Apparently this has recently been revamped and is now the first step for most people in a long road to permanent residence and beyond...
As we are married (and I'm playing by the rules and staying in the UK, not illegally hiding in the US trying to be smart) I will be applying for the CR-1 visa.
But first things first - the I-130 (Petition for Alien Relative).
It's available on a lovely pdf file that you can write on and save. It has six sections A-F and the good news (for me) is that Foofer has to fill it in as she's the one importing a fella.
Section C is all about me so, being a total narcissist, I had to fill that part in (C-22 looked a little tricky but a brief sojourn on Google helped me to nail that one). I emailed the form to Foofer. This is when she found "the checklist" online.
Basically we have to prove who we are, prove that we're married and prove that we're serious.
We need:
- A copy of our marriage certificate
- Foofer's divorce documents
- 1 x passport-sized picture of each of us taken within 30 days of sending off this darned form (A quick trip to my local Co-op for me and a brief stop in Walgreens for my love)
- 1 x G-325A form each (biographical data) - you do not have to repeat any information that's already on your I-130 but we did anyway, just to be on the safe side
- Any supporting evidence of a relationship.
- Wedding pictures Elvis looks soooo wonderfully tacky in them
- Skype logs We talk daily using Skype - there's a utility called SkypeCallExporter that can help you get the logs to use as evidence
- Travel info The only times we weren't Skyping was when we were together - copies of the confirmation emails from the airline (or eBookers.com) along with (colour) photocopies of my passport stamps (okay I scanned them and emailed them to Foof - it was quicker).
Once Foofer has those then she has to package everthing up, add $355 and post it to Chicago.
Fun, fun, fun...
