AOS for marriage based Green card - communing of finances

[eckoin 211]

Hi all, question on commingling of finances for a marriage-based AOS application. 

 

We submitted the forms a few days ago. I'm expecting a possible RFE on the marriage portion. Besides the marriage certificate, birth certificate of our daughter, and all the other stuff that goes with the application, here's the relevant portion of the documents for finances:

 

- joint tax return for last year (married in 2017)

- medical and dental insurance in both names 

- homeowners insurance in both names 

- deed to the house - husband's name, he bought it before we started dating 

- cell phone bill in both names, with about 2 years of payments on my portion of the plan 

- landline & home Internet bill in my name to our address, with the initial service request in 2016

- my life insurance through work with my husband as the primary beneficiary, our daughter contingent 

- my 401k investments with my husband as the primary beneficiary, our daughter contingent 

 

We never opened a joint bank account - he pays the utility bill in his name, I pay the phone/Internet bill in my name, and the cell phone bill in both of our names. It works out about even, and my bank doesn't have branches in our state (I opened it in another state on a different TN-1 at the time), so we never go to any bank branches. My company deposits my pay directly to my bank account, my husband is self-employed. As he's self employed, he doesn't have a 401k. He does have an etrade account, but he's had it for years and I'm not added to it because we never had a reason to do that. 

 

In case we get an RFE on this, is there something we can do to prepare, or is it too late? Should we bother opening a joint bank account, or is it too late and looks suspicious? We did not declare any assets, since my TN-1 pays more than enough and I included a letter from my employer offering me a full time position if I get a permanent resident status. However, if need be, since my husband just stated his business, we can provide the stocks account to compensate. 

 

It's a process to add people to asset accounts, so if it already looks suspect, for doing it so last minute, I'd rather not do it. We can either add me to his checking account, or him to my checking account, or both, or open a new account entirely, but again, if it just looks suspect, I'd rather not have to go through that. We pay bills via credit cards--I guess we could also add each other to our credit cards, but same question. 

 

In hindsight, we should have just done it a while back, but since we have a system going for who pays for what, it never really occurred to us until we started on the forms. Any suggestions? 

[eckoin 211]

One thing to add - we've been meaning to open a bank account for our daughter, a savings account of sorts. If we do that, and put both of our names as parents and make deposits together, is that a good option? Or are we talking specifically, "I have access to yours and you have access to mine"? 

 

Other things we do have is various memberships in both names (County parks, Costco, etc.) that I didn't include. So that would go into an RFE response if we get one. 

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

We didn’t submit any evidence other than what was required by USCIS. Just the forms and marriage certificate. We got no RFE. I think the items you are mentioning are needed for the green card interview. 

[eckoin 211]

Just now, ShanghaiSurfer said:

We didn’t submit any evidence other than what was required by USCIS. Just the forms and marriage certificate. We got no RFE. I think the items you are mentioning are needed for the green card interview. 

What do you mean by Green card interview? So we submitted my AOS forms for adjustment of status from TN to Green Card, so we will definitely have an interview. Isn't that a green card interview (for a temporary green card, since we've been married for less than two years)? Or do you mean for the removal of conditions interview after that? 

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

Okay. We were adjusting from K-1 using I-485 so the requirements may be different. Suggest filing out your profile so the experts can help you out more. For K-1 you are asked to bring those supporting evidences to the AOA green card interview but not required to submit with I-485.

[eckoin 211]

9 minutes ago, ShanghaiSurfer said:

Okay. We were adjusting from K-1 using I-485 so the requirements may be different. Suggest filing out your profile so the experts can help you out more. For K-1 you are asked to bring those supporting evidences to the AOA green card interview but not required to submit with I-485.

I gotcha. Thank you! I filled in some more information on my profile, but it doesn't ask for much. If there's anything else that would be helpful in answering my question, please let me know! 

 

I'm in the US working legally as a Canadian on TN status. I've had this job since late 2015, I married my USC husband in 2017, we had a baby in 2017, filed for AOS about a week ago. I've lived with my husband since I got here on my latest TN, not on purpose (I was planning to get my own apartment, but we officially started dating and I never moved out, though I was intending to stay with him only while I looked for my own place. We met in 2014 while traveling in the US). 

 

I don't know if further commingling of assets will be required for this stage of the interview (TN -> Conditional Green Card), so my question is both, is it worthwhile to get prepared for a possible a RFE on this now, and also for the removal of conditions later on. 

 

I assume the answer to the letter is a definite yes, so can we open a joint credit card account (or add one of us to another's, most likely), and pay mutual bills like cell phones, utilities, etc. using that joint credit card, where we both deposit to it on a monthly basis to cover the bills? That would make the most sense to us, but I'm open to all suggestions for best practices.