Friend has asked me to write an affidavit for relationship before marriage - US Visa

[Glitterspy]

Hi everyone, just hoping someone can help with some advice/ reassurance.

A very old friend who lives in the US (resident approx 3 years) asked me to write a 'letter' confirming her relationship to her partner is real (he's legally her husband in the US as they married when she first moved over to New York).

I can do this - I know he's really her partner, I met him in March 2013 when they were in London, etc etc.

However now she's just sent me an iphone snap of the requirements documentation, which calls this 'letter' an affidavit and seems to have all these conditions relating to the content, potential to be called as a witness, etc etc.

I am now in deeper water than I expected - I thought I was just signing up to write a breezy letter. Despite knowing I'm only going to be writing the truth, it's all a lot heavier legally than I expected and I don't want to be implicated in something that might mean I have to travel to the US to testify, should it come to that (I doubt it would?) as I have a 2 year old and am 35 weeks pregnant with DC2.

Should I just write it and stop worrying? Any reassurance or advice would be very welcome!

Thanks in advance

[Hufflepuffin]

No proper legal advice but I did this for a friend, just stick to the facts and don't fudge anything! They had attended my wedding together so I included pics from that with the wedding invite (to show the date). I didn't wax on about their relationship as I didn't know him that well so was most emphatic in the fact I had known her for 20 years and would trust her entirely.

[Glitterspy]

Thanks so much...so you didn't get hauled before a court or anything!

[AnchorDownDeepBreath]

To be honest, a breezy letter was never really going to stand for much.

You just honestly write what you know, which is presumably that you know her well, and that they've been in a relationship for X amount of time, they've come to do X,Y,Z with you, etc.

They'll send this letter off with all of the other required evidence, and it's likely that it'll be enough to "prove" the relationship and it'll all be rubber-stamped without you needing to do anything else, especially as the relationship is genuine so proving it won't be a problem.

There is an outside chance that further evidence could be required, in which case they'd usually write to you to ask for more information, or they could invite you to court to ask you - but it'd be very unusual for you be summoned to the US to testify. The number of times that this happens for genuine relationships is tiny. In that case, you'd make contact and explain that you can't really travel because of your personal circumstances.

As Huffle said, stick to the facts, include copies of photos of anything significant if you've got them and don't worry. It is official, it has to be, but it's not scary.

[HawkEyeTheNoo]

I had to do the same for a friends wife to be given a visa for the uk, just stick to the facts. Eg. I had known the wife for about two years albeit only having met her a couple of times but chatted on Skype frequently and was Skype "present" at the wedding. Yes if there is any doubt you can be contacted by the authorities, but all you can do is tell the truth. I really wouldn't worry too much