8 CFR 204.2 enumerates the evidence USCIS lists for a bona fide marriage: joint property, a joint lease, commingled finances, children's birth certificates and third-party affidavits — followed by “any other documentation which is relevant”.
Chat records are in that last category
Not the enumerated list. That is worth knowing before anyone builds a filing around them, and any vendor telling you USCIS wants chat logs most is describing a product rather than the rule.
The honest claim is narrower and still useful: communication records fill the gap when the strong categories are thin. That is the position of couples who are recently married, long distance, keep separate finances, or are waiting on a lease.
What a record actually shows
How often you spoke, over what period, the longest gap, and every call with its date and duration. Each figure traces to a line in your own export, so anything in it can be checked against the original.
What it cannot show
It cannot prove a relationship is real, and it does not assess your case. It shows what your messages contain. Whether that helps is a question for a qualified immigration attorney, and acceptance is the adjudicator's decision.
Sources
Questions
- Does USCIS require chat records for an I-130?
No. 8 CFR 204.2 enumerates joint property, a joint lease, commingled finances, children's birth certificates and third-party affidavits — and then “any other documentation which is relevant.” Chat records sit in that last category, not the enumerated list.
That makes them most useful where the enumerated categories are thin: couples who married recently, who live apart, who keep separate finances, or who are still waiting on a lease. Anyone telling you USCIS wants chat logs most is describing their product rather than the rule.
- Should we submit everything, or pick out the strongest exchanges?
All of it, in date order. A selection invites the question of what was left out, and where a translation is involved a summary is not permitted at all — the USCIS Policy Manual, Volume 1, Part E, Chapter 6 says a summary prepared by a translator is unacceptable.
There is no page limit on what we produce, so length is our problem rather than yours. You choose the date range; we produce every message in it.
- Our messages are not in English. What has to happen?
8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) asks for a full English translation certified by the translator as complete and accurate, together with their certification that they are competent to translate from that language. That is the whole of the requirement.
There is no approved-translator list, no credential requirement, and no notarisation mandate — notarisation attests to a signature, not to the accuracy of a translation. We offer it because consulates and courts ask for it, not because the regulation does.
This describes how a record and its translation are produced. It is not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. BonaFile is not a law firm, does not assess cases, and cannot promise how any filing will be decided.