Question Regarding AOS Interview

[Burnspot 0]

Our AOS interview is in Raleigh this Thursday...finally. I had a question about the evidence and "co-mingling" of finances. We have plenty of post-wedding photos showing us together and generally having a good time. With the financial stuff, about the only tie-in we have is that my wife was added to my AMEX card and its statements show her name, along with mine, in the card activity listings. Additionally, my wife is on my cell phone account; however, only her phone number is listed. We had tried to get her on her own account, but since she had no credit record over here, ATT wanted in excess of $500 for a deposit...we passed on that and simply added a line to my account. The biggest potential problem is the bank account; we had tried to add her to my account; however, Wachovia insisted that without a Green Card, they couldn't add her...does that sound right? They won't even issue a second check card for her to use my account because of their security policy (which I can understand).

Edited: I should add that we did successfully obtain an NC Learner's Permit for her, after MANY rounds of hoop jumping with the DMV.

I think we're okay, but the financial co-mingling bit has me concerned about whether or not we've done enough.

Edited February 17, 2009 by Burnspot

[Otto 83]

The (joint) bank account is a key to the co-mingling lock - at Bank of America, we added Karin long before the GC was issued - either have a talk with a bank officer, or look into changing banks - it's ridiculous to not be able to have your spouse added. That said, there are plenty of folks who got through the interview process successfully without joint bank accounts.)

[Burnspot 0]

Guess we'll head over to Wachovia again this afternoon and give it another try. Kind of a last minute deal, but if we can get her on there, we'll be good I suppose.

[EtherealVocalist 0]

The only thing my bank asked for is a SSN. that was it.

AT&T : Ran into the same problem... We are NOT going to add a line for $450. That's ridiculous.

I only have 1 credit card and there is no activity on it, I am not interested to use it, so I don't know if i should too, add him to my card...

It's annoying to have all of these co mingling evidence when you live very simply. Seems like they want to see evidence, but to me, i'd rather show that I am not having 10 cards just "cause I can"...

[Kang Lang 7]

hi burnspot,

the bank account is definitely key our adjudicator 3 weeks ago was actually most interested in the bank account info, photos of us with the other person's family and lease/mortgage info. as for our bank we originally had wells fargo and we got a joint account with his passport and added the ssn a few weeks later. i believe wachovia is owned by them now. we decided to move to bank of america in the end but also very easy to open joint accounts.

as an aside we also have at&t for our mobile service and i actually got my husband's name added to the account so both our names appear on the bill as well as our pg&e (energy company) obviously too late for this interview but for the removal of conditions it might help.

good luck to you!

[Eric-Pris 1,606]

Is Wachovia the only bank in your hometown? Most banks will add a spouse as long as she has a SS number.

[milesinfront 2]

I think you will be fine. As you are recently married, it is understandable that you do not have a lot of evidence of you both sharing finances. At the interview you will have the opportunity to explain what you stated above, anyway. In respect of the bank account, they should be able to add her with just her passport details - that worked for me with TD Bank (previously Commerce).

[Wabbit R 0]

if wachovia won't do it, go to another bank. The bank statements, i found while going through all this, is a very important aspect. This is the first thing that the IO asks for during the interview.

I was added to my husband's bank account the same week i got here after of course speaking to the bank VP and explaining to them how important it was for my name to be in the account. And he made a a couple of phone calls to make sure he was doing the right thing and he went on and added my name into the bank account. your wife can write checks but she cannot be issued a check card until she gets her SSN.

I don't think it is necessary that you get her name into your AT&T account. I think the IO will understand how impossible and if it were possible, how expensive it is to do that. The only thing that my husband and I showed the IO during the interview was the bank statements. I even wrote the check to pay for my AOS application just so they know.

[BermyCat 1]

Wachovia made me joint on Phil's existing account with only my passport even before we were married. I didn't even have my SSN yet. The person did have to call the IT help line to figure out how to enter the information properly. maybe you should ask for a manager or insist that they check with their head office.

I went in with my marriage certificate last week and got my name changed. I was even able to order check updated with both our names and a visa debit card for myself.

~ Catherine

[Kang Lang 7]

I don't think it is necessary that you get her name into your AT&T account. I think the IO will understand how impossible and if it were possible, how expensive it is to do that. The only thing that my husband and I showed the IO during the interview was the bank statements. I even wrote the check to pay for my AOS application just so they know.

actually that is not correct, i was able to add my husband to our at&t account by phone did not require any in store visit and the adjudicator did take that from us since we had more than a year's worth of statements. (getting a lone account for the immigrating party is often difficult and expensive with no credit history though) it cost nothing additionally added his name to our energy company and cable provider all via phone at no charge. (both of our names appear as responsible parties on the bill)

having said all that it won't be helpful at the aos interview as it's in 2 days however it could be helpful in submitting evidence for the removal of conditions.

good luck!

[Burnspot 0]

Just to follow up. We went to Wachovia and re-tried adding my wife to the account; this time we had success (armed with info from here). As luck would have it, my statement date just happened to come up the morning of the interview, allowing me to pull down a statement that had her name on it with mine. The only problem was that they had misspelled her name, lol (looked like a keypress error between the J and H keys). Apart from that minor glitch, things were okay.

**Interview Report**

I'll post another version in the appropriate forum as food for others.

We had our interview in the Raleigh-Durham office yesterday; 1:30pm appointment. We showed up at 1:15 and checked in at the first floor interview check-in area, where they stapled a numbered ticket to our appointment NOA. Then we went to the second floor waiting room, which was fairly full. We ended up waiting in there for about an hour and a half before being called in.

The interview lasted about a 1/2 hour. We were first sworn in then seated. The officer was a young guy and a pretty chatty. He'd been to China before and had quite a few casual remarks about his travels while running through our paperwork. He asked us how and when we met, asked my wife about her parents and what they did in China (both retired), then remarked about us being the only one out of his 13 interviews for the day (we were his last) to actually have complete vaccination info already in our file. He then asked for a copy of our marriage certificate, checked our copies of birth certificates against the ones he already had in our file, and asked for our bank statement and any other evidence of being together (our cell phone bill, AMEX statement, and photos). He browsed through our photos without any remarks and then asked the standard questions of my wife. He then said we were approved and went through the spiel about removing the conditions in two years...going so far as to hand write a little sticky note for us about when to apply. All that took about 15 minutes.

The other 15 minutes were spent waiting on him to run down to the first floor and get my wife's passport stamped with the temporary stamp of approval (she requested it). He remarked that while the stamp would be her proof until her green card arrived, expect to run into hassles when trying to get back into the country with it should she leave for a business trip (she's still employed by her Chinese employer, but transferred to their North American market).

All in all, it was pretty painless and easy. The waiting was long, but its government at work, so you can't really expect much better.

[Kang Lang 7]

congratulations!!!! how nice free of uscis for 21 months!

[Burnspot 0]

Yep! It's nice to have it out of our hair for awhile! It's taken so long for my wife to get to this point that the interview yesterday was kind of anti-climatic, lol.

Oh, for anyone interested, we DID use a lawyer for the first parts of the K-1 process...in getting to the point of her getting her entry visa (just to make sure we didn't misstep). After that though, we did everything ourselves using the information found here, suffering no RFE's or other major problems. We had some troubles getting an NC drivers license for her before she received her EAD, but once we had the EAD in hand, it was smooth sailing.