Reviewing Documents Required For I-130, Petition for Alien Relative

[Canucklehead 102]

Hi all! My wife (the petitioner) and I (the beneficiary) received our Receipt Notice on October 19, 2021 for our I-130 petition. Since then, we have not received any other communications. We have received an estimated timeline for approval of around September 2022. We understand that time is something we can't change (duh!) but we wanted to make extra sure that we had our file submitted correctly, so that it can hopefully move as smoothly and efficiently as possible!

 

At the time we submitted our petition, we uploaded the following documents:

• Form I-130A
• Petitioner's 2 passport sized photos
• Beneficiary's 2 passport sized photos
• Petitioner's birth certificate
• Petitioner's information page of passport
• Marriage certificate (married in 2017)
• 2 separate lease documents showing joint tenancy
• Bank statements from joint account from 2019, 2020, and 2021

 

These are still the only documents we have on our USCIS account's Documents page. Our questions are:

1. Are we missing anything obvious? (we've double-checked the requirements list, but you never know)
2. We currently only have the information page of the petitioner's passport uploaded. Should we upload all pages of the passport to our file? Also, we have stamps showing a trip we made together to Mexico, and the beneficiary has numerous entry stamps to the USA over the past few years too. Would it be worthwhile to also upload all passport pages of the beneficiary?
3. On Form 1-130A, Part 4, 6.a. (Spouse Beneficiary's signature), the beneficiary did not sign this section digitally or with pen. I remember reading that if this form is submitted digitally, no signature is necessary. Can anyone confirm this is true?
4. Should we also upload 5-10 photos of ourselves in various places, or will the leases and joint accounts likely be enough to prove our relationship is legit?
5. The beneficiary has previously lived abroad in 4 different countries (including the country we are applying from - Canada). We understand the next step in the process will require him to get a Criminal Record Check from each of those 4 countries. Should this be something we begin now? We are happy to get them organized and ordered now, but our only concern was if USCIS had a time limit for when they can be ordered. I.e. Please submit criminal record checks dated within 3 months of today. In that case, the CRCs we order now could potentially expire' down the line. Any help regarding this too would be much appreciated!

 

Have a great day!

Edited January 18, 2022 by Canucklehead

[mam521 2,102]

1. Doesn't look like you're missing anything obvious

2. Only present what is asked for.  If you add additional information, you set yourself up for a RFE

3. Sorry...can't remember

4. Have you added each other to life insurance plans, pensions or other investments?  They are looking for legitimate comingling of finances.  Bank accounts are nice and do help, but it's a bit of a stronger tie if it's a beneficiary situation.  Do you have any ticket stubs and hotel receipts from visits?  These are stronger evidence that you've spent time together.  Photos are secondary evidence but it never hurts.  I think we'd put 2 or 4 photos per slide into a ppt presentation and annotated them, saved as a pdf and made sure the file was small enough.  Don't go overboard. Again, too much just complicates things, so curate the strongest evidence.  (I know, this is tough when you're in a legit relationship because you're like "what the heck...we're together...what do you actually want?!")

5. You're a while off yet for that approval, but as long as he doesn't travel to those countries again while the process is pending, he hypothetically could get the CRC's started.  The Canadian one will have to wait until he's at the NVC stage because it does expire and that has an impact on expiration of his visa for entering the US (expires 6mo after the date on the medical or the expiration of the CRC, whichever comes first. Current country CRC's are valid for 2 years).  

 

Once you get to the DS-260 stage, travel history to the US over the last 5 years is needed.  If he's gone back and forth, I-94 records and travel programs are very helpful.  Luckily we had a spreadsheet already for this because hubs had applied for his citizenship and we track it for work, but it's a pain if you don't already have it. 

 

When filling out the DS-260 after the I-130 is approved, your partner will have to provide addresses from when he was 16yo.  I'd suggest creating a spreadsheet now with those addresses.  I moved a LOT and it took me for freaking ever to work that out.  I had to dupe the CEAC website to get them all in, too, because it frustratingly would time out.  Repeatedly.  

 

Another thing that is a long ways off yet but still takes time is, especially because he's lived all over, is making sure he has all the required immunizations for the medical.  If he has no records, then he can get titers done and have any immunizations he's missing completed and hopefully on provincial health care's dime.  When you do finally get to NVC and DQ'd, when they actually send your interview letter, you'll probably have about 3 weeks to book the medical and have the interview.  Having the immunization record free and clear makes life easier.  

 

If you want to lurk for a bit, there is a long standing thread that we've had going since 2019 for Canadian spousal IR/CR-1 consular processing people.  There's a link to the FAQ's that are more relevant after you get past the USCIS stage in my signature as well as a link to the tracking spreadsheet we've been using for a few years now to try and see if there is any method to the madness.  Feel free to join and learn!  

 

[pushbrk 12,968]

On 1/19/2022 at 1:37 AM, Canucklehead said:

Hi all! My wife (the petitioner) and I (the beneficiary) received our Receipt Notice on October 19, 2021 for our I-130 petition. Since then, we have not received any other communications. We have received an estimated timeline for approval of around September 2022. We understand that time is something we can't change (duh!) but we wanted to make extra sure that we had our file submitted correctly, so that it can hopefully move as smoothly and efficiently as possible!

 

At the time we submitted our petition, we uploaded the following documents:

• Form I-130A
• Petitioner's 2 passport sized photos
• Beneficiary's 2 passport sized photos
• Petitioner's birth certificate
• Petitioner's information page of passport
• Marriage certificate (married in 2017)
• 2 separate lease documents showing joint tenancy
• Bank statements from joint account from 2019, 2020, and 2021

 

These are still the only documents we have on our USCIS account's Documents page. Our questions are:

1. Are we missing anything obvious? (we've double-checked the requirements list, but you never know)
2. We currently only have the information page of the petitioner's passport uploaded. Should we upload all pages of the passport to our file? Also, we have stamps showing a trip we made together to Mexico, and the beneficiary has numerous entry stamps to the USA over the past few years too. Would it be worthwhile to also upload all passport pages of the beneficiary?
3. On Form 1-130A, Part 4, 6.a. (Spouse Beneficiary's signature), the beneficiary did not sign this section digitally or with pen. I remember reading that if this form is submitted digitally, no signature is necessary. Can anyone confirm this is true?
4. Should we also upload 5-10 photos of ourselves in various places, or will the leases and joint accounts likely be enough to prove our relationship is legit?
5. The beneficiary has previously lived abroad in 4 different countries (including the country we are applying from - Canada). We understand the next step in the process will require him to get a Criminal Record Check from each of those 4 countries. Should this be something we begin now? We are happy to get them organized and ordered now, but our only concern was if USCIS had a time limit for when they can be ordered. I.e. Please submit criminal record checks dated within 3 months of today. In that case, the CRCs we order now could potentially expire' down the line. Any help regarding this too would be much appreciated!

 

Have a great day!

1. No, unless either of you has been married before.  If so, include divorce decrees or death certificates.

2. Since you already uploaded the petitioner's US Birth Certificate, the reason for ANYTHING from the US Citizen's passport would be as evidence of time spent together.  So, yes include pages from both passports showing entry stamps that evidence time spent together in person.

3.  If the beneficiary is not in the USA at the time of filing, no signature is needed on the I-130a.  

4.  A few photos is always a good idea but it is secondary to the other direct/primary evidence of time together

5. Yes, get all but the Canada Police Reports now.

Edited January 19, 2022 by pushbrk

[kawika07 0]

We are in the same situation and its hard to get an update ... but just to set/lower expectations we submitted back on May 5th 2021 and still nothing yet so patience is all we can do at this point. We had an update towards the end of May but all it essentially said was "Our records show nothing is outstanding at this time. "

 

Good luck.