I-751 confusion

[Neal N 0]

Hi all,

I have been through so many FAQs, guides, and threads but I am still a little lost, and worried. I'll start with supporting documents.

The amount of evidence that my wife and I can provide is somewhat limited due to the fact that I am a full-time graduate student and she is still working on her undergrad degree. As students we still have things (car payments, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone bills, etc.) that were covered by our respective parents before we even met and are still being covered now.

What we do have:

-tax returns, married filing separately (don't ask). I'm worried if the "separately" part matters. She does own a business and I believe my name is associated with it through her taxes.

-joint bank account

-letter from the utility company (we used it when filing for her conditional Green Card)

-driver's licenses. I'm slightly worried about this one. My license address is our home address, and so is the address on her Green Card. However, the address on her driver's license is linked with the address of her business, which is in a different state.

That's about it. Our landlord is S. Korean (so is my wife), and since Koreans are heavily influenced by Confucianism, they don't put much stock in written contracts...so we have no lease per se. I may be able to get her to write one up though. I also might be able to coax something out of Comcast as well. As for the bank statements, what exactly do we need to send in? I've read that some people just send in an overview of the account, and others send in months or even years' worth of statements. Which is gonna be a pain in the butt for us because we went paperless with our bank statements.

Other than that we also have pictures, college acceptance letters (if we can find them), etc. but I read those aren't terribly important to the USCIS folks.

The last thing I am worried about is timing. Her conditional Green Card expires August 20-something, so filing must be around May/June. She will be in Japan from May 20-June 19 for a school program* and after that she is hopping over to Korea to take care of some family business and will be back in the US by July 31, which is roughly a month before her status expires. It looks like I will be filing in her stead and apparently I will have to mail her the receipt I get from the USCIS to ensure that she can regain entry to the US. What worries me is that July 4-27 I will be in the Czech Republic on a graduate program to get my TEFL certificate (and teaching experience). This means that the two of us will be practically unreachable by phone. We are looking at some international cell plans but there are always "what if's."

Thanks for the help.

*To assuage anyone's curiosity, the reason my wife is going to Japan this summer is because I will be teaching at that particular university next year and she has very little knowledge of Japanese. I also attended the same program last year.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Neal N

[TBoneTX 46,174]

Draw up some wills, medical powers of attorney, et al. Documents like that will go a very long way.

Your evidence is not thin, per se, but a bit different from the norm. It might not hurt to get a few notarized affidavits from respectable people who can attest to the bona fide nature of your marriage.

In regard to the bank statements, provide one per quarter, from date of marriage through now.

Think about nontraditional documents that might escape attention, such as adoption papers for a pet.

I think that you'll be just fine, si man.

For the benefit of others who are reading, the best advice about ROC that I ever read on here was this: After AOS, take anything remotely applicable to your married status and throw it into a box. Come ROC time, you'll have more than enough material to choose from.

[bigdog 376]

Draw up some wills, medical powers of attorney, et al. Documents like that will go a very long way.

Your evidence is not thin, per se, but a bit different from the norm. It might not hurt to get a few notarized affidavits from respectable people who can attest to the bona fide nature of your marriage.

In regard to the bank statements, provide one per quarter, from date of marriage through now.

Think about nontraditional documents that might escape attention, such as adoption papers for a pet.

I think that you'll be just fine, si man.

For the benefit of others who are reading, the best advice about ROC that I ever read on here was this: After AOS, take anything remotely applicable to your married status and throw it into a box. Come ROC time, you'll have more than enough material to choose from.

:dance:That's the best way, box it, then you do not need to search for anything, see prior threads on lists members posted, including me. 3/4 affidavits from your insurance guy, friend, people who attended your wedding and have continued to associate with you. Also see the pinned post from Gary and Alla. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/220440-i-751-evidence/

[Neal N 0]

I read the pinned post from Gary and Alla before I joined the site but it gave me the impression that the affidavits did not hold much weight. I will look into the medical power of attorney. The will I am not sure about since we don't really have any assets to leave to anyone should one of us pass.

[Kitten24 5]

Just like TBone said, a Last Will and Testament, Living Will and anything that designates your spouse and viceversa as the beneficiary of something in case of death is very strong. We got the documents in one day and was very easy. We have retirement accounts and life insurance policies in each other's names. My packet wasn't very thick and I was still approved. Good luck!

[h1a1 5]

I was just approved without interview or RFE and we had tax returns married filing separately.

[Neal N 0]

What if you don't really have that "something" to leave in case of death? I think the only "asset" I have to leave is my car...

[Kitten24 5]

I designated my husband as the executor of my "estate" in case of death. This only means that if I kick the bucket, he gets to keep the TV, jewelery, and even debt! Hahaha. I also got a living will where I designate him as the person to make decisions in case I am left in a vegetative state and someone needs to make a decision regarding life support.

[toogroove 3]

I agree with the folks supporting the will, living will, health care power of attorney etc. The plan is that in the future you would have more than the car to leave to your spouse, correct?

Also, its never a bad idea to have these documents organized anyway so look at it as doing 2 things at once.

Good luck!

[J J Moose 3]

Keep in mind that after you file your I-751 they are going to send you a biometrics appt in the mail. Make sure you have someone checking your mail, so that if that appt comes while you guys are out of the country, you can call and change it. My understanding is that you really don't want to miss a biometrics appt without rescheduling.

[Neal N 0]

Biometrics again? She already did that for her provisional...

I guess this may be considered a "non-traditional" document, but since we are studying abroad this summer our student ID cards carry life insurance, and we named each other as the beneficiary on the application form. Would this carry much merit? I guess it wouldn't hurt to send it in anyway...