My relationship is long-distance, is that OK?
Distance doesn’t define love, and every message, picture, and trip proves it. The USCIS wants to see genuine relationships for marriage based green card applications, and evidence that may seem small can go a long way when put together into a full case.
What Should I Bring as Communication Evidence?
When approaching your case, your text-messages, call-logs, letters, e-mails, and photos are all crucial evidence in proving your relationship is legitimate. Time-stamps are also helpful to show longevity of the relationship.
- Although it sounds silly at first, messages or letters that have heartfelt messages or emoticons are more beneficial than everyday conversation. Don’t be shy, as you need to make note of the most affectionate moments of your conversation. Additionally, call-logs with dates attached can be another addition to your application.
- Photos are extremely important, not only to prove that you and your fiance have seen each other in the past, but to put a face to the applicant. In choosing the perfect photos make sure to provide quality over quantity. To further legitimize the photos, you may add a caption with the time, activity, and other people that were present when they were taken.
Make sure to double-check any evidence to ensure consistency, as the USCIS can cross-check any flights, dates, or photos you provide.
Can anyone else help provide evidence?
Affidavits from friends, family, or religious leaders are also recommended in proving the legitimacy of your relationship. This is also helpful if documents such as birth-certificates are missing, or in the case of poor-recording keeping throughout the relationship. In their letter the writer must include:
- Their full name, DOB, personal address, and immigration status.
- A copy/scan of their ID
- How long the writer knew the couple
- How the writer perceived the nature of the couple relationship
- Descriptions of the interactions and activities between the writer and the couple.
However, affidavits from friends, family, or religious leaders should be treated as secondary sources. This is due to the fact that USCIS holds greater value to personal, communication evidence when reviewing your application.
How do I prove my trips?
Evidence of recent trips to go see your partner is crucial to the visa application. Including boarding passes of all flights and connecting flights can benefit the process of your application. Alongside this should be the dates of flight as well as the location of where you travelled is important. Any receipts, museum tickets, or restaurant bills of your trip can also be beneficial to further prove that you were with your partner through the duration of the entire trip.
In one relevant case, I helped a couple using similar evidence to that listed above. To read more about how I went with the process click here .