My situation and question about evidence of bonafide marriage.

[Antonio D 0]

Hey guys,I just got married in October of 2016 and have all my paperwork together. I am American living in the USA and she is Canadian living in Canada.  She will be coming to the USA after our process is complete. In the mean time, she is working in Canada to pay off bills and save up.

All my paperwork has already been prepared but I was wondering if anyone could give me any idea if my evidence of bonafide marriage is enough? We don't have any bank accounts or leases together as of right now because she lives in a different country.  We also do not have children together either but what I do have for evidence is:

1. Pictures of my passport with 5 years worth of traveling to her.
2. Pictures of itinerary's showing my flights to her.
3. The past 5 years worth of pictures of us together with my family, her friends and family (even at one of her friend's weddings), and a few of our own wedding pictures.
4. My 2016 taxes showing that I'm filing as married. Not a joint tax return but a separate one.

I'm just wondering if that will be sufficient enough or should I add to it? I know I can do a sworn affidavit but some say it's not worth it, while others say it is.

Thank you for looking and I appreciate all of your opinions.

[Ben&Zian 4,399]

Havings kids together wouldn't be evidence anyways... just shows what happens when two people, ya know.

[Antonio D 0]

1 minute ago, Ben&Zian said:

Havings kids together wouldn't be evidence anyways... just shows what happens when two people, ya know.

True, it would be more so the birth certificate of the child that would be the proof of evidence.

[misshepburn 52]

22 minutes ago, Antonio D said:

Hey guys,I just got married in October of 2016 and have all my paperwork together. I am American living in the USA and she is Canadian living in Canada.  She will be coming to the USA after our process is complete. In the mean time, she is working in Canada to pay off bills and save up.

All my paperwork has already been prepared but I was wondering if anyone could give me any idea if my evidence of bonafide marriage is enough? We don't have any bank accounts or leases together as of right now because she lives in a different country.  We also do not have children together either but what I do have for evidence is:

1. Pictures of my passport with 5 years worth of traveling to her.
2. Pictures of itinerary's showing my flights to her.
3. The past 5 years worth of pictures of us together with my family, her friends and family (even at one of her friend's weddings), and a few of our own wedding pictures.
4. My 2016 taxes showing that I'm filing as married. Not a joint tax return but a separate one.

I'm just wondering if that will be sufficient enough or should I add to it? I know I can do a sworn affidavit but some say it's not worth it, while others say it is.

Thank you for looking and I appreciate all of your opinions.

That's pretty good -- you could also add documents to show you are on each other's life insurance policies (if you have them) or other insurance/ retirement benefits accounts where you are each other's recipient.

 

You could also do call or chat logs from whatever you use to regularly communicate. One screenshot/page of typical communications per month is sufficient. You could also include documents showing you have a joint bank account, if that applies to you.

[Antonio D 0]

Just now, misshepburn said:

That's pretty good -- you could also add documents to show you are on each other's life insurance policies (if you have them) or other insurance/ retirement benefits accounts where you are each other's recipient.

 

You could also do call or chat logs from whatever you use to regularly communicate. One screenshot/page of typical communications per month is sufficient. You could also include documents showing you have a joint bank account, if that applies to you.

I wish we had some sort of life insurance policy or a joint bank account. I tried searching up a couple things but we would have to be together physically to make them happen. Kinda sucks since we're trying to save up to move in together. Seems like every trip we take to see each other is at least $450-550. 

The screenshot of our recent communication is an awesome idea though, I'll see what I can dig up.

Thank you for your help!

[kbmoon 2]

Same situation as you. My wife is canadian and still living there due to work. I'm american living in the states currently.

I provided, Amtrak travel tickets to and from states to canada, travel itinerary, travel airplane tickets, marriage photos, pension/retirement beneficiary statements, health insurance/life insurance statements, travel photos. 

[agesq 4]

Similar situation here. . .

 

I agree what you listed seems pretty good. I don't find affidavits useless, especially if it helps clarify or elaborate on something you might view as a "red flag" (we officially dated for a relatively short period of time before we got married but we knew one another for years, and affidavits were a great medium for our family members to explain that away). Any cards we sent one another. We also included copies of hallmark cards from family and friends we received at our wedding and a good amount of wedding pictures. We did open a joint bank account we use for travel/wedding expenses. TD bank was easiest between US/Canada residents. I didn't have any insurance/retirement joint accounts, and, although lots of people suggest it, i didnt send any text messages.

[NovaSprings 89]

do either of you have life insurance or RRSP/401k's Maybe via your work?  If so, is the opposite spouse named as beneficiary?  If so, you may want to send that.

[geowrian 22,341]

8 hours ago, Antonio D said:

True, it would be more so the birth certificate of the child that would be the proof of evidence.

Not really. Two people who are not in an active/current relationship can have a kid and care for it fine. The other items you noted are fine. I'm just saying a child doesn't act as proof of a bona fide marriage.

[f f 725]

21 hours ago, Ben&Zian said:

Havings kids together wouldn't be evidence anyways... just shows what happens when two people, ya know.

with ivf having a kid can't actually prove you both were ever in the same country.

[ljroul 14]

Also a USC married to a Canadian, we filed our I-130 living apart and at the time had zero assets or anything together, as we had never lived together. We provided our marriage license, travel itineraries from the flights we took to see each other, emails & instant messages between us, screenshots of our Facebook pages, and photos of us together. It didn't seem like much to me but we were approved with no RFI/Es. 

Edited March 1, 2017 by ljroul

[Ortolan 381]

You can do also "living wills" for each other, available online.

You can present envelopes and mail addressed to you both, that arrived at your address. Joint memberships to Costco and Sams' Club, as well.

I think you have enough for your CR-1 application, but bear in mind that you're going to have to Remove Conditions after she's been here 2 years, so start building a case file of sorts for that with more things that show you've mingled your finances together, to present then. A lot of people forget until Removal of Conditions time approaches, then scramble to assemble that evidence. Do yourselves a favor and start gently building that file for later, too.  Good luck!