Links: Evidence of bona fide marriage for I-130/I-485 filing & interview tips

[hpx3000]

I'm here organizing the documents for the interview and I`m wondering if the employment letter is really necessary. It seems pretty silly for me, once we already have pay stubs, w2 and tax documents proving the we are current employed and show our salary. Actually, I dont wanna bother my manager/boss with this personal inquiry.

Maybe you have a job contract letter that you could include? If not, yeah, other documents should provide plenty evidence, especially the tax transcripts and pay stubs or bank statements showing direct deposit.

[love21_]

I'm here organizing the documents for the interview and I`m wondering if the employment letter is really necessary. It seems pretty silly for me, once we already have pay stubs, w2 and tax documents proving the we are current employed and show our salary. Actually, I dont wanna bother my manager/boss with this personal inquiry.

The employment letter is not necessary, your w2, pay stubs and tax return should make up for that.

[vtnrm18]

Question. Would providing a joint tax return before the spouse had an authorization to work affect the application?

[Ansiten]

I just sent out whole package with forms I-130, I-485, I-131, I-765. And I just noticed that forms I-130 and I-131 were replaced by new addition on USCIS site. But another two are still good. Who knows will they send back whole package or just these old two forms or they gonna process the whole package? Does anybody know what is going to happened at this situation? Thanks.

[willpoint53]

Hey guys,

My wife and I had our AOS interview on September 16th. Early morning in Minneapolis. The officer went over the I-130 with me (Husband) and I-485 with my Wife. No other questions were asked!!!!! We gave the IO our newly submitted paper works. This includes, ( 2018 tax return, water bill, new sign lease, and health insurance.) And, That was it. Didn't ask how we met, how I propose to her, our life, and etc. I'm a little bit worried.

The whole interview took about 10 mins or so. At the end of the interview, the IO gave us a paper stating that he could not approve us on the spot and needs further background checking. It's been seven days now. Our case status has not changed. Still says the case was scheduled.

Anyone has this kind of experience????? or know how long it will take for them to approve us? or...anything????????????

So worried right now and can't do anything.

If anyone out there is having the same experience or close to it. Would mind sharing their thoughts or feelings??????

Much appreciated.


Thank you,

[Islandgirl93]

DeeMustIbra take a look at these for examples of evidences you can use. Why not wait for the new year to file? And in the mean time work on collecting your evidences. Thanksgiving dinner pics with family, Christmas greeting cards from family mailed to you guys as a couple showing shared residence, gift receipts for Christmas, wedding ring receipts, pictures from the wedding, signed affidavits from any guests who might have been at the courthouse. Receipts from dinners. Receipts from anything you purchased together from furniture, appliances even pet ownership. Life insurance, car insurance stuff like those also helps. If you apply for a itin number it should be easier to be added so some crucial stuff like bank accounts

[visa_2014]

Is there an validity of Affidavits prepared for Birth certificate proofs?

For filing my I-485, I got my birth certificate affidavit early this year 2019. As AOS dates are not moving further, I am bit worried that i have to get them prepared again, in case there is a validity for the same.

Please let me know if anyone else encountered the same issue.

[JaydenDad]

I absolutely bookmarking this thread UScitizenFilingforspouse! THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing your knowledge here on this forum. You have helped many of us and ease our anxiety. Wish you all the best to receive your interview letter asap!

Wow, this went so quick and easy.
i already filed I 130 in August 2019, received notice and signed up for online notifications. I 485 filed on Nov 22, USCIS ran my debit card for $1225 on the 27th Friday. My lawyers office filed and sent the package to Chicago lockbox.

[_postdoc_]

Guys, The priority date for my EB1 case is mid June 2018 and according to Dec 2019 visa bulletin the cases until 1 July 2019 should be issued this month. Does anybody have an idea of how long we should wait for the GC to arrive in the mail?

[MMS0708]

Hi we are same sex couple that is due for interview in a week. we didn’t know the interview would come this fast, we don’t have a lot of proof for out marriage yet. We mostly have pictures, joint bank account and lease. We moved to our apmt just 3 months ago so we only have 2 months of electric bill. Even our internet bill only says ny wifes name and not my name on it. We added my name but it doesnt appear on the bill. Out phone bill is not together either, i’m still on my family plan with my mom since i still have to pay off my phone,(still over 600$) and my wife is with our other friend. We thought when i have a few hundred left on my line then we can pay it off and be on the same phone line but it’s too late since they scheduled theninterview so quickly.(thank God). Still problem is we don’t have a lot of proof for our marriage. Lawer is asking us for more, we have credit cards together, but we haven’t been usuing it since we are on tight budget. And the bills still only ever shows my wifes name.

Is it possible for my wife to add me to her health insurance when i don’t have ssn? We filed for her to petition me in August and didn’t know the interview would come this quickly. In 1 week, dec 20. Only 4 months after filing. She tried to add me but fidelis/marketplace asked for my ssn which i don’t have yet. We didn’t know interview will come first before the ead and ssn. So, question is what’s our option with insurance before the interview?

filed nyc


pd aug 17 2019
sept sched for biometrics
oct 2 biometrics
nov 12 sched for interview
nov 27 got letter for interview
dec 20 scheduled for interview

[USCmar86]

Hi we are same sex couple that is due for interview in a week. we didn’t know the interview would come this fast, we don’t have a lot of proof for out marriage yet. We mostly have pictures, joint bank account and lease. We moved to our apmt just 3 months ago so we only have 2 months of electric bill. Even our internet bill only says ny wifes name and not my name on it. We added my name but it doesnt appear on the bill. Out phone bill is not together either, i’m still on my family plan with my mom since i still have to pay off my phone,(still over 600$) and my wife is with our other friend. We thought when i have a few hundred left on my line then we can pay it off and be on the same phone line but it’s too late since they scheduled theninterview so quickly.(thank God). Still problem is we don’t have a lot of proof for our marriage. Lawer is asking us for more, we have credit cards together, but we haven’t been usuing it since we are on tight budget. And the bills still only ever shows my wifes name.

Is it possible for my wife to add me to her health insurance when i don’t have ssn? We filed for her to petition me in August and didn’t know the interview would come this quickly. In 1 week, dec 20. Only 4 months after filing. She tried to add me but fidelis/marketplace asked for my ssn which i don’t have yet. We didn’t know interview will come first before the ead and ssn. So, question is what’s our option with insurance before the interview?

filed nyc


pd aug 17 2019
sept sched for biometrics
oct 2 biometrics
nov 12 sched for interview
nov 27 got letter for interview
dec 20 scheduled for interview

We just had our interview today in NYC. I am the USC and my wife is on H1B. Your interview is in a week and while you could be added to a credit card, it could be suspicious to add at the last minute to make your case look "better." I actually did this last week with my life insurance policy and added my wife to it, but ended up not giving the document to the officer because I realized it looks suspicious that I added it at the last minute.

Each officer is different and they will interview you based on their experiences of interviewing. As for us, we only have 2 joint bank statements together and really 1 only has us using it regularly. We don't have credit cards together. We only have 1 lease together, but she's an occupant on the lease not a lease holder. She lived with me unofficially for a year before this but wasn't on any lease - I brought in rent checks that my now wife made out to me dating back to late 2017. The officer looked through the rent checks but didn't keep them. She kept our joint statements and didn't question why we only had a few months of joint accounts together. She only asked us if we've paid rent through it and how we're allocating money to it (as of right now we're allocating 65% to our joint account and the other 35% to our individual accounts). My wife isn't even on our electric bill. We have no phone plan together.

Our officer told us bluntly that joint assets carry a hell of a lot more weight than most anything else. You could bring in 2 suitcases of text messages together from 5 years, but 5 joint checking account statements showing regular usage would probably carry a lot more weight than all of those text messages combined. So the ability to show that your money is being put together and used is very important. I think as long as you have your names together on a statement for a bank account and it shows semi regular usage, it should be good enough. The credit card thing can't hurt you even if you aren't using it. You can explain why you aren't using it. We weren't asked why we didn't start using it until a few months after marriage, but be prepared for that question to be asked of you just in case.

I'm going to be blunt: This is the first time many of us have been married. It's absolutely asinine for a reasonable human being to expect that a newly married couple has put their entire assets together right away or even 6 months later. Especially if you've never been married before - there's not a guide to this stuff and they know it. They do not expect perfection with what to set up. Many of these people are married and remember they are human beings too. But they will expect most couples to have something together by the time of the interview.

I wouldn't worry about it - I mean you have even more than we have technically because you have credit cards together and we were approved for my wife's GC literally during the meeting (they aren't supposed to do that but this officer did it with us). My wife and I don't even have our insurance together. Lawyers will gear you up for the worst, and that's fine - there's a lot of unknown here but I'm just telling you my own experiences after thinking we didn't have a lot of documents. We had numerous pictures together, affidavits of support, joint bank account statements, flight tickets going back 2.5 years, and a few gift receipts. The officer told us for a < 2 year marriage, we actually had a lot of supporting evidence.

[Jhilke]

Is there any problem during the interview if married is different cast? And interview will take in a separate room?and what’s the most important joint documents?

i got a notification that stats your case is ready to schedule for an interview, how long will take?

[Eric_1]

Dear UScitizenFILINGforSpouse,

Thank you for your excellent advice. From your timeline, I saw a line that says "background checks complete-per tie2." May I ask how did you find out your background checks were complete? How can we check if our background checks are complete? Thank you so much in advance.

All the best,

These threads contain everything you need to file all the required

[UScitizenFilingforspouse]

Dear UScitizenFILINGforSpouse,

Thank you for your excellent advice. From your timeline, I saw a line that says "background checks complete-per tie2." May I ask how did you find out your background checks were complete? How can we check if our background checks are complete? Thank you so much in advance.

All the best,

Eric_1,

if I remember correctly, we called USCIS and escalated the call to a tier2. He did a lot of clicking and I think he volunteered the fact that the background checks were complete. How can you check? You could ask a tier2. A better question to ask is if your case is on the pick list for interviews. Their system is very manual.

Best,

USCFFS

[Penny15]

How do you recommend organizing date pictures and receipts?

My lawyer did not submit all the evidence frontloaded (only what he thought it was needed) even though we provided him with tons of evidence because we have not moved in together and we know that will be a red flag. We have decided to prepare for the interview on our own. Thank god we did not get an RFE and things have moved fast.

So far we these shared documents: car titles, car insurance, 401k beneficiary, life insurance beneficiary, checking, savings, credit cards, amazon prime household, spotify family, correspondence addressed to both of us, call logs showing daily calls, thousands of text messages, pictures of trips and receipts.

We are debating about how to organize it, either by category or by date.
We could do: A) wedding pictures, dating pictures, then wedding cards, other cards, date receipts.
Or we could do instead: B)first messages (met online), dating picture with the corresponding receipt, then marriage pictures and cards, finally married life pictures and receipts

Which one does more sense to you? Does it really matter? Any other advice?