Do I Need More Evidence?

[Swtlilsam 0]

Hello All, 

 

I'm new to the forum. I am a USC and  I met my husband in medical school in Cuba  (2015) .  We decided to get married in our last year of school (November 2020) . It was difficult to include evidence such as titles, and joint bank accounts because we were studying in a foreign country. With that being said for the evidence , I submitted the marriage certificate , a translated copy, wedding photos, dated photos that we took together and with friends from 2016-2020. I also submitted a few text messages and 2 affidavits from my mom and my best friend.  Since graduation he has went back to his country to finish his internship year and so I have sent him medical supplies or just little items for Christmas and Valentines day. So I included those receipts from the shipping company.  Is there anything else that I need to make this case stronger? for example do I need to include a timeline of when and how we met , the places we have been , and other things like that. Thank you 

 

Background: I submitted a  I-130 petition for my husband in October 15, 2020 and it first went to Nebraska and then was transferred to Potomac. 

[JKLSemicolon 414]

Did you both study in the same medical school? Maybe even take some of the same classes? If so, I would try to include some sort of enrollment info or other records that show that you were both there at the same time. This would need to be translated if not in English. Do either of you have evidence on your passport (visas/stamps) that show the time spent in Cuba? If so, I would include those as well. The more you can connect the dots for time spent together, the better.

 

For example, I met my wife while living abroad in Ecuador. As part of my evidence, I included my flight itinerary and passport stamps when I arrived the first time, my Ecuadorian visas from when I was living down there, and my passport stamp when I came back to the US. This was in addition to a document showing key dates in our relationship history as well as another document detailing all of the periods of time spent together in person. In our case, we also had numerous other visits after I moved back to the US, which I documented with boarding passes and passport stamps, but it sound like your main time spent together was in Cuba, so I'd focus on that.

 

It's not clear whether you are in the US right now, but other evidence that I have suggested to others that can be relatively easy to do even if one spouse is not in the US and doesn't have a SSN:

• Add your husband as a spouse beneficiary to any retirement accounts you may have
• Add your husband as an Authorized User to a credit card or two (some cards are easier to do this with than others)

Since you already submitted the petition, there is no guarantee that USCIS would review any additional evidence right now (for example, if uploaded to your account online) unless they were to specifically request it. So if you do submit anything like that, I would be sure to have it on hand for the interview as well when the time comes.

 

In our case I am continuing to collect evidence, especially of visits that happened after sending in the initial petition, so that my wife can eventually take it to her interview.

[Swtlilsam 0]

54 minutes ago, JKLSemicolon said:

Did you both study in the same medical school? Maybe even take some of the same classes? If so, I would try to include some sort of enrollment info or other records that show that you were both there at the same time. This would need to be translated if not in English. Do either of you have evidence on your passport (visas/stamps) that show the time spent in Cuba? If so, I would include those as well. The more you can connect the dots for time spent together, the better.

 

For example, I met my wife while living abroad in Ecuador. As part of my evidence, I included my flight itinerary and passport stamps when I arrived the first time, my Ecuadorian visas from when I was living down there, and my passport stamp when I came back to the US. This was in addition to a document showing key dates in our relationship history as well as another document detailing all of the periods of time spent together in person. In our case, we also had numerous other visits after I moved back to the US, which I documented with boarding passes and passport stamps, but it sound like your main time spent together was in Cuba, so I'd focus on that.

 

It's not clear whether you are in the US right now, but other evidence that I have suggested to others that can be relatively easy to do even if one spouse is not in the US and doesn't have a SSN:

• Add your husband as a spouse beneficiary to any retirement accounts you may have
• Add your husband as an Authorized User to a credit card or two (some cards are easier to do this with than others)

Since you already submitted the petition, there is no guarantee that USCIS would review any additional evidence right now (for example, if uploaded to your account online) unless they were to specifically request it. So if you do submit anything like that, I would be sure to have it on hand for the interview as well when the time comes.

 

In our case I am continuing to collect evidence, especially of visits that happened after sending in the initial petition, so that my wife can eventually take it to her interview.

Thank you so much for your reply! It was super helpful. We went to the same medical school and I submitted the both our transcripts so that they can verify that we were there the same years. I have lots of stamps in my passport ( I lived in Cuba for 7 years) . So I will make sure to scan that.We graduated in July 2020. So I'm in the states now. I didn't know it was possible to add him because he isn't a citizen but I will make sure to do that now. Thank you again .

[JKLSemicolon 414]

6 minutes ago, Swtlilsam said:

Thank you so much for your reply! It was super helpful. We went to the same medical school and I submitted the both our transcripts so that they can verify that we were there the same years. I have lots of stamps in my passport ( I lived in Cuba for 7 years) . So I will make sure to scan that.We graduated in July 2020. So I'm in the states now. I didn't know it was possible to add him because he isn't a citizen but I will make sure to do that now. Thank you again .

That is good that you already submitted the transcripts.

 

Since it looks like your husband is not from Cuba, if using passport stamps as evidence of being in Cuba together I would recommend scanning stamps from both of your passports, not just yours.

 

My experience was that adding my wife to a bank account was a headache, but adding her as a beneficiary to retirement/brokerage accounts and as an Authorized User to some credit cards was easy to do online, at least at the institutions I chose. But as I said, some are easier than others and you'll have to check around.

 

[carmel34 3,639]

3 hours ago, Swtlilsam said:

I have lots of stamps in my passport ( I lived in Cuba for 7 years) . So I will make sure to scan that.We graduated in July 2020. So I'm in the states now. I didn't know it was possible to add him because he isn't a citizen but I will make sure to do that now.

You can side-load all of this and any additional evidence of time spent together at the NVC stag of the CR-1 process.  Just upload everything as PDFs under the "additional documents" tab.  Good luck!

[Swtlilsam 0]

10 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

You can side-load all of this and any additional evidence of time spent together at the NVC stag of the CR-1 process.  Just upload everything as PDFs under the "additional documents" tab.  Good luck!

Ok will add it today! thank you so much !

[Swtlilsam 0]

3 hours ago, JKLSemicolon said:

That is good that you already submitted the transcripts.

 

Since it looks like your husband is not from Cuba, if using passport stamps as evidence of being in Cuba together I would recommend scanning stamps from both of your passports, not just yours.

 

My experience was that adding my wife to a bank account was a headache, but adding her as a beneficiary to retirement/brokerage accounts and as an Authorized User to some credit cards was easy to do online, at least at the institutions I chose. But as I said, some are easier than others and you'll have to check around.

 

Ok will scan and upload today and look into the credit cards! Thank you!