evidance for I-130/cr1, for Vietnamese Wife

[BlueTornado 1]

Hello all,

I am a Native USC, I married my wife from Vietnam in September 2018 after knowing her for a year and a half. We had a wedding ceremony in the Church in February 2019 in line with the holiday of the Lunar New year. I am working on the I-130. I have been living in Vietnam(with her parents) since august 2018. I have been working as an ESL teacher at the same company as my wife(she is a translator, she was hired about 2 month after me as an opening appeared). I visited Vietnam twice prior to this once with a mutual friend(her cousin) which is how I met her, and a second time in which I came to ask her parents for permission to date their daughter. The third time I intended to get the marriage certificate from the Vietnam government then return and wait for the Church ceremony in February, but I was offered a job and an extra room and stayed.

 

We are having trouble finding hard evidence of a bona fide marriage.

-we recently created a joint banking account here in Vietnam.

-I should have receipts of three trips to VN(plus one return from a week vacation to visit my family at thanksgiving)

-marriage certificate

 

Unfortunately that is about it as far as hard evidence.

-we have a history of nearly daily email correspondence from when I first met her and tutored her English until we decided to date and then get married.

-we have no record of our web calls because the iPhone does not save the Wi-Fi calls in a orderly manner.

-a neighbor of her parents  just moved out and a gave us a hastily written contract to rent their house, but the date is wrong and their are no house numbers so legally I am moving from the same general location to the same general location.

-My Dad and Sister were present for the wedding, and we have a variety of photos(mostly selfies) from the wedding and 2 times I have visited prior.

-We have 4 letters about our relationship 2 from our dads, and two from employers. One, my former USA employer who knew me and were present for the back and forth debates and discussion about getting married and eventually quitting to move. Finally, a letter from my current employer a USC who directs the English center where I work, who was present for the discussions from the beginning as I was trying to secure the VN marriage certificate and arrange for the Church wedding here.

-about 30 photos from when I first came, to the wedding, and then to our end of school year vacation to Da Lat.

 

I am worried this is not enough hard evidence. Their is a lot of fuzzy area in Vietnam as far as no street addresses or records or receipts for dinners etc. Just the legal document of my tourist visas, work visa, bank account and two marriage certificates the binding one from the government and for my pastor in the usa from he the Church here in VN. We have been staying at her parents house prior to moving next door this month. I have read a lot of the guides and info here, and I am worried this is not compelling enough to tell our story convincingly.

 

Any help or advice is appreciated

 

finally I want my sister to act as my USA counterpart for mailing and preparing. I will send the partial packet to her and she will grab the final evidence(print photos and copy plane tickets) I listed her as the preparer of my I-130 was that correct?

[Tsh 14]

44 minutes ago, BlueTornado said:

Hello all,

I am a Native USC, I married my wife from Vietnam in September 2018 after knowing her for a year and a half. We had a wedding ceremony in the Church in February 2019 in line with the holiday of the Lunar New year. I am working on the I-130. I have been living in Vietnam(with her parents) since august 2018. I have been working as an ESL teacher at the same company as my wife(she is a translator, she was hired about 2 month after me as an opening appeared). I visited Vietnam twice prior to this once with a mutual friend(her cousin) which is how I met her, and a second time in which I came to ask her parents for permission to date their daughter. The third time I intended to get the marriage certificate from the Vietnam government then return and wait for the Church ceremony in February, but I was offered a job and an extra room and stayed.

 

We are having trouble finding hard evidence of a bona fide marriage.

-we recently created a joint banking account here in Vietnam.

-I should have receipts of three trips to VN(plus one return from a week vacation to visit my family at thanksgiving)

-marriage certificate

 

Unfortunately that is about it as far as hard evidence.

-we have a history of nearly daily email correspondence from when I first met her and tutored her English until we decided to date and then get married.

-we have no record of our web calls because the iPhone does not save the Wi-Fi calls in a orderly manner.

-a neighbor of her parents  just moved out and a gave us a hastily written contract to rent their house, but the date is wrong and their are no house numbers so legally I am moving from the same general location to the same general location.

-My Dad and Sister were present for the wedding, and we have a variety of photos(mostly selfies) from the wedding and 2 times I have visited prior.

-We have 4 letters about our relationship 2 from our dads, and two from employers. One, my former USA employer who knew me and were present for the back and forth debates and discussion about getting married and eventually quitting to move. Finally, a letter from my current employer a USC who directs the English center where I work, who was present for the discussions from the beginning as I was trying to secure the VN marriage certificate and arrange for the Church wedding here.

-about 30 photos from when I first came, to the wedding, and then to our end of school year vacation to Da Lat.

 

I am worried this is not enough hard evidence. Their is a lot of fuzzy area in Vietnam as far as no street addresses or records or receipts for dinners etc. Just the legal document of my tourist visas, work visa, bank account and two marriage certificates the binding one from the government and for my pastor in the usa from he the Church here in VN. We have been staying at her parents house prior to moving next door this month. I have read a lot of the guides and info here, and I am worried this is not compelling enough to tell our story convincingly.

 

Any help or advice is appreciated

 

finally I want my sister to act as my USA counterpart for mailing and preparing. I will send the partial packet to her and she will grab the final evidence(print photos and copy plane tickets) I listed her as the preparer of my I-130 was that correct?

I strongly suggest you prepare the papers yourself with your wife so you guys would figure out everything how to do it from the timeline of your relationship up to the important details and documents that you need to include. You can ask your sister to  check everything once you put it all together just to make sure you didn't miss anything or to consult/discuss for final changes. The whole process would sound complicated but you can always research, read stuff here and ask questions. You can even go to the website, email or call USCIS for more info. 

 

Include her in your car insurance, health insurance, tax..etc. Which app do you use for calling. Whatsapp, Skype, facebook has call logs and you can screenshot them.

[Tsh 14]

1 minute ago, Tsh said:

I strongly suggest you prepare the papers yourself with your wife so you guys would figure out everything how to do it from the timeline of your relationship up to the important details and documents that you need to include. You can ask your sister to  check everything once you put it all together just to make sure you didn't miss anything or to consult/discuss for final changes. The whole process would sound complicated but you can always research, read stuff here and ask questions. You can even go to the website, email or call USCIS for more info. 

 

Include her in your car insurance, health insurance, tax..etc. Which app do you use for calling. Whatsapp, Skype, facebook has call logs and you can screenshot them.

Save your bills, receipts mails or packages that shows the address where you guys live together. Pictures on special occasions with the family etc. 

[BlueTornado 1]

I appreciate the advice tsh, my concern is i don’t have any insurance beyond the “work insurance” issued by the company i work for, it is really basic. I was on my dad’s insurance in the states. I don’t have any bills here in VN. Thats where i say it fuzzy. Even living in the rental the paying of utilities is done in cash here. I have no real address in this village. I don’t recive mail etc. I use Google duo which has no records.

i have been in Vietnam for almost a year now, so i am a bit removed from the US. Thats why i plan in doing most of the packet and just sending to my sister to mail to the USCIS

[givionte 138]

In places like Vietnam or China, it's acknowledged by most embassies that paper trail evidence of a marriage is tough to come by, since it is difficult to have joint account anything.  Best thing to do is create a timeline of your relationship, detailing photos from each year together, important events, chat logs, hotel bookings and other things that might exist.  You say you have no street address, but you do have a build where packages are delivered to, right?  Save the mailing labels as secondary evidence you do live there.

 

Also, you live in Vietnam currently. Living in the same location as your wife will score bonus points with the embassy at the interview, so you may have little to nothing to worry about for the bona fide portion, assuming your marriage certificates and other papers are properly done.  They are much happier to see husband and wife together, instead of thousands of miles away at the interview time.

Edited June 7, 2019 by givionte

[Ryan H 3,790]

Moved from Progress Reports to Process & Procedures.

[USS_Voyager 1,971]

You have plenty of time to build more evidence of a bona fide marriage as it will be another 10-16 months before the interview. However, there are a couple points:

 

1. You need to establish intent to have domicile in the US. You cannot sponsor someone to be a permanent resident to the US if you don’t live there or intent to leave there. See more here: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/how-overseas-us-citizen-proves-us-domicile-form-i-864-sponsorship.html

 

2. I find it just a little odd that most pictures from your wedding are “selfies”. Maybe I didn’t understand it right. But you didn’t hire a professional photographer/video for the wedding? It is so cheap, just a few mil VND. There is nothing wrong with not doing that, it just struck me as odd, and if I see that, most likely the people at the Consulate will and that may warrant a question.

 

3. Where is this village that you can only pay utilities in cash? I thought most places should at least let you pay online. My mom’s been here  in the US with me since November and she paid her utilities bills online from her ACB account in Vietnam. Her house is in HCMC though so maybe it’s easier. Have you tried to add your wife to the electric bill?

 

[BlueTornado 1]

Thank you both givionte and uss voyager for you advice.

to respond to givionte: I have never received mail here, the closet thing is I had a packaged mailed to my workplace(it seems fairly common practice here, I have never seen VNpost or the other delivery come out of the city center to the farming wards). I recall now that I think I am still registered at the police station as living with my wife's parents, so maybe I can get that record. I also appreciate the mention of a timeline, I forgot about that and will try and write that out soon. I have new hope when you said the fact I live with my wife in VN my help our argument.

 

To respond to uss voyager: My father kindly offered to be a USA cosponsor for finances and an address to help us. I am still register locally in the USA as living in my fathers house. In regards to photos, we did have a professional photographer for the wedding, the selfies refer to the year prior and six months since we only have the odd collection of selfies and one or two work photos from company trips. I was worried a selfie doesn't say much in regards to time and location. I can ask about the utilities and maybe we can adjust it for our new apartment. I am about equally two hour between Hai Phuong and Ha Noi in Nam Dinh, but I live outside the city of Nam Dinh firmly out of structured environments. Life here is generally laid back, we had to request the neighbor to write a contract for rental, she was just going to have us stay there unofficially, possibly even for free just so their house would stay in good repair.

 

Thank you for your advice and support so far.

[WandY 430]

You should be OK. I just returned from my wife's remote village in Vinh Phuc Province. You are correct about no mail, no numbers, and paying in cash. It amazes me that anything gets delivered, but it does. As long as your marriage records look OK, I think the interview will be positive. I agree that you need to show some type of stability in the U.S. Place to live? Job? Steady income is important. Your pay in VN is OK for VN, but you're not making a lot when compared to financial needs in the U.S. Do everything yourself and send the package to your sister for mailing stateside. Don't let her mess with it. You really need to show that you are ready to head to the U.S. and begin your new life there/here. I think you will be fine. Good  luck!

[craig5977 58]

You will have a police certificate, you can get a copy of it, that is evidence of you living there, I am surprised no numbers for street address,my wife village has a house number for address,

and its a small village, we pay cash for a lot of things but always asked for a receipt, have bus ticket coupons,if we used grab for a taxi ride, got the receipt off the phone, you should of had receipts for the medical and such and for applying for marriage license, all this is evidence, this is what i provided plus we had 2300 pages double printed of viber chats.

I wish you good luck

Craig

[Nitas_man 3,100]

On 6/7/2019 at 3:28 AM, BlueTornado said:

I appreciate the advice tsh, my concern is i don’t have any insurance beyond the “work insurance” issued by the company i work for, it is really basic. I was on my dad’s insurance in the states. I don’t have any bills here in VN. Thats where i say it fuzzy. Even living in the rental the paying of utilities is done in cash here. I have no real address in this village. I don’t recive mail etc. I use Google duo which has no records.

i have been in Vietnam for almost a year now, so i am a bit removed from the US. Thats why i plan in doing most of the packet and just sending to my sister to mail to the USCIS

I filed an I130 overseas.  I only filed the basic package and let the “proof of bonafide marriage” rest on the legal document that showed that we were married.

 

Your intended domicile can be anywhere.  Used my parents house once, used my brothers house a second time.  The embassy and USCIS don’t care and don’t check, nor do they question your intentions as a USC especially if your US address matches a drivers license or anything else that sends mail to it.

 

They do check a little closer when an anchor baby who never lived in the US or never filed taxes to the US suddenly decides he/she wants to exercise their USC rights and move their families over with no ties and no real plans.

 

Overcoming the support issue is difficult on your own but as you have a co-sponsor you should be OK.

 

Attach a summary letter describing your circumstances, how you met, proof of your legal status in her country, her and your work location, and whatever documents constitute legal proof that you are married and send it in with a half dozen photos of the two of you together (wedding photos if you have them) and you’ll be fine on the “married” issue.  

 

The rest of the I-130 package is just a checklist.  They don’t care where it’s mailed from, it just needs to be complete.

Don’t let these members apply “AOS rules of bonafide marriage” to your overseas situation.  The bar is completely different when a CO makes the decision based on your situation vs when a local USCIS officer visits your house to check your master bathroom for toothbrushes and expects everything in your name to be joint.