ian-mstm

You always have such great stories!

Ian

New England Pete

Hi Chaps, sorry for not getting back sooner.

Thanks rpjs, I will have a look at that resource.

Hi Rich, thanks so much for your post on the process, the time and effort you put in to that is a wonderful gift. I'm going to work through that and other resources. You're right I will have questions and it is a bit daunting but the way you set it out really helps. The table of documents, is that an official checklist? as I haven't seen it on the official USCIS site.

The birth and marriage certificates are notarized copies with the embossed stamp from 2006, I'm guessing these will be okay won't they? We have multiple copies so I might just send the proper copy (embossed) rather than copy those. Do you get them back at the end? not that it really matters.

New England Pete

I notice on your list the petitioner sent in a birth certificate and a US hospital certificate of birth. I'm not sure what the second is or how to go about getting it but reading the official instructions for I-130 it seems to suggest that a birth certificate and passport would suffice.

ian-mstm

For the I-130 you don't need both... either is acceptable on its own to establish that the petitioner is a USC.

Ian

New England Pete

okay thanks, as the birth certificate is a better copy I think i'll send that

richbogle84

No. I wanted to have my visa sorted as soon as possible and wanted to avoid an RFE but couldn't find a comprehensive checklist anywhere with USCIS. Instead, I trawled through the BE forum and asked a bunch of questions on here to create my own checklist.

Yep, you'll probably find a few instances where I gathered potentially more documents or evidence than was required. This is simply me wanting to be especially diligent to help ensure the process went as smoothly as possible. It doesn't mean that each and every document I gathered/submitted was required.

This also helps explain why i included a table of contents with the various packages I submitted -- I wanted to make it as easy and straightforward as possible for the folks processing our documents

Rich.

New England Pete

That's great Rich, far better to have too much than not enough!

richbogle84

Absolutely...I'd rather have a document and not need it, than need it and not have it!

As with all things immigration it seems, it pays to be thorough

New England Pete

Does anyone know of a link for the exact formatting of the photos that need to be sent with i-130? I did see somewhere that it was 2"x2" which I thought was very strange for a portrait, I can't find the link to where I saw it now.

Thanks

Noorah101

Try searching at www.uscis.gov. You need standard US size passport photos.

Rene

New England Pete

Thanks Noorah101, I was looking under i-130 when it actually goes with the g-325a. It is 2x2.