List of Evidence and How to Put it Together

[Camelot13 63]

Hi all,

I'm finishing up our package now and am including the following. I feel really redundant asking this but it will make me feel better and less nervous to get feedback on it. Does this seem like it'll be solid and sufficient?

-Copy of green card front and back

-Two checks - biometrics for $85 and filing fee for $505

-Form I-751

-Mortgage statements from the house we bought together last year

-Title report from the house with both our names on it

-Letter from our mortgage broker addressing both of us

-Deposit receipt from house downpayment

-County Property Tax assessment

-1095A showing joint health insurance

-Photocopy of both our health insurance cards

-Letter from dental company stating joint dental insurance

-Letter from utilities company stating joint utilities

-Information showing spouse as the beneficiary on my IRA

-Letter from credit card company stating spouse as authorized user on credit card

-Collection of personal photographs spanning the dates of our marriage

-IRS tax transcripts for joint filed 2014 and 2015

-Joint checking account statement

-Joint credit card statement

-Print outs of itinerary for international travel together last September

I've divided them all up into clear plastic sleeves by Form I-751 and green card copy, Medical Documents, Beneficiary Documents, Mortgage Paperwork and Statements, Joint Financial Documents, and Other Information. I'm going to be mailing it all in a box and was thinking of getting a few large rubber bands to fasten all the folders together into one bundle. Are rubber bands allowed or advised? I could use a few large binder clips instead.

Thank you!

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

It's one check, not two.

I would suggest no plastic sleeves. The mailroom contractor people will just throw them out before the USCIS adjudicator ever sees your organization. Maybe one paper folder to hold the whole stack of papers together with a rubber band around? Not as much to disassemble.

You only mention the statements as singular. One of each type? Better include a span of dates covering two years. We were okay with about four for each account... A month or so after marriage date, two middle-ish, and the latest.

Do you have driver licenses or state IDs that show you have the same address?

[Lainie B 465]

I wouldn't use plastic sleeves, someone is just going to have to remove each sheet so they can file them. Binder clips are good.

You don't have to include two separate checks but it's your choice.

How about copies of your drivers licenses showing the same address? Other evidence showing co-domicile?

You will need more than one credit card and checking account statement, they should incorporate a range of dates from the time you got married.

Itinerary is good but do you also have boarding passes/passport stamps?

Do you have a joint car title or insurance?

[Camelot13 63]

Thank you! Sorry for being vague - I have several statements printed for each credit and checking account. The mortgage has only been around a year, so not for the whole dates of marriage, but we have a several statements for that. Before July 2015 we lived with my parents. Would I need an affidavit from them to explain that living situation?

Good tip about the plastic sleeves. I didn't realize they would remove them. Maybe a big folder with items binder clipped together is the way to go. I'm so glad I asked!

We've got boarding passes and passport stamps for that trip, so I will scan the passport pages and include them.

We don't have joint car title or insurance. I'm the only one who drives. I have a driver's license with the address, but my husband never got a driver's license or state ID since he doesn't drive here. We probably should have, but found that using his green card and/or UK license as ID worked fine.

For the checks, is it ok to have two even if not required? We've already written them out so will probably send both unless there's a reason not to.

[Camelot13 63]

Also, do I need to include the actual quarterly IRA statements to go along with the notice that my spouse is my beneficiary? Those statements only have my name on them because they don't include beneficiaries in that info and also has our old address, which I'm realizing I never updated. Would having my parent's address (our old address) on there be damaging?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

If something doesn't have both names (IRA statements) then no point to them. A photocopy of the document you signed naming him beneficiary will suffice.

If credit card statement is in one name only with no mention of his name, then pointless. I photocopied our cards side by side showing each name and same account number.

Your parents can write an affidavit saying you lived together as a married couple in their home at 123 Happy Ln, Smalltown, Ohio from [date] to [date].

[Camelot13 63]

Thanks Nich-Nick. That's kind of what I suspected. The IRA statements just have my name on them so I won't include them, but the credit card statements have both our names on them.

[Camelot13 63]

Is joining documents (like all the joint checking account statements) with paperclips and individual cover pages a good idea? Or should everything be in the folder with no clips or separations?

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Is joining documents (like all the joint checking account statements) with paperclips and individual cover pages a good idea? Or should everything be in the folder with no clips or separations?

My personal experience is it doesn't matter. Ours was one stack of papers with the check on top. No plastic or clips or ACCO. Not even a cover letter! I did put it all in an old coffee stained file folder just to squish it together enough to slide more easily into the post office Priority mailer. The cardboard one. Approved without RFE or interview in the average timeframe of the day.

[Camelot13 63]

Sorry to post so many follow up questions, but I keep thinking of new ones. I found a form on the American Bar Association that is a Medical Power of Attorney. As this is a good thing to have anyway, I am thinking of doing it now and including it in the package. Normally if you are just doing one for yourself, I don't think you have to get it notarized. But for submission in the packet, is it only valid if it's a notarized copy?

Edited August 12, 2016 by Camelot13

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

Typically to be valid at a hospital your signing would need to be witnessed by a notary or a couple of competent adult witnesses. So yeah, it needs to be a valid document if you are going to bother. Anything you do now will look like a last minute scramble to appear "real".

You have some solid evidence and better than we had like mortgage, utilities, IRA beneficiary, joint health insurance. Send hubby to get a state ID to show you have the same address. It will be useful to him to have.