wally5b99

Hey everyone. I'm a US citizen and my wife is Japanese. We live and got married in Japan, and we're in the process of completing our Form I-130. I've read that we shouldn't submit ANY original documents at this point unless it is specifically required, but I'm still unclear on how that applies to certain special cases.

For example, our original marriage certificate, health care cards, and proof of joint residency documents are all written in Japanese. We already got certified English translations of all those, and then we made copies of the translations and their corresponding certifications.

So, my question is, when I put the Form I-130 in the mail, do I need to include the original certified translations, or is it all right to send copies of those certified translations and keep the originals for the future? We paid quite a bit of money for each individual translation, and I'm worried that we'll have to pay for them again later in the process (i.e., for the interview) if we send the originals now.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Thanks a lot!

Hey everyone. I'm a US citizen and my wife is Japanese. We both currently live in Japan, but we want to move to America. I plan to move back to America first in January to establish a domicile and financial support needed for the later steps of the IR-1 visa process, but right now I'm unsure about one section of the form I-130.

Form I-130, page 5, part 4, item 12a-d asks about the beneficiary's intended address in the US. Since we're both in Japan, we don't know the exact address we'll to move to yet. Our plan is to live somewhere in Northern California, specifically in or near Sacramento. Can I simply select Sacramento, CA as our intended city and state in this section, and then on the last page explain how our future address is currently unknown, but moving to Sacramento is our intent/plan? Will this somewhat vague answer suffice, or will it hinder the approval process by being unspecific?

Instead, should I put a family member's actual US address? I'm already using my sister's address in New York for my mailing address (on page 2, part 2, item 10a-i), and I could use that same address here, too, but my wife and I are certain we'll live in California. New York is definitely not our "intended address," but if this answer isn't binding and it's not somehow deceptive, then I'll write NY now to speed things along and change the intended address later on in the process.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.