Name not on Mortgage/Utility bills.

[-B&T- 1]

Hi to each and everyone,

I just want to ask if not having my name on our mortgage or utilities would affect the application.My husband had bought our house before we met and married and we don't want to change anything on the paperworks.Should I make a cover letter and state the situation?For those who had similar case like mine how did you go about it?I am asking in advance so I will know what to do.I am married to a USC and will be qualifed early next year based on a 3 year marriage to my husband.

Thank you and God Bless,

Bituin

[Frenchwife 1]

i think you are perfectly normal

you can t be on a mortgage if bought before meeting you

come on...

[Tini27 0]

You can easily be added on the utility bills if you request it, it only takes one billing cycle for your name to appear. If you do it from now, you'll be able to show some joint utility bills. I'm not sure for the mortgage though. In any case, just explain the situation as you did here if need be, it is logical that you were not on the utility bills since the house was bought before you both met. It's absolutely normal to be added afterwards. You must just show consistency in your evidence. I do not think a letter is required at this point, you'll be able to explain yourself directly if asked by the IO at the interview. Good Luck!

[-B&T- 1]

You can easily be added on the utility bills if you request it, it only takes one billing cycle for your name to appear. If you do it from now, you'll be able to show some joint utility bills. I'm not sure for the mortgage though. In any case, just explain the situation as you did here if need be, it is logical that you were not on the utility bills since the house was bought before you both met. It's absolutely normal to be added afterwards. You must just show consistency in your evidence. I do not think a letter is required at this point, you'll be able to explain yourself directly if asked by the IO at the interview. Good Luck!

Hi, thanks for your reply.We can add my name on the mortgage but it would require refinancing and we just don't want it.Thank you and good luck to you also.

[-B&T- 1]

i think you are perfectly normal

you can t be on a mortgage if bought before meeting you

come on...

you didn't get my point I think....WE DON'T WANT TO CHANGE ANYTHING ON THE DOCUMENTS BECAUSE ADDING MY NAME TO OUR MORTGAGE WOULD REQUIRE REFINANCING.

KSP

[J&D 0]

I would not bother going to the effort of re-financing, just to please USCIS, which I am sure you won't do. I did not even bother opening a joint bank account just for their benefit. All you need are documents with either you or your spouses name on them, once all have the same address, that is fine.

In my case, I sent in a one or two utility bills with only my wife's name on them and a few bank statements and even junk mail with my name on it. Although I sent in a lot less than I had done with the I-751 ROC. For the N-400, jointly filed tax transcripts are probably the most important items in terms of proving you both live together.

[NickD 202]

Never occurred to me by marrying a foreigner would make new friends, we are all in the same boat. One friend ran into that and got an RFE, also seems weird to me that a bank would object to adding your spouse to the deed without refinancing, but he got a letter from the bank with additional interest and closing cost just to do that. He also brought in copies of state statues where he and his wife are responsible for each others debts, if anything happens to him his wife would get the house, and our no-fault divorce laws where she would get half of it. With that letter and copies of state statues, his wife was approved.

Since my home was paid off, and also knowing our state laws, had no problems in adding my wife's name to my deed, but wanted to anyone as finally found somebody I am really in love with. But my problem was not wanting to pay an attorney 500 bucks to simply sell my home from me to me and my wife, only two lines had to be changed on the deed. Big problem was finding the form, but took an extensive net search to find it that could be a fillable form, but did and only had to pay ten bucks to the register of deeds.

Only an idiot would ask for utility bills for evidence, you can call without any proof whatsoever and add any name to your bill, they don't give a damn, if you don't pay your bill a lean goes against your address. But we are dealing with idiots, so to make them happy, make those calls. Again with our state laws, your spouse name or no name is responsible for paying those bills.

Wife's IO even with all this, joint ownership, utility bills, property taxes, joint bank accounts, insurance wasn't happy, she wanted to see our latest CD statement as well, only get that once a year and submitted the 2007 statement, but fortunately the 2008 statement came in so we could give her a copy at the interview. Her IO was just trying to be a #######, and at that, she succeeded.

[TayRivers 4]

The evidence you used to get the conditions removed on your greencard is good enough for your Citizenship application. You do not need to be on the utility bills or on the deeds. My Wife is not named on any utility bills or on the mortgage and she had no issues at the Citizenship interview. The only thing the officer was interested in was our joint tax returns and evidence of our trips outside the US.

[NickD 202]

The evidence you used to get the conditions removed on your greencard is good enough for your Citizenship application. You do not need to be on the utility bills or on the deeds. My Wife is not named on any utility bills or on the mortgage and she had no issues at the Citizenship interview. The only thing the officer was interested in was our joint tax returns and evidence of our trips outside the US.

That would be true if all IO's followed the same guidelines.

[Stella08 0]

Do you guys have life insurance? If so, add that as proof if you're each other's beneficiary. In my eyes this is at least as much proof of a real relationship as a mortgage (debt) in both names.

[TayRivers 4]

The evidence you used to get the conditions removed on your greencard is good enough for your Citizenship application. You do not need to be on the utility bills or on the deeds. My Wife is not named on any utility bills or on the mortgage and she had no issues at the Citizenship interview. The only thing the officer was interested in was our joint tax returns and evidence of our trips outside the US.

That would be true if all IO's followed the same guidelines.

The guidelines for Citizenship as that you have evidence that you are still married to the USC that petitioned for you. Nowhere does it say that you have to submit evidence that you are named on a Utility Bill or a Mortgage. You have to show that you are still married.

The only evidence that my wife took was our joint tax returns for the last 3 years, a copy of out joint bank account, a copy of our e-tickets and our boarding cards for our trip to the UK in dec 2008 and her passport.

[NickD 202]

The evidence you used to get the conditions removed on your greencard is good enough for your Citizenship application. You do not need to be on the utility bills or on the deeds. My Wife is not named on any utility bills or on the mortgage and she had no issues at the Citizenship interview. The only thing the officer was interested in was our joint tax returns and evidence of our trips outside the US.

That would be true if all IO's followed the same guidelines.

The guidelines for Citizenship as that you have evidence that you are still married to the USC that petitioned for you. Nowhere does it say that you have to submit evidence that you are named on a Utility Bill or a Mortgage. You have to show that you are still married.

The only evidence that my wife took was our joint tax returns for the last 3 years, a copy of out joint bank account, a copy of our e-tickets and our boarding cards for our trip to the UK in dec 2008 and her passport.

Can you take your IO to court if they refuse to grant you citizenship until you make yet another trip and bring that evidence in? I am not making this stuff up, happened to a friend in Milwaukee and another in Cadot, WI. Or do you just bring in the evidence they request and get it over with?

[TayRivers 4]

The evidence you used to get the conditions removed on your greencard is good enough for your Citizenship application. You do not need to be on the utility bills or on the deeds. My Wife is not named on any utility bills or on the mortgage and she had no issues at the Citizenship interview. The only thing the officer was interested in was our joint tax returns and evidence of our trips outside the US.

That would be true if all IO's followed the same guidelines.

The guidelines for Citizenship as that you have evidence that you are still married to the USC that petitioned for you. Nowhere does it say that you have to submit evidence that you are named on a Utility Bill or a Mortgage. You have to show that you are still married.

The only evidence that my wife took was our joint tax returns for the last 3 years, a copy of out joint bank account, a copy of our e-tickets and our boarding cards for our trip to the UK in dec 2008 and her passport.

Can you take your IO to court if they refuse to grant you citizenship until you make yet another trip and bring that evidence in? I am not making this stuff up, happened to a friend in Milwaukee and another in Cadot, WI. Or do you just bring in the evidence they request and get it over with?

You take what evidence you have, If you have gone all the way through USCIS and not had your spouses name on the utility bills then there is no reason to have them added for the Citizenship interview.

Have a read through the 100's of interview reports from people who have got their Citizenship and you will see that none of them have been asked to produce a utility bill in joint names so they could be approved. Maybe your friends did not have any other evidence.

Any Ways you can only take what you have. If you do not have utility bills in joint names then you cant take them can you. To suggest that you MUST have utility bills in joint names and joint names on deeds/mortgage and if you dont you will not be approved is just not right.

As for taking USCIS to court for not approving a N-400 application because you could not produce a utility bill in joint names, Yes you could do that.

[jsnearline 2]

[Have a read through the 100's of interview reports from people who have got their Citizenship and you will see that none of them have been asked to produce a utility bill in joint names so they could be approved. Maybe your friends did not have any other evidence.

I actually just read a post from someone who interviewed in Minneapolis who had to go back for a second interview because the IO wouldn't accept the evidence they had and wanted to see a joint utility bill. I'll see if I can dig it up and post the link.

[TayRivers 4]

Here is the Offical guide to what you have to have as evidence.

If you are applying for naturalization based on your marriage to a U.S. citizen, send the following four items:

Evidence that your spouse has been a U.S. citizen for the last three years:

Birth certificate (if your spouse never lost citizenship since birth), or

Naturalization Certificate, or

Certificate of Citizenship, or

The inside of the front cover and signature page of your spouse's current U.S. passport, or

Form FS-240, "Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America," and

Your current marriage certificate, and

Proof of termination of all prior marriages of your spouse - divorce decree(s), annulment(s), or death certificate(s); and

Documents referring to you and your spouse:

Tax returns, bank accounts, leases, mortgages, or birth certificates of children, or

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) - certified copies of the income tax forms that you both filed for the past three years, or

An IRS tax return transcript for the last three years.

If you were married before, send:

Proof that all earlier marriages ended - divorce decree(s), annulment(s), or death certificate(s);

http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/men...00048f3d6a1RCRD

You will note that Utility Bills are not listed.

Please show us your source of information that shows that you must have joint Utility Bills.

Because if they are needed then my wife should not be a US Citizen as we do not have any Utility Bills that are in Joint names. We never included any utility bills with the N-400 or took any to the interview.

Edited May 18, 2009 by TayRivers