Did you redact your evidence?

[CLE 0]

Given the vast quantity of personal and financial data that seems to be expected for I-751 filings, I'm wondering if I'm the only one feeling a bit queasy about submitting all those documents "in the clear" with account numbers, SS numbers, etc.

Questions for those who have already filed:

Did you redact your evidentiary documentation in any way to avoid exposing the keys to your financial kingdoms?

Are personally-identifiable things like account numbers necessary to establish "happy marriage" bona fides?

Do you trust the government to keep your personal information safe?

Did you ever lose any sleep worrying about identify theft?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

[Messybrownhair 251]

*shrugs*

If they wanted, they could have access to all those stuff anyway.

I check my bank accounts and stuff everyday. Everything looks good, it's not like we have millions for them to steal

[NikLR 13,227]

It's the government, if you don't think they can find that information out you're crazy! LOL But seriously, to work for the government employees need to go through their own FBI checks that are more extensive than most people have to for a job. Even my husband, who works for the FAA, had to have an hour long interview with an FBI agent. That was after they'd mailed out packets to places he'd lived and people he knew to confirm his information.

[VanessaTony 3,567]

No I did not. They have access to that info anyway.

There was a thread relatively recently where someone was questioned about why it was redacted, and not in a passing manner either.

[Christi85 86]

Given the vast quantity of personal and financial data that seems to be expected for I-751 filings, I'm wondering if I'm the only one feeling a bit queasy about submitting all those documents "in the clear" with account numbers, SS numbers, etc.

Questions for those who have already filed:

Did you redact your evidentiary documentation in any way to avoid exposing the keys to your financial kingdoms?

Are personally-identifiable things like account numbers necessary to establish "happy marriage" bona fides?

Do you trust the government to keep your personal information safe?

Did you ever lose any sleep worrying about identify theft?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

No, I didn't sweat it. I don't see what they can do with this information other than simply be aware of it - and mind you, they look at dozens of similar documents every single day, there's no way they will remember information from a specific case. Even if one had millions in the bank, there's nothing wrong with that from USCIS' point of view. Identity theft would only occur if someone hacked their system, but I highly doubt it would ever occur "from within" (i.e. USCIS officers). I suppose there's always a possibility that government systems could get hacked, but that's the case with your bank's system too and any corporate systems. It's a risk we live with nowadays, luckily still relatively rare.

As for establishing a "happy marriage", it's not just that which they want to see, but also that you share financial responsibility, resources, co-mingling of finances etc., so from that point of view, yes, providing evidence of joint bank accounts and other financial records is essential for this process.

Edited July 28, 2013 by Christi85

[dtsexpert 20]

The OP should be more worry to secure his/her PC to avoid hackers stealing the sensitive info than INS officers seeing them. They can extract your personal deep down to the first day you step in the US soil to present day .

In short, nothing is sensitive info to our gov

[Cheezees 1,514]

The government is the one that issued you a SSN, etc. The evidence that you provide is so that they can check it against the evidence they ALREADY have on you, not to gather it initially. Redacting you info raises red flags primarily because they will be unable to confirm your accounts, etc. I would be more worried about the delivery and chance of theft en route of the package with copies of all your confidential info than anything else. Redacting = BAD IDEA.

[aaron2020 11,651]

You are to send in copies if your documents.

If you redact or modify them, then expect some grief.

How is the government going to varify your information if you take out the relevant parts?

How does the US Embassy or NVC check your tax returns if you redact the SSN?

Without your account numbers, how will the government verify your joint account?

What's easier to check - "hi bank. We need to verify an account for John and Mary Smith." "We have several accounts for several John Smith in several states. Which John Smith's account do we check? Do you have an account number for us to verify?" "No. But can I give you other info?" Versus "need to verify that John and Mary Smith are in this account together and here is the number."

Be sensible. You want the visa. The government wants you to jump through very specific hoops. If you want it on your terms by redacting information they requested, then you aren't going to get very far with what you want.

Edited July 28, 2013 by aaron2020

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Given the vast quantity of personal and financial data that seems to be expected for I-751 filings, I'm wondering if I'm the only one feeling a bit queasy about submitting all those documents "in the clear" with account numbers, SS numbers, etc.

Questions for those who have already filed:

Did you redact your evidentiary documentation in any way to avoid exposing the keys to your financial kingdoms?

Are personally-identifiable things like account numbers necessary to establish "happy marriage" bona fides?

Do you trust the government to keep your personal information safe?

Did you ever lose any sleep worrying about identify theft?

Many thanks for your thoughts.

Not really. They already have your SSNs and you have to submit your tax returns

We submitted a bank letter stating we have joint accounts, when they were opened and that they are in good standing, no deposit information. No account numbers mentioned.

No account numbers are needed.

No I do not trust the government

No I did not worry.

In general you do not have to submit "vast amounts" of financial data and we submitted very little. Bank letter, 3 years tax returns, and the top sheet of our mortgage. Nothing else "financial"

Credit cards mean nothing, utilities mean nothing. We also submitted insurance data sheets (not policy number) medical records showing we are "responsible parties" for the other. Records showing beneficiaries for life insurance...School records showing both of us as "parents" of the student, etc.

In fact...we had NO joint credit cards and still do not, NO joint utilities and still do not, and our cars are in each of our names individually. We do have joint car insurance, but not joint ownership of the cars. I submitted NO photos and NO affidavits. In fact in the entire process, petition to citizenship, I submitted ONE photo for the petition and FOUR photos for the visa interview. Never another photo for any reason (except passport photos as needed)

We had no RFEs and were approved without an interview. Review the pinned topic at the top of the forum about evidence for the I-751. It is not so scary or complicated as you may think

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

You are to send in copies if your documents.

If you redact or modify them, then expect some grief.

How is the government going to varify your information if you take out the relevant parts?

How does the US Embassy or NVC check your tax returns if you redact the SSN?

Without your account numbers, how will the government verify your joint account?

What's easier to check - "hi bank. We need to verify an account for John and Mary Smith." "We have several accounts for several John Smith in several states. Which John Smith's account do we check? Do you have an account number for us to verify?" "No. But can I give you other info?" Versus "need to verify that John and Mary Smith are in this account together and here is the number."

Be sensible. You want the visa. The government wants you to jump through very specific hoops. If you want it on your terms by redacting information they requested, then you aren't going to get very far with what you want.

There is no problem to redact SSN information at all, but they already have that for both parties, so it is no big deal. No grief either way.

The government does not verify information submitted except in very rare cases. I-751s are processed at a rate of about 9 per hour by the average adjudicator. How much checking do you think they are doing in 7 minutes? The only reason they take so long is because they have low priority. I-751s do not grant any new benefits and you already have a 1 year extension, and can get another one, so they do not assign a lot of adjudicators to them.

US Embassy and NVC is not involved in the I-751 process. Once the visa is issued it is USCIS all the way to the finish line. The OP mentions he is discussing the I-751, Tax returns are to show ONLY that the US Resident has met their obligation to file taxes. They are not "checked"

The government does not verify joint accounts. You can redact account numbers if you want, but most "joint accounts" such as credit cards mean nothing really. You do not have to be married to have joint accounts or jointly own property

Bank letter can state that you have a joint account, when it was opened and that it is an "active account" without mentioning account numbers.

He is not applying for a visa. This is for removal of conditions.

All that said, I do not worry about identity theft because of this process.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

Well, I am the oddball in this thread. I did black out all but the last 4 numbers on joint cards/accounts. Showing they have the same last 4 is enough proof. There was no need to show the entire account numbers. Approved in 4 months with no RFE, so it must have been okay to do so.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

No I did not. They have access to that info anyway.

There was a thread relatively recently where someone was questioned about why it was redacted, and not in a passing manner either.

The problem with redacting comes in when they cannot tell what has been redacted, typically. Big, black marks across information means something is missing but who knows what?

Cross off the last 4 digits of yor SSN. For example...if you must.

I simply did not worry about it, but much of our evidence was presented in a manner which did no teven include account numbers anyway. Nothing to redact from a bank letter.

Also there is no telling from one thread what other reasons may have provoked the questions. Most ROCs are done without interview at all. You send the stuff in, wait some months and the new cards come in the mail.

Just not a big deal either way.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Well, I am the oddball in this thread. I did black out all but the last 4 numbers on joint cards/accounts. Showing they have the same last 4 is enough proof. There was no need to show the entire account numbers. Approved in 4 months with no RFE, so it must have been okay to do so.

You are only odd in your response, not in your result. Most of my information had no account numbers to redact.

Alla and Pasha were approved in 5 months with no interview but our son, Sergey, filed ROC 9 months after Alla & Pasha and waited 10 months. Still no RFE or interview.

[KayDeeCee 4,893]

My response was the odd one in the thread because everyone else said not to redact anything and it would be bad to do so, and so far I was the only one that stated we did redact some things and were fine.

Yes, the amount of time for approval is not what matters, it is the fact there was no RFE, grief/hassle/questioning as to why something was redacted. If you had no account numbers to redact part of, then no biggie and is not really applicable. For those that do send account numbers of any kind, it is okay to redact part of them. So long as they can see you have joint accounts, that is what matters.

[atm 8]

My response was the odd one in the thread because everyone else said not to redact anything and it would be bad to do so, and so far I was the only one that stated we did redact some things and were fine.

Yes, the amount of time for approval is not what matters, it is the fact there was no RFE, grief/hassle/questioning as to why something was redacted. If you had no account numbers to redact part of, then no biggie and is not really applicable. For those that do send account numbers of any kind, it is okay to redact part of them. So long as they can see you have joint accounts, that is what matters.

Hi, I did the same as Jay-Kay, and got approved in 4 months without RFE. I sent in checking and savings account statements which all had the account numbers on them. I blacked out all but the last 4 digits on these.

I also photocopied our joint credit/debit cards, and did the same on those.

When I put the packet together to send to USCIS, I realized how much sensitive personal information it contained, and just felt too nervous about not blacking out some of the account numbers.