Passport Stamps, Ticket Reservations, Photos and "telling the story"

[Ontarkie 13,915]

~~Related questions merged. Please keep related question to one thread.~~

[ineedadisplayname 443]

18 hours ago, JFH said:

Look at the size of the space on the form where the question on how you met is asked. That’s how much detail/information they want. If they wanted the full love story, they would provide several pages for you to fill. They don’t. Save the story for a potential career with Hallmark movies. 

Or for that 90 day Fiance tv show 

[SalishSea 16,770]

23 hours ago, goursh said:

however now upon further research I am learning that they would prefer a more personal story about how we fell in love?

LOL what?  No USCIS document has ever requested such a thing.

[SalishSea 16,770]

9 hours ago, Hank_ said:

Some file without a single picture and get approved without issue.

And some, like me, file with no snapshots whatsoever, and get approved without issue. 

[SalishSea 16,770]

8 hours ago, Hemutian said:

Okay. But the USCIS approval isn't really the major hurdle. That would be the Consulate. USCIS maybe doesn't care if you submit photos or not, but the Consulate is going to want to see those photos, so if you don't submit them to USCIS, they'll never get forwarded to the Consulate. So it seems a little strange to me to be recommending that people not include photos just because the USCIS as the adjudicator of the first stage in the process doesn't care about them. It's about the long term process, the end goal, right?

Not having photos in our petition was not an issue at the consulate stage, at all.

[Nitas_man 3,100]

8 hours ago, Hemutian said:

Okay. But the USCIS approval isn't really the major hurdle. That would be the Consulate. USCIS maybe doesn't care if you submit photos or not, but the Consulate is going to want to see those photos, so if you don't submit them to USCIS, they'll never get forwarded to the Consulate. So it seems a little strange to me to be recommending that people not include photos just because the USCIS as the adjudicator of the first stage in the process doesn't care about them. It's about the long term process, the end goal, right?

Im wondering how we survived 4 interviews with no photos now

[Hemutian 68]

9 hours ago, goursh said:

Now it's sounding to me like it wouldn't hurt to be "overkill" if indeed the Consulate receives the packet before the actual interview...

I would say so.

My fiancee's interview was yesterday, and she says it was clear that the CO was intimately familiar with the packet of evidence that we submitted 6 months ago with the I-129F. She feels that it was precisely because we frontloaded with so much evidence of our relationship (going back three years) that the CO barely had any questions for her at all.

[Hemutian 68]

1 hour ago, Jorgedig said:

LOL what?  No USCIS document has ever requested such a thing.

Many of the threads on VJ suggest that the "Statement of Intent to marry" include this very thing. I guess whether one writes a moving love story or a dry, just-the-facts-ma'am timeline of events is up to the individual. My statement was more dry, my fiancee's more moving, and we got approved.

[Hemutian 68]

9 hours ago, payxibka said:

Maybe,  but evidence that the relationship is still ongoing as of the interview is of primary concern.   A lot can happen in between filing of the petition and the interview 

Not disagreeing, and I know everyone's case is different, in in our case, at my fiancee's interview yesterday, the CO seemed much more interested in the original I-129F evidence than in the folder of *new evidence* she brought to the interview of continuing relationship *after* the I-129F filing date. CO looked at the new evidence for a total of 5 seconds.

[payxibka 10,044]

1 minute ago, Hemutian said:

Many of the threads on VJ suggest that the "Statement of Intent to marry" include this very thing. I guess whether one writes a moving love story or a dry, just-the-facts-ma'am timeline of events is up to the individual. My statement was more dry, my fiancee's more moving, and we got approved.

A former member of VJ who was a uscis adjudicator said the  only purpose of the love letters was for lunchroom fodder

[SalishSea 16,770]

1 minute ago, Hemutian said:

Many of the threads on VJ suggest that the "Statement of Intent to marry" include this very thing. I guess whether one writes a moving love story or a dry, just-the-facts-ma'am timeline of events is up to the individual. My statement was more dry, my fiancee's more moving, and we got approved.

Our statements of intent to marry had no timeline or emotional content, lol.  It was just "we intend to and are legally free to marry each other within 90 days....."  etc.

 

We didn't even describe *how* we originally met.  For #54 we simply listed the dates of our visits, and provided the corresponding passport stamps.

[payxibka 10,044]

1 minute ago, Hemutian said:

Not disagreeing, and I know everyone's case is different, in in our case, at my fiancee's interview yesterday, the CO seemed much more interested in the original I-129F evidence than in the folder of *new evidence* she brought to the interview of continuing relationship *after* the I-129F filing date. CO looked at the new evidence for a total of 5 seconds.

And her experience is the same experience that most people have including those who don't include 

[Hemutian 68]

3 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Our statements of intent to marry had no timeline or emotional content, lol.  It was just "we intend to and are legally free to marry each other within 90 days....."  etc.

 

We didn't even describe *how* we originally met.  For #54 we simply listed the dates of our visits, and provided the corresponding passport stamps.

I see that your beneficiary was from New Zealand. The burden of proof of legitimate relationship is probably lower when the beneficiary is from a Western country as opposed to a developing country with a history of fraud like China or Nigeria. That's where "the more information, the better" comes in. Every case is different. 

Edited August 27, 2019 by Hemutian

[payxibka 10,044]

2 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

I see that your beneficiary was from New Zealand. The burden of proof of legitimate relationship is probably lower when the beneficiary is from a Western country as opposed to a developing country with a history of fraud like China or Nigeria. That's where "the more information, the better" comes in. Every case is different. 

China is no longer a developing country and hasn't been for some time and in many respects more developed than the USA 

Edited August 27, 2019 by payxibka

[SalishSea 16,770]

4 minutes ago, Hemutian said:

I see that your beneficiary was from New Zealand. The burden of proof of legitimate relationship is probably lower when the beneficiary is from a Western country as opposed to a developing country with a history of fraud like China or Nigeria. That's where "the more information, the better" comes in. Every case is different. 

Of course, but even for the petitions for beneficiaries of notoriously difficult embassies, sending 1000s of text messages is not recommended.  Frontloading can still be done selectively.

 

And anyway, I was responding to the OP's inquiry about the mythical "how we met and fell in love" letter.

Edited August 27, 2019 by Jorgedig