I-751 - time frame, evidence, and what we can do if we don't have certain things

[mirrortraveler 1]

Hey all, 

 

So we are starting to finally work on our I-751. My temporary green card, which I acquired through marriage in September 2015 will expire soon and my husband and I are hard at work to gather all the necessary paperwork. There are some items we don't have as I will describe below and we have some questions about how to best deal with this. As always, we appreciate and are eternally grateful for the collective expertise of everyone here. You guys have helped us tremendously already! 

 

Anyway, here are my questions:

 

1) Timeframe: My conditional green card expires on September 21st of this year. I know that within a couple of days we will be in the 90 day period mentioned, in which we will need to get our papers sent out. We have already received the letter from USCIS reminding us of this. I know that obviously, the sooner we mail our papers the better, but how much time within that 90 day period can we let pass? Realistically speaking, and from your experience, should we have it all sent out at the beginning of the 90 day period, so in a little over a week, or can we give ourselves a little more time than that?  

 

2) Taxes: Obviously, we will need tax documents, but which ones do they really want? Just W-2's or more? We filed with H&R Block last year, but this year I was traveling during that time, so my husband insisted on filing our taxes online. I hope he did everything right, but we have no real feedback. I realize that a big part of this has to do with me not knowing much about filing taxes in the US and probably thinking that there is more to the process. 

 

3) Insurance: Our health insurance allows only one name on it, but all the bills and statements list me as the other beneficiary. So that should be sufficient, right? He has car insurance, but I can't be listed on it since I don't drive and don't have a driver's license. So would just the health insurance be enough? The monthly payments for both are billed to our joint bank account and it shows on the bank statements, if that helps. 

 

4)  Rent and Utilities: We are living in an apartment in an apartment complex with one other roommate. All of our names are on the current lease and we are just signing a new one for the same place. So all that's covered. But our utility companies so far refuse to put more than one name on their bills. None of them will budge and the complex can't write any letters in  that regard for us, explaining why (because if they do it for one person, they have to do it for everyone else, yada yada, etc.). What can we do? Will it be sufficient if USCIS sees on our bank statements thatwe pay for electricity and provide a statement from our roommate reading that we share utilities, but the water is billed to her account? Thanks! 

 

5) Previous Rent and Utilities: We have lived in three separate places over the past two years. First, at his dad's house (which he owns), where we didn't pay rent or utilities, then at a friend's place (which he owns), and we paid rent and utilities privately to him, and now at this apartment complex. Should we provide letters from his dad and our friend to say when we lived there and what our rent/utility arrangements were? 

 

And finally...

 

What we have so far (not necessarily in order): 

• Form I-751
• Payment of fee + biometrics fee 
• Front and back copy of my green card (should this be enlarged, or regular size?) 
• Written testimonies from family, friends, and even the legally ordained minister at our wedding
• W-2's for the past two years
• Bank statements from our joint checking account for the last two years (do we need a joint savings account, too?) 
• Health insurance statements and bills for the last two years (as detailed above) 
• Lease agreements for our apartment listing our names and the name of our roommate, as well as correspondence with our front office, also listing all three names 
• Paperwork for a charitable donation I made as a gift to my husband, both names listed. 
• A few leaflets from the hotel where we stayed during our honeymoon weekend 
• The detailed invoice for our wedding rings (in German, though, since my sister bought the rings from a German company as a gift and paid for it) 
• The detailed invoice for our wedding cake 
• A LOT of photos from our wedding, some from our honeymoon weekend, and others from the past two years. 
• Copies of pages from our wedding guest book 
• Copies of cards we got at our wedding, one happy anniversary card, various other postcards and christmas cards addressed to us as a couple. 

 

Is there anything else that we are still missing, anything that we need to provide? We haven't made any big purchases together, since we have been fortunate enough to have furniture and things provided by our families or our roommate.  I am currently getting my state ID renewed. Do I need to include that as well? Would it be better, or does it not matter? 

 

Anyways, thank you all again very much for the help and your answers! 

Edited June 12, 2017 by mirrortraveler

[frontgear 194]

1. Don't wait too long and don't file too early. Give yourself enough time to mail the I-751 in before your GC expires

 

2. You can go to the IRS website and request official tax transcripts for those years that you filed tax jointly. Choose the Tax Return Transcripts. You do not want to submit your W2's or copy of your tax returns. You need the official IRS transcripts.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

 

3. Print all the bills and statements that show that you are a beneficiary.

4. Provide what you have and explain in details on a separate note

5. A letter from his Dad and the other landlord would be sufficient

 

Do you 2 share a credit card (or cards) together? Print the statements for those.

 

Photos are secondary evidence so I'd concentrate on bills, statements, etc.

 

I am sure others can chime in and give you more or better advices but those are the things that I would do.

[Dashinka 24,816]

Wills and living wills can also look good.  You can do simple ones online fairly quickly.  Beyond that, your list looks pretty good.  As frontgear said, it is best to file early in the 90 day window, but do not file too early.

 

Good Luck!

[mirrortraveler 1]

Hey you guys, 

 

Thank you very much for all the excellent advice! Bill & Katja, we took your advice and got living wills. That was a brilliant idea! We've been so busy, but hopefully, we can finish this up and mail it all out by the end of this month (the expiry date of my visa being about two months away at this point). We've got most of what we need. I just had two more questions: 

 

1) On Form I-751, it asks for previous addresses in the US and from which date to which date we stayed there. I have given our two previous addresses with the month and year of our move-in and move-out dates. Does it have to be any more exact than that? Do they want the day we moved in and moved out, or is month and year enough?

 

2) I heard somewhere on here that the affidavits from friends and family need to be notarized? We have a friend who is a notary, who could do that. But she was also our financial co-sponsor on my K-1 and initial Green Card application. Will it be okay for her to notarize the letters or would USCIS have a problem with that? 

 

Thank you all in advance!