I-751 RFE after changing addresa. Ugh. Questions inside.

[keysjangle 145]

Everything was going along so smoothly!

Copied and pasted from the March filers thread:

I just got an RFE in the mail.

I moved from Hawaii to San Diego on June 15, and had a friend collecting my mail until we had a place. We have our place now, and I just received the RFE with that. It's dated June 23. On June 16, I changed my mailing address to my friend's place with USCIS (as they do not forward mail.)

They're looking for "Evidence of Good Faith in Marriage": "Little to no evidence if joint ownership of assets and joint responsibility for liabilities has been received and little to no evidence of a communal residence has been received."

I sent them bank checks with both of our names and our HI address, they got a copy of our HI lease with my I-130, I sent our most recent phone bill with both our phone numbers listed on it, refund checks with our names + address from the IRS, copies of our joint credit cards, screenshots of our bank account from online, pictures and cards from family from our I-130 date onward... lots of good stuff.

So I don't know if this is because of the move or not, but it's a huge pain in the ###.

I'm planning on getting a hard copy of our lease, a hard copy letter from our property manager showing that we both live here, my husband's orders showing his move with a dependent to San Diego, my military ID, and our tax transcripts.

Anything else anyone can think of? I don't have a car, so no paperwork on that. They have his life insurance showing me from our I-130.

I have until September 15 to get this all in. I could have had my approval by now

1 - Should I be sending evidence from the start of our marriage? I was under the impression that everything from the filing of my I-130 (which has wedding photos, marriage certificate, etc) up until I filed for the I-751 is what was necessary? And they obviously have it all on file somewhere.

2 - What else can I send? I posted above what I'm planning on sending (lease, letter from property manager if he's okay with it, tax transcripts from the last couple of years as we amended, and my husband's orders showing our move from HI to SD.

3 - Should I have contacted USCIS to tell them I was moving? Is that a thing? I changed my mailing address twice since the end of May/early June. Once, to a friend's place so she could hold my mail, and secondly to our new home.

4 - Is this a known issue for people who have pending applications and have to change their addresses?

5 -

[mymarriagejourney 113]

They don't have your I-130 evidence. This is a completely new application. You need to supply your HI lease again.

Edited July 13, 2014 by mymarriagejourney

[Cheezees 1,514]

I don't think you sent very good evidence of financial comingling. You should have sent copies of statements from every joint account (savings and checking) as well as statements from the credit cards. Snapshots are not good enough nor are copies of checks. Anyone can open an account with me and we can order checks together. You need to prove ongoing use. Also, they need tax transcripts, not just refund checks. I see you are already addressing that.

So to answer your questions:

1. The I-751 instructions form clearly indicates what you need to include with the application. Assuming that they already have things on file and it was not necessary to include evidence was an error. They have nothing since your first application - from the receipt of your 2-yr GC - and the burden of proof is always on the applicant. It looks like you ignored the fact that your residency was conditional and that the conditions were to be removed.

2. I think you now have a better idea of what to include in your packets evidence. Look through some posts and see what evidence others have presented.

3. You were supposed to know that you are legally required to inform USCIS every time your address changes. They don't need to know why you moved, just that you moved. This process has nothing to do with forwarding mail via USPS. It is very much a thing for which there are legal consequences. It seems that you did change the address and they mailed the RFE to you so I'm not sure what your question is.

4. There are no issues that I am aware of. The RFE that was served was not as a result of the address change. The evidence is just lacking.

Good luck!

Edited July 14, 2014 by Cheezees

[keysjangle 145]

I've beefed things up quite a bit. The package so far:

- Blue RFE letter

- Front and back of my military ID and HI driver's license

- Husband's dependency application/record of emergency data. Shows me and his family as beneficiaries to his life insurance, etc.

- His orders to SD (supplemental)

- His passenger reservation request submitted to his command to book our flight with the cats

- Our itineraries for the flight (supplemental)

- The lease for our new home in SD (Husband and I are named on it, as well as our friend from HI who moved at the same time as us. Hope that isn't an issue.)

- Change of address info from USPS (supplemental)

- PCS/TAD paperwork filled out by husband showing both names and our new home address for the military records

- My pay stubs from every ~four months of the length of my employment in HI, 6 in total, including first and last

- The front scans of the first and last stubs showing my full name and mailing address (supplemental)

- Began printing out Online Bank Statements when I ran out of paper... they will reflect the deposits on the pay stubs, as well as our most recent statement, probably 10 total

- Tax Transcripts from 2010-2012

- Federal + State returns from 2010-2013 (2010 and 2011 were amended from MFS to MFJ, so I also included copies of the amended ones)

- Wage and Income Transcript from 2013

- My W-2s from 2012 and 2013 (became eligible to work in 2012)

- His W-2s from 2010 - 2013 (supplemental)

- Hawaii state refund check (in both of our names, front and back)

- Most recent T-Mobile phone bill in his name, but showing both of our phone numbers (supplemental)

Just wondering if I should include photos at this point.

The letter lists all the financial/property evidence I can send, but the last points call for anything else to show that married was entered into in good faith.

Anything else anyone can think of?

[keysjangle 145]

* Forgot to add, also to be included is our lease for our home in HI

[mymarriagejourney 113]

Pay stubs are not relevant. And, if you are including IRS transcripts rather than just copies of the returns, you don't need the W2s, either. They aren't concerned about the individual finances, but rather just that you co-mingle what you have. Your tax transcripts, joint bank accounts, joint leases, and joint insurances will show that.

[milimelo 4,571]

Do AR-11 change of address for yourself on uscis.gov and have husband as your sponsor send in I-865.

[keysjangle 145]

Do AR-11 change of address for yourself on uscis.gov and have husband as your sponsor send in I-865.

I did the online change of address and have already gotten a letter from USCIS confirming it. It says that my address has been changed in their records and on my application or petition. The AR-11 seems to cover it all, since you also include the case numbers of any pending applications you have with their form name.

Pay stubs are not relevant. And, if you are including IRS transcripts rather than just copies of the returns, you don't need the W2s, either. They aren't concerned about the individual finances, but rather just that you co-mingle what you have. Your tax transcripts, joint bank accounts, joint leases, and joint insurances will show that.

I usually wouldn't include both transcripts and returns (for my I-130, I only sent transcripts), but the list they sent me says "Copies of your state and federal tax returns. Also include all required schedules, statements, and any attachments such as W-2 records." I'm just super paranoid now about not sending enough. Because they recommended that specifically, they're going to get it. If they decide to just use the transcripts, then that's fine, but at least they have all of it.

It's also weird because the years he amended from MFS to MFJ - 2010, 2011 - the transcripts don't show that they were amended. I :requested" them from the IRS a few days ago which it shows on the document, so they aren't outdated. I have copies of the actual amended returns to reflect the changes. And my pay stubs are the only things in this packet that show my name + our joint checking account number, and then bank statements show both of our names + account number + my pay being deposited.

Edited July 16, 2014 by Gervl