IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT TRAVEL DOCUMENTS 

 

It is totally your responsibility to have all of your REQUIRED documents on you to enter into Lagos, Nigeria once you board an airplane.  Not having all the documents after you land in Lagos, Nigeria can get you in legal trouble.  You can be arrested for that!  Make sure you have everything you need!

 

Make at least 2 copies of your passport and International Certificate of Vaccination (your visa will be on one of your passport pages, so if you copy your entire passport, it will be copied also). 

 

Give a copy of your passport and International Certificate of Vaccination to two reliable people.  If you lose your passport, or it is stolen while you are in Nigeria, you CANNOT leave the country without it!  If you make copies, than you can contact those persons and have them sent to you Fed-Ex (not the regular mail please for security reasons). Take that copy to the Nigerian Embassy, and ask for assistance.

 

The phone number to Travel Documents Systems, Inc. is 1-800-424-8472 (toll free) or (202) 638-3800 (direct number)

 

 

THE WEDDING

 

A friend of mine told me about a woman that flew to a country to marry her fiancé.  The couple had no pictures taken, no official documentation proving that they were married, and it took three years (yes, shockingly 3-years) to get her husband back to her country. 

 

After hearing that story, my husband and I decided that we would not let that happen to us, and we do MORE THAN WAS REQUIRED OR ASKED FOR in order to prove and validate that our wedding was legal.  Some of what I am going to tell you is not required, but again I say, we did MORE THAN WAS REQUIRED in order for Immigration not to ask us for even one more piece of paper to make a decision on our petitions.  Therefore, we did this when we were married:

 

We were married at the Marriage Registry in Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria.  At the time we were married (January 4, 2007), the Marriage Registry married couples on Thursday and Saturday only.  We choose to be married there because:

 

A couple must undergo marriage counseling prior to the ceremony, and when we did that, it gave us a legal paper trail of what we had done.

 

The Marriage Registry gives you a Marriage Certificate, Witness Books (thumb prints of your witnesses in your Witness Books), and it is also a very strong legal paper trail of what you have done

 

My husband hired a person to videotape our wedding

 

My husband hired a person to take multiple photographs of our wedding

 

We had two witnesses at our wedding (my husband’s niece and my husband’s best friend, who was his best man)

 

We asked my husband’s niece to sign a SWORN AFFIDAVIT that she witnessed the wedding.  We also had some of our wedding pictures stamped and swore in along with our Sworn Affidavit to make the pictures legal documents of the court.  The Sworn Affidavit was registered in the High Court of Lagos, stamped, and given back to me to include in my paperwork for when I would came back home and filled out the petitions to bring my husband and stepson to the states.  My husband secured the services of his lawyer to assist us with the Sworn Affidavit, and he processed this for us (for a fee of course).

 

We opened up a joint savings bank account with

both our names on it to prove that as a married couple we have assets together in Lagos, Nigeria.  It does not matter the amount of the bank account, but the savings account record will show you own something together as man and wife. 

 

NOTE:  The things above were done to make sure that Immigration did not come back and question the legality of our wedding, for the Marriage Certificate, Witness Books, Sworn Affidavit, photographs, and savings account strengthen our position as having a legal and valid marriage.   We were prayerful and determined that it would not take us three years  (as was the case in the other woman’s situation) for my husband and stepson to get approved.  And, thank God, he blessed us in that respect!

 

G-325A BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION  FORM

 

Before going to Nigeria to be married, you should call the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) office and order the forms that you need to fill out on behalf of your husband when you get back to the states.  One form in particular that you need to take with you to Nigeria, so your husband can fill out is the G-325A Biographic Information form.  This form requires residency and work history information for the past five years.  You must submit one for your husband and yourself for each petition (I130 and I129F) you file.  Your husband needs to fill out two of these forms, so you can file with each petition when you go home, so take two with you when you go.  The phone number to USCIS is 1-800-375-5283.  You will need to order (1) I-I130, I129F, and G-325A forms. I suggest you order at least two (2) I130 and I129F petitions in case you make an error, and four (4) G-325A forms in case you also make errors.  Usually the G-325A comes attached with the I-129F petition, but make sure to request it anyway.

 

I130 IMMIGRANT PETITION FOR RELATIVE, FIANCE (E), OR ORPHAN

 

            In researching the quickest way to get my husband over to the United States, we decided to apply for K3 and K4 Visas.  For more information about the K3 and K4 Visas, please read about it on the website at www.state.gov/travel.   You may choose to go another route, but I am giving you information for following the route my husband and I took.

 

FIRST, I filed the I130 Petition, and as soon as I received the I-797C, Notice of Action (which is a notification from the USCIS Office letting you know they received your petition and  how it is being handled), I made a copy of the I-797C Notice of Action and included it in my I129F Petition that I filed next.  Please do not delay filing them back-to-back, for if you do, it will take longer in getting your husband approved.

 

            Now, let’s back up here somewhat. The I130 Petition is the first petition you should file when you return home.  If you have ordered the petitions (I130 and I129F)  prior to leaving for Nigeria, then there will be no delay.  The cost to file the I130 Petition is $190.00. You should fill out the form in its entirety, and follow all instructions.  Make sure you fill the petition out correctly, for you do not want delays due to errors made on your part.  Do not forget to include the G-325A Biographic Information form with this petition! Read carefully which USCIS Office you should mail your petition to, for that will vary according to where you live.  I read through the directions, highlighting important information, so after I filled out the petition; I knew exactly what to do with it.  Again, mistakes can cause delays, so if you need to get someone to double-check behind you, please do.  Better safe than sorry!

 

            Important note:  Make sure they have your husband’s name spelled correctly on the aI-797C Notice of Action.  If they do not, contact them immediately, so this can be corrected.  You do not want problems later when his visa-issuing papers are sent to the Lagos Nigeria Embassy, and his name does not match the paperwork sent.