NycBra

At least that's what happened in my case in NY. I know the Brazilian consulate have some variations. But in my case, the clerk certified the stamp of the notary on my marriage certificate. Maybe the Consulate in Atlanta is asking different. But try to ask the clerk to only certify the stamp of the public notary.

And have your affidavit saying you were not married signed in front of the public notary.

Good luck, and let us know if they accepted it. In the worst case, you go to NY for a getaway weekend and do everything at the Consulate there :-)

I'll go back to my County Clerk and ask for she certify the stamp.

Wish the form was more explicit and it would have been helpful if the Consulate had

explained that after I explained my difficulty with them!

John

sorry, one more thing. They required (at least in NY) my birth certificate issued in the last 6 months. So I had my mom go to the "cartorio" where I have my birth certificate registered, got a new copy and mailed it to me. Just keep it in mind, your wife may need to get one as well.

Please feel free to send me a PM if you have more questions.

Hi there.

My husband (USC) and I (Brazilian) got married in 2007 in New York. I remember I looked at the Brazilian Consulate in NY requirements to register the marriage. They required the "long marriage certificate". I don't know if in Georgia you have same thing, a short and a long certificate. It is not "long', but in fact it has more information but it looks about the same. Once we got the certificate, I had to go to 2 different places in the city to get it stamped (notary public) and then certified by County Clerk.

As someone already said, I think the county clerk will certify the signature of the public notary.

My husband also had to write a "letter" stating he was not married before, but it was only notarized, didn't go through county clerk (meaning, he signed the letter in front of a public notary. The public notary doesn't care what is written, but it confirms you are the person who you say in the letter).

The Brazilian Consulate in New York have everything explained in detailed, but it is in Portuguese: http://pt.brazilny.org/index.php?/consulad...istrocasamento/

The Brazilian Consulate will issue you a Brazilian marriage certificate in Portuguese. I took that to Brazil and registered our marriage at a "Cartório".

I would include a copy of the instruction and highlight the section that talk about the error, etc. And don't send the check.

You can also include a brief cover letter stating you are requesting the data error to be fixed, and something like "as per instruction, section XXX, a error was made and no fee is required". Sorry, don't know exactly how it appears in the form, just make sure you include it. :-)

I would like to share the COVER LETTER I will be sending with my I-751.

It contains the list of documents we are sending.

________

DATE

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

USCIS California Service Center

P.O. Box 10751

Laguna Niguel, CA 92607-1075

Re: Form I-751- Removal of Conditions on behalf of:

NAME: A # 1234567

Dear Sir or Madam:

Enclosed please find the joint Form I-751, Petition for Removal of Conditions of Permanent Resident Status for NAME (A#1234556).

We are enclosing the following:

Exhibit A Application documents and fees

• Form I-751

• Extra-sheet for additional information for Form I-751

• Application fee - $465 (plus $80 biometric service fee) in a check of $545.00

• Copy of USCIS Form I-551 (Permanent Resident Card)

• Copy of passport

• Copy of Social Security Card

Additionally, please find enclosed the following documents to verify the status of our marriage and ongoing relationship:

Exhibit B Tax Returns

• Partial copy of US Federal and State Tax Returns (filed married) for 2007 ;

• Partial copy of US Federal and State Tax Returns (filed married) for 2008;

Exhibit C Proof of current residence in California (date)

• Copy of SHE AND HE California driver’s licenses (with new address)

• Partial copy of lease agreement for our apartment in California

• Partial copy of the most recent cell phone bill;

• Copy of our (cable/internet) account

• Copy of HE new work agreement,

• Copy of SHE new work agreement

Exhibit D Proof of previous residences in New York (date )

• Copy of previous lease agreement for our apartment in New York;

• Partial copy of a cell phone bill (family account);

• Copy of our joint bank account statement; one for 2008

• Copy of a joint credit card bill; one for 2007

Exhibit E Financial documents demonstrating joint accounts and ownership

• Copy of our renters and auto insurance (evidence of financial responsibility) with XXX;

• Copy of joint money market account with XXX; (most recent)

• Copy of joint credit card with XXX; most recent

• Copy of joint Checking and Savings accounts with XXXX; one for each last 3 years

Exhibit F Miscellaneous Documents

• Copy of Marriage Certificate from civil ceremony in New York;

• Copy of our pre-marriage preparation certificate for the Catholic Ceremony;

• Copy of letters from nonprofit organizations we donate to;

• Copy of our gym membership;

Exhibit G Travel Documents

• E-ticket reflecting trip to XXXX for Christmas with HE’s family (Dec-2007)

• E-ticket reflecting trip to XXXX for xxxxxx (date);

• E-ticket reflecting trip to XXXX where we celebrated our first wedding anniversary (date);

• E-ticket reflecting trip to XXX for Thanksgiving with HE family (Dec-2008);

• E-ticket to California reflecting move to California (date);

• E-ticket and itinerary reflecting upcoming trip to visit SHE’s family in Brazil (Dec-2009)

Exhibit H Affidavits

• Affidavit from HE’s mother, XXXX, attesting to our marriage;

• Affidavit from SHE’s friend, XXXX, confirming our relationship;

Exhibit I Photographs

• Various photographs capturing our life with friends and family between 2007 and 2009. 4 pages with 3 photos each

We are kindly requesting that this petition be granted. We are looking forward to hearing your decision shortly. Should you require more documentation or have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our mailing address is XXXXXX. Our telephone is: XXXX

Copies of documents submitted are exact photocopies of unaltered documents and we agree to submit original documents to an Immigration or Consular officer if they are required.

Sincerely,

_________________________ ____________________________

Full name SHE Full name HE

Great post Bob.

I am also trying to avoid sending many documents. However, since in the last 2 years my husband and I have lived in 3 different addresses, I am making sure to include one bill (either financial, utility or credit card) to show we both lived together in each of the addresses. I mean 1 bill for each address to prove joint residence. We only have both or our names in the same lease at our current apartment.

And for other stuff, we do have a lot of financial accounts together. I am sending one copy (mostly only the front page, not every single page) for different time periods. Ex: one checking/banking statement for 2007, one investment account statement for 2008 and one credit card statement for 2009. And a partial copy of our joint tax returns for past 2 years.

And few of our e-tickets showing we traveled together. Same thing, one for each year (even though we probably traveled together like 12 times last 2 years).

So, my point is that it is important to show different things for different time periods. Don't really mean you need to send one bank statement for every single month, or a full telephone bill. Keep those in case you are called for an interview.

And good luck people.

Thanks. I was thinking NOT to send anything with it but would like to hear others opinions. Thanks for the idea of the infopass, I didn't know I could schedule one for this reason.

Hey Crysethu, you will be the first on this list. Does anyone know how to paste that timeline I saw on other forum topics (the one that you put date you sent, received NOA, etc) so we can all keep track? I am hoping to mail my paperwork express on 09/14 (I would do earlier but my window starts on the 19th... how early can we send? ) I have everything ready sitting on my bookshelf.

Just one more thing I forgot to mention. Before the first episode mentioned above, I had entered the US as a tourist (3 times), and when I was a student (with F1 visa) I had to travel abroad as well and NEVER got any problem at airport or immigration. The first time I was even sent to secondary inspection was after I received the Green Card. So I don't think there is any glitch on my status before then...

Still, I wonder if I should explain the situation in an addendum to my I-751 application or if I should just cross my fingers and hope all will be ok from now on.

Here is what happened. I got my green card approved on 12/2007 but I had to travel internationally for work during first week of 01/2008. So, right after interview and green card approved, I got the stamp on passport.

Green card was mailed when I was abroad. I was stopped at airport on way back and sent to secondary inspection room because I didn't have green card with me (even though I had the stamp). Person checked card was mailed while I was abroad, told me I should always carry green card at all time from now on (I would have it with me but it was mailed 3 days before I arrived back in US).

Anyway, after that episode I had to travel abroad again 3 times and at ALL times they stopped me at airport, sent to secondary inspection, hold me in the room for 2 hours, called my name, just gave my passport back (without any explanation or any question to me) and told me everything was ok and I could go. During last time my husband was with me and went to the room with me. He was very angry with the whole process. He discussed with the immigration officer at the airport and they advised us to send a letter to the Dept of Homeland Security. They couldn't say why I was always second screened. They said it could be my name is a match on a watch list (no, it is not, because I have a very uncommon name). We sent the letter but nothing got better.

Anyway... now to my question and hoping to get your opinion. I have to file my I-751 in 2 weeks. Should I mention this in my letter/documents? Should I just ignore and hope everything will be fixed now?

What I think happened is that when I first entered the country only with the stamp they for some reason put something wrong in the system as if I had lost the card, or there was a missing document, I don't know... I just want to make sure that now that I will have the 10 year green card I won't have to be sent to the secondary inspection room every time I enter the country.

Your insights are much appreciated.

Rosie74, I have the same issue but mine is about to expire.

I will be submitting my I-751 in the next 2 weeks and my driver's license expire in December. I hope I the letter with 1 year extension will be enough to extend my driver's license.

DavidGolfer, I am also in California. Did you have to pay another fee to renew/extend the driver's license?

Previous filers and September filers,

Did you (or will you) include photos only from the last 2 years or are you including photos prior to the green card? My husband and I have been together for over 6 years, living together for 4 years and married for 2. I was thinking to include very few pictures from 2003-2007. What is your opinion?

Thank you! Your info is really helpful.

I will keep people updated on my status here at Visajourney.

Hello all,

I just found this forum last week and I can't believe I haven't been here before. It is really helpful.

My husband and I applied for my green card almost 2 years ago (and I did everything without an attorney). We used to live in New York and the process went very smooth. I applied in early September and got the green card by mid-December with the expiration date for 12/14/09.

Now it's time to apply to remove the conditionals. I think we have enough evidence proving we are married. We moved to California few months ago and I think I will submit documents/papers that show we lived together in New York and now here in California. Is it too much?? Should I just keep the documents with the California address? Not sure how much documents is too much.

One main question I have: I will be submitting my package on Sept 14th. But my husband and I will be going to Brazil on December 12th. Would it be enough time for me to get the 1 year extension letter?

A second minor question I have: I travel a lot for work and I have different trips (nationally) schedule for October and November. If the biometrics fall within one of my travel date, can I request a different date? Or should I cancel my trip (I don't know if I can take this second option..).

Congratulations April01!!

nycbra: start a new thread for your question so that April01's thread isn't 'hijacked'

sorry... I will start a new tread. Didn't mean to hack this topic :-)

HI there. I just found this forum and it's great.

I will be sending my package on September 1st to remove conditions on green card.

How long did it take for you to get the confirmation letter extending it for one more year?? I will be traveling abroad on December 10th and I wonder if I will get the letter on time.

I have to file at the CSC center.

Thanks!