Although there are many possible ways to prove that your marriage is bona fide for immigration purposes, here we focus on what documents are the best to bring when appearing in person at an interview with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) or other designated agency abroad.
USCIS usually assesses whether marriages are genuine by looking at factors such as how long people have known each other before getting married, whether they live together if they have children together etc.
A key part of a successful case is providing documents in order to satisfy USCIS that your marriage was bona fide at the inception and not entered into for immigration purposes.
This evidence is usually broken down into 4 main types.
- Joint Ownership or Lease of Property
- Joint Financial Assets
- Joint Financial Liabilities
- Evidence of the Relationship and Joint Activities
Let's look at each of the four.