I-751 evidence - worried!

[ljj 0]

I am getting ready to submit my I-751 package and I am starting to worry it won't be enough. My husband and I have seperate bank accounts since I bank with RBC beacuse of investments and stuff I still have in Canada, and he already had existing bank accounts with BofA. We have one joint account that our tax returns go into, but thats it, so we don't really use it much. Is this going to be a problem? Also, my husband already owned the house, so I am not on the mortgage. Any suggestions? Should I be freaking out?

[Kathryn41 3,205]

It would be useful if you had at least one more joint bank account - a savings account or a chequing account to which you both contribute.

You can also each of you list the other as POD - paid on death - for your separate accounts. That means the other partner is not a joint owner, but if anything happened to you, they automatically become the owner of the account in your stead. The money in that account is 'paid on death' to them rather than having to go through the whole business of a probate or gaining legal access otherwise. This is easy to do at the bank. You just notify them of your wish and provide them with the contact information for your spouse. I have my individual accounts set up this way. So, even if you don't have shared accounts you are still providing evidence of a relationship of love and trust where you are willing to hand over our financial assets to your spouse on your death - far in the future .

Do you have a joint safety deposit box? That is easy enough to do and it can be done in the US with both of you getting a key but either having access to the box. You receive a statement in both of your names to that effect.

If either of you have life insurance through work, you can show you have listed the other as the beneficiary of that insurance. If you have any sort of retirement investments - IRAs, etc., you can list your spouse as 'beneficiary' on that investment in case of your death. You should probably be able to do similar 'assignments' on any of your Canadian investments as well.

You can arrange to have the house deed changed to both of your names either as a joint tenancy with rights of survivorship or tenancy by the entirety, in which case your spouse will automatically inherit your 'half or you can also do tenants in common which means you each own half the property outright and can will it to whomever you wish instead of your spouse (there are pros and cons for both). You don't need to re-finance nor be on the mortgage in order to share the title. It is a simple matter and relatively inexpensive to do. I was not on our house title when we filed for I-751 either and it wasn't a problem, although we did have a lot of other evidence of shared financial assets.

How do you pay your bills, especially things like utilities and home management responsibilities? If you each pay some, then include copies from each of you showing who pays what and that it all goes to the same address, showing you are sharing responsibilities for the house and home and your life together.

Do you both have your own separate health insurance? If not, include health insurance cards for both, and if you have them, benefit statements for the beneficiary, showing then covered by the other partner's health insurance. What about car insurance? Are you insured under the same policy and both names listed as drivers or elsewhere on the policy? What about car ownership and registration? Driver's licenses will also show the same physical address (hopefully duplicating over and over the same address from other documents jointly or separately identified in your package). Do you have a family shared cell phone plan listing both names or at least both numbers?

Are either of you listed as next of kin or emergency contacts at the other's employment? Have you written your wills listing the other as executor and/or beneficiary? (Btw - all wills in the US need to have a US based executor so a Canadian cannot have a non-US resident Canadian as their executor). Showing that you are planning not just for your life together today but in the future - even far in the future - counts as good evidence for Removing Conditions on Residency.

Good luck!

Edited May 5, 2013 by Kathryn41

[Marilyn. 340]

just to give you an idea this is what we included in our package ....

copy of apt rental agreement
copy of car insurance
copy of one recent joint tax form
copy of 401K
copy of health care statement
copy of one recent gas bill
copy of one recent phone bill
copy of one recent cable bill
copy of recent bank statements
copy of paper showing that hubby added me to his bank account
Copy of some bills (Sirius, Netflix etc) with just hubby's name and our address on it
Copy of some bills with just my name on it and our address (recent electric bill etc..)
Some envelopes with both our names and address on them...

I just sent in the most recent bill for each utility.... The phone and gas were in my name but I added hubby's name, the electric company didn't let me add my hubby's name...... and I just included the most recent bank statement.... and the application that we filled out to add me to hubby's account...

[Flames9_RN 358]

I believe in Quality over quantity! Some send piles and piles of stuff--do you really think they are going to look over all of that? Maybe if one was from a High fraud country. If your listed on any of the insurance paperwork (cars, house, insurance) include that. Utility Bills. I did not send much. Whats going to happen--they send a RFE and I send in more,lol But thats just me!!

[Kimbear 53]

I believe in Quality over quantity! Some send piles and piles of stuff--do you really think they are going to look over all of that? Maybe if one was from a High fraud country. If your listed on any of the insurance paperwork (cars, house, insurance) include that. Utility Bills. I did not send much. Whats going to happen--they send a RFE and I send in more,lol But thats just me!!

I agree with Flames, in fact my package had so many things in it and it was also 99 pages LOL.

i sent anything and everything that had both our names and address on it. During our marriage we actually moved like 3 times. so what i did was for each address, i compiled evidence of co-mingling, finances and life.

so i sent in various items from our one year that we rented an apartment: our lease, joint tenants insurance, car insurance in both names, copies of his work 401k, medical insurance, life insurance etc showing me as the bene. copies of various utility bills in either his or my name showing same addy, as long as the other normal required stuff, copies of driver licence tax returns etc.

i basically did this for every address we had, I also included copies of the ar -11 filed and a copy of the receipt for his change off addy with uscis as well as the post office change of addy's for each address.

the only weak point was when we lived wtih his parents for a year while we waited on our house purchase to close. so again i included our joint banks statements, drivers licence changes of addys etc and oh cell phone bill which was the only utility bill we had while there. also car insurance renewal with that address and updated work 401k etc showing his parents addy.

If you think about it and collect your mail etc every day you can just amass a ton of stuff and use it.

the most important is anything that is financial, bank statements, pensions statements, life insurance, health benefits etc. showing each other as the beneficiary etc. Also another common mistake people make is they only show 2 or 3 items, but they don't realize it HAS TO SPAN THE ENTIRE MARRIAGE FROM WEDDING TO APPLICATION DATE. if you only send 3 months worth of stuff in they wont see that you have actually been living happily married for 2 years. so pick and choose stuff from each quarter in a year to show continuation.

[Kimbear 53]

there is nothing stopping you from opening up a new joint account to use for groceries etc. they want to see that you both use the account actively. as for him owning the house, do you help maintain it? our house is only in my husbands name, however, i amt he one who schedules repairs cleanings etc, and pays them. I write up the checks and sign them.

do you have any receipts for stuff like that? from a/c furnace cleanings, to carpet cleanings, or anything? are you allowed to talk to the bank regarding the loan? My husband had me put on the loan as a contact and had to fill out a form authorizing it for the "life of the loan".

after we sent off our ROC we were still worried so we got some life insurance, he had me put on one of his credit cards as an authorized user, so i have a card with the same number as him showing the same account. have you seen a doctor at all or dentist since you married? any mail from the insurance or doctors showing you had to pay co pays or stuff? costco sams club membership cards showing same numbers? AAA card? all of that will help as well.

pictures and cards etc are considered secondary evidence, which can help, i had none so i sent none.

Edited May 6, 2013 by Kimbear

[Marilyn. 340]

I don't think actual cards help but the envelopes they came in can if they show both your names on it with your address..