Marrying a U.S. citizen or permanent resident entitles a non-citizen to apply to reside permanently in the United States and to work here, in most cases. Many people call this “getting a green card,” referring to the permanent resident ID card that one is issued upon approval. Some people try to game this system, however, by entering into sham marriages for immigration and employment purposes. Because of this, U.S. law requires couples applying for permanent residence to prove that their marriage is authentic or bona fide; that is, based on love and wanting to build a life together.
A marriage certificate alone is not enough to prove that your marriage is authentic. From the very first petition that you, a U.S. citizen or permanent resident, file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), you will need to provide documentation showing how the two of you share or are building that life. This is meant to counter the U.S. government's typical suspicion that marriages with foreign nationals are driven by the latter's wish to get a green card; and perhaps the U.S. petitioner's wish to be paid for helping with that. For most couples, showing that they live in the same house or apartment is an important part of the application process. For married couples who don’t actually live together, the immigration process is more challenging. Still, there is no reason you can’t get a green card. The following tips should help.
Documenting Your Shared Life to USCIS
USCIS Form I-130 is the form that U.S. citizens or permanent residents must fill out and submit in order to demonstrate a real relationship with a foreign-born spouse. (It’s also used for any other eligible relative who wants to immigrate to the United States.) It will be up to you, however, to decide what supporting documents to submit with this form in order to show that your marriage is real and not a mere fraud to get the immigrant a green card.
Normally, married couples supply some combination of the following:
- joint tax returns
- joint bank account statements
- birth certificates of children born to the couple
- leases/mortgages/deeds
- evidence of joint ownership of vehicles
- evidence of joint insurance for car, home or apartment, or health
- statements from jointly held credit cards
- photos of the couple, including with family and friends
- utility bills for jointly occupied property, and
- copies of will, trusts, or investments showing that the other half of the couple is the named beneficiary in the case of death.
Without a substantial combination of the above, USCIS is likely to deny the I-130 based on insufficient evidence that the marriage is authentic.
As you no doubt noticed, many of the items on the list relate to actually sharing the same home or apartment. But although living apart raises red flags for USCIS, it’s possible to overcome these hurdles, prove you have an authentic marriage.
Types of Documentation That Might Satisfy USCIS If You Don’t Live Together
Many authentically married couples do not live together, due to school, work, or other reasons. This isn’t something to hide, but instead to explain to USCIS, in addition to focusing on providing other documents showing how you overcome the distance and the ways in which you do share your life.
First, prepare an explanation of why you are not living together, to include with your I-130 packet. Go into detail, so that the USCIS examiner will understand your position.
If, for example, you are living apart for educational reasons, describe your reasons for choosing that school. Often people meet at school, then one of them is forced to take a job in a different part of the country. If you are living apart due to employment, describe attempts to find jobs that would allow you to live in the same community, as well as the plans you have to reunite in the future. If you have difficulty drafting this explanatory statement on your own, a lawyer can help.
Next, you might have to get a little creative with supporting documents.
Look again at the document list above, and figure out which ones do apply to your situation. Although recent documents are important, older ones can also be useful, to show that your relationship has been consistent over time. (Documents showing a five-year relationship, for instance, will be more persuasive than an album of photos taken on vacation last month.)
Also, focus on demonstrating how you maintain the relationship in spite of living apart. To do this, it's important for the documents to establish that they are from the period you were not living together.
Things like airline itineraries showing you traveling to meet each other regularly or pictures of holidays you have spent together or with you families can help. Documents with time stamps are good. Copies of letters, emails, or texts between you can show your efforts to stay in touch. If one of you drove to see the other, receipts from places like gas stations along the way or credit card statements that show transactions along the way will be good to include.
If you are actively seeking employment that would allow you to live together, any documents you have that show this—copies of job applications, emails between you and prospective employers, even the job listings that you've responded to—can help you establish that you are doing everything you can to live together as a married couple.
Obviously, what you choose to submit will depend on the specifics of your situation. Some documents carry more evidentiary weight than others. Evidence of children born together, for instance, is particularly strong; while photos of all sorts are relatively weak, because they can be staged.
The most important thing is to be honest, within the I-130 petition as well as any other that you file with the U.S. government. If found to have committed marriage fraud, the immigrant will be barred from receiving permanent residence through a visa petition for life. And both halves of the couple could be accused of a crime and, if found guilty, punished with fines or prison time.