Affidavits for proof of relationship

[Daneandkathy 53]

Hey all

My husband (Macedonia) and I are about to file for the I-130. We are working on affidavits at the moment. Friends of ours in Macedonia (witnesses at the wedding) and Serbia (friends who worked on the ship where we met) will be writing some affidavits for us. Is it better if they write it in their native language and we get it translated?

or

For those who have decent English, if they write it in English should I correct the spelling and grammar or would that look like I wrote it for them?

Also any suggestions on what should be in the affidavits and is it a good idea to get an affidavit from some of my US friends or my parents (they have not met him yet)?

Thanks

Kathy and Dane

[JFH 12,195]

Unless you're struggling with evidence of time spent together, I wouldn't even bother with them. Did you meet working on a cruise ship together? You have a very strong case then as you have spent a lot of time together on a day to day basis. I certainly wouldn't bother with affidavits from your family who haven't even met him yet.

Note that affidavits are not "proof" of a bona fide marriage. They are just one person's opinion. USCIS wants to see evidence of an ongoing relationship and there are much better, stronger forms of evidence you can use. We didn't send any and have never lived or worked together and our petition was approved without issue.

[Daneandkathy 53]

Hi there

Thanks so much for your response. We have photos together both on the ship and now that we are both in Macedonia, also have a print out of our skype conversation times and working on our FB messenger ones as well. We worked together in Northern Europe on a cruise ship, definitely makes the relationship move faster when you live and work in a floating tin can, thats why we thought the affidavits from our roommates would be good. Also working on getting my name on his car and the house he has been building.

Kathy and Dane

[JFH 12,195]

So you're living together in Macedonia now? Living together before submitting the I-130 is the platinum level of evidence. There's not much that will convince USCIS of a bona fide relationship more than living together. Focus on that. Are you both on the lease and utility bills? Getting your name on his car is a very good idea. This should be your focus rather than chasing your friends for affidavits.

[millefleur 5,052]

If you're having trouble getting stuff like utility bills, try to gather any type of mail at the same address in both of your names. That's what my husband and I have been doing, we even started saving food delivery invoices, we order things online and saved those invoices...any mail that was sent from your relatives in the US to where you guys live now? Anything like that, especially if addressed to both of you, helps.

If you worked together, that's even better! Show your passport stamps where you both traveled together on the cruise ship, seriously anything with both your names and the same dates to show that you were together is going to be way stronger than an affidavit as JFH said.

[Ryan H 3,892]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[Daneandkathy 53]

Hi there

Thanks so much for all the suggestions it really helps, also puts my mind at ease a bit. I am living here at the moment, but am only on the 90day visa at the moment, when I go home for the month of December I will try apply for a long term visa at the Macedonian embassy, otherwise when I get back we will try do it from here. Friends and family will be writing letters to us here in Macedonia to help show we are living together, there isn't really anything we order or have delivered online unfortunately.

As far as working together, his family has a peach farm so I have pics of us pruning the peach trees and such but am also working on trying to get a job as an online english teacher.

I have a run down of our skype sessions (20 pages) and facebook messenger (100+pages), should I print all of those, seems like I will be sending a book. To limit pages I put it on google docs so you only see the words not the pics and graphics. Does this sound like a good thing?

Thanks again, the hardest part is that my mom has Multiple Sclerosis and when I am home I am her care giver, so we are hoping this won't take too long.

K&D

[javadown2 308]

I'm confused, you keep mentioning getting letters written for evidence from family and friends, this is just hearsay and not concrete evidence, anyone can write the letter...and you said you worked together on a cruise ship but later say your working on their peach farm and looking for work? Your best evidence is probable proof that both of you were working together at the same time, did you get your passport stamped like someone else stated? This is excellent evidence if both of you have same stamps at the same time...pictures while working together on the cruise ship? I suggest you just go out to dinner, go somewhere with family and take pictures, post pictures with dates and times in them in your location, get receipts doing things together, get mail sent to you with change of address...but I think pictures with family and friends should be enough.

[JFH 12,195]

Agree with javadown2. Affidavits and letters are low value evidence. I know the I-130 instruction page makes reference to them but the I-130 is a multiple purpose form completed by all USCs who want to bring a spouse into the country. As such, every circumstance is different. There are some couples who are unable to live together or even see each other between the wedding and immigrating. There are many cases where the overseas spouse tries repeatedly to obtain a tourist visa for the US but is denied (African and some East Asian countries in particular face this problem). And it may not be possible for the USC to travel to the spouse's homeland due to visa restrictions, costs, time off work, young children to care for, etc. In such cases affidavits are recommended as the couple is short on other forms of evidence.

Seriously, USCIS wants to see you together. Not letters from your friends and family. Photos of you together. Passport stamps that put you in the same place at the same time. Have you both joined the same local gym or library? USCIS is not interested in what your sister thinks of the relationship. They are handing the challenge to you to provide physical evidence of the two of you being together. Send a copy of your tourist visa and the application for the long-term visa, copies of your flight reservations, etc. Photos of you on the cruise ship. Copies of your contracts with the cruise company.

I would go easy with the Skype chats and messages - they are not going to read 120 pages of messages. Select a few per month and put them together on a word doc to show ongoing communication. Make sure that the conversations you send are meaningful. I sent ones to demonstrate that we don't just flirt with one another but have ongoing, married couple conversations. Messages where we talked about work, money, health, my attempts to find my father who abandoned the family many years ago, other family members, where to spend Thanksgiving, what colour curtains to buy, etc.

[Daneandkathy 53]

Thanks so much everyone, this really helps.

Pretty much the rundown is that we met working on the same cruise ship (so contracts we should have) and now I am in Macedonia with him, but we embarked and disembarked in different ports and they don't stamp our passports in each port, however we should be able to show proof of service through the panama book (required for our company) and stamps from Greece when he came to pick me up, plus we are visiting friends in Serbia so will have stamps from there. I have my temporary visa with the card from the police station stating his address is where I am living. We have lots of photos together here in Macedonia with friends and family so will print those out. Only a couple of us together on the ship, we never carried cameras or phones around with when we worked and our schedules were hectic so we took what time we could to be together not really take tons of pics.

Most of our skype and FB messenger conversations were talking but am sure I can find some FB messenger with a few meaningful conversations when the wifi wasn't strong enough.

Hopefully these will be enough

Thanks again

K&D