Uploading more evidence after initial I-130 submission

[mglev 2]

Hi Everyone, my wife and I married in September of 2024 and I submitted the I-130 application along with all of the evidence of a bona fide marriage in October of 2024, and so with how things seem to be progressing hopefully this means that around the end of 2025 or so we will have an answer on whether our application has been approved or denied.  When we first submitted, I had only gotten to visit my wife in Chile once since our initial meeting back in January of 2023, and she had only visited here once as well, for our wedding.  Since then, she has been here once more for an extended trip (about one month), and I have visited her for a second time as well.  We have many more pictures, ticket stubs, and passport stamps from our travels together, including pictures we got with all of her family (we somehow forgot to take any pictures together when I met them for the first time during my first visit).  I have also since gotten new insurance, and listed my wife down as my life insurance beneficiary, and also have several more receipts from various money transfers to help support her over the past year, along with some other receipts for various gifts and things from the past year.

 

My question is, am I allowed to, or is it in any way helpful to upload these newer documents to our chart where we submitted the application?  I worry that this might somehow cause a problem since the official application has already been fully submitted, but I also have some worries about the potential for an RFE given that we had only been married a short time and hadn't had the opportunity for more of the "commingling of finances" and gathering even more contextual evidence for our relationship.  Our initial evidence included all the evidence we had at the time, such as ticket stubs and receipts from flights, passport stamps, and pictures from our initial visits, a listing of her as a beneficiary for one of my financial accounts, along with two affidavits of support and anything else we felt would help our case.  I recall reading someone post in this forum about how they uploaded some documents after submitting the application, but hadn't heard anything about that otherwise so just wanted some clarity on best practices, and what might or might not be helpful for our application's potential approval.  Any insight into this would be great, thanks!

[Edward and Jaycel 2,102]

Yes! You can upload additional evidence of marital bona fides on the portal for your I-130 using the "Unsolicited Evidence" button under the Documents tab and I highly recommend that you do so. Everything from the I-130 petition will be sent to the embassy as part of the package that the Consular Officer will have access to during the interview for the visa. Any additional evidence you provide can help mitigate the chances of an RFE from USCIS and help mitigate the chances of a 221g from the embassy requesting more marital evidence before a decision can be made. Upload what you have for sure! 

[mglev 2]

That is great to know, thanks so much for your answer!  I will get on that right away and submit all the additional documents we have that would be beneficial for strengthening our case.

[S2N 424]

I wouldn’t upload the remittances personally. Chile’s a very low fraud risk country with a stable economy. Remittances can be a double-edged sword on the fraud factor so no need the put them there when you have plenty of other evidence for a country where the consular officer isn’t likely to ask that many questions once it gets to the Santiago consulate stage.

 

We upload plane tickets for every trip I take down there and his I-94 for every time he enters the U.S. with some photos. We filed taxes jointly so uploaded that as well as some additional estate planning stuff.

 

Does your wife speak English or do you speak Spanish? Might be worth uploading some basic text messages showing you have a way to communicate since Chile has a very low English-speaking level. I uploaded some certifications I had in Spanish as well as a few WhatsApp discussions in Spanish (my husband has extremely basic English so we communicate in Spanish.)

Edited yesterday at 01:47 AM by S2N