy of marriage certificate

7. Copy of final judgement of divorce

8. G-325A of both spouses

9. Copy of account statement

10. Copy of petition for name change

that's it.
now I'm waiting for the responce.
And the copies you send don't have to be certified.

If they need originals, they'll send you a letter asking you to send them originals of the documents they need. But if it's not stated anywhere, you should just send regular copies.

Hope it helps.
Good luck!

P.S. Just for your sake, scan or copy EVERY SINGLE PAGE of what you're sending, cause in my case the whole package was lost and there was a lot of evidence, but I have it scanned and saved on the computer.

I would also suggest you write it in the cover letter, that you have all the copies. this is how i worded it in mine: "If you need any copies of the documents I submitted (as well as the forms attached) please contact me and I’ll send the copies as soon as I can. All the forms and supporting documents I submit have been scanned and saved on my computer, so there won’t be a problem for me to print them again and send to you".

this is another way to protect your documents from being sent back to you rejected for nothing.

P.P.S. When you send your package put a prepaid envelope in there, just in case they send your documents back to you (which shouldn't be the case but better safe than sorry) you will be sure they reach your address, cause they send the docs back without a tracking number and if they don't get delivered to you they will be just lost and noone will be able to help you with that (i have sad experience with that)

Edited May 9, 2016 by Da&De

[Gafelkins56 2]

Send each passport size pic u an him .can put in small ziplock bag. Write on bk of pic an plastic bag.I also sent a wedding pic of mr & mrs.sent several notorized statements from family and friend.

[IslandQueen 45]

Even though my husband and I have been together for close to 10 years, we kept certain things separate. To prove that our relationship is bonafide, we sent quite a lot of photos of vacations, date nights, pics on our way to work, wedding pics with our families, church pics with our families, a copy of our credit cards under one account, copy of our daughter's birth certificate, emails since 2007, life insurance policy showing spouse as beneficiary and car insurance showing both of us as the insured drivers.

Originals are not required unless they ask for it. I read it somewhere in the instructions.

Please include Form I 130 in the package. You left it off your list :-).

Hope my suggestions help.

Edited May 9, 2016 by OneD

[TBoneTX 46,384]

Thread is moved from the Introducing Our Members forum to the CR-1 Process forum.