[turtle_samurai]

Hi Peter, when i went to Hacker news this morning and saw this post i thought, that's a bit unusual, an attorney??, so i think its cool that an immigration attorney visits channels like this. Anyways, me and my soon to be wife (we get married next Friday) have consulted an immigration lawyer regarding my status, i overstayed my tourist visa, so now im out of status, the lawyer mentioned that i have a pretty good chance to adjust my status since i came here legally and i don't have any felonies or anything bad on my record, however my concern is this, should we and my future wife wait a bit longer to apply for this change of status until we have more hard evidence? we live together and have a joint bank account, in which i deposit a certain amount each month so she can pay bills etc, thing is she is not regularly using the card, she just uses a big portion on the rent or she just transfers it to her personal, we will also get our phone and car insurance bills together, we have joint Costco membership too, what other evidence do you recommend we should work on or is there a resource online i can use as a guide to build an excellent case? thank you!!

[iambvk]

Peter does this every few months on Hackernews.

[dang]

Yup: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=proberts

[proberts]

Assuming that your wife is a U.S. citizen, you should be fine; the law forgives overstays and unauthorized employment for those pursuing green cards based on marriage to a U.S. citizen. Of course, I haven't reviewed your background but on the face of it, I don't see any reason for you to wait to file but I would recommend that you defer to your lawyer since he or she will have all the facts.

[donohoe]

Not a lawyer, but this is similar to my situation.

I personally would not delay. It will be awhile before you get to the interview stage so you also have that time to show your relationship is genuine and collect proof of a life together.

I don't know of a list; but my wife and I had things like:

  - wedding photos!
  - mobile phone family plan
  - joint tax filings
  - sample of letters/postcards sent to us (separate and together) at same address 
    (xmas cards etc. and even some junk mail)
  - name on utilities
  - photos at different events, weddings, birthdays, sports, etc.

We didn't need most of it in the end but you never know - and this was over 15 years ago.

Congrats!