Introduction, and a few questions

[David11]

Greetings CFL! Long time lurker, first time poster

 

My name is David and I am trying to prepare early so I am looking for some advice on a couple of things.

 

First, here's our relationship background:

 

Oct 2008 - Met my fiancee online (Skype). At the time she was going through a divorce. Her husband was aware and agreed that their relationship was over but refused to sign the paperwork as he was too ashamed to face his family who was against their getting married originally.

 

Oct 2008-Feb 2009 - Talked online daily, usually through Skype. Initially it was just just text, and just when both of us were at work (I worked evenings) so she could practice English. Gradually we both started chatting at home also, and then it moved on to audio, then video chats.

 

Feb 2009 - I took a 17 day trip to China and we met for the first time. I planned to actually visit China while I was there also but I ended up spending virtually all of the trip with her in her suburban town as she couldn't get time of of work to travel around with me.

 

Feb-June 2009 - Continued talking daily and started to plan for the future. I would take a teaching job in China beginning in the Fall and she would go wherever I went to be me. I accepted the possibility of living in China forever to be with her and she accepted the possibility of needing to come to the USA to be with me. After a trial period together and me in China for a while we would evaluate the decision and choose a direction.

 

June/July 2009 - Her divorce was finalized.

 

Aug 2009-Present - I moved to China and we've lived together since. Both of us agree our future children would have a better life in the USA and financially it just makes more sense for us to be there. Apparently the year of the tiger is a bad year to get married according to superstition/tradition, so we're holding off on getting married until CNY in Feb 2011. I will DCF shortly after that.

 

I've spent probably hundreds of hours reading dozens of websites trying to do my homework for this, as it's the most important thing in both of our lives to this point. I do have two questions pertaining to my situation that I am hoping you can give me some advice on.

 

1. Is our relationship starting before her divorce certificate was obtained likely to cause a problem?

 

2. Creativity was never my strong point and I'm having trouble coming up with what I can use as evidence to front-load our application to prove the bona fide relationship. What Skype dialogue we did have before moving to voice/video calls over the net was not saved. There were no letters or phone calls made from real phones, and the half dozen emails only consisted of things like "My Skype won't work, try msn". There is virtually nothing that proves we had any contact prior to August 2009, and since that time we've lived together so we certainly were not writing each other letters or emails.

 

The suggested materials from the I-130 application for proving a bona fide relationship are pretty much out of the question. We don't own property together, we live together but in housing provided by my employer so there is no joint lease, a joint bank account doesn't seem possible, and we don't have children together yet. Surely this has to be the case for many/most couples in China though, so what do you use?

 

I still have 6 months to work with to prepare anything that could possibly be useful but I am not sure what would be a good idea.

 

At this point I have a print out of my flight itinerary from both trips to China (I don't have the actual tickets) and about 20 pictures together taken over the last year. That doesn't seem like it would prove anything beyond me having a flight reservation to China and that I was physically with this woman for a photo op on a few occasions.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[xiaofeizhu]

Welcome to CFL!

 

I also DCFed in China, so when you do get to your DCF next year, I am willing to answer any questions that I can for you.

 

As to your situation, I am sure others will come along with better suggestions. The things I can think of are:

 

1. Do you have any pics from your meeting in Feb 2009? That would probably help to show you met physically and have known each other for 2 years (it will be two years next year since you first physically met)

2. I never had e-mails, but I imagine even those type of "try msn" e-mails would be good for just showing that you have been in contact with each other

3. You still have some time to gather more evidence. Take pictures, and do anything you can to gather other evidence.

 

Other things that I did while in China include adding my hubby to my credit union account. I know many people have problems with this without their spouse/fiance being present, but if you have a CU account in the states, they might be willing to let you add her. For me, my CU told me to have the form signed by me, and my husband, then notarize the signatures. See if they are willing to do this for you, too.

 

Try to get affidavits from people who know you and can attest to your relationship. This is good and I included two because I didn't have many types of evidence like joint ownership of assets other than the credit union account, which had a balance of like $53.

 

Maybe if your employer knows that your fiance is living with you they would be willing to provide an affidavit stating that know you have been living together since _____.

 

My hubby and I took literally thousands of pics during our time together before we DCFed. Obviously, we did not include this many pics, but we did pick some in different places and different times, with mutual friends, family, etc.

 

Other than that, make sure that you have evidence to establish your domicile.

 

Good luck, and I am sure others will have better ideas!

[b.c]

 

1. Is our relationship starting before her divorce certificate was obtained likely to cause a problem?

 

 

As you probably know by reading the forum for awhile that there are very few hardcore, easy, definitive answers for much of anything related to GUZ and this process. However, given the details that you stated in your story, this is highly unlikely to be a problem.

 

Many people on here have met their SO while still being married, me included. I have never seen it to be a problem when it is a natural and understandable situation such as yours.

 

Welcome and Good Luck!

[bullmastiff]

Greetings CFL! Long time lurker, first time poster

 

My name is David and I am trying to prepare early so I am looking for some advice on a couple of things.

 

First, here's our relationship background:

 

Oct 2008 - Met my fiancee online (Skype). At the time she was going through a divorce. Her husband was aware and agreed that their relationship was over but refused to sign the paperwork as he was too ashamed to face his family who was against their getting married originally.

 

Oct 2008-Feb 2009 - Talked online daily, usually through Skype. Initially it was just just text, and just when both of us were at work (I worked evenings) so she could practice English. Gradually we both started chatting at home also, and then it moved on to audio, then video chats.

 

Feb 2009 - I took a 17 day trip to China and we met for the first time. I planned to actually visit China while I was there also but I ended up spending virtually all of the trip with her in her suburban town as she couldn't get time of of work to travel around with me.

 

Feb-June 2009 - Continued talking daily and started to plan for the future. I would take a teaching job in China beginning in the Fall and she would go wherever I went to be me. I accepted the possibility of living in China forever to be with her and she accepted the possibility of needing to come to the USA to be with me. After a trial period together and me in China for a while we would evaluate the decision and choose a direction.

 

June/July 2009 - Her divorce was finalized.

 

Aug 2009-Present - I moved to China and we've lived together since. Both of us agree our future children would have a better life in the USA and financially it just makes more sense for us to be there. Apparently the year of the tiger is a bad year to get married according to superstition/tradition, so we're holding off on getting married until CNY in Feb 2011. I will DCF shortly after that.

 

I've spent probably hundreds of hours reading dozens of websites trying to do my homework for this, as it's the most important thing in both of our lives to this point. I do have two questions pertaining to my situation that I am hoping you can give me some advice on.

 

1. Is our relationship starting before her divorce certificate was obtained likely to cause a problem?

 

2. Creativity was never my strong point and I'm having trouble coming up with what I can use as evidence to front-load our application to prove the bona fide relationship. What Skype dialogue we did have before moving to voice/video calls over the net was not saved. There were no letters or phone calls made from real phones, and the half dozen emails only consisted of things like "My Skype won't work, try msn". There is virtually nothing that proves we had any contact prior to August 2009, and since that time we've lived together so we certainly were not writing each other letters or emails.

 

The suggested materials from the I-130 application for proving a bona fide relationship are pretty much out of the question. We don't own property together, we live together but in housing provided by my employer so there is no joint lease, a joint bank account doesn't seem possible, and we don't have children together yet. Surely this has to be the case for many/most couples in China though, so what do you use?

 

I still have 6 months to work with to prepare anything that could possibly be useful but I am not sure what would be a good idea.

 

At this point I have a print out of my flight itinerary from both trips to China (I don't have the actual tickets) and about 20 pictures together taken over the last year. That doesn't seem like it would prove anything beyond me having a flight reservation to China and that I was physically with this woman for a photo op on a few occasions.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Don't see any problem. You are getting married 1 year after her divorce. Try to get sworn affidavit statements from the superintendent of the building and others that you live together as a husband -wife . Take a lot of good pictures . Family photos.

 

The biggest concern that you need to remove from the mind of VO is your wife got divorced in order to marry you so that she can immigrate to the US and later divorce you and remarry her ex. That's where non bonafide relationship is .

 

Good luck.