Advice Needed- pre-empt a request for more information or just wait?

[mamaronga 2]

Hi fellow Visa Journey-ers,

My husband and I had a different experience at his citizenship interview than expected. Throughout this whole process we have always been extremely through and have sent USCIS always much more evidence than was asked for. We have had, thank goodness, no issues to date. Since my husband studied a good amount for the civics/history test, and his English is excellent, we expected to be celebrating after the interview. By the way, my husband passed the civics/history/english test with flying colors. The tricky part was that, despite the abundant evidence of our bona fide marriage that the IO had in possession, and that fact that many other IO's before have confirmed our bona fide marriage, there still seemed to be questions about lack of evidence- in particular, it seemed, because our health insurance policies are separate (it's because it's more affordable since we don't have kids to have them be separate, which I explained to the IO- yes, I was interviewed too), because we have no mortgage (on our income we cannot afford to buy a house yet) or life insurance (again, not something we can afford).

There were a few small pieces we could have added (but didn't think to, unfortunately, since no additional evidence was requested when our N-400 was sent in so we figured we'd just bring what was requested to the interview) including a bank statement from the current month (they had one from 3 months ago) and our car registration (though they had that in our lifting of conditions file so it seemed redundant). Initially the IO was telling my husband to either bring those documents back the same day, or fax them, in order to close the case. But then they said they would interview me, the US citizen spouse, first and then let my husband know whether he should do so or not with the additional evidence. So the IO interviewed me, but then never told me or my husband to send in any specific documents. In fact, all he said to me when I asked as I was ushered out the door was "I'll be going through your file and if I don't find anything bad then you'll get a letter about the oath ceremony or you might get a letter asking for more evidence. It could be up to 90 days before you hear from us." I met up with my husband in the lobby and saw that the IO had already marked the "Could not be decided today" box on the form, even before he had brought me in to be interviewed.

90 days would be a very long time to wait...for example, just to get a letter requesting some more evidence. I would like to speed up that process if possible, but only if it would be a good idea to do so.

My question for the wise sages of this forum are:

-Since it was confusing what exactly the IO wanted regarding additional evidence (i.e. they asked my husband to bring it in the same day to close the case, but then interviewed me and then never followed up on that request), should we:

A) Pre-empt what seems likely to be a Request for Additional Evidence and send in the current bank statement, the car registration, and ---another idea I had---receipts of our 2 insurance policies sent to the same address? And if we do this, should we include some affidavits as well? (since the IO seemed so interested in life insurance and a mortgage which we don't have and cannot have at this point in time because we simply cannot afford it) (Note: we wouldn't know exactly where to send it...I suppose directly to that field office with the IO's name under "Attention"?)

or

B) Just hope that the IO sees the truth and approves my husbands case (as all past IO's who have viewed the case have done)...and if it's a request for information, just wait for it? (even though that could mean 3 months just to get the RFI, and who knows how long until an oath ceremony)

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks so so much!

[BigDaddy28 228]

You don't have to sit down and hope, and you can't send something they didn't ask for. What I would do if I were you, I would gather as much evidence as I could example:

- copy of driver's licenses if they have same address.

- copy of car title if both of your names are there

- copy of car registration if both your names are there

- copy of a letter from insurance (car, house, and health) that shows you are both covered.

- copy of bills that are in your names (doesn't matter if a bill is yours and one is his, we want the same address)

- copy of phone bill that shows both of your numbers and names if possible

- copy of electricity, water cable, internet anything that can show both your names even seperatly and the same address.

- taxes

- health insurance statements.

- copy of credit card showing that the other is an authorized user (if possible)

- pictures

- affidavit from friend, close family members stating that you live together, you go to vacations together, visit together...

I hope I helped.

[English Muffin 59]

Don't send anything unless they ask for it. There's a chance they won't ask anyway and he'll just get a letter with the date for his oath ceremony.

Good luck.

[only_me 1]

Im so sorry they gave u a hard time at the interview!!!I hope you will get his oath ceremony letter anytime,and not extend the process!!!

Good luck!!!!

[TBoneTX 45,580]

Claire-Bone!!!!!

I'd probably collect the additional stuff, and hold it, to see if it's requested, si man.

Meanwhile, have you and Mr. Claire-Bone drafted Wills, Medical Powers of Attorney, et al.? These documents are the best proof of all, and crucial to have even if they're not needed as evidence, si man.

You might not even need a lawyer to cook these up for you (confirm this) if templates for your state are available through LegalZoom.com or similar, no man.

[NickD 203]

How much time as elapsed since your interviews, wow, they actually wanted to talk to you as well? If you don't have any kids, two separate health insurance policies are definately cheaper than a family policy. Don't get that anyway, with a family policy, doesn't make any difference if you have one kid or ten!

Wife had all of that evidence and shouldn't make any difference if you are leasing an apartment or jointly own a very expensive home, as long as its joint. Since my wife has a close friend with the same evidence we had, of all things, they also wanted a stupid joint utility bill. With that warning, we got that two, wife was asked for that, her b!tch of an IO was very disappointed she could whip that out. You run into those IO's playing god, we sure did. But all we could do was wait, and wait.

I did contact my immigration attorney on this issue, said I can't do anything, but your senator's office can, so contacted him, but my wife had to sign a disclosure first and also give me the power of attorney. It turned out, her b!tch of an IO never turned her application to her supervisor. Received an email from the office manager, plus also her oath letter for a special oath ceremony, just for her three days later.

Still wonder why the USCIS operates this way, we me and some of my kids, we have government certifications, but we all had to meet with a board to get those certificates. With the USCIS, just meet with one person with your life in that one person's hand. This isn't right, but okay if you are lucky to get a good IO.

Unfortunately, according to law, have to wait 120 days. Call this the twilight zone, but fortunately, still have that fairly fresh ten year green card, so free to work and travel. Got me to wonder why we didn't wait that extra two years. Don't have to go through all this madness with this so-called marriage privilege.

[mamaronga 2]

Thanks everyone for your replies! I appreciate the list of things to gather, and the advice that we shouldn't try to send anything they don't ask for. We will see what happens!

Have others also had difficulty at this stage--?