I’m preparing to submit an I-485 (concurrent filing) and I’m confused by the list of required documents. Everywhere says you need a birth certificate, a valid U.S. visa, an EAD, and a whole bunch more. Is this officially stated anywhere in the USCIS instructions for the form, or are these unofficial requirements that just circulate on forums?
The official list is right on the USCIS site - there’s a checklist for I-485 marked as “for informational purposes only”, but that’s the baseline. I prepared: I-485, a copy of my passport, I-94, I-140 approval (I-797), a copy of the visa, a translated birth certificate, medical form I-693. Many people optionally add tax returns and education documents - some officers later request them, others don’t. Forum checklists are more extensive for exactly that reason: it’s better to over-prepare than to get an RFE.
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Thanks, now it’s clear. So the checklist on the USCIS website is the official basis, and everything else people add just in case so they don’t get an RFE.
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Yes, and one more item from the checklist that many people skip — there’s a separate point saying that entry must have been through inspection and parole. For those who entered on an F-1 through a regular port, that’s the passport stamp plus the I-94. I didn’t have any questions about this point, but I attached both documents.
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The marriage certificate is also on the basic checklist — people often forget it when preparing for concurrent filing, because all the attention goes to the I-140 and the medical exam. When I went through the list myself I only discovered it closer to the filing time — I had to rush to request an apostille from Russia.
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I saw a case like that — my husband and I both received an RFE (Request for Evidence) on our I-485 because of the birth certificate. Of course we’d submitted them in the packet, but an RFE still arrived requesting “submit a copy of your birth certificate” for each. Because of that I included both the original notarized translation and a separate copy in my packet — better an extra sheet than waiting several weeks for an RFE response.
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