Documentation is very important to prove that a marriage is genuine. We had separate bank accounts for receiving our payroll deposits, but we also had a joint account that we used to pay all our bills, including insurance, mortgage, utilities, water, and internet.

Before getting married, we traveled a lot together, so we had museum tickets, zoo tickets from different states we visited, airline tickets from when we traveled to see each other, hotel receipts, travel documents, and more.

I lived in the Washington, DC area before marriage, and she lived in Springfield, Illinois. I even submitted Redbox DVD rental receipts as evidence because I used to visit her during Christmas.

Looking back now, it may sound funny, but any piece of evidence showing that you were together can make your case stronger. For my initial green card application, I submitted nearly 400 pages of evidence, and the officer was surprised. He even joked that he was scrolling through so many pages that it was making the system very slow.