Kyle&Sara

Thanks for the info everyone! Whole I know the bank account isn't imperative for proof of relationship, it helps. The whole providing sufficient proof seems to be something that a lot of people stress about on here. If it's that bad that people freak about it, then every little bit helps.

Cheers

So the big thing I see people talk about for proof of bonafide relationship is having a joint bank account. Among that I also see things such as both names on a car title, home, etc... of which I don't see being possible for a number of reasons.

As far as the joint bank account goes, how are you all achieving this? My current bank says they can't put my wife on my account because she doesn't have a social security number (Canadian citizen, currently residing in Canada). I've called a number of other rather large national banks (as opposed to my local credit union which I use) and they all seem to tell me the same thing. Is there some magic bank that I need to go to in order to make this possible? We currently use Paypal to exchange funds for things when needed and have a proof of history from that, but regardless of showing proof to the powers that be, it would make things a lot easier having a joint account in general.

Cheers,

Kyle

Thanks you guys! I appreciate it. Based on what I've observed on peoples' timelines, this move would presumably occur somewhere between NOA1 and NOA2. I imagine, on my end, it's just a process of submitting another form to inform them the change of address once obtain it.

So, my wife and I thought it would be wise, despite the lengthy wait times, to hold off on sending out our initial paperwork for a number of reasons. Particularly, us being fully organized since we're doing this on our own with no lawyers, as well as having some expendable finances for general costs associated with the process, interview and medical travel and whatever surprises we might encounter throughout this process. Now, of course we're kicking ourselves as the wait times seem to become longer and longer. By all appearances, we would have been better off not getting married and opting for the I-129f instead. At least based on the current Canadian processing times.

I'm going to be sending off our paperwork here in the coming weeks but am now faced with some concerns. My boss approached me with a rather attractive job proposition (financially speaking) that would relocate me in the coming months from northern California to Nashville, Tennessee. How does me, the petitioner, moving impede the progress, if at all, of the processing? Clearly we've put this off long enough and don't want to wait any longer, however, I want the process to be least complicated as possible.

Any advice on how to best navigate this scenario would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers!

I'll definitely check out that Wiki page. Considering the title, does that mean all Canadians go through the Montreal consulate? If so, does that mean that she'll have to travel to Montreal for her interview or does it simply mean that's where all the documentation ends up? She's in Calgary and I know when I originally started researching this whole process, I found that there is a consulate office in Calgary.

I suppose this question is geared towards the US spouses of Canadians. Did you immediately change your W4 from 'single' to 'married' while your spouse was still living in Canada, or only after they were granted their visa?

Thanks!

Good to know NLR. Thanks! We both have all of our boarding passes from our visitsand regardless of stamps, that should make it fairly obvious that we've certainly visited each other.

Thanks again!

Hey 'Laura_S,'

'Ahren & Edna' mentioned passport stamps and seeing that you're from Canada, I'm curious, do you have stamps from all of your visits? My wife and I were on the phone the other night talking about all of this and she noticed she hasn't been stamped once for any of her visits to the states. Have you noticed this as well? I have all but one stamp on mine from my Canadian visits. Not that it makes any difference, but all of our customs interviews have been at Calgary International...

Good question. I was kind of wondering the same thing. I was under the assumption that it was in reference to previous visa stays (work, school, etc...) as opposed to just visits via passport. My wife is in Canada and has visited me a number of times. Even if that's not what they mean and it is specific to a previous visa, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to include those anyway..?

read this: http://www.visajourney.com/wiki/index.php/EZGuideSpouse

at the bottom is a very good list of ideas of evidence of a genuine relationship. You can include skype calls, phone records, text messages, emails etc... We included 2 affidavits, knowing they don't contain much weight but one was from my mother who was the minister at our wedding and the other was from his best friend who knew us best as a couple. Also included boarding passes, a movie reciept, pictures of us together, he added me to his car insurance and to his bank account (we did everything required for that through email and faxing via internet). Put some stuff in there for the USCIS package because a) you need to prove a bona fide marriage to the USCIS and b) she's Canadian, don't worry to much about the interview. Trust me. You can also add more information when you get to the NVC stage with the IV package.

Copies are yes, just regular ol' photocopies. Just make sure they're legible.

Thanks for the quick reply.

That list is great. Different guide than the one I originally found on here. I'm sure I can pick a few things from there that will work. On a side note, I noticed it suggested passport stamps and interestingly enough, out of her three trips here, she doesn't have one stamp and of my four trips there, I only have three. I wonder if they're starting to scan and track digitally..? We both have all our boarding passes at least.

Again, thank you very much!

Chive On!!!

Well, we've reached that point of gathering all necessary documentation, filled out our forms, etc... and are ready to file. I want to be sure everything is done correctly the first time before I send it off. Are there any suggestions or recommendations that anyone may have before the packet gets sent on it's way? I'm awaiting my wife's documents (G325A and passport photo) to arrive in the mail from Canada, so I have a few days before I actually get the packet in the mail. I used the checklist provided in the 'guides' link on this site and I do have a couple of questions I want to try and get answered before I send it off:

By 'copies,' are they referring to photo copies or actual certified copies from government offices? i.e. my birth certificate, our certificate of marriage, etc...

Evidence of a bonafide marriage... I know a lot of people ask about this frequently and I read various answers. Some that conflict with each other. We don't have a joint account, we don't own anything together, we don't have kids. I know an affidavit from someone is listed as an option, but I've read that they really carry little to zero weight, but I figure I might as well provide one anyway (possibly from my mother and stepfather who served as witnesses at our wedding). We can attempt to open a checking account on my next trip up there, but that'll be a month from now and as far as putting her on mine, that won't be until October when she comes back to visit me. Any other solid recommendations on what provides proof of our continuing marriage? I've read things like receipts for gifts, boarding passes, phone records, pictures, etc... but then other people said that you don't provide those until the interview.

As always, any and every bit of help is appreciated!

Cheers,

Kyle

This was very helpful, as well as encouraging! Congratulations on your success with everything! Hopefully it goes as smooth for us as well.

Hi! We recently changed from K1-CR1. We were married 3 wks ago. When I crossed the border into the US they asked "where I was going" I said "to visit my fiance" asked "how long are you staying"? i said "17 days". asked are you going to work "I said no". No problem. This was at Pearson Airport Toronto. They did stamp my passport but since you don't go thru immigration (US) again (Canadians) when leaving the US. I kept my boarding pass etc as proof I left the country.

We submitted our 1-130 within 5 days of marrying, explained we had changed routes and why. We filed to Phoenix as that was our office for Nevada petitioners and we received an NOA1 within 1 week saying we had been transferred to Missouri Benefits Center. (not California) We included in our 1-130 a copy of our letter to CSC withdrawing our 1-129f. We are not too worried about the quick petition as we have known each other 46 years.

We felt the K1's were going to move way to slow for us and it looked like 2014 since we filed k1 in Feb 2013.

If you look at the Canadian portal for CR1 you will see many people are moving quite quickly. Some even having NOA2 in 2 months or less. Especially if sent to the benefits centre.

It was a gamble but we wanted to marry now anyway. We believe we did the right thing. We also didn't want to wait for Advanced Parole, Green Card, etc after optaining a k1. We obviously lost the fee for the 1-129F but time is money also.

All the best to you.

No, we don't have the intent of having her stay permanently and trying to get away with at all. I just want to make sure she could still come visit for a week or so at a time while the processing is underway. I/we wouldn't try and get away with anything that could jeopardize our future...

There are no red flags about sending in the I-130 even the day after you get married. However, do not have her visit and stay. That runs the risk of having her adjustment of status denied based on immigrant intent, which she demonstrably has, since you are discussing doing it. People get away with it anyway, but the ones who don't risk bans of varying length up to permanent for lying to Immigration. Doing the CR-1 the regular legal way is a royal pain in the tush but it is really the safest and fastest way, and you will certainly qualify. My husband and I did the CR-1 because he wants to work as soon as he gets here.

I appreciate the insight, everyone!

So to break it down simply, this is what I'm seeing as my options:

File for K-1, get married upon approval, she has to stay here, we file for Adjustment of Status, but if she goes back to Canada for any reason before her Adjustment of Status being approved, she won't be able to come back to the States

or...

Get married "spontaneously" on either her next visit here (July) or my next visit there (this month), she can't come back with me to live, we submit the CR-1 but can still visit each other back and forth during that process, so long as she doesn't "overstay her welcome" in the States

I had posted a question regarding the freedom for my fiance to travel back and forth from Canada to the states during the approval process and once approved to marry in the K-1 forum. Someone had suggested possibly getting married first, on her next visit (which is already arranged and booked) then going the route of the CR-1 instead. Given that we did do that, are there any red flags that go up regarding the date of submitting our packet in relation to the date of our wedding? This is actually the route I originally wanted to go, and now I'm wondering if I should have just went with my initial instincts. I wanted to see what some of you that may have a little more knowledge regarding the CR-1 vs. the K-1 here in the CR-1 forum thought...

Here's the link to my original posting:

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/427911-travel-back-and-forth-after-k-1-between-us-and-canada/#entry6198275

Cheers,

Kyle

I've searched around and read, but I'm kind of deducing different answers, so sorry if this is a redundant subject I'm inquiring about.

My fiance is in Calgary, Alberta and I'm in the bay area of California. We're right at the point of submitting our I-129f, G325a and all other required documents, photos, letters, etc... My question is as follows...

Once we are given the final approval that we are allowed to be married and do so within that 90 day period, does that mean that she legally has to stay in the states from that point until her Adjustment of Status is approved? I hear mixed things, some of which are a bit concerning. That being that if she were to go back home to Canada after we got married, she wouldn't be able to come back to the States before her AOS is approved. Why this concerns me is that she is employed full time back home, owns a condo, as well as horses, etc... Obviously, it's going to take a lot of orchestrating to arrange for her condo to be sold or rented out, have her horses transported and have her stuff moved here. Of course, none of those things want to be done prematurely given that we run into some hangups with our petition in the meantime. She does have a passport and uses that currently to make her visits to me here in the states.

Ideally, we'd get our petition approved, get married in the 90 day window as required so satisfy the legal obligations, then she'd go home and start taking care of her responsibilities back home (selling condo, arranging horse transport, etc...) and begin the process of her moving here and then have a "real" wedding with all of our friends and family once she's settled in here and we're financially ready to have the wedding that we want. All this said with the idea that we'd still keep moving forward with all the next required steps. I just feel like as long as she has her Canadian passport, she should still be able to travel back and forth still while we're going through all the processes regardless of what step we're at in the process.

Thanks in advanced!

Cheers

Honestly, I'd say the dates wouldn't necessarily have to be EXACT as long as you have estimated dates and all the actual addresses you should be fine. The idea is they want to know where you lived over that time frame. If you get all of the places you've lived listed and the dates all relatively close, you should be alright. The worst that should happen if they want more detailed information later, they would send an RFE (request for more evidence) and you could then get more detailed date information by maybe calling utility companies to see when you started utilities and ended utilities at those particular addresses.

As for notarizing, we didn't notarize our g-325a forms and they were accepted. If that's a problem later on, I'll get notarized ones, but as with you, I didn't see any requirement for that and am not worried about it in the slightest.

Cheers! I appreciate the quick answer!

As my fiance and I are filling out our g-325a forms, we both ran into the same question; how accurate do we have to be on our previous residences? I know where I've lived in the last five years as well as the addresses, but for both of us, we can't remember exact dates.

Also, I noticed in the FAQ's, someone asked about where to get their forms notarized. I didn't notice in the filing instructions anywhere that it said forms must be notarized. Is this in fact required?

Thanks!