Gathering Evidence for I-130. Need help with what's "quality", and how to organize it all

[sluchie88 1]

Hello all,

 

I'm still really new to this site, and I've posted once before about general confusion about filing my wife's I-130. I'm pretty clear now, thanks in no small part to this website. We're currently gathering documents to support our petition, and we have several questions or things we'd like clarified, if anyone is willing.

 

I already know the mantra: "Quality, not quantity. Quality, not quantity."

 

Evidence that we have

The easiest evidence we have is photos and chat history. We've gone on 2 to 3 trips a year since we met (2 and a half years ago now), and we talk constantly on our phones when we're at work. We've also got receipts for gifts and proof that we help each other financially. That stuff is no worry, it's more a matter of gathering the quality evidence from that.

 

Written Statements

In a previous post I asked about affidavits from family/friends as proof of a bona fide marriage. My mother in law lives with us, so I feel like getting an affidavit from her would be helpful to our case. The problem is that she does not speak English, only Chinese. So we would have to have her write the affidavit in Chinese, then sign it, then get it officially translated, then have her sign it again at a notary public. Would this be worth doing?

 

I read on this website (under Most Common Evidence, #1) that I, as the petitioner, can submit a written statement about our marriage. Given that my wife has cancer and we decided not to do a wedding ceremony, just a courthouse marriage, I feel like writing a statement would help. What the website does not say is whether or not this needs to be an affidavit. Can anyone clarify this?

 

Organization

The last thing we're not sure about is how to actually organize all the evidence. Should we go buy a big photo album and put all the evidence in there? Or do we need to submit in a three-ring binder?

 

Again, thanks for any help. You all are awesome!

[Sherry_c 3]

Evidence: photos with you two, photos you two with each side families\ trip together plane tickets, train tikcets, gift receipts, transfer bank statement,  pick some important ones 

If you married in China, marriage certificate notary is the most important one evidence, We didn't do a written statement, didn't think that's necessary.

We put each kind of evidence together, like bank statement together\ gift receipts together\emails\ trip tickets... About the photos, we edited it in WORD file, put date and place for each place by time sequence and then printed on A4 paper . That works

[Ryan H 3,791]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[sluchie88 1]

Thanks so much for your replies!

Now my follow up question is, how much proof is too much?

For example, I went through our previous conversations and took screenshots on my phone (it was the easiest way). I ended up taking 200+ screenshots. I've sifted through them for what I think are quality proof and was left with 56 pictures. Is this too many? Will they just feel annoyed at having to look at all of them?

[C&AH 104]

13 hours ago, sluchie88 said:

Thanks so much for your replies!

Now my follow up question is, how much proof is too much?

For example, I went through our previous conversations and took screenshots on my phone (it was the easiest way). I ended up taking 200+ screenshots. I've sifted through them for what I think are quality proof and was left with 56 pictures. Is this too many? Will they just feel annoyed at having to look at all of them?

Hello. I read somewhere that you should send 20 or less. Not sure if that is accurate but I sent exactly 20 and made sure that some included family and friends and not limited to the two of us.  It was also a mix of wedding and other photos in different places. Hope this helps.

Edited July 30, 2018 by C&AH

[sluchie88 1]

On 7/31/2018 at 6:23 AM, C&AH said:

Hello. I read somewhere that you should send 20 or less. Not sure if that is accurate but I sent exactly 20 and made sure that some included family and friends and not limited to the two of us.  It was also a mix of wedding and other photos in different places. Hope this helps.

20 or less as in 20 pages of evidence, or 20 images of evidence?

I've never been able to find hard numbers, but I have read that they will get annoyed with you if you send in too much information. So I think I maybe need to dial it back and not flood them with stuff

[C&AH 104]

16 minutes ago, sluchie88 said:

20 or less as in 20 pages of evidence, or 20 images of evidence?

I've never been able to find hard numbers, but I have read that they will get annoyed with you if you send in too much information. So I think I maybe need to dial it back and not flood them with stuff

20 photos. I made sure to include as much evidence as possible so as to avoid an RFE.  There are guides on VJ and some good instructional videos on YouTube on how to prepare an I-130 packet. Best of luck to you. 

Edited August 1, 2018 by C&AH

[sluchie88 1]

On 7/26/2018 at 5:21 PM, Sherry_c said:

Evidence: photos with you two, photos you two with each side families\ trip together plane tickets, train tikcets, gift receipts, transfer bank statement,  pick some important ones 

If you married in China, marriage certificate notary is the most important one evidence, We didn't do a written statement, didn't think that's necessary.

We put each kind of evidence together, like bank statement together\ gift receipts together\emails\ trip tickets... About the photos, we edited it in WORD file, put date and place for each place by time sequence and then printed on A4 paper . That works

I'm going to do the same as you and put our photos in a Word file. Under each photo, can I put a short description or caption? Like put date, place, and what we were doing?

[Sherry_c 3]

3 hours ago, sluchie88 said:

I'm going to do the same as you and put our photos in a Word file. Under each photo, can I put a short description or caption? Like put date, place, and what we were doing?

Only place and date is fine, don't think they will look in details, if they do they will prefer to ask you while doing interview