Evidence/Process Question

[Se1]

Hi, I am looking to see if anyone has been in this scenario and/or advice.

I am a US citizen, my partner is from the UK. We dated online 10 years ago, broke up after a year or 2, both had other serious relationships and have since rekindled things in the past few months. In the past 10 years my partner has since moved to the US and completed a bachelor's on an F1 Visa and then went the STEM opt route. His visa expires in February 2022.

We do have a legitimate relationship. We would like to marry within the next 6 months or so, but we worry about timing of filing the I-485 and a lack of sufficient evidence. We have no problem with providing evidence, but the vast majority of our evidence will have been less than one year old and we suspect USCIS won't be interested in past chat logs online, etc. We also worry about my partner being unable to work while we will likely need to wait for our case to be reviewed, likely extending past the date his visa expires. I know you can get an EAD, but we are assuming we will likely be called back for a 2nd interview due to our lack of long term evidence. Can the EAD be not given due to lack of evidence before being interviewed? Can it be revoked or not renewed if we are called back for a 2nd interview? Has anyone else been in a situation in which they have filed the I-485 and concurrent paperwork with having been together less than 1 year and if so, what was the outcome? Does anyone have any advice? We really do love each other and are just living with so much anxiety and dread right now. We just don't want to be apart, but we also do not feel we can afford to live on one income without having my partner work. He also has a decent job in STEM and we don't want him to lose that.

[Johnny6751]

I have been married for less than a year and I waited about 6 months to send the paperwork in so that we could gather evidence. Below you can see my timeline.

I sent them along with the forms;

-Copy of ID's with matching address.
-Car Insurance showing both names.
-Renters insurance showing both names.
-Apartment lease showing both names.
-We have two joint accounts, both accounts show transactions made with two different card numbers, his card and my card.
-Copy of my credit card where he is an authorized user, one card under his name and the other under mine.
-ComEd bills showing both names.
-RCN bills but it shows my name only.
-USPS delivery email print outs showing that both of us get mail at the same address.
-We are not that photogenic, so we sent only about 12 pictures.
-3 affidavits of friends confirming our relationship.

And that's pretty much what we sent.

My timeline so far:
-01/27/20: Same sex couple, married to USC.
-06/29/20: Package I-130, I-130A, I-131, I-485, I-693, I-765, I-864, I-864 joint sponsor and I-944 sent via certified mail USPS.
-06/30/20: Delivered by USPS and signed by Chicago lockbox T Thomas.
-07/25/20: Checks cashed.
-07/30/20: Text messages received with case confirmation numbers.
-07/31/20: Received NOA's in the mail.
-08/05/20: Received RFIE notification from USCIS for I-485, letter to follow via mail.
-08/10/20: Received RFIE in the mail asking for my partner's pay stubs for the last 6 months and letter of employment.
-09/18/20: Mailed out RFIE to Lee-Summit's office.
-09/21/20: USCIS confirms they've received RFIE.
-10/27/2020: Called USCIS regarding biometrics appointment not yet scheduled. USCIS send E-Request to Chicago FO.
-11/10/2020: Immigration officer reaches out to me via phone call to explain the reason I haven't received a biometrics appointment, appointment will come eventually.

[Se1]

Thank you! I'd love to stay updated. If you dont mind me asking, how long have you been living together/dating?

[kjm464]

We got married in April, filed in June. We’ve been together since Sept 2017, living together since June 2018. They will look at premarriage items. I sent phone records, flights records, anything we had with both our names on it at the same address (old rental lease, car insurance, mortgage, bank statements - joint bank account is huge, joint credit cards). We also screenshotted FB and insta posts where we were tagged with family and friends or to show family and friends liking/commenting.

when do you plan to get married? How long will you have been dating?

[Se1]

Marriage, 6 months from now. We have been dating less than 6 months, and most of that has been online

[ember]

The EAD/AP card is usually processed in about 6 months (maybe longer now with budget issues and COVID). The EAD/AP permits travel and work while the green card process is pending. It is valid until the green card case is adjudicated.

My husband and I married four months after we first met and we filed the application about four months after we married because it just took a lot of time to get everything together. We submitted everything we had because we didn't have much. Our lease (and we were living with my roommate because everything was so fast that I was in the middle of a lease and didn't want to break it / move mid-semester on top of everything else haha), no joint bank accounts yet, no joint utilities, joint car and health insurance, affidavits, marriage and wedding documents (we eloped two weeks after I introduced him to my family so no one was there except witnesses and it was like one photo and the certificate), photos, text messages, receipts from trips, power of attorney for both of us, healthcare authorizations (living will) for both of us, and a few other things I think. Somewhere on this forum I may have posted a list, you could check.

The process went smoothly. We expedited his EAD because he was on OPT that was ending and he'd have lost his job (I was finishing my last year of grad school). That was back in the day, I don't think USCIS is expediting anything now.

We did not hire a lawyer to file but we did have one attend the interview with us, which also went pretty well. The interviewer was quite stern but we were approved almost immediately.

So it is not hopeless

I think the power of attorney and living will really helped because it showed that we were very serious about comingling our lives. USCIS takes legal/financial documents seriously and the main focus on approving a spouse case is whether the couple intends to establish a life together at the inception of the marriage (USCIS terminology). So executing those documents shows them that intent. It's not required, of course, but there's not much of a better way to show you're in it for life than giving someone else the power to pull the plug.

What would help in your case would probably be making trips to see each other if possible (safely, of course) or having time stamped screenshots of virtual dates with call logs to show how often you're connecting, asking friends and family to write affidavits, opening joint accounts, living together if possible, etc. etc.

[Maeve785]

We tied the knot back in April and officially filed in June. Our journey together started in September 2017, and we've been happily living under the same roof since June 2018. As part of the process, I meticulously compiled a range of premarital evidence, including phone records, flight itineraries, and various documents bearing both our names and our shared address, like our previous rental lease, car insurance, mortgage papers, and joint bank statements—our joint bank account being a significant piece of evidence. Additionally, I gathered screenshots of social media posts from ******** and Instagram where we were tagged alongside family and friends, or where our loved ones interacted with our posts, providing further validation of our enduring bond.