Documents for Filing A Marriage-Based Green Card Application from Inside of the United States

Last Updated: November 10, 2022

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If you’re looking to file a Marriage-Based Green Card application from inside of the US and want to use SimpleCitizen to generate your application, here are a few of the documents you may want to gather in preparation for filling out your questionnaire.

However, this is not a comprehensive list. Depending on the unique circumstances of your case, you may be prompted to add more documents. You should not rely on this list alone when preparing your evidence.

NOTE: USCIS only accepts certain documents from each country for birth certificates, marriage and divorce certificates, military or police documents, etc. You can check your country’s documents here to make sure you have the correct documents accepted by USCIS.

Information:

Note that you will not need to provide physical evidence for the following. Rather, you will just need the required information in order to fill out the questionnaire or government forms.

1. Beneficiary’s Address history for the past 5 years
   • Should include start date, end date, and address information
2. Beneficiary’s most recent address outside of the US for one year or more (if different from above)
3. Beneficiary's employment history for the past 5 years
   • Should include start date, end date, position, company, and company address
4. Petitioner’s Address history for the past 5 years
   • Should include start date, end date, and address information
5. Petitioner’s employment history for the past 5 years
   • Should include start date, end date, position, company, and company address

Documentation:

Note: For your initial application to USCIS you will just be adding high-quality scans. However, you will need to take original documents with you to the USCIS interview for documents such as birth certificates, passports, visas, marriage certificates, divorce certificates, etc. Make sure you have those available and ready for the interview as you are often only given a 2-5 week notice to appear for that interview. 

Identity Documents for the Beneficiary 

1. Beneficiary’s Birth Certificate
2. Beneficiary’s Passport

Visa and Travel Documents for the Beneficiary 

1. Beneficiary’s I-94 travel record (look it up here)
2. Beneficiary’s US Visa 
3. Passport from most recent entry into the US
4. Current passport if different from the passport from entry
5. For J visa holders: All DS-2019s
6. For F visa holders: All I-20s 

Identity Documents for the Petitioner 

1. Petitioner’s Passport, Driver’s License, or form of other photo ID
2. Petitioner’s Birth Certificate 
3. Petitioner’s Permanent Resident Card or Naturalization documentation (if applicable) 

Financial documents for the Petitioner 

Note: These documents, along with proof of US citizenship or permanent residence, should also be included for any Joint Sponsor or any household members whose income is being added to the application. If the beneficiary is eligible to and plans on including their income as well, they should also prepare to add these documents.

1. Most Recent 6 Month of Pay Stubs for any current employer 
2. Employment Verification Letter for any current Employer 
3. Tax Return and W-2s (OR tax transcript) for the most recent tax year (required) 
4. Tax Returns and W-2s (OR tax transcript) for the second and third most recent tax years (total income amount from returns is REQUIRED. Documents themselves are optional)

Note: If a petitioner is self-employed or retired different documents will be requested to prove this income. It is very common to add a joint sponsor if the sponsor is self-employed due to self-employment income being considered less secure and the documentation less clearly being able to prove the income history.

Proof of Relationship Documents: 

1. Marriage Certificate
2. Divorce Certificates for any previous marriages
3. Relationship evidence such as:
   • Joint ownership, lease or tenancy
   • Joint financial responsibilities
   • Joint assets and co-mingling of funds
   • Joint Insurance statements
   • Letters of support from friends & family

Additional relationship documents for Marriage-Based Applications: 

Relationship evidence: You will provide a variety of relationship evidence to prove the validity of your marriage. It can be helpful to add a good variety of different types of evidence (15+ different types of evidence). This evidence commonly totals 100-200 pages of evidence. This evidence should include a variety of evidence types including but not limited to the examples listed below.

1. 20-40 diverse photographs of the couple 
2. Evidence of Joint Financial Responsibility 
3. Evidence of Joint Assets or Co-mingling of Funds 
4. Evidence of Shared Residence 
5. Evidence of Joint Insurances 

Filing a Marriage-Based Adjustment of Status

SimpleCitizen is here to help make collecting documentation and filling out USCIS paperwork easier! The best way to get started with SimpleCitizen is to take our quick eligibility quiz at the link below. This will help you find the correct application package for your specific situation.

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