Key Takeaways:
- A marriage is bona fide if it involves a genuine relationship between spouses aligning with basic social and cultural marriage norms.
- To prove your relationship is genuine, offer evidence indicating that you and your spouse have intermingled lives and that you act and treat each other like spouses, like living together, sharing children, combining your finances or otherwise joining your lives.
- The government takes immigration fraud seriously, so proof of the relationship is essential.
If you’ve heard of a green card marriage, you’re familiar with what the U.S. government considers marriage fraud. When applying for a marriage-based green card, it’s essential to provide evidence indicating you didn’t get married only for the purpose of obtaining a green card.
This guide on what U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is looking for and what to avoid may help as you compile proof that your relationship is genuine—that is, that you have a bona fide marriage. We explore the bona fide relationship requirement, when it applies and how to prove your relationship is genuine.
What is a bona fide relationship?
When a noncitizen applies for a marriage-based green card, they have to prove they have a bona fide relationship—a Latin term meaning “in good faith”—with the sponsoring spouse. The requirement exists to combat immigration fraud.
Essentially, a bona fide relationship is a genuine relationship. You got married to be married, not to obtain a green card.
Pro tip:
You may see the requirement described as proving you have a bona fide marriage or a bona fide relationship. Because of different cultural practices surrounding marriage internationally, both phrases are useful. You may focus on proving your relationship is genuine—that you’ve been in a romantic relationship that led to marriage. Or you may focus on proving the marriage is genuine—that you entered the marriage according to your cultural practices.
When must you prove you have a bona fide marriage?
The bona fide marriage requirement applies to the following visa types:
- Immediate relative (IR): U.S. citizen sponsoring their noncitizen spouse
- Family-based second preference (F2A) visas: Lawful permanent resident (LPR) sponsoring their noncitizen spouse
- Fiancé(e) (K) visas: U.S. citizen sponsoring their noncitizen fiancé(e)
Conditional resident (CR) visas are a subcategory of IR and F2A visas. USCIS grants conditional residence, lasting two years before you apply for removal of conditions, to noncitizens who’ve been married for two years or less when they receive their green card.
Because of how seriously the U.S. government treats immigration fraud, you have to prove and re-prove your bona fide relationship several times during the green card process.
The green card process
You may have to provide evidence of the legitimacy of the relationship when:
- The U.S. citizen or LPR sponsor submits the immigrant visa petition
- The beneficiary spouse applies for a green card
- You attend your visa interview
- You attempt to enter the U.S. if you apply from abroad
- You apply to remove the conditions on your conditional residence (convert a two-year, unrenewable green card into a 10-year, renewable card)
Pro tip:
When you enter the U.S., you pass through a port of entry operated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), often located in airports. If CBP concludes your marriage is fraudulent, it has the power to turn you away, even if the State Department and USCIS have already approved your application. Keep that power in mind as you go through the entry process and avoid saying or doing anything that suggests your marriage isn’t legitimate, even if you’re only joking.
Special circumstances
You may qualify for a green card if your relationship was but is no longer bona fide through a Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) application or a widow(er) application.
Additionally, a noncitizen spouse may lose their green card eligibility if you divorce before they receive the card. However, they may apply to remove conditions on a green card after divorce. In those circumstances, proving the relationship was genuine is still crucial.
Pro tip:
If you’re involved in a marriage-based green card application, it may be advisable to consult a lawyer before pulling the divorce trigger to ensure you know the potential immigration consequences. Delaying even briefly might mean the difference between the noncitizen getting or not getting a green card.
How to prove a bona fide marriage
Given the many review stages, strong evidence is vital. You generally have the burden to prove the legitimacy of the marriage by a “preponderance of the evidence”. There are two parts about what this means about how to prove a bona fide marriage:
- Proving something by a “preponderance” means proving it’s more likely true than untrue.
- If you offer no evidence that your marriage is genuine, the government will, by default, conclude it’s not.
Pro tip:
The preponderance of the evidence standard is typical in civil cases—lawsuits that aren’t related to criminal law. Under the standard, you don’t have to convince someone that something is true, just that something is more likely true than false.
Documentary proof of a bona fide marriage
A marriage certificate is often the starting point of proof of a bona fide marriage, proving you’re legally married. You should also provide evidence that you and your spouse have legally joined lives.
Intermingled assets and joint ownership may help prove your lives are joined. This financial and legal proof may include documents like:
- Joint bank statements
- Joint statements from other financial institutions, like investment firms
- Life insurance beneficiary designations
- Retirement beneficiary designations
- Cards showing you’re on the same health plan
- Insurance statements showing both spouses are on the same auto, homeowners or renters insurance
- Joint tax returns
- Credit card statements showing the names of both spouses
- Mortgages or other loan documents in both spouse’s names
- Vehicle titles
- Property deeds
- Regular transfers of funds from one spouse to the other
- Legal designations like powers of attorney naming the other spouse
Showing that you live together also helps to prove the marriage is genuine. To prove you live or own property together, you may provide:
- A lease listing both spouses
- Utility bills in both names
- Mail addressed to one location
- Driver’s licenses with matching addresses
- Mortgage statements
Sharing children is another common aspect of marriage. You may offer:
- Birth certificates listing both spouses
- Adoption certificates listing both spouses
- Paternity test results
- Medical documentation of a current pregnancy
- Medical documentation of fertility treatments, miscarriages or other attempts to conceive
You may still prove your marriage is genuine without any of the above. However, be prepared to explain why you lack evidence of your lives being legally joined.
Pro tip:
Opening a joint financial account is a relatively simple way to support the legitimacy of your marriage. Modern options even allow both spouses to access the same funds from different countries.
Other proof may take the form of:
- Affidavits (signed, written statements) from friends and family who know you as a couple
- Photos of you and your spouse together, especially in casual settings with others
- Screenshots of messages between you and your spouse
- Tickets and details about trips you’ve taken together
Proving a bona fide marriage isn’t an exact science. Any documents suggesting your relationship is bona fide, even informal ones like screenshots, help.
If you lack documentation, explain why. Common explanations include cultural or religious practices surrounding marriage that you or your spouse follow.
Pro tip:
Consider offering screenshots of messages between you and your spouse to pad out a light application. You likely want to avoid salacious messages, but a hint of suggestiveness may actually help your application.
Proving a bona fide marriage through the interview
Proving a bona fide marriage during your interview means being consistent, prepared and honest. Your interviewer may ask questions like:
- How did you meet?
- How did you get engaged?
- Why did you get married?
- When did you get married?
- What was your wedding like?
- Who attended your wedding?
- What is your relationship like day-to-day?
- What are your hopes for the future of the relationship?
They’ll likely ask other questions based on your application, too. For example, if you live apart, they may ask for more details, like:
- Why you live apart
- How often you communicate
- Your plans to live together in the future
Pro tip:
Your responses may be the most memorable part of your application to your interviewer, who approves or denies the application. Practice interviewing. Don’t hesitate to study your relationship. Forgetting details is human, but forgetting key details about your marriage or spouse is a red flag.
What to avoid when offering proof of the relationship
The government may see various circumstances as red flags indicating the relationship may be fraud-based, including if you:
- Offer little to no proof of the relationship’s legitimacy
- Haven’t known each other very long
- Don’t know details about the relationship or one another
- Provide inconsistent information
- Don’t speak the same language
- Have a significant age gap
- Have substantial cultural, political or religious differences
- Don’t interact with friends and family as a couple
- Don’t appear to like each other—or even appear to dislike each other—in your interview
- Apply while the noncitizen spouse is in removal (deportation) proceedings
Your immigration history may raise red flags, too. The government may view it as particularly suspicious if the sponsor is an LPR who gained their legal status through marriage-based sponsorship within the last five years.
Pro tip:
The government won’t just look at previous marriage-based applications. Several green card applications of any type may raise red flags. If you have a history involving many failed attempts to get a green card, speak with a lawyer and be prepared to explain your previous applications.
Consequences of failing to prove your bona fide relationship
As the government reviews (and re-reviews) your application, failure to prove your relationship is genuine becomes increasingly serious. The earlier in the process, the more likely the government is to ask you to provide additional information rather than denying your application. Eventually, however, failing to prove your relationship is genuine will result in denial.
At best, a denial means you’ll have lost money on application fees and travel costs. At worst, an officer may conclude you’ve committed immigration fraud.
For the noncitizen, committing immigration fraud may result in the U.S. government banning you from returning for the rest of your life. If the sponsor is an LPR, they could be deported and subject to the same ban. If the sponsor is a U.S. citizen, they could face criminal charges.
How a lawyer can help
Proving your marriage is genuine may sound simple, but many couples aren’t prepared for the intensity with which the government attempts to weed out immigration fraud. Hiring an immigration attorney may make the difference between proving or not proving the legitimacy of your relationship—and the difference between getting or not getting a green card.
Your lawyer may help you complete your application and compile supporting evidence, offering advice about what evidence is most useful. They may also respond to questions from USCIS or the State Department, prepare you for your interview and provide support and advice throughout the process.
While you may technically sponsor a spouse for a green card almost as many times as you like, frequent sponsors are likely to be flagged as committing immigration fraud. Their applications may be denied, and they may face criminal charges.
Sources
https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/green-card-for-family-preference-immigrants
https://www.uscis.gov/family/family-of-us-citizens/visas-for-fiancees-of-us-citizens
https://www.uscis.gov/i-360; https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f
https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-a-chapter-5
https://www.cbp.gov/about/contact/ports
https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/abused-spouses-children-and-parents
https://www.uscis.gov/green-card/green-card-eligibility/widower
https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=(title:8%20section:1325
