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Problems with gathering evidence of bona fide marriage

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  • Problems with gathering evidence of bona fide marriage

    Hi everyone,

    I'm currently here on F-1 student visa. I married my husband, who is a US citizen, last December. We are both still in college with him working full-time as well. We didn't have a wedding ceremony but only a quick elopement with a pastor (who is also the only witness). Everyone we know knows the fact that we have been engaged since last September, but not many know that we are married (only our families and closet friends). This is because we planned to have a proper wedding ceremony in my home country when we can afford it ourselves (we are both very independent). When we started dating and eventually moving in together after getting engaged, we had to deal with quite a few financial problems, but things are better now and he can sponsor me with his income. Admittedly, when we first got married, due to us being still kinda young and inexperienced, we didn't think about applying for AOS and thus didn't know what we would need to do for that.

    The reason why I included such a long explanation above is that due to our situation at that time, we don't have any wedding photo (yes, none at all - maybe there were like one or two selfies we took together before we went to meet the pastor for the elopement). We have taken several trips together and already planned to do more this summer so I can finally have the chance to meet his biological mother and stepsister who are living in another state. We visit my husband's family as much as we can, but not as frequently since we are both in college and working. We are both introverts with me being pretty shy most of the time, so we don't have any photo with his family. As mentioned, very few people know about our marriage.

    My question is, what kinds of evidence would you suggest for me in order to strengthen my application? I have been browsing many websites but still not quite sure what would be necessary for my case. So far, we have had:

    1. a joint checking account
    2. joint credit card
    3. joint health insurance
    4. his life insurance listing me as the beneficiary
    5. joint lease
    6. latest joint tax returns
    7. travel itineraries and hotel bookings from joint vacations
    8. receipts for gifts bought for each other
    9. receipts of expensive items purchased together (I ordered and paid for them and he picked them up)
    10. a cat that we adopted together (although our names are not even on the adoption form for some reasons, we have photos)
    11. over 200000k messages on ******** and there could be even more now.
    12. phone and text message records, though much less frequently than ********
    13. photos taken together since we started dating until now
    14. a card by his colleagues at work congratulating on our marriage

    That is what I was able to come up with so far. If you have any suggestion regarding my case and this list of evidence, please let me know. We can't afford an immigration attorney so I really want to make sure that I don't screw this up. Thank you all so much for your time.

  • #2
    The joint finances and photographs together are good evidence

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    • #3
      @inadmissible Thank you for your comment. Do you think with what I have so far, we would be okay even though we have no wedding photos and not many people know about our marriage?

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      • #4
        Kenzie, do you have a bona fide marriage license from the county you married in?
        USCIS will only accept this as proof of marriage.

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        • #5
          Originally posted by Adrian Gruber View Post
          Kenzie, do you have a bona fide marriage license from the county you married in?
          USCIS will only accept this as proof of marriage.
          Thank you for your question. We do have a bona fide marriage license

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          • #6
            The adjudicators field manual, at 21.3(H) specifies that "Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage" is a factor that necessitates more in-depth inquiry

            That said, you both cohabit and act as a unitary economic unit. Quite frankly the adjudicator will size you up pretty quickly by the way you both behave. It is unlikely that he/she will challenge the validity of your marriage

            The intimacy is obvious to anyone observing you two together. The way you sit together, the physical contact, the snide/cruel remarks lol

            It is the same way that EVERYONE in the office knows when you have an affair with the intern

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            • #7
              Originally posted by inadmissible View Post
              The adjudicators field manual, at 21.3(H) specifies that "Family and/or friends unaware of the marriage" is a factor that necessitates more in-depth inquiry


              That said, you both cohabit and act as a unitary economic unit. Quite frankly the adjudicator will size you up pretty quickly by the way you both behave. It is unlikely that he/she will challenge the validity of your marriage

              The intimacy is obvious to anyone observing you two together. The way you sit together, the physical contact, the snide/cruel remarks lol

              It is the same way that EVERYONE in the office knows when you have an affair with the intern
              Thank you for this information. Tbh I'm mainly concerned about our application being rejected due to these issues. Once we make it to the interview, I think it would be easier to show them that we have a bona fide marriage. Do you think they would simply reject our application or proceed to the interview regardless so they could do a more in-depth investigation?

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              • #8
                You will be called for an in interview if they suspect marriage fraud

                I would not worry about missing out on a face-to-face with the adjudicating offer

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                • #9
                  Wow this actually makes me feel worried. There are questions that can cause problems for us, obviously.


                  Thank you. I just learned that it would be a separate interview too, so now I worry even more.

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                  • #10
                    Most marriage petitions are subject to interviews. Read their manual, prepare yourselves to answer the questions, and go to the appointment confidently. You are after all a real couple. You both have your wages direct deposited into the same account, you both spend money on household expenses from the same account, you sleep in the same bed, you do stuff and go places with each other every weekend, and you plan to continue to do all these things indefinitely. Don't stress out over this

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by inadmissible View Post
                      Most marriage petitions are subject to interviews. Read their manual, prepare yourselves to answer the questions, and go to the appointment confidently. You are after all a real couple. You both have your wages direct deposited into the same account, you both spend money on household expenses from the same account, you sleep in the same bed, you do stuff and go places with each other every weekend, and you plan to continue to do all these things indefinitely. Don't stress out over this
                      Thank you so much for your help. We'll do our best to prepare for the interview.

                      Comment

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