ROC - Mortgage/Deed not in both our names

[ch3john 308]

My wife and I are assembling all of our supporting docs for ROC. I feel like we have good documentation except two things. 

I purchased our home in 2002 therefore the mortgage and deed are in my name only. In order to add her to the mortgage i would have to re-finance. I spoke to an attorney at the title company and he said it's not worth the money to add her to the deed since in the state of Texas she is entitled to 50% of the house the day we got married. I will explain this in the cover letter. 

The other is taxes. We only have 1 year tax return that we filed jointly. That's because she entered the US in December 2015, didn't have SSN until 2016. Our 2017 tax return won't be available until April. 

 

So, how big of a deal are the two issues listed above? I have listed what other documents we have;

 

Last Will & Testaments for each of us

Medical Power of Attorney's for each of us

Statutory Durable Power of Attorney's for each of us

Birth Certificate of our son born July of last year

Statement from Fidelity Investments showing my wife as beneficiary as of 2/16

Joint Bank accounts - first page of statement, one from each quarter

AMEX statements with both our names on the account

Copies of other credit cards showing same account number

Auto and Homeowners Insurance Policies listing both our names

Medical & Dental Insurance Cards

Copies of drive license showing same address.

 

Sooo, whatcha think?

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2018 by ch3john
typos

[NYCruiser 423]

19 minutes ago, ch3john said:

My wife and I are assembling all of our supporting docs for ROC. I feel like we have good documentation except two things. 

I purchased our home in 2002 therefore the mortgage and deed are in my name only. In order to add her to the mortgage i would have to re-finance. I spoke to an attorney at the title company and he said it's not worth the money to add her to the deed since in the state of Texas she is entitled to 50% of the house the day we got married. I will explain this in the cover letter. 

The other is taxes. We only have 1 year tax return that we filed jointly. That's because she entered the US in December 2015, didn't have SSN until 2016. Our 2017 tax return won't be available until April. 

 

So, how big of a deal are the two issues listed above? I have listed what other documents we have;

 

Last Will & Testaments for each of us

Medical Power of Attorney's for each of us

Statutory Durable Power of Attorney's for each of us

Birth Certificate of our son born July of last year

Statement from Fidelity Investments showing my wife as beneficiary as of 2/16

Joint Bank accounts - first page of statement, one from each quarter

AMEX statements with both our names on the account

Copies of other credit cards showing same account number

Auto and Homeowners Insurance Policies listing both our names

Medical & Dental Insurance Cards

Copies of drive license showing same address.

 

Sooo, whatcha think?

 

 

 

Looks great. We too only have my name on the deed. Apparently it can be changed in the county we live in BUT the process is very confusing (cheap though for NY). So we included all you did but added photos with family and friends at Christmas, Easter etc (printed in black and white...cause I am cheap) on 8.5" by 11" letter paper for some of them, others colour.

Also, wouldn't be a bad idea to include passport stamps (if overseas) of trips you took together or domestically add boarding passes. (we lost many of them so we printed out Airline Mileage Accrual lists). I think it is not so much one item that matters but the whole package that is important in telling USCIS the story..

[usmsbow 801]

1 hour ago, ch3john said:

My wife and I are assembling all of our supporting docs for ROC. I feel like we have good documentation except two things. 

I purchased our home in 2002 therefore the mortgage and deed are in my name only. In order to add her to the mortgage i would have to re-finance. I spoke to an attorney at the title company and he said it's not worth the money to add her to the deed since in the state of Texas she is entitled to 50% of the house the day we got married. I will explain this in the cover letter. 

The other is taxes. We only have 1 year tax return that we filed jointly. That's because she entered the US in December 2015, didn't have SSN until 2016. Our 2017 tax return won't be available until April. 

 

So, how big of a deal are the two issues listed above? I have listed what other documents we have;

 

Last Will & Testaments for each of us

Medical Power of Attorney's for each of us

Statutory Durable Power of Attorney's for each of us

Birth Certificate of our son born July of last year

Statement from Fidelity Investments showing my wife as beneficiary as of 2/16

Joint Bank accounts - first page of statement, one from each quarter

AMEX statements with both our names on the account

Copies of other credit cards showing same account number

Auto and Homeowners Insurance Policies listing both our names

Medical & Dental Insurance Cards

Copies of drive license showing same address.

 

Sooo, whatcha think?

 

 

 

 

I think that's plenty. While our house title is in both our names, and we have 2 joint tax returns, we don't have a few of the other items you've submitted. As NYCruiser said, it is the overall package that matters. 

[S S 25]

You can amend your 2015 taxes to married filing jointly, even though your wife was only here in December. I actually did that and we received an additional refund because of the change.

 

I agree with the others that your package sounds great. Best wishes to you for your process to go quickly and smoothly!

[TabeaK 517]

Don't worry about the 1 year of taxes - nothing you can do there. We are in the same position, I moved to the US on Dec 29th 2015, we got married in early Jan 2016 - so we have our joint 2016 tax return. We filed this week with that (and boat loads of other evidence), as 2017 tax return won't be available until after my ROC window closes...

 

And you won't be able to amend 2015 taxes as your time line shows you got married in Jan 2016.

 

Your other evidence looks great!