Passed U.S. Citizenship Test, but request more evidence..weird??

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Since you ask, here is the link to the documents required: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/attachments.pdf

specifically for marriage based applications"

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

1. 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

2. Your current marriage certificate; and

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

4. 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), annulments, or death certificates(s);

We sent in the exact 4 documents they requested (actually 5 as my husband had been married twice before so had 2 divorce documents) - copy of his birth certificate, copy of our marriage certificate, copies of his divorce decrees and the IRS tax return transcripts for the previous 3 years. I brought additional evidence to the interview but she was not interested in any of it. She didn't even want to see the originals of the copies submitted, so it sounds like the OP submitted exactly what was requested but the IO wanted to see more than was requested. Certainly it is her choice but it doesn't sound to me like the OP neglected to provide what was requested in the N-400 instructions and Guide to Citizenship.

Edited September 29, 2009 by Kathryn41

[warlord 73]

This doesn't make any sense. Assuming she came on a K-1, the burden of proof was overcome at both the AOS and the ROC stages. All she has to do now is meet the N-400 conditions, n'est-ce pas?

And what are the N-400 conditions if i may ask? doesnt it require proof of continous marriage and co-habitation with your USC spouse if its based on marriage?

Yes it does. The INS knows people marry out of convience and will pass through the initial AOS and Green Card Stage then stay married, but chose to live their own seperate lives in different houses and date etc like they were single. For the N-400 based on marriage (3 years from your PR status) you need to demonstrate that you and your spouse are still married and still living as a married couple and not singles.

This is where you need to show all documentation from the AOS interviews up to the interview proving that you are still in a commited and loving and serious relationship. If there isn't enough evidence, they will require more to make sure that it is not a marriage of convience.

So just like the AOS stage, you now must re-submit anything and everything you can find to prove your marriage is legit. This includes joint bills, acccounts, photos, leases, morgages etc. Anything that shows you two sharing common things on legal documents...

[NickD 203]

Thought my wife's IO was paranoid by checking all of our submitted copies against our originals and we surprised her by having our electric bill with both our names on it. Think I would be lost if they called me in and asked me the names of my wife's relatives, all Spanish that I have difficulty in pronouncing. Caused me to wonder why my wife has English given names.

Can only wonder why they are giving you a hard time, do you and your wife look suspicious? We can share experiences, but sure doesn't help you. My wife's IO either conveniently or inconveniently misplaced her application, got my senators' office to straighten that out when we didn't hear anything like promised. Since you were not approved, do not have that 120 period in which they are suppose to send you your oath letter. Suppose you could contact your senators' office and see if they can help. In my cover letter, invited the USCIS to come out to our home, but they never showed up, didn't want to meet me, just wanted to see my papers.

Called one of those rescue dog places, they wanted to come out to my home just for a mutt dog, surprised the USCIS doesn't do the same.

[onuche 0]

One thing we all seem to be forgetting is the word JOINT. The list of documents you submit should show joint ownership. If you have health insurance, they just dont want to see your card just to make sure you have health insurance, its a case of; is your wife under yours or are you under hers. When they ask for tax transcripts and you both file seperately it is suspicious.

If one of you has a business i would understand but a case where both parties are working and you are married and filing seperately would even sound suspicious to me and i dont work for the USCIS (please dont misunderstand suspicious to mean wrong).

It is not against the law to file taxes seperately even if you are married, that much is true.

The IO is doing her job, she is trying to get a complete picture and am sure she would rather be doing another interview than interviewing the same couple over and over and over again.

Simply put, there must be a reason why she wants more evidence.

The reason i asked the question in my earlier post was because the earlier poster was trying to insinuate that if you have gone through K1 and AOS, the proof of living together must have been established. Yes, but its still required for the N-400 based on marriage.

Thought my wife's IO was paranoid by checking all of our submitted copies against our originals and we surprised her by having our electric bill with both our names on it. Think I would be lost if they called me in and asked me the names of my wife's relatives, all Spanish that I have difficulty in pronouncing. Caused me to wonder why my wife has English given names.

Can only wonder why they are giving you a hard time, do you and your wife look suspicious? We can share experiences, but sure doesn't help you. My wife's IO either conveniently or inconveniently misplaced her application, got my senators' office to straighten that out when we didn't hear anything like promised. Since you were not approved, do not have that 120 period in which they are suppose to send you your oath letter. Suppose you could contact your senators' office and see if they can help. In my cover letter, invited the USCIS to come out to our home, but they never showed up, didn't want to meet me, just wanted to see my papers.

Called one of those rescue dog places, they wanted to come out to my home just for a mutt dog, surprised the USCIS doesn't do the same.

[uglygirlpo 0]

hi tim,

sorry to hear about your situation.i'm just wondering, within that 5 years with your wife, do you have kids?

[lucyrich 20]

why did you file your income tax returns as "Separately

Probably a bit of a red flag!~

thanks for you reply,

I know...

she asked me why did you file your income tax separately, but not together? It means she is totally doesn't understand tax law at all. I told her when you and your spouse filing income return as "Separately", it means you're responsible for your own tax and your spouse responsible for his/her own tax, but it doesn't mean you two live apart. I told her whichever way "together, or separately" give you more benefit, and the tax laws allow you to do it

Of course you're correct. There is no requirement to file taxes jointly. But the tax laws are set up so that the vast majority of married couples will save money by filing jointly, often a significant amount of money. If your finances are typical, the investigator would have to wonder, "why was it so important for them to keep their finances separate that they considered it worth giving up the thousands of dollars in tax savings they would have received by filing a joint return?"

For background:

http://taxation.lawyers.com/tax-planning/M...Tax-Return.html

If you can present evidence that shows how your tax situation is one of those unusual ones where you saved money by filing separately, then that evidence may help your case significantly.

[Dakine 26]

Since you ask, here is the link to the documents required: http://www.uscis.gov/files/article/attachments.pdf

specifically for marriage based applications"

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

1. 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

2. Your current marriage certificate; and

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

4. 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), annulments, or death certificates(s);

We sent in the exact 4 documents they requested (actually 5 as my husband had been married twice before so had 2 divorce documents) - copy of his birth certificate, copy of our marriage certificate, copies of his divorce decrees and the IRS tax return transcripts for the previous 3 years. I brought additional evidence to the interview but she was not interested in any of it. She didn't even want to see the originals of the copies submitted, so it sounds like the OP submitted exactly what was requested but the IO wanted to see more than was requested. Certainly it is her choice but it doesn't sound to me like the OP neglected to provide what was requested in the N-400 instructions and Guide to Citizenship.

You/I think you are hot and have everything required in the submission.

I missed writting the A# on the back of the check. It's been cashed tho and have the NOA1.

First time I've ever seen or seen posted requiring you to write your A# on the back of the check or money order.

[visacheck 3]

With everything being discussed here, it appears that its a lot easier to file for citizenship after getting divorce and then wait for the 5 year rule.

[warlord 73]

With everything being discussed here, it appears that its a lot easier to file for citizenship after getting divorce and then wait for the 5 year rule.

Yes but the OP didn't mention anything about divorce or marrying illegaly for citizenship. It just seems they weren't prepared with the evidence needed. My IO told me a lot of people don't bring much of anything and he has to deny them until they can bring evidence. It's not like people dont' have the documents or evidence, it's just that many don't think they need much.

And yes applying after 5 years on a Green Card will be a lot easier then 3 years based on marriage.

As I said I always filed married, filing single and my IO never questioned that at all. We just didn't own anything at all to benefit from it, plus I had the same job and she had multiple jobs, so my income tax was simple and she would have to get hers professionally done. No biggie.

I never brought her to my interview at all, I was asked where she was and I told them at work. Again not a big issue. This is because I had enough documentation that the IO didn't even want to see the rest of the stuff I brought as he said he had more then enough to accept and pass my interview...

[rika60607 215]

Tim,

did your wife wait 5 years before applying for citizenship? That's my impression from your post.

In this case you should not have to prove that you still have a valid marriage.

[Tim 0]

thanks for all help and support.

hi tim,

sorry to hear about your situation.i'm just wondering, within that 5 years with your wife, do you have kids?

uglygirl,

nope, not yet, we're still poor, i don't wanna my children running around naked without diapers because their mommy and daddy couldn't afford to buy diapers for them...maybe next year.

Tim,

did your wife wait 5 years before applying for citizenship? That's my impression from your post.

In this case you should not have to prove that you still have a valid marriage.

rika60607, she has green card "residence since" Feb, 2006

[NickD 203]

Have to agree with the AOS and I-751, the N-400 seemed very redundant especially proof of divorce and the marriage certificate, again. Joint finances and common addresses were key with the I-751, the N-400 was like a combination of the AOS and I-751.

Difficult to say about whether filing separately or jointly will give a tax advantage, the standard deduction for filing separately is $5,450, and exactly twice that for filing jointly. Depending upon your income, if low, doesn't make that much difference, if high, combining your incomes may put you in a higher tax bracket. Where the advantage come in with filing jointly is with dependents, we could not deduct our college tuition expenses if filing separately. And make too much for a child tax credit, but would be nice if we were earning less.

But commented, if even filing separately would give us a tax break, wouldn't do it anyway just to keep the USCIS happy. In the State of Wisconsin with our additional high income taxes, definitely to our advantage to file jointly with extra tax breaks. But you can only file jointly state wise if you filed jointly for the feds.

Healthcare is definitely cheaper with a family plan than two single plans and our kid gets a free ride. My auto insurance went down when I added my wife to my policy, guess this figured this young wild guy would finally settle down. Wife felt awkward when I added her to my home deed, did that myself for a ten buck registration fee, attorneys are crazy for what they charge, but that was Nick AND Connie. Also added her to my vehicles, but used Nick OR Connie, saves headaches if either of us should die in trying to sell the vehicles. One friend had a problem with adding his wife, was his bank, mortgage, and the fact they wanted to close out his old loan, charge him closing and refinancing, attorney fees for the deed, and a higher interest rate. They were called in for an interview, but they brought that information from their back and their IO said it was reasonable he didn't add her name.

I brought in a similar letter from my bank explaining they couldn't add my wife because she didn't have an SSN with the APA for our AOS. We fortunately had a very understanding IO and she didn't even want to see it, but suggested we take care of all that stuff before her two year card was about expire.

We also enclosed other legal documents that showed we shared a common address for the UCS interview, and that utility bill as we had a friend that got an RFE because she didn't bring one.

You have to bend over backwards for the USCIS.

[uglygirlpo 0]

hi tim,

Probably that's one of the reasons why that consul doubted your marriage since you guys are married for 5 years.could be or couldnt be the reason, but you know some people can just couldnt get it especially if the wife is foreigner. with my case, we are poor, i think our baby helped for me to pass. i got permanent visa last week even if my hubby and i are only married for 2 years, i'm only in the US for less than a year. and i also believe in luck, you maybe got the hard consul.i'll pray for you guys...tc. and god bless

[Tim 0]

thanks for all of your support guys,

for income tax returns, I double check it again, we filed income tax returns as "Separately" in 2006, 2007, but we filed it as "Married Joint together" in 2008 because we had a salon business and it gives us larger deduction.

if my wife get approval for her citizenship, then it is cool, no problem. however, if a denial. I got more than enough money to hire good attorneys to take it to the court. (yep, I choose it a hard way) on my law suit, it will against the interview lady (not USCIS). this is not just for me, but for all other people, who came after me to have a such very hard and weird interview with her.

the intense of my lawsuit will get her az.z fired for wasting everybody's time & money and replacing her with someone else more professionally and more understanding. I understand that she just doing her job and get paid for interview people, but this is really crazy and not acceptable. on my lawsuit also include all the money & expenses for business & every body working at our salon for any business-closing days.

I know I got all evidence that prove my wife and I are a real couple, we work together, live together, home ultility bills and apartment Lease Contract show our address and our name, business is in her name but ultilities bills are in my names..we don't have our names together in bank account because I had bad credit (the bank refuse to open any account for me). Car insurance is also in our names. I even challenge the crazy lady to come to our salon check if we're working toghether and ask our clients if we're a couple or not....or even come to our apartment to check if we live together or not. ...what a mentally crazy lady.

Tim

[Tim 0]

oh, by the way, there are two interview ladies. first one is for U.S. citizenship test, second one is for "adjustication office", that is the label on her door's office, which means she "adjust" the case...

anyway...either way of the outcome, we are really for it

Tim