"Ready to be scheduled for interview" - any insight to what this means?

[eckoin 211]

1 minute ago, geowrian said:

No worries!

 

No, that is an option...you wouldn't be the first person to forget it. Or you ask the IO to hold off on a decision for a couple days (no guarantees they would do so, but it's not uncommon for them not to make a final decision on the day of the interview anymore).

Good point, I can always appeal to their sense of questionable morals when it helps someone out

 

Thanks again!  Now, wait and see.

[A&H2018 148]

Many people just ask the IO to push back the approval a week or two. You do not need to purposely forget something, the IO knows what is going on. That said couple recent experiences have shown that people who are at 2 years and lets say 2 weeks now are getting get more heat these days, guess this follows everyhone has to be interviewed rules now. Couple people have been upset cause they went to the interview married for 2 years and cannot show a joint bank account, joint insurance, joint taxes, etc...basic stuff ROC would need and the IO became not so nice and basically led to an RFE on i130.

 

So no gaming of the ROC anymoe, if you are at 2 years married the IO will expect you have your stuff together even more so than 6 months and 3 months after EAD like many others. Truly the logic makes total sense.

 

Also as VJ good habits, many people who recommend everyone to prepare their docuements in the ROC format towards the interview. Ofcourse won't be able to have it all but realistically one day you will have to do it anyways, so everyone always recommends those checklists.

Edited September 21, 2018 by A&H2018

[eckoin 211]

9 minutes ago, A&H2018 said:

Many people just ask the IO to push back the approval a week or two. You do not need to purposely forget something, the IO knows what is going on. That said couple recent experiences have shown that people who are at 2 years and lets say 2 weeks now are getting get more heat these days, guess this follows everyhone has to be interviewed rules now. Couple people have been upset cause they went to the interview married for 2 years and cannot show a joint bank account, joint insurance, joint taxes, etc...basic stuff ROC would need and the IO became not so nice and basically led to an RFE on i130.

 

So no gaming of the ROC anymoe, if you are at 2 years married the IO will expect you have your stuff together even more so than 6 months and 3 months after EAD like many others. Truly the logic makes total sense.

 

Also as VJ good habits, many people who recommend everyone to prepare their docuements in the ROC format towards the interview. Ofcourse won't be able to have it all but realistically one day you will have to do it anyways, so everyone always recommends those checklists.

Yeah I've been thinking about it. Our package then (and now) lacks two fundamental things:

 

- pictures, because I cannot stand pictures. I have plenty of pictures of our daughter with my husband on my phone, but none with me. I guess that's not great. I didn't submit any travel itineraries, but we have a few flights we took together. Most though, are hotels or AirBnbs in one name or the other. I'll have to pull those before the interview. 

 

- we don't have a joint bank account. Joint taxes, joint home insurance, but everything else is in my name or his. I don't remember the last time I even went to a bank, and we don't bank with the same institution. We can add each other to our credit cards online, but we still pay bills separately, so it doesn't seem worthwhile. 

 

I'm just hoping those two aren't major points of issue. They might be... Well - advice appreciated. 

[A&H2018 148]

Get a joint bank account now. Pay for your lease/car something you both share with it. Seems a current trend on here these days lots of people getting dinged for not having a joint account. 

Pictures is not a huge one, but like if you goto a family gathering together just try to take some pics with you both and some of the family. The IO typically only cares for pictures with other people.

 

[geowrian 22,338]

It's not just having a joint account, but using it together that counts. A number of RFEs and NOIDs that I've see reference a joint account where it was mostly unused or almost exclusively used by one party, which tends to look like it was just created for immigration purposes instead of actually commingling of the couple's finances.

[eckoin 211]

23 minutes ago, geowrian said:

It's not just having a joint account, but using it together that counts. A number of RFEs and NOIDs that I've see reference a joint account where it was mostly unused or almost exclusively used by one party, which tends to look like it was just created for immigration purposes instead of actually commingling of the couple's finances.

That's the annoying part. It's basically for immigration - we have a system we use to pay bills. Now we have to go out of our way to do it differently. I guess this weekend I'll go to BoA, open an account, and add my husband to it, and we'll both transfer money to it every month to pay for electricity, Internet, what have you. That makes sense, right? 

 

Our system makes way more sense to me, where we just cover X things on the days we know it's due, on credit cards we've had forever that give us points for bothering. I suppose we can open a chequing account and an associated credit account, but I don't care to apply for more credit at this time. Debit will do. 

 

Just wish that proof of us paying mutually beneficial bills would paint the picture. I know immigration is a different ball game, but everyone I know does it this way, so it's a little unfair we're held to a different standard based on a set of requirements determined by someone else who feels that this is how it's done. 

 

I know the whole concept of immigration is in theory a privilege, not a right, but one of my close friends in Canada got married to a Guatemalan citizen, and the government didn't even bother with an interview. They have no joint bank accounts. They got married at a courthouse and celebrated at a bar with just the two of them. They just had everything else in order that made it evident that they're not faking it. Though I'm sure Canada gets far less fraud than the US. 

 

Anyway, just venting. You guys are right. I'll get on the joint account thing and make sure we both transfer money and pay for things with it. 

[geowrian 22,338]

True, it's not the same as other couples (although most married couples I know do have a shared account that they use)...but that's immigration. They need documented evidence, whereas others donm't have to prove anything to anybody. It is what it is.

Canada seems to be more welcoming of immigrants and the process is more streamlined. It could be because of less fraud attempts...and/or other factors. But that's neither here nor there since you're going through US immigration. We gotta do what we gotta do.

 

Best wishes. Try not to let it get to you...most of immigration is just living your lives together, and sometimes having to fill some forms or show up in person a couple times over the years.

[eckoin 211]

On 9/21/2018 at 8:47 PM, A&H2018 said:

Get a joint bank account now. Pay for your lease/car something you both share with it. Seems a current trend on here these days lots of people getting dinged for not having a joint account. 

Pictures is not a huge one, but like if you goto a family gathering together just try to take some pics with you both and some of the family. The IO typically only cares for pictures with other people.

 

 

On 9/21/2018 at 8:56 PM, geowrian said:

It's not just having a joint account, but using it together that counts. A number of RFEs and NOIDs that I've see reference a joint account where it was mostly unused or almost exclusively used by one party, which tends to look like it was just created for immigration purposes instead of actually commingling of the couple's finances.

Hey guys, I've been thinking about this and have some follow-up questions.

 

I still haven't gone to the bank--my bank attendance is miserable.  So instead, I added my husband to one of my credit cards (BoA, since he banks with BoA; I just have credit).  If we both throw some money at it every month and pay some bills, that works just as well, right?

 

And out of curiosity, when you say that people were getting dinged for not having a joint account, or for having a joint account but not using it--what does that mean exactly?  I've yet to get an RFE or RFIE (though my status hasn't changed at all since the biometrics were completed), so is it that they might send an RFE when they realize they don't have joint bank statements?  We do file taxes jointly, and I sent our healthcare/dental/home insurance with both our names on it, as well as various bills in either both of our names (Verizon) or just my name (home phone, internet) but at our joint address.  

 

Or are we talking, we might get to the interview and be literally denied for not having a joint account?  Of course everything is in theory a possibility, but have been people been denied over this?  Or at the very least, if they got an RFE for financial commingling and didn't have a joint account, were they basically denied since they couldn't respond to the RFE properly?  

[augustfiler18 20]

Apologies if this is redundant, but I just wanted to check

So, a little over a month after I filed for marriage based AOS (from O-1-- I also realize I posted another post on the wrong thread- August filers from K-1 oops!), my status says ready to schedule interview. Could I still get an RFE? Is the timeline different for those adjusting from different visas? 

 

As for the joint bank account, not sure if this is helpful, but my attorney required for us to get a joint bank account ASAP, so that there was no reason for a denial. We still keep separate accounts, but we pay bills from this account and at the date of filing, we did not have a lot of money in there! (we literally opened this for the AOS). I was told that since we are married, we are entitled by law and it would only benefit our case and not look 'suspicious'. So far haven't gotten an RFE... knock on wood. 

[geowrian 22,338]

8 minutes ago, augustfiler18 said:

Apologies if this is redundant, but I just wanted to check

So, a little over a month after I filed for marriage based AOS (from O-1-- I also realize I posted another post on the wrong thread- August filers from K-1 oops!), my status says ready to schedule interview. Could I still get an RFE? Is the timeline different for those adjusting from different visas? 

 

As for the joint bank account, not sure if this is helpful, but my attorney required for us to get a joint bank account ASAP, so that there was no reason for a denial. We still keep separate accounts, but we pay bills from this account and at the date of filing, we did not have a lot of money in there! (we literally opened this for the AOS). I was told that since we are married, we are entitled by law and it would only benefit our case and not look 'suspicious'. So far haven't gotten an RFE... knock on wood. 

If you didn't file for an EAD or AP (being on O-1 this isn't uncommon but you can still do so), then that doesn't seem like an unusual timeline to me. The wait is typically just as long overall.

The basis for AOS can impact timelines, but marriage to a USC is pretty much the same regardless of visa types anymore. It used to be sometimes faster for K-1 filers since the interview was regularly waived, but that's not the case anymore.

 

An RFE can occur at any point prior to approval.

 

A joint account doesn't make or break a case. It's just one piece of evidence to help show financial commingling.

[A&H2018 148]

Dinged, does not mean denied right away. Just the IO asks for it and starts to get annoyed, many people without any bank accounts have got through the process fine. You have to evaluate your whole case all together and see what works for you. Just may not want to expain why you the account does not exist and just start to show joint insurance or so.