Noorah101

I'm pretty sure it doesn't matter, as long as it has an original signature on it.

Rene

Deeks

And I think it has to have this "official" bit before their signature.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the foregoing is true and correct. Executed on this date...

jeffreyhy

I think it's important that the affidavits be legible. Some people's hand writing isn't.

Regards, JEff

lovemyUKSA

If I need signatures than I am screwed. Since we met online and alot of the letters are from people out of state they simply emailed it to us and we printed it out. We didnt put the "official" ending or anything. We hope it doesnt mess us up a bit but since its not a MUST we didnt think it had to be notorized or anything.

Noorah101

Since it's not a MUST, and you don't have the affidavits done the way they should be, I probably just wouldn't include them at all.

Rene

lovemyUKSA

Hey, this is Rose's husband. I just loaded up the I-130 instructional PDF, in which it states...

"Affidavits sworn to affirmed by third parties having personal knowledge of the bona fides of the marital relationship. (Each affidavit must contain the full name and address, date and place of birth of the person making the affidavit, his or her relationship to the petitioner of the beneficiary, if any, and complete information explaining how the person acquired his or her knowledge of the marriage)"

Excluding VisaJourney we've never seen evidence of the supporting letters needing to be notarized or signed. The form was revised as of 11/23/2010, so we'd assume if it needed to be notarized it would have been added?

Thanks for all your help, it's greatly appreciated!

lovemyUKSA

I'm thinking that if the letters are included with all information as instructed, then it's better than not having them in there... more is better in this case, overkill... Rose and I have letters AND envelopes saved, Skype call logs, Emails, anything we've been able to save to show evidence of our relationship. We have a joint bank account with statement print outs, matching tattoos, anything and everything we can think of...

We currently have 13 supporting letters... all containing all the information requested within the I-130 instructions.

Noorah101

Definitely overkill. If you really want to include affidavits, just choose 3, and have them include the "magic language" in the letter. They should sign with original signatures and include contact their contact information (full name, address, phone number).

Do a search for the "magic language" on this site, you'll see that it takes the place of getting the letter notarized. It must be a "sworn affidavit", so that magic language is what makes it "sworn to".

Rene

ian-mstm

You probably missed the word "OR" sprinkled liberally around that set of instructions! In a nutshell, affidavits are NOT required.

Ian

jeffreyhy

Makes me wonder how these affiants have "personal knowledge of the bona fides of the marital relationship"

lovemyUKSA

didnt say we never met them, just said they live out of state...

Guiri

This comment has got me thinking... We have some friends writing affidavits, but I'm wondering what else we really need to send? I've read people send photos, phone bills, flight tickets etc etc. to back up the 'case', but in light of the above comment does sending extra info make any difference if it's not on the list in the instructions?

meauxna

Are you reading K-1 Fiance visa application experiences, or Immigrant Visa experiences? The applications are different.

The required evidence ("what we really need to send") are detailed in the I-130 instructions.

Guiri

Hi. This is for an I-130 with the beneficiary still residing outside the US.

meauxna

This could kick off a very esoteric and hypothetical discussion.

If you have some of the common 'red flags', you may have a good reason to 'front load' your petition with different kinds of evidence.

If you are a vanilla US/UK couple from the more or less same age group, the vast bulk of experiences shared by individuals and legal practitioners suggests that you simply follow the form instructions and not overthink it.
There are unintended consequences to many 'creative' actions. The more you give them, the more they have to go through and the more opportunity there is to create questions that require further answers.


This is your third thread on the topic of affidavits about the bona fide nature of your marriage. If you have a specific concern, you should articulate it here so that people can say 'oh, that's nothing, we faced the same' or 'wow, that IS unusual, you should do X'.