No Joint Bank Account--Is that OK?

[HannahP 119]

We're another couple who made it without a joint bank account. We had joint leases, utilities, car and health and life insurance, and tax filings.

Honestly, I think the joint bank account is kind of a cultural/the way you were raised thing. Both my husband and myself were raised with parents who did not have joint bank accounts -- my mother was even adamant that we shouldn't have one. (But she's got two divorces behind her!) It wouldn't have crossed our minds to have one...except with the immigration thing. And even then, we figured that we had enough other evidence to not need one.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Joint bank accounts aren't necessary if you have lots of other good evidence of joining together your financial, social and family lives. If all you have are the three documents that you have listed I am pretty sure you will get an RFE for more evidence. They also want documents that cover the whole period of your married life - not just from a single moment in your married life either recently or early on. They want to see 'continuity' over several years.

Other things you can include are copies of both of your driver's licenses (or State ID if she has no DL) showing the same address; a notarized statement from your parents that you live with them at the same address; any joint membership cards; copies of your wills listing each other as spouses; listing each other as emergency contacts at work; listing each other as beneficiaries on pension plans, IRAs, CDs, etc. Showing family cell phone plan with both names and numbers; showing joint car ownership or registration; showing joint travel itineraries supported by boarding passes, photographs of both of you at family events like weddings, holidays, with each other's families, etc. things like this.

Seriously try and be creative to find other evidence that shows you are living together as a married couple. The I-751 form itself provides a good list of documents. You don't want to fool around with USCIS - you want to convince them that there is no doubt about the validity of your relationship. It isn't necessarily what you think is good evidence - it is what they think that matters. They are trying to separate the fraud marriages from the real ones so the more evidence you can provide the greater your ability will be to convince them of your validity.

Edited February 21, 2010 by Kathryn41

[SunDrop 59]

???

Banks now days offer free checking,savings and no fees, credit unions been doing it for a long time! Someones been in a cave for a long time!

Meh, not really. It does depend where you are in the US. And he's got one now, but mainly because he started selling custom paintball guns via ebay and needed some way of withdrawing his earnings.

His attitude was everything can be paid in cash, if you haven't got it, you can't spend it. I can run with that, especially since you can cash checks in the US, instead of having to pay them into an account...

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

Very funny the way some people look at this whole immigration business. Really.

I daresay there are several posters to this thread who wouldn't even be married if it weren't for the US government saying they had to be.

If you've gone that far, why not open a joint checking account?

Forest. Trees.

[SunDrop 59]

I daresay there are several posters to this thread who wouldn't even be married if it weren't for the US government saying they had to be.

If you've gone that far, why not open a joint checking account?

Forest. Trees.

Agreed, and we're one of them (couples, not posters! Not using the royal We here lol) Well, we used to be. I think that having to get married has ended up helping our relationship in a wierd, convoluted way. But if we didn't have to get married, I'd already be in the US. Although we 'have' to do it to live together, we weren't going to leap into marriage for the sake of it. I've already been there once and he's - quite rightly - always taken the stance that he's not going to get married unless he truly believes that he wants to spend the rest of his life with that person.

But we've already got a joint account, without being married. It was opened so that I could not incur the ridiculous fees that some UK banks levy on international card transactions while visiting, and also allows us to do things like easily pay in money for gifts at christmas and birthdays, since we both have access. Our finances are already somewhat integrated and I'm already listed on various memberships as a co-accountee.

[HannahP 119]

Very funny the way some people look at this whole immigration business. Really.

I daresay there are several posters to this thread who wouldn't even be married if it weren't for the US government saying they had to be.

If you've gone that far, why not open a joint checking account?

Forest. Trees.

Marriage actually means very little to some people. Especially those of us with a few years living together already.

But joint checking accounts? :/

[jcrom 2]

Hello everybody, Guys, DO NOT WORRY ABOUT THAT! Actually, if you don't have that probe that doesn't mean nothing, of course, if you have that probe, you can have a little bit more of evidence. Hence, it comes up a nice issue to comment. It is always good idea of showing up good evidences, but not too much, specially if you go to a second interview. Why? there's something that the officer can take advantage of that and put it against you; that usually does not occur, but I've seen a few cases where the officer begins to doubt whatever it has on his/her hands and he uses everything or any probe to ask you or to trick against you, as the saying "everything you say would be used against you"! I mean it is very nice that you are very prepared with good probes in common and good evidence, but sometimes for example: to show too much pictures in an immigration interview might be a little risky; that is the reason that the immigration interviews are at the same time recommended to answer exactly what the immigration officer is asking, no more or less than that; in case of any misunderstanding, the immigration officer is going to take you for that "weak side"; so, yes, send the best probes, you can send whatever you have in common, even you can send the car insurance where it appears both on, or the health insurance where it appears both, or maybe any credit card or bill statement that appears both names; Do not worry if you don't have the same account; just get prepared for everything. If you want and if you and her are working even in different places, you can ask her payment slip and your payment slip with the both directions that it has to be the same; that is another probe that you can collect easily. Thanks and bye,

[nane1104 146]

I'd say, if you are in doubt that you have enough other proof of having a valid marriage, I'd go ahead and add your wife to your excisting accounts.

That's what we did, we didn't open any new accounts, I just got added to my husbands.

It's not a big deal and can give you some peace of mind to have more "proof".

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

what individual posters think about not having a joint checking account means to a marriage doesn't really matter - many, many people have been approved without them including me and my husband

next thing I'll hear women "need" to change their name in order to be properly married and satisfy removing conditions.

[Marzy 1]

Joint bank account doesn't really mean anything if it has only few thousand dollars or less. Anyway, health insurance, and other proofs you have are good evidence as married couple.

what individual posters think about not having a joint checking account means to a marriage doesn't really matter - many, many people have been approved without them including me and my husband

next thing I'll hear women "need" to change their name in order to be properly married and satisfy removing conditions.

I "need" word.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

what individual posters think about not having a joint checking account means to a marriage doesn't really matter - many, many people have been approved without them including me and my husband

next thing I'll hear women "need" to change their name in order to be properly married and satisfy removing conditions.

You're right of course you are. My observation wasn't a judgment anyway. Just strikes me strange when people don't bother to do it because it's such a simple way to show joined finances.

[Dumb American 0]

What decision process did you engage with, to decide to NOT show proof of co-mingled finances?

Ignorance: I did not know that this was a requirement. USCIS does not post any guidelines to what they consider is absolutely necessary requirements for I-751 approval (Removal of Conditions). Others have posted that they had no co-mingling of funds with no problems with approval.

Provided all documents listed to provide in the instructions for application on the I-751 instructions.

There is a free mini-course which guarantees approval for I-751 (Removal of Conditions): just discovered this site: http://www.greencardinterviewsecrets.com/

[Old Dominion 26]

Obviously from prior postings, it's best to open a joint checking account ASAP. Generally, a business is not allowed to pay personal living expenses and deduct them from taxes.

[elmcitymaven 9,712]

what individual posters think about not having a joint checking account means to a marriage doesn't really matter - many, many people have been approved without them including me and my husband

next thing I'll hear women "need" to change their name in order to be properly married and satisfy removing conditions.

That and push out a few puppies. If you don't have at least one child you obviously don't have a real marriage because everyone wants to have children. Clearly the only way I managed to get conditions removed with no joint checking account, a different last name from my husband and a feeling that babies are icky was by passing a nice wad of cash to USCIS. The going rate is $545.

Oh wait, everybody paid that?

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

That and push out a few puppies. If you don't have at least one child you obviously don't have a real marriage because everyone wants to have children. Clearly the only way I managed to get conditions removed with no joint checking account, a different last name from my husband and a feeling that babies are icky was by passing a nice wad of cash to USCIS. The going rate is $545.

Oh wait, everybody paid that?

You have to have more than one child to be a real parent, don't you know.