Evidence - questions

[br9k 23]

We are just starting to collect evidence for filing in a few months. I've read through the threads here, and most of the advice seems reasonable and will be followed as much as possible.

A few questions - hoping for some wisdom of the crowds here:

 

1. I am paying for my spouse's health insurance. However, my name only appears in the credit card entry provisioned in health insurance online bill payment system. Invoices are issued in the spouse's name, and simply show "paid". I plan to include a few invoices and matching credit card statements from my (actually - joint) credit card showing payments to health insurance company.

 

Anything I could do differently on this one?

 

2. Last summer I had surgery and had my spouse listed as an emergency contact and also as a "ride home" on pre-admission documents. Hospital pre-admission was all filled out online, and I just found that I can still access forms online.

 

However, for reasons I don't quite understand, my marital status on the form is listed as "unspecified" and my spouse, while listed as an emergency contact, has "other" in relationship status line. If I had to guess - "business logic" optimization (may be if marital status was not selected correctly, can't have a spouse as a family member? ). 

 

In any case - what's your feeling? Would including a document like that help or hurt?

 

3. We have two cars, one of which I bought many years ago, before we met. The other I bought as soon as Z arrived in US, before she had drivers license or any local documents. So both cars are in my name only.  Obviously we are both listed on the auto insurance policy. Would it be worth the PIA and the extra $$ to retitle cars in both names for evidence purposes? I understand that the generic answer is "the more - the better", but what's the common wisdom?

 

Thank you all!

[BritGirl88 43]

The IO's rarely look at every single document you bring with you. In my case he just told me to give him what I wanted to. 

 

#1 sounds fine. You have a solid explanation and evidence to back it up. I doubt it will even be necessary to provide it.

 

I doubt #2 will prove to be an issue as your marriage license and all your other documents will prove you're married and if there was something sketchy going on then you wouldn't have your spouse as your ride home and emergency contact. So I think that's fine. I would suggest just omitting that document from your supporting evidence if you feel uneasy about it as I doubt it will even be required.

 

#3 is totally fine. My husband is the only one on our car title and all we provided to the IO was our joint car insurance, he didn't ask for our car title. (In most cases the US spouse owned/leased a car before their foreign spouses arrival and I would assume that a lot of people don't go to the trouble of changing the title).

 

In our case, the only things he took for our file were:

- Joint tax returns

- Joint Lease

- Car Insurance ID cards with both our names on it

- Medical Insurance ID cards with both our names on it

- 1 month of joint bank statements (we brought 4 months worth but he said he only needed 1)

- Scan of drivers licenses (shows we both have same address)

- Scans of our credit cards (as I'm an approved user on my husbands cards, the credit card numbers are the same)

- A few pictures of our wedding, and after marriage with friends and family

 

Other things we brought that he didn't take or even look at were:

- Flight confirmations from trips we took together after marriage

- Wedding Cards and cards and invitations we received after marriage with both our names on it

- About 40 photos of dating life through the years, lots of wedding pics, and lots of pics after marriage

 

He didn't ask for specific documents. He just asked me what I had to show him and asked what he could keep for the file. I chose to give him as much as I did because I had gone to all the trouble of preparing it. I asked if he needed anything else and his response was "Nooo, we're already in overkill mode" lol. So, I wouldn't worry too much about the intricacies of certain documents. As long as you have enough to support that you have a bonafide marriage, those little things won't matter. I would assume they start looking deeply if something seems off with your marriage and they have suspicions or if you barely provide anything.

 

Hope this helps

Edited May 21, 2017 by BritGirl88

[br9k 23]

Thanks, this does help.

 

We do not have joint bank accounts and our health insurance policies are separate (I pay for both). We do have joint credit cards, and, obviously, joint tax returns.

 

So, I am trying to decide what other documents might be sufficient.