No lease/mortgage, will that be a problem?

[Imua 0]

My husband has been here for 1 year and we are already collecting evidence so we are ready to file the I-751 next year.

We have a joint bank account, state IDs showing same address, also he is covered under my work health/dental/life insurance. We will have tax forms for 2 years and I saved the itinerary and boarding passes from our trip to India with both our names.

We do not have a lease or mortgage in our names(in an apartment share situation), will this be a problem? Are there any other pieces of evidence that we should plan on including?

[v333k 59]

Hi there!

That should not be a big deal. However, make sure that your utilities, bank statements, credit cards, and everything else has both your names on it. We had a problem with some of these service providers and we insisted on having both names (even if one is account holder and other is authorized user).... if you prepare all these well, then the lease will become a secondary issue (just like our case and our package).

However, you have done the best thing which is to prepare ahead and be ready when the time come for ROC

good luck!

[Okalian 41]

It also won't hurt if you include a statement explaining why you don't have a joint lease/mortgage.

[mrs.sr 0]

Regarding names on bills, our utility companies (electric, cable, phone0 etc would not agree to add 2 names on the account but they agreed to put both our names on the bills.

<My Name>

Attn: <My wife's name>

Address

[sasaqlain 24]

We have no formal lease or contract for out apartment as the landlord is known to us and we didn't need one. But we do have utilities in our names. During our AOS we got a letter from our landlord stating that we were his tenants and mentioned the dates. Also we submitted our utility bills with the application. No question was asked during our AOS process. I think if you give your reason for not having a lease and possibly in writing, that is no reason to be doubtful of a genuine relationship.

[Darnell 8,478]

apartment share?

I dunno squat about that - but you really should generate some type of rental agreement or lease-holder's agreement, asap.

ROC is all about 'co-mingling of finances', among other things, and IMO, a lease document, rental document, SOMETHING that qualifies the domicile as 'our living-together address' (other than utility bills) is important.

Someone holds the lease, right ?

Someone pays rent to some agent, right ?

You really should (again IMO ) rethink this, asap.

[fedekat 0]

We were approved without a joint lease/mortgage or joint bank account and no interviews. We did show joint-IRS filing, photos, travel itineraries, joint cell phone and utility accounts, and checks showing we both paid from out separate accounts for the same bills.

[SerenityNOW 11]

Pattu Rani! I remember you, you started our January 2008 CR-1 filers thread (I was BulgarianBride back then). We meet again in the ROC forum ...

I came to post a similar question. The background: My husband and I first lived together in his apartment that he owns in Bulgaria (no lease/mortgage). Then we stayed in a house my mother owns when we came to the States. Then with friends, then *finally* we got our own place a couple of months ago and guess what - our landlord never gave us a lease! Just month-to-month.

I did manage to add my husband to one of our utility accounts so far, and I'm working on the others.

My plan was to include affidavits from my mother and the two people we lived with PLUS our current landlord explaining the situation, that we have actually lived *together* in all of these places. We're just a bit nomadic, as I work from home and he is establishing his business and basically has to go where the work is. I'll explain all of this succinctly in the cover letter. We have a ton of other evidence - multiple joint bank accounts, health insurance, car registration, stuff sent to us at the same address, etc. etc.

I hope it's enough and they don't haul us in for an interview just because they are annoyed at trying to figure out our unconventional history...

[deadbird 2]

Don't know. We are living with my mother who rents from my grandfather who owns the house, and she pays all the utilities and we pay x amount per month, which she wrote in an affidavit.

And now 72% of March VSC filers are approved and guess what? We haven't heard a peep

[FutureAmerican 2]

My AOS was approved with no interview or request for further evidence - and we did not include a lease/mortgage because we live in a house owned by my in-laws.

We did include joint tax returns, photos covering the entire marriage, joint health insurance, car insurance, car registration, military discharge papers showing my wife as the nearest living relative, multiple joint bank accounts and joint credit cards.

Best of luck!