Do I have enough evidence???

[antda 13]

Hi Sleepybears,

You're welcome about the reply. Glad I was able to help

Yes, they do take joint residency seriously. As after all, a married couple is supposed to live together, right? I think others around here have had the same situation as you have about the house not being in the same name, beacuse of their financial and/or personal situation. However, you can still submit the housing papers with your husband's name on it and also add an extra note/explaination as to why this isn't in joint names, since it works out better financially/personally in your case. Yes, including any type of mail (bills, junk, cards, letters, etc.), in both joint names is helpful and will also show joint residency too. If you don't have mail in joint names, then you can have separate pieces of mail one addressed to you and one addressed to your husband, photocopied on the same page, and highlight the fact that they show a joint address/residence.

In regards to cars, I agree, it's the norm here too, to have different names for the car registration, car title, and car insurance. For example, in my situation, for our current car, the registration is in my husband's name (as we had a discount from transfering the registration of the old car to the new car), the title is in my name (I was the one who decided to buy the current car), and the car insurance is in both my and my husband's names (as we decided to compromise by having it jointly for that). It is easier to get things changed with the car insurance, than it is with the DMV, so in your situation you should contact your car insurance company to have your name added onto your vehicle's policy. In my case, it only cost us an extra $8 for me to be added onto the policy (though I can't say how much it will cost exactly for you, as it depends on you car insurance policy and insurance company), and we got the new joint insurance policy information and cards within 1-2 weeks.

Hope you have fun celebrating the Mid-Autumn Festival with your family in SF! All families regardless of culture/ethnicity, like spending the holidays with their loved ones no matter what the holiday is. So that's the norm too, that your family would want to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with you even though you see them often. By the way, when is Mid-Autumn Festival this year (as where I'm at now in the USA, we don't celebrate that)? Mmmmm...mooncakes, I haven't had those in a very long time....Maybe it's time for me to visit my "paw paw" in Canada for some...

Ant (Dreaming of seeing the moon and of eating mooncakes, especially the "bing pay" multi-coloured ones...)

Hello Ant,

Thank you for your reply.

That is what I'm worried too. The house was bought a few months after I came to the U.S. And our real estate agent said that it is better to write just my husband's name because I did not have a job and I did not even have a residency card yet. So to speak, they don't think my name would help in the mortgage. But after reading these threads, it seems to me that joint residency is quite important. I guess I can find some mail (e.g. bank statements, junk mails) with my name on it under this address. Should I write a letter to explain why also?

About the cars, actually it is always the norm. Even my in-law's car is under my husband's name! Recently we did buy a used car from a friend, but my husband just used his name with the insurance & registration... Well I know nothing about DMV and car insurance stuff too. But is it necessary for him to add my name on it? If so, does it cost anything and how long does it take?

Thanks a lot for reading my questions. I know many people may have asked them already. But I really want to get this done asap... Perhaps I should skip my visit to my in-laws' house in SF this weekend so I can prepare them. But then, I guess I can't... because it's Mid-Autumn Festival! I didnt even buy moon cakes yet My in-laws, who are also Chinese, must 'require' all of us to go back to celebrate with them. But you know, I actually go back every weekend already...

Anyways, too much unrelated stuff... thanks for helping me out and listening to me. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival too!

Edited September 10, 2008 by AntandD

[SnowXTC 1]

My husband is not on my mortgage or my house. I thought about writing a statement as to why, but was told on here not to. Basically, "If it does not provide proof, then don't include it." I did not include it, nor did I include the phone or cable bills, because although in both names, only my name is on the bill. I did include 5 affidavits and I recommend that you include them with your packet and not later, unless you are running out of time to mail the application. If that is the case, mail the application now with the $$$, collect the evidence, and get it mailed off shortly after you receive your NOA. Remember to include a copy of the NOA with anything additional sent in after the application.

There are many ways to show joint tenancy besides mortgage and house ownership.

Although very easy to say and very difficult to do, remail calm and tackle one thing at a time.

[Sleepybears 0]

Boaz,

Good idea! Thanks! I found that I have a few of those bills in 2006 in the last file!

[Sleepybears 0]

AntandD & SnowXTC,

For the evidence of joint residency, I do have bank statements from our joint account and bills with both my husband's and my name on it. I guess that is enough right? I think I will also include a few other letters to me and my husband seperately under the same address. I guess since the house is under my husband's name, I better not to include that document. But I am not quite sure if I have to write an explanation about that.

For the part of the car, I really know nothing about all that ( I didn't have to drive when I was in Hong Kong anyways). And my husband seems to think that we already have enough evidence for now, even the house/ cars are all under his name (as I said, he's always optimistic). So I would like to know if this is very critical. If so, I think I will 'force' my husband to add my name on the cars.

Also there's a question about notarized affidavit. Is it that our friends have to be present to do the notary together?

AntandD,

Well I'm actually not so sure about the exact date too. I think my mom told me on the phone that it is next Monday. I actually don't feel much atmosphere about it here too except for the mooncakes in the Chinese supermarket here . About the celebration of festivals, yeah I assume that most families like going together during festivals. But I HAVE to go back every weekend (we have to drive 1.5 hours each way on the freeway too!) to 'celebrate' nothing with them . Honestly, I feel like one day of my every weekend is gone (although it is already better than before when I used to spend overnight in their house every weekend). Sorry again this is off-topic, but once I am undergoing the application process, I feel worse going back there and not being able to do anything there every weekend...

Anyways, thanks for listening again! And good luck in your application too!

[Cassie 8]

I included a copy of our house deed, that was in my husband's name only, as a way to establish where our home was. I then included a number of different evidences that had either or both our names on it with the same address to establish joint residency. I did not include any written explanation why my name was not yet on the deed. Didn't have any issues by doing that.

The key during this process is to answer the following: are you still married, living in the same domicile and continuing an ongoing legitimate relationship?

Things you need to keep in mind when assembling your packet:

--include evidence that spans the entirety of your marriage, not just the last two years

--pay particular focus to the co-mingling of finances, assets and liabilities. Time and time again I see people getting RFE's for not including enough evidence in this area.

[jeeleebee 0]

Hi Sleepybears,

I had my name added to the title deed for our car (we only have 1 vehicle right now and eventho it was purchased after our marriage i wasnt present during the transaction so it was in my husband's name only) -- anyhow, it took about 15 mins to add me and a fee of $7.50 at the titles office next to the dmv

Goodluck!

[Sleepybears 0]

Cassie,

Thank you for your insight. I think I can figure it out now!

jeeleebee,

Yeah we also just bought a car from a friend a few months ago. But my husband dealt with his friend only cuz I know nothing about cars anyways. So naturally I won't have a name on the car. Well I don't know if he wants to add me too. But if it only takes 15 mins and not expensive, maybe it's worth it. I'll have to ask my husband about that. Thanks for telling me!

[antda 13]

Hi Sleepybears,

That’s great that you have bank statements and bills in both yours and your husband’s names and separate letters and other items with the same address. As long as all that paperwork covers the entire period of your marriage and your conditional permanent residency, you should ok there.

If you need more ideas, here is a list of evidence that I submitted for the I-751 a few weeks ago: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...=118868&hl=

I don’t know much about the house situation and as to whether or not you have to write an explanation about that (as in my situation, the house was already in both names when I submitted my application, since we bought the house together). However, in my opinion, if in doubt, and if I were in your situation, I would write an explanation. Maybe some other VJers can give more insight into this house dilemma?

Lol…I don’t think many people would drive in HK anyways, as it’s way too difficult and too much traffic to drive there, so I would understand that you didn’t drive in HK before. You can ask your husband to add names onto your documents. And if he is willing to do so, that’s good. However, I wouldn’t “force” it upon him, as that would cause more stress for you and him, which is not good. Just submit as much information that you have jointly and information that you have separately try to highlight the joint connection there. After all, “you can only send what you have”, and if you don’t have it, you can’t send it (or you can provide an explanation as to why you don’t have it).

As for the notarized affidavits, I’m not exactly sure what you meant there. But yes, the affidavit has to be signed and notarized in front of a notary. You don’t have to be present in front of your friends when they get this signed. However, I’m sure your friends would appreciate it that you are seeing/meeting them again when they do sign this affidavit, and by meeting them in-person it will put them at ease when they do sign it. There are examples here on VJ (see the “example forms” section) if you need further help with the affidavits and cover letter.

Thanks for telling me that the Mid-Autumn Festival is on Monday. Oh my, is it that time of the year again? Being that you’re in SF, and that there are a lot of Asian people and supermarkets there; and that you have family/friends there, I’m sure you’ll have fun celebrate the Festival this weekend. By the way, have you talked to your family/friends about feeling frustrated that you have to drive a long distance to visit them? Do they reciprocate and visit you too?

Don’t stress out too much about the I-751 application process. Just take it one piece of evidence at a time, and before you know it, you’ll have all the paperwork ready to send it in. Lol…sending in the paperwork is the easy part, waiting for the process to be completed is the harder part (in my opinion anyways)…

Good luck with your application. Enjoy the moon festivities this weekend!

Ant (Still stuck waiting at the VSC…)

AntandD & SnowXTC,

For the evidence of joint residency, I do have bank statements from our joint account and bills with both my husband's and my name on it. I guess that is enough right? I think I will also include a few other letters to me and my husband seperately under the same address. I guess since the house is under my husband's name, I better not to include that document. But I am not quite sure if I have to write an explanation about that.

For the part of the car, I really know nothing about all that ( I didn't have to drive when I was in Hong Kong anyways). And my husband seems to think that we already have enough evidence for now, even the house/ cars are all under his name (as I said, he's always optimistic). So I would like to know if this is very critical. If so, I think I will 'force' my husband to add my name on the cars.

Also there's a question about notarized affidavit. Is it that our friends have to be present to do the notary together?

AntandD,

Well I'm actually not so sure about the exact date too. I think my mom told me on the phone that it is next Monday. I actually don't feel much atmosphere about it here too except for the mooncakes in the Chinese supermarket here . About the celebration of festivals, yeah I assume that most families like going together during festivals. But I HAVE to go back every weekend (we have to drive 1.5 hours each way on the freeway too!) to 'celebrate' nothing with them . Honestly, I feel like one day of my every weekend is gone (although it is already better than before when I used to spend overnight in their house every weekend). Sorry again this is off-topic, but once I am undergoing the application process, I feel worse going back there and not being able to do anything there every weekend...

Anyways, thanks for listening again! And good luck in your application too!

[antda 13]

P.S. I definitely agreee with what Cassie said here:

The key during this process is to answer the following: are you still married, living in the same domicile and continuing an ongoing legitimate relationship?

Things you need to keep in mind when assembling your packet:

--include evidence that spans the entirety of your marriage, not just the last two years

--pay particular focus to the co-mingling of finances, assets and liabilities. Time and time again I see people getting RFE's for not including enough evidence in this area.

Someone should have put this information on the I-751 application form! Oh the trouble that would save everyone who is applying! Yes, these are the questions and notes everyone has to keep in mind!

Ant (Still waiting at the VSC...)

Edited September 11, 2008 by AntandD

[Sleepybears 0]

Hello Ant,

Great to hear from you here again. I just read your link about the documents you submitted. You sure have enough evidence and I am sure you will get approved soon! And sorry to hear about your miscarriage...

About my appliccation, yes it does stress me out a little even I havent even started assembling yet. I am only collecting evidence now. I just think that why I have to apply for so many times before and after I'm here-- K1, AOS, now Remove Conditions, and later Naturalization... I met a friend who also married from Hong Kong to here. But she told me all she did was just to get married here and apply for permanent residency. It seems so easy for her. But why do we have to go through all these stressful processes? I mean we are doing everything legal here. I thought we were not suppose to travel to the U.S. and get married, so I applied for K-1. But it turned out it is the difficult way...

Anyways, I guess I just feel stressed about the whole thing. And yes, I'm also a little concerned to whether to ask my husband to add my names on the car etc. I feel like if he never thought of adding my name on the car/ house, just let it be. I just don't want to give him trouble/ force him to do so. As you said, it may not be good for our relationship. So I guess having joint bank accounts and with my name under his company's medical insurance is enough right?

Speaking of medical insurance, I didn't even know that there's a beneficiary part at the bottom before. I just saw that yesterday. I hope that USCIS won't doubt that. This is cuz the beneficiary was stated at the bottom of the medical insurance document, and of course the beneficiary isn't me. Well I didn't even notice such part before. But I saw that the beneficiaries are his brother and sister. I mean I am not saying that I should be under beneficiary, but will USCIS doubt about that?

[antda 13]

Hi Sleepybears,

Lol…at the slow rate that the VSC is going nowadays with the I-751s, I doubt that I will be approved soon. Nevertheless, it’s “better late than never”, and yes, I do hope to get approved as soon as possible. I’m glad that the link on my previous message worked, as I realized afterwards that the link I posted earlier was an error. The evidence that I submitted took me awhile to collect and organize it all (a few months actually), but I did it slowly a piece at a time along the way, which made it easier to do. In the end I was glad that I didn’t have to worry about it anymore once I submitted it all last month. Now all I have to do is wait around endlessly, which is the harder part of the process, as I can’t really do much else than that. It’s ok about the miscarriage, as I said before, "it wasn't meant to be at the time, especially since that time it was a high-risk pregnancy.” Oh well, it’s part of the ups and downs of life, I guess…

Don’t worry, a lot of people start assembling their applications at the last minute, so you’re not alone there. Everyone does things last-minute, and sometimes those last-minute decisions work out for the best in life (lol…heck, I even got married last-minute, and yes, that worked out for the best for me). Since you already been through the immigration process, and have assembled paperwork for immigration before, you should be an expert at doing this and it shouldn’t be too stressful for you. Just think of it as you’re building more on what you already know and already have, which should make things a lot easier during this stage and the next stage of the process. “Practice makes perfect”, and you sure have a lot of practice with immigration already!

As for doing what your friend did in terms of “just to get married here and apply for permanent residency”, likewise, I did the same “easy/risky” thing too. However, it is a big gamble with this approach (as I’m sure your friend can tell you too). Even though it seems like the easier way, it is the more stressful way. For example, did you know that by going this way, one would not be allowed to go back to their home country until all the paperwork for permanent residency was completed, and one can run into the risk of being “illegal/out of status” when their visitor’s visa expires? As well, the burden of proof for the initial non-intention of immigration is harder to prove in these cases. And if the permanent residency wasn’t approved one could be deported right away, with less likely a case for appeal. What worked for one person might not necessarily work for another person, as each case is treated independently and individually too. So if a few people get approved this way, it doesn’t mean that another person will get approved the same way.

So depending on one’s situation, “difficult/the safer approach” is the one usually more favoured upon by others (as I’m sure many other VJers can tell you about that too) and upon by the immigration officials. And in your case/situation you did the right thing by doing things the doing it “the difficult/safer way”. After all, you’re here now, legally, through the “safe approach”, so you don’t have to worry about that past immigration stuff anymore. Instead, focus on the future steps of the immigration process that you need to work on still.

Asking nicely/politely for your husband to add your name onto documents is fine. Just don’t force him to so, as that would not be good for your relationship (which is important), as I mentioned earlier. Nor will it be good for immigration either, if they do question about it, that they see that things are forced upon fraudulently without the other’s full consent.

Yes, having a joint bank account and joint medical insurance is excellent to have as evidence. The immigration officials definitely look at stuff like this, and will take this into consideration when reviewing your joint application and your joint evidence. Again, just make sure your evidence covers the entire span of time of your marriage and conditional residency and more.

As for the medical insurance beneficiary part of your evidence, I don’t know how to answer this question, as I have not encountered such, nor does/did it apply to my situation. So I don’t want to give you false/untrue information here by answering this.

Therefore, to other VJers here: Can anyone else help answer Sleepybears' question about their medical insurance beneficiary situation? Thanks.

Good luck, don’t stress out too much, and have fun celebrating this weekend.

Don’t worry, it will all come into place, one piece of evidence at a time.

And yes, it does make the immigration process less stressful for everyone by having others here on VJ to help out….

Ant (Still waiting at the VSC…)

Hello Ant,

Great to hear from you here again. I just read your link about the documents you submitted. You sure have enough evidence and I am sure you will get approved soon! And sorry to hear about your miscarriage...

About my appliccation, yes it does stress me out a little even I havent even started assembling yet. I am only collecting evidence now. I just think that why I have to apply for so many times before and after I'm here-- K1, AOS, now Remove Conditions, and later Naturalization... I met a friend who also married from Hong Kong to here. But she told me all she did was just to get married here and apply for permanent residency. It seems so easy for her. But why do we have to go through all these stressful processes? I mean we are doing everything legal here. I thought we were not suppose to travel to the U.S. and get married, so I applied for K-1. But it turned out it is the difficult way...

Anyways, I guess I just feel stressed about the whole thing. And yes, I'm also a little concerned to whether to ask my husband to add my names on the car etc. I feel like if he never thought of adding my name on the car/ house, just let it be. I just don't want to give him trouble/ force him to do so. As you said, it may not be good for our relationship. So I guess having joint bank accounts and with my name under his company's medical insurance is enough right?

Speaking of medical insurance, I didn't even know that there's a beneficiary part at the bottom before. I just saw that yesterday. I hope that USCIS won't doubt that. This is cuz the beneficiary was stated at the bottom of the medical insurance document, and of course the beneficiary isn't me. Well I didn't even notice such part before. But I saw that the beneficiaries are his brother and sister. I mean I am not saying that I should be under beneficiary, but will USCIS doubt about that?

[Sleepybears 0]

Hello Ant,

You are really nice and helpful!

Yeah I guess I just have to deal with it cuz I chose the difficult way to come here. You know my friend actually said it is easy for her. And she said it only took her around 1.5 yrs to get approved and she actually planned to go to the US to get married. She also said that she got the 10 yr green card already and doesnt have to do the lifting condition application. Well I don't know about all that. She told me that and I was like... wow... that is much easier than my process being I've to apply 3 times to get the 10 yr green card! Anyways, maybe she just forgot the whole process cuz her husband helped her do it (cuz she told me her written English is not that good)

You know what... I really wanna finish this and send it out asap. I feel so tired looking at the information/ evidence (literally falling asleep... heehee). It's like I'm doing my college paper/ research... which I used to finish it in the last minute. Hopefully I can get this done very soon this time as i got 'experience'.

OK I've to get back to work now. Chat with you soon!

[antda 13]

Hi Sleepybears,

You're welcome. It's nice to help others here on VJ. Right everyone?

Hmmmm....I'm not sure exactly what your friend did there. If you said that she visited the US on a Visitor's Visa, then got married here, and then stayed here out-of-status for awhile, it would be quite a big the risk there, indeed. However, this risk is "forgiven" as long as during that time here it leads to the immigration paperwork being filed and then eventually being granted legal status here after that paperwork is approved. This is such as the case that happened to me, as I had no intent on getting married here in the USA when I came on a US visitor/tourist visa to visit my boyfriend/husband, and then got married, and then adjusted my status legally.

On the other hand, if she specifically planned beforehand and had intention to get married in the US before she visited, that would be some sort of immigration fraud there which immigration for some reason or other didn't catch onto for your friend, as one cannot have the intent to get married beforehand here in the USA on a US visitor/tourist visa.

Again, what you did before, going the "safe/difficult" way is the approach most people take, and there's nothing to be ashamed of because of that. Besides, all that matters is that it worked out well for you, even if you had to do it this "safe/difficult/traditional" way to get here.

Likewise, I felt the same way too, when I got my paperwork done 1-2 weeks earlier, and wanted to send it off right away. I waited though, and when I did send it off, I found it somewhat nerve-racking to do so. I'm glad that I finally sent of my "college paper" (heck, even writing college papers are easier than doing this), and I'm sure you'll be glad too, when you send in your "final I-751 assignment" soon....

To read about my experience on the day when I sent the I-751 in, check out the following thread that I posted earlier: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...p;#entry2129713

Ant (Still waiting at the VSC...)

P.S. No need to reply back to me regarding this post, as you'll probably be less stressed out by getting a lot more work done by organizing your application/evidence than replying back to me. Sorry if I'm making you procrastinate on your "work" by posting back and forth here. Back to work for Sleepybears!

Hello Ant,

You are really nice and helpful!

Yeah I guess I just have to deal with it cuz I chose the difficult way to come here. You know my friend actually said it is easy for her. And she said it only took her around 1.5 yrs to get approved and she actually planned to go to the US to get married. She also said that she got the 10 yr green card already and doesnt have to do the lifting condition application. Well I don't know about all that. She told me that and I was like... wow... that is much easier than my process being I've to apply 3 times to get the 10 yr green card! Anyways, maybe she just forgot the whole process cuz her husband helped her do it (cuz she told me her written English is not that good)

You know what... I really wanna finish this and send it out asap. I feel so tired looking at the information/ evidence (literally falling asleep... heehee). It's like I'm doing my college paper/ research... which I used to finish it in the last minute. Hopefully I can get this done very soon this time as i got 'experience'.

OK I've to get back to work now. Chat with you soon!

Edited September 12, 2008 by AntandD