Joint bank account and trust - adjustment of status interview

[Allie D 39]

Do you think that maintaining separate bank accounts, even if we also have a joint bank account, signifies a lack of trust and commitment? My husband and I have heard that immigration officers are unsatisfied, and perhaps reasonably so, unless you completely co-mingle finances. We are not going to do this, not at this stage of the adjustment of status process or at this stage of our lives (we're in our mid twenties).

 

At the start of each month, we put in half of the prior month's individual salaries into the joint account. This is for joint, household expenses -- apartment rent, utilities, groceries, eating out together, vacations, gifts for friends and family, durable household goods, etc.

 

Each of us has a personal checking account. This makes it easy for each of us to track *personal* purchases. For example, my husband buys a lot of tools (his hobbies include metal-crafting, woodwork, etc.) whereas I buy a lot of books and art supplies. Unlike him, I like eating out, visiting museums and galleries and shows, going out with friends, etc. In contrast, he and his friends will congregate at someone's house and do "guy stuff" (play video games, brew beer, do metalwork, play the guitar, etc).

 

My husband has credit cards and uses them regularly. I'm currently opposed to the idea of having a credit card. I sleep better at night knowing that I don't owe someone money because my parents were in a lot of debt when I was growing up. I've developed somewhat of a phobia when it comes to credit cards. So this is another reason to keep some of our finances separate.

 

Just because we're married and committed to each other doesn't mean that our lives and interests can't be separate to some extent. We don't have to agree on everything. We're young and haven't figured out everything. Are we going to buy a house? Are we going to have children? Where are we going to be living in the next two years? We don't know. We're new to the workforce and are just trying to settle in. I'm still trying to figure out what field I'm going to work in or if I want to go to graduate school. Obviously we'll make those decisions together as they come up and follow each other geographically. We think it's too early to know exactly what decisions to expect just yet.

 

We don't have a savings account because we don't really have savings. Neither of us has a retirement account but I'm on my husband's employment benefits and life insurance. We finished college two years ago and paid off our student loans ASAP. Our bank essentially offers zero interest, so we never had much of an incentive to maintain a savings account. You could say that the residual money in our joint and individual checking accounts are "savings". We don't have a will -- when you're young, you think you're going to live forever.

 

We're financially conscientious to the extent that our bills are paid on time, we have no debt, and we're pretty frugal. We don't rely on money from anyone else and do not want to get into debt, which is why we eloped instead of letting our parents organize our wedding or taking out a loan. Of course, our families now know that we're married! Maybe we'll open a joint savings account once we have a chance to sit down and think about finances more rigorously. It's not been a priority yet. Perhaps we're being careless. Feel free to scold us.

 

Please let us know if you see any red flags or have doubts about whether our marriage is bona fide. Even though there's not much we can do at this stage, we would like to be as prepared as possible.

 

If you have advice, whether pertaining to this interview or life in general, we'd love to hear more. We're young. Life advice from couples who have more experience, with marriage and life itself, is always valuable.

Edited May 6, 2017 by Allie D

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

No problem at all that you don't have all accounts mingled, what you describe is suffificient and easily explained if asked about it at the interview. It's how you both prefer to handle your finances. Look over the ROC guide list on things you will need to ROC and use some for AOS and start collecting now for ROC in 2 years.

One piece of advice for life and not AOS, save in a savings account and agree to a mutually agreed deposited amount monthly, stuff happens and you need an emergency fund. 

If I had to do things over again in my life I would save for retirement in my 20 ties ! You think retirement is light years away and all of a sudden you get in a rut and realize you didn't think ahead for retirement. So retirement fund and personal savings I consider is a needed thing to have for life in general, not needed for AOS if you have sufficient other evidence. Joint car loan, car insurance, car title, health insurance, utility bills, phone bills, lease or mortgage, joint gym card, power of attorney, wills, living wills are all good evidence and good to have in life.

For ROC they like to see a joint account with bank statements from inception of marriage and are a bit pickier on the amount of evidence. I am mentioning it here because too many people are caught by surprise at the last minute for ROC. 

Best wishes for you both.

[SparklePony 238]

Not so much in terms of savings, but having an emergency fund is always a good idea, because life happens when you least expect it to. And setting up something like a 401K through work isn't a bad idea either. The rest I think looks easily explained. The way you guys both add money to a joint account is actually a neat case of co-mingled finances from my perspective. From what I've read, USCIS also likes to see joint assets, so having both names on car deeds or house deeds/leases are another good way of showing that. 

[Tanish 197]

On 5/7/2017 at 4:32 AM, Allie D said:

Do you think that maintaining separate bank accounts, even if we also have a joint bank account, signifies a lack of trust and commitment? My husband and I have heard that immigration officers are unsatisfied, and perhaps reasonably so, unless you completely co-mingle finances. We are not going to do this, not at this stage of the adjustment of status process or at this stage of our lives (we're in our mid twenties).

 

At the start of each month, we put in half of the prior month's individual salaries into the joint account. This is for joint, household expenses -- apartment rent, utilities, groceries, eating out together, vacations, gifts for friends and family, durable household goods, etc.

 

Each of us has a personal checking account. This makes it easy for each of us to track *personal* purchases. For example, my husband buys a lot of tools (his hobbies include metal-crafting, woodwork, etc.) whereas I buy a lot of books and art supplies. Unlike him, I like eating out, visiting museums and galleries and shows, going out with friends, etc. In contrast, he and his friends will congregate at someone's house and do "guy stuff" (play video games, brew beer, do metalwork, play the guitar, etc).

 

My husband has credit cards and uses them regularly. I'm currently opposed to the idea of having a credit card. I sleep better at night knowing that I don't owe someone money because my parents were in a lot of debt when I was growing up. I've developed somewhat of a phobia when it comes to credit cards. So this is another reason to keep some of our finances separate.

 

Just because we're married and committed to each other doesn't mean that our lives and interests can't be separate to some extent. We don't have to agree on everything. We're young and haven't figured out everything. Are we going to buy a house? Are we going to have children? Where are we going to be living in the next two years? We don't know. We're new to the workforce and are just trying to settle in. I'm still trying to figure out what field I'm going to work in or if I want to go to graduate school. Obviously we'll make those decisions together as they come up and follow each other geographically. We think it's too early to know exactly what decisions to expect just yet.

 

We don't have a savings account because we don't really have savings. Neither of us has a retirement account but I'm on my husband's employment benefits and life insurance. We finished college two years ago and paid off our student loans ASAP. Our bank essentially offers zero interest, so we never had much of an incentive to maintain a savings account. You could say that the residual money in our joint and individual checking accounts are "savings". We don't have a will -- when you're young, you think you're going to live forever.

 

We're financially conscientious to the extent that our bills are paid on time, we have no debt, and we're pretty frugal. We don't rely on money from anyone else and do not want to get into debt, which is why we eloped instead of letting our parents organize our wedding or taking out a loan. Of course, our families now know that we're married! Maybe we'll open a joint savings account once we have a chance to sit down and think about finances more rigorously. It's not been a priority yet. Perhaps we're being careless. Feel free to scold us.

 

Please let us know if you see any red flags or have doubts about whether our marriage is bona fide. Even though there's not much we can do at this stage, we would like to be as prepared as possible.

 

If you have advice, whether pertaining to this interview or life in general, we'd love to hear more. We're young. Life advice from couples who have more experience, with marriage and life itself, is always valuable.

Regarding Credit Card usage,

We (Indians) have a lot of misinformation concerning credit card and how it affects your buying capacity. It is advised to use credit card, but you should use it as you would debit card. Don't spend more than you can pay back with your current paycheck (not future paychecks). Using credit card builds your credit score which is really helpful when you want to buy a house or any other big investment and you want advances from a bank. If you don't have good credit score, you will not be offered a good deal (or worse no deal at all).

 

Regarding your other queries, I will not give you any uninformed advise as I am not familiar with that.

 

Good luck.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

Very true about using a cc responsibly to build good credit history for decent interest rates.

Everyone should build and track their credit score.

[Allie D 39]

8 hours ago, Tanish said:

Regarding Credit Card usage,

We (Indians) have a lot of misinformation concerning credit card and how it affects your buying capacity. It is advised to use credit card, but you should use it as you would debit card. Don't spend more than you can pay back with your current paycheck (not future paychecks). Using credit card builds your credit score which is really helpful when you want to buy a house or any other big investment and you want advances from a bank. If you don't have good credit score, you will not be offered a good deal (or worse no deal at all).

 

Regarding your other queries, I will not give you any uninformed advise as I am not familiar with that.

 

Good luck.

Thank you for the advice regarding credit cards. My husband says the same thing about using a credit card as a debit card. I might have been irrationally afraid of them, partly because a family member got into a lot of credit card debt due to reckless spending. I will talk to my husband and think about applying for a credit card. Right now, my credit score is zero even though I pay bills on time, etc. because I've never taken out credit.

[Allie D 39]

On 5/6/2017 at 7:06 PM, Ebunoluwa said:

No problem at all that you don't have all accounts mingled, what you describe is suffificient and easily explained if asked about it at the interview. It's how you both prefer to handle your finances. Look over the ROC guide list on things you will need to ROC and use some for AOS and start collecting now for ROC in 2 years.

One piece of advice for life and not AOS, save in a savings account and agree to a mutually agreed deposited amount monthly, stuff happens and you need an emergency fund. 

If I had to do things over again in my life I would save for retirement in my 20 ties ! You think retirement is light years away and all of a sudden you get in a rut and realize you didn't think ahead for retirement. So retirement fund and personal savings I consider is a needed thing to have for life in general, not needed for AOS if you have sufficient other evidence. Joint car loan, car insurance, car title, health insurance, utility bills, phone bills, lease or mortgage, joint gym card, power of attorney, wills, living wills are all good evidence and good to have in life.

For ROC they like to see a joint account with bank statements from inception of marriage and are a bit pickier on the amount of evidence. I am mentioning it here because too many people are caught by surprise at the last minute for ROC. 

Best wishes for you both.

Thank you for the thoughtful advice!

 

We really should get a savings account. I've heard about higher interest savings accounts, CDs, etc. for which you're not allowed to take any money out for a specified period of time. We should investigate those since that might give us a better incentive to save.

 

We started our joint account a few months ago (we got married last July). Although we don't have many statements now, we should have solid proof by the time ROC comes around.

[Tanish 197]

7 hours ago, Allie D said:

Thank you for the advice regarding credit cards. My husband says the same thing about using a credit card as a debit card. I might have been irrationally afraid of them, partly because a family member got into a lot of credit card debt due to reckless spending. I will talk to my husband and think about applying for a credit card. Right now, my credit score is zero even though I pay bills on time, etc. because I've never taken out credit.

I'm sorry to hear about your family member's misfortune. Hope everything was sorted out.

 

It all depends on how you use it. Everything in moderation can be good and excessive can be detrimental. If you use it only to pay your bills, or pay off some furniture or any equipment with payment plan (with 0% interest, of course) then it would be beneficial.

 

All I would say is, before deciding anything based on anyone's opinion; do a thorough research about pros and cons and take your own decision.

 

Good luck and have a very happy and fulfilling married life ahead.