Denied at Interview

[VanessaTony 3,567]

First thing, We filed for AOS just after 2 years, RFE added another 3 months then recieved the interview date. IT WILL BE 3 YEARS THIS COMING END OF AUGUST. And as far as I know, Once the K-1 visa is approved , there ain't no putting it off to save up for it. She had 90 days to get here and begin trying to make it financially. It took everything we had to get through the visa process and get her here. It was so strenuous that the $2000 for AOS was overlooked buy us somehow until we started to file.

I'm only going to say this so other people don't get confused. You have SIX MONTHS from the time the K1 is approved to go to the US. This is the norm. If you are in AP sometimes that time is a little bit shorter, but 6 months is max. Then 90 days to marry once IN the US.

I personally worked my butt off while in my home country before I got here. I already had a flight booked otherwise I would have waited longer after approval to work and save. I'm not saying the OP didn't, even with all of that I filed late as well (just a couple of months), but I'm just saying that there were chances and that others reading this should know they have these options.

Long and short of it is, you need proof of co-mingling. ANYTHING you can find, whether it be health insurance, 401K, Will, Power of Attorney, SOMETHING, anything... and I agree a lawyer at this stage wouldn't hurt. Just a visit to see if they can remind you of anything.

[ronnielee67 2]

I'm only going to say this so other people don't get confused. You have SIX MONTHS from the time the K1 is approved to go to the US. This is the norm. If you are in AP sometimes that time is a little bit shorter, but 6 months is max. Then 90 days to marry once IN the US.

I personally worked my butt off while in my home country before I got here. I already had a flight booked otherwise I would have waited longer after approval to work and save. I'm not saying the OP didn't, even with all of that I filed late as well (just a couple of months), but I'm just saying that there were chances and that others reading this should know they have these options.

Long and short of it is, you need proof of co-mingling. ANYTHING you can find, whether it be health insurance, 401K, Will, Power of Attorney, SOMETHING, anything... and I agree a lawyer at this stage wouldn't hurt. Just a visit to see if they can remind you of anything.

SIX MONTHS. Yes, that's right. My wife just reminded me of that. I had forgot that we waited 3 1/2 months before she came. And we were still broke. Matter of fact, I bought there plain tickets from Moscow to New York and drove from North Carolina to New York to pick them up. It was a 13 hour drive one way and I think it only costed about $75 in gas one way. It saved a few hundred dollars.

[thongd4me 69]

I have disclosed all. If there was something other than the financial co mingling that bothered him, he didn't tell us. Again, he kept saying "this is why people get married". I told him that it was not why we got married. I went to my wife's bank today to get a statement from the executive that opened her account. It was her that assured me that having my name on my wife's account could be damaging to her financially. You see , bout a year prior to that, I had an account closed with a negative balance. My business went under. I didn't want my name to hurt my wife's new start in this country with my bad credit.

The executive wasn't in today, but another backed up the truth in what she had told us about the situation.

We'll go back next week to get a written statement as to that being why we don't have a joint accout. I TOLD THIS STORY TO THE IMMIGRATION OFFICER.

He had a heartless attitude smiling all the time while crushing my wifes dreams. The whole time , me having to maintain tolerance due to my knowledge and experience with rebelling against officers of the law in my youth.

But now it was an immigration cop with a different kind of badge , gun, let me show you how powerful I am no matter what the consequences are to these two girls attitube. I am the ultimate authority, and he may be. But, a person does , especially in a service position does have an unwritten responsibillity to the welfare of those they're in contact with. Don't you? When someone is in obvious need of help, do we say well that's your problem. Some do. I don't and most of everyone in my life doesn't. Yes, I know he has a job to do but everyone does basically.

Say a couple goes in after us basically the same evidence except with a joint bank account with no money in it because there spending everything to survive. What in the world would make their marriage more bonified than ours. At least to the point of one being denied and the other approved. That' I'm affraid was my fault in this whole thing. The idea that we're honest and real so we should be fine. While in all, we could have been lying , cheating thieves with underlying motives other than marriage and family WITH A JOINT ACCOUNT and been approved.

I just need to know how to satisfy this man. Will letters from neighbors and others such as an attorney friend I have in regards to our integrity help?

Thank you.

Thank you.

It makes me sick to see people denied on the basis of "canned" scripted criteria

rather than a balanced view of whether they are compatible and can prove cohabitation

and family ties, etc.

The presence or absence of joint accounts should be struck from the list of requirements in my opinion.

If one partner is not "monied" the fact that the one with more money puts some in a joint account is meaningless.

The one with more money brings financial stability to the relationship and the one with no money will bring

many other things that are equally valuable.

My wife worked for 25 years in her home country but her financial worth is only a fraction of mine.

If somehow we would fail the AOS interview I would be devastated because she does so many

caring and supportive things for me and my aged mom that are priceless.

It's unfortunate that our lives are in the hands of bureaucrats during this process.

[TracyTN 237]

OP - is there any reason you keep ducking the idea of hiring an attorney? I'm sure it's partially the cost, but I'd rather fork over some cash and have my spouse be allowed to stay than have my family potentially ripped apart. Then again, I'm funny that way.

[ronnielee67 2]

OP - is there any reason you keep ducking the idea of hiring an attorney? I'm sure it's partially the cost, but I'd rather fork over some cash and have my spouse be allowed to stay than have my family potentially ripped apart. Then again, I'm funny that way.

[/quote

I'm not ducking anything funny man. I had a short nights sleep and a 14 hour work day in between posts. And, a big plate of fried chicken and taters with my family.

Now I have to read the I-72 we got in the mail today. Followed by a short nights sleep and another long work day.

[TracyTN 237]

That'd be funny WOMAN, but that's ok.

I wasn't trying to be funny, or anything else really. I just didn't know if you had seen those suggestions or didn't want to address them, etc. You responded to several other posts and questions so I didn't realize lack of sleep had affected your posting habits.

[Caladan 19]

It makes me sick to see people denied on the basis of "canned" scripted criteria

rather than a balanced view of whether they are compatible and can prove cohabitation

and family ties, etc.

The presence or absence of joint accounts should be struck from the list of requirements in my opinion.

If one partner is not "monied" the fact that the one with more money puts some in a joint account is meaningless.

The one with more money brings financial stability to the relationship and the one with no money will bring

many other things that are equally valuable.

My wife worked for 25 years in her home country but her financial worth is only a fraction of mine.

If somehow we would fail the AOS interview I would be devastated because she does so many

caring and supportive things for me and my aged mom that are priceless.

It's unfortunate that our lives are in the hands of bureaucrats during this process.

There's no rule that there has to be a joint account, just that assets have to be co-mingled; a joint account is simply a very easy way to show that, especially for a couple that doesn't own a home or a car. And it's not about a judgment as to who is more valuable, because they don't care about how much money they have or who puts it in; it's just a reliable metric that separates fraudsters (who are unlikely to want to commit their money to what is otherwise just having a roommate) from legitimate couples. Striking co-mingling of assets from the rules will make it much easier for charlatans, and will increase the scrutiny on legitimate couples.

OP, I definitely agree with the consensus that you need an attorney. But something else occurred to me: does your wife have a credit card? Even if it's in her name, you've been paying the bills, right, since she just got her EAD? Here's my thinking. You could look at her credit card receipts and find your bill payments to that account. It's not great financial evidence, but showing some kind of financial connection is better than what you have now.

[lrr1998 0]

Hi Ronnie,

To answer one of your previous questions it can be a letter (in a certain format) written up and notarized and the officer should accept this. I looked on line to find a format for affivadits and had my family and friends all provide notarize letters for me and the officer took them and put them in our file as evidence. My evidence was somewhat like yours. We didnt have any utility bills , health , car or life insurance , major purchases , credit cards , not even the lease was in both of our names. My husband has a DL but our addresses didnt match cause I never updated my new address on mine so we couldnt use that. We did have joint bank accounts and I still had my maiden name on there. He gave us the list of stuff needed for evidence and we had only like 2 things on there. I thought we were gonna have problems because of lack of evvidence so we did alot of talking. I just like yourself didnt think bank accounts made that much of a difference cause a couple living fradulently could also acquire those. Our interview did last an hour where as I heard some people only last about 10-15 mins. Go ahead and get as many notarize letters as possible it cant hurt anything. I hope things get better for you.

[ronnielee67 2]

There's no rule that there has to be a joint account, just that assets have to be co-mingled; a joint account is simply a very easy way to show that, especially for a couple that doesn't own a home or a car. And it's not about a judgment as to who is more valuable, because they don't care about how much money they have or who puts it in; it's just a reliable metric that separates fraudsters (who are unlikely to want to commit their money to what is otherwise just having a roommate) from legitimate couples. Striking co-mingling of assets from the rules will make it much easier for charlatans, and will increase the scrutiny on legitimate couples.

OP, I definitely agree with the consensus that you need an attorney. But something else occurred to me: does your wife have a credit card? Even if it's in her name, you've been paying the bills, right, since she just got her EAD? Here's my thinking. You could look at her credit card receipts and find your bill payments to that account. It's not great financial evidence, but showing some kind of financial connection is better than what you have now.

She has a checking account that I put money into because she has never had an income here. After the interview we realized that the monthley payments for my business website, our family membership at the YMCA, and my Netflix membership are all drafted from her account. There is also evidence of her paying bills of mine from her checking account. Cell phones , vehicle insurance , etc.

The officer did seem very concerned about me filing my taxes seperate. That was my busines before she came here and still is . I run it completely. Without an EAD , she couldn't work for me anyway, Right?

Back to Sole Proprietor. I have tax debts and could have paid much of it down last year had it not been for the 3000 for AOS and Ilyana not being able to work the first 2 years she was here. It just made since to me that if my busines got in deeper tax debt that I should keep it as my own. It would be my Tornado, not hers . Doesn't that make since. It did to me and my CPA. When she opens a dance school, we would keep our 2 businesses seperate. I can't see where this would appear to be suspisious. I would want to protect my wife from any negative effects of my business ventures. Is that not the American way? You gotta work like hell to make money, then you gotta work like hell to keep it. I know self made millionares in my business. One in particular that assures me that it is a constant job of using everything available to him to keep what he has. Legally.

[ValerieA 350]

I come from a country where the spouses are both responsible for either spouse's debt, so I'm not versed on your debts not being visited upon her if something happened to you. However, I have done my husband's taxes for the last few years, and it really does improve your tax situation significantly if you file married, filing jointly as opposed to married, filing separately. If you refiled your tax returns, you may get a refund (or a reduction in your tax bill, if you still owe the gov't money).

[Caladan 19]

What you're saying makes sense, but it probably wasn't visible to the officer. I'm guessing you filed as "married filing separately", and then she had no (or not a lot of) income to report? That might have struck the officer as unreasonable in general given the other lack of mingling (usually the tax benefit is better if you file jointly) even though it's reasonable in your specific circumstances. Think of it from his perspective; all he sees is a couple who isn't showing him evidence of being mingled financially. Even if you have good reasons for all of it, taken together it may look suspicious.

I'd talk to a lawyer, but if it were me, I'd write a letter explaining the outlines of the financial situation (maybe one from the CPA), and then try to build a trail of co-mingled financial life. E.g., money from your paycheck goes into her account and pays your and her bills. Anything else you can think of where you represented yourself to a neutral third party (like an insurance agency) as financially tied together.

[finallyfree 2]

I understand where you're coming from but the IO did not, and considered it as a red flag. And, as the other posters pointed out, filing jointly can improve your tax situation. I don't work but my husband and i filed jointly because he said it's better that way than filing separately. Do you have any receipts of things you bought together?

[Rohini 0]

My ex-husband and I filed for AOS and he was approved and we had no joint accounts and we didn't own a car at that time. The whole process is messed up from top to bottom and I wish there were ways to change the way things are! My experience with (immigration) laywers is that they tend to not know anymore than the clients do because the USCIS breaks its own rules or at least interprets them in the way the individual officer wants to read them. That said, I have nothing against lawyers, I am actually looking for a good one right now... They need to make their tagline "USCIS, keeping families apart!"

[SaraDee 9]

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me that if you had done even the smallest amount of research when you were filling out the initial paperwork you would have read somewhere that you need to show joint account information at some point. It does not matter how silly you think having two names on the bill is or not, it's what the USCIS requires for proof of a REAL marriage. This process is no joke and most of us have gone through the paperwork tirelessly to make sure that we did not make a mistake and waist time, loose money or god forbid get denied and have to live apart from our loved ones. Please, from here on out pay attention to all the requirements. I really am sorry you got a denial and I hope you do find some documentation to verify your marriage, like medical records etc. The records thing actually seems like a good way to go. I just had to give you some tough love here. Hope it all works out in the end. Let us know.

[ronnielee67 2]

I don't mean to be rude, but it seems to me that if you had done even the smallest amount of research when you were filling out the initial paperwork you would have read somewhere that you need to show joint account information at some point. It does not matter how silly you think having two names on the bill is or not, it's what the USCIS requires for proof of a REAL marriage. This process is no joke and most of us have gone through the paperwork tirelessly to make sure that we did not make a mistake and waist time, loose money or god forbid get denied and have to live apart from our loved ones. Please, from here on out pay attention to all the requirements. I really am sorry you got a denial and I hope you do find some documentation to verify your marriage, like medical records etc. The records thing actually seems like a good way to go. I just had to give you some tough love here. Hope it all works out in the end. Let us know.

If I had done the Smallest amount of research? Now that's the joke. Tough love, that's even funnier. Keep up the good work!