Filing ROC - Self-file or Hire a Lawyer?

[hellostranger57 18]

Hello All,

It's been almost 2 years since we went through the AOS process and now it's almost time for us to go through ROC. For our AOS process, we hired an excellent immigration lawyer since my case was a bit complicated due to the fact that we had to transfer over my then current pending i-485 through my mother's EB3 petition to i-130 marriage to a US citizen. Our case went smoothly and I received my green card on hand only a little over 2 months after we filed.

Now, we are quite in a dilemma. We are debating whether we should hire a lawyer again to help us out with ROC or thinking if we should just do it ourselves? Our case now is pretty straightforward from i-485 approval. I guess what just worries me by doing it ourselves is that we moved and changed our addresses twice within the past 2 years we were married and currently we don't have a lease together. Here's what happened: We first had a lease together for the first year of our marriage so that's not a problem. When the lease was up, we moved in with my mom since my husband was out of a job for a couple of months so it was hard for us to pay rent at that time. While we were living with my mom, we offered to pay utilities such as internet, phone and cable so we have utility bills under our name under my mom's address. We stayed with my mom from July 2015 until February 2016 when my husband was finally able to get a job again. He found the perfect apartment that fell below our budget while he was driving around looking by himself so he had to take it there on the spot and sign the lease without me for fear that someone else might snag it (I was on a work trip). We then gradually moved to the apartment and was fully settled in in March of this year. As of now, we only have about 3 or 4 months worth of utility bills with our new apartment.

With that said, do you think that it will be an issue with our address changes and no lease under our name while we were living with my mom? Will that cause any hiccups in our case? Will it be better to a hire a lawyer so they can take care of it seamlessly?

Should we find out if we can add my name to the lease? Not sure if it's possible with our new landlord but we can find out. Or will it not matter that much if we have other forms of evidences? We have a joint checking account, 2 savings accounts, life insurance, 401k ibeneficiaries, storage space rental agreement while we were at my mom's (listing my husband as primary renter and me as an authorized user), joint credit card accounts, plenty of photos with friends and family, our travels (itineraries with our names) internationally and in my home country - Philippines, all joint utilities from when we got married 2 years ago, 2014 & 2015 joint tax returns, joint Costco membership, holiday cards/invitations sent to us in our previous addresses plus more (we'll have to dig some more).

What are your thoughts? Can we DIY or should we hire a lawyer?

Thank you!

Edited June 2, 2016 by hellostranger57

[D N Medellin COL 75]

You don't need a lawyer and it looks that you have great verifiable joint co-mingling of assets and bills and such but to erase any doubt simply add your name to the lease and matter-of-fact many landlords REQUIRE that any adult who will live in the rental MUST be on the lease.

Good luck to you!

[Sukie 1,451]

We had an attorney for the first go-round, but are DIY this time.

You will be OK with DIY - as long as you clearly explain (on a separate sheet of paper in your application) exactly what you have explained to us here. Be just as detailed as to the timing and the reasons. Just be up front and tell your story.

We also have a few quirks - I own the house and all the utilities are in MY name alone, since I bought the place 11 years before we married.. We have two cars - one held jointly and one mine alone. The jointly held car has both our names on the title, but only MY name on the registration as my spouse didn't have have a driver's license when we bought the car and the NY DMV would not put her on the rego without her license.

We just explained these things in our packet.

You'll be fine. Save yourself some money. You get much better ideas here on Visa Journey.

Sukie in NY

[Daveykins 17]

I've done all the filings myself and never had any issues. You should be fine doing DIY as long as you follow all the guides on here. Good luck!

[hellostranger57 18]

Thank you all for providing feedback! We are now considering DIY and not hiring a lawyer in order to save our hard earned money.

Since we changed addresses twice in the 2 year period that we have been married, should I notify USCIS about our most recent address? Or will submitting the i-751 form with our current address be enough? I just want to make sure that they do not send all forms of communications to our old address.

[hellostranger57 18]

Did you officially change your address the last time filing the AR-11? If so, you don't have to do anything now. Just file your I-751 and put your current address wherever applicable. Just know that no matter how cautious you are, there is still a chance USCIS may still send a communication in the old address. You can't control this BUT if you can, keep in touch with the current tenant of your old address. If you don't get USCIS mail when the time comes, contact that tenant and ask them if they got anything.

No, we have not filed any AR-11. I hope that they will use the current address in the most recent application sent to them. Unfortunately, I have no idea on who the current tenant of our old address is. The best thing I could do is maybe contact our old leasing company and ask them to ask the tenants of our old address to check if they have received anything? Not sure if that is possible but I sure do hope so.

Will it help if I indicate on our cover letter our current address and to send all forms of communication there?

[hellostranger57 18]

If your sponsor from your AOS is your husband, and he's also moving to the new address, he would have to file Form I-865.

https://www.uscis.gov/i-865

Hi! Noted. Will fill these 2 forms before filing for i-751. Thank you!

For my AOS, I had 2 sponsors: my husband and my aunt. We had an additional co-sponsor since my husband did not meet the financial requirements at that time. Should we still file form i-865 for him or is it just for the co-sponsor?

[zkt101 38]

Hi! Noted. Will fill these 2 forms before filing for i-751. Thank you!

For my AOS, I had 2 sponsors: my husband and my aunt. We had an additional co-sponsor since my husband did not meet the financial requirements at that time. Should we still file form i-865 for him or is it just for the co-sponsor?

whichever sponsor changes the address should file that form.

Edited June 6, 2016 by zkt101