Friday, July 30, 2010

How do you PROVE to the USCIS that your marriage to a foreigner is genuine?

Many things that people do to prove their marriage can be easily falsified: for example, I can take pictures with any man and say that he is my husband or I can open a joint bank account with any person......so how can you really prove that your marriage is bona fide?How do you PROVE to the USCIS that your marriage to a foreigner is genuine?
Hi. Yes you can have your picture taken with any man. BUT, this man will have his passport, birth certificate, marriage certificate, wedding pictures/invitation, plane ticket for honeymoon, I-130 petition, and a whole gamut of other supporting documents. Like you said bank accounts, monthly bank statements, pay stubs, SSN, emails, letters, birthday cards, christmas cards, western union money transfers, etc. All these will prove that you two are married.





When interview comes, dates, stories, will have to match. Ex. What is the name of your maternal grandfather-in law? Where did your spouse go to high school? When is your anniversary? Where did you meet?How do you PROVE to the USCIS that your marriage to a foreigner is genuine?
It's not as simple as saying ';We're married';, showing a photo of some random man and having them believe it. You need to provide a marriage certificate. They also interview him, so they'll see that the guy in the photos is not the same guy in front of them.





Bank accounts and utilities in both names is difficult when a couple are living in separate countries, so other things they look for when determining a bona fide marriage are phone records, travel history (showing plane tickets when you've visited each other), email and chat history, photos and the all-important affidavits from friends and family.
You never know what type of questions they are going to ask you in the interview. One friend who is going through this now had an officer ask her things like - which side of the bed does your husband sleep on, what color is his toothbrush, what time is his alarm set for every morning, what type of beer does he prefer, how does he take his coffee, and other questions you wouldn't know unless you were actually spending a lot of time with the person. They also had to show their passports so they could see how many times they were stamped visiting each other's countries. Show past telephone bills so they could see they were speaking to each other. And a whole bunch of other documents, pictures, letters, etc.
Emotion is hard to fake. pictures show this. letters, emails and texts show this.. obviously computer technology is better as it can show a timeline- as can letters if you keep the envelopes. Having household bills in both names and a shared bank account are all things that strangers just would not do.
wasn't a marriage license prepared?purchased? where and when was the marriage performed? Who was the one to perform the ceremony? A priest or minister? Who ever performed the ceremony should be able to prepare an affidavit to that effect. Is this a real ongoing problem?

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