Trying to prepare early - would like your advice

[eckoin 211]

Hi all, 

 

I got my conditional GC in December 2018, so I have a way to go for ROC. I'm trying to prepare early this time--even though we didn't have any of the below for proof of bona fide marriage, our interview was luckily a breeze, but now that I have time, I'd like to put as much as possible. 

 

First, what we do (and did) have:

- a child born in 2017 in the US

- taxes filed jointly in 2017 and 2018 so far 

- joint medical and dental insurance for the three of us 

- joint auto insurance, cars owned/leased separately 

- joint home insurance, home owned by my husband 

- joint cell phone bill 

- electricity in my husband's name, internet/phone in my name 

- some travel records, including airbnb host reviews that mention the three of us 

- pet insurance showing both of us as owners 

- Costco, AAA, museum memberships 

- he and our daughter are beneficiaries of my 401k and employer-provided life insurance. He doesn't have either. 

 

What we do not have:

- joint utility bills... I'll finally add each other to our respective bills, shouldn't be a problem.

- joint ownership of assets. Adding me to the house deed is a pain, I checked, but we have one car paid in full. How hard is it to add me to the title? Is it a DMV thing or a county thing? My lease is ending, so the next car we get will probably be financed jointly. Any experiences? 

- joint bank account. We had our respective accounts before we got together, and my bank doesn't even have a branch in my state. I recently opened a BoA checking account, and I plan to add my husband to it. However, it will be my paycheck only (he is self employed and uses a business account). I can pay our insurance out of it, but all of the other bills I prefer to put on credit for points. We don't want to add each other to our credit cards, because mine are new (his score goes down), and his carry a balance at the moment (my score goes down). Is that enough? A joint bank account that only pays insurance and the rest goes to credit card payments? We didn't have any issues with separate banking during the AOS interview, our IO understood exactly how we split bills. Not sure if this is even worth it? 

 

Anything else I can, and should, do since we still have 1.5 years to go? Or is this basically fine already? 

Edited April 14, 2019 by eckoin

[ch3john 308]

My wife just got her 10yr GC in February of this year. Our evidence was almost exactly like what you have and got approved without RFE or interview. We do have joint bank accounts although she is a stay at home mom with our son born in 2017. I bought our house in 2005 and explained in the cover letter that it was an unnecessary expense to add her to the deed since she is entitled to 50% of the house the day we got married. She wasn't listed on either of our car loans, one car was paid for and the other I bought soon after she arrived in the US and didn't think it was necessary to have her on the loan since she didn't have a credit history (score). I did add her as an authorized user on my credit cards which helped build her credit history.

 

One thing you should consider is a will, power of attorney and medical directives. Not only for ROC but they are good to have in life in general.

 

Good luck!

 

Our list in comparison to yours

 

 a child born in 2017 in the US - Same 

- taxes filed jointly in 2017 and 2018 so far - only 2016 was supplied because of timing

- joint medical and dental insurance for the three of us  - same

- joint auto insurance, cars owned/leased separately  - same

- joint home insurance, home owned by my husband  - same

- joint cell phone bill - have but didn't submit anything

- electricity in my husband's name, internet/phone in my name  - all utilizes in my name, didn't show anything

- some travel records, including airbnb host reviews that mention the three of us - didn't submit anything

- pet insurance showing both of us as owners  - didn't submit anything 

- Costco, AAA, museum memberships - Have AAA and sent copies of our cards

- he and our daughter are beneficiaries of my 401k and employer-provided life insurance. He doesn't have either. - Listed wife as beneficiary 

 

What we do not have:

- joint utility bills... I'll finally add each other to our respective bills, shouldn't be a problem. - Didn't have 

- joint ownership of assets. Adding me to the house deed is a pain, I checked, but we have one car paid in full. How hard is it to add me to the title? Is it a DMV thing or a county thing? My lease is ending, so the next car we get will probably be financed jointly. Any experiences? didn't show house deed or car loans

- joint bank account. We had our respective accounts before we got together, and my bank doesn't even have a branch in my state. I recently opened a BoA checking account, and I plan to add my husband to it. However, it will be my paycheck only (he is self employed and uses a business account). I can pay our insurance out of it, but all of the other bills I prefer to put on credit for points. We don't want to add each other to our credit cards, because mine are new (his score goes down), and his carry a balance at the moment (my score goes down). Is that enough? A joint bank account that only pays insurance and the rest goes to credit card payments? We didn't have any issues with separate banking during the AOS interview, our IO understood exactly how we split bills. Not sure if this is even worth it? 

Edited April 14, 2019 by ch3john

[eckoin 211]

3 minutes ago, ch3john said:

We do have joint bank accounts although she is a stay at home mom with our son born in 2017.

Thank you! So basically, you have a joint account but only your income goes into it. That makes sense. I just don't use my debit card--it all goes on credit cards that we then use to pay for stuff. I'm guessing it's overall impossible to determine who uses the card for expenses anyway, it's not like there's a name attached to each one. Would you recommend I go with the plan for this joint account? It'll only show income coming in, an Allstate payment, and then transfers out... 

3 minutes ago, ch3john said:

I bought our house in 2005 and explained in the cover letter that it was an unnecessary expense to add her to the deed since she is entitled to 50% of the house the day we got married.

Good idea! I'll explain in the letter as well.

3 minutes ago, ch3john said:

She wasn't listed on either of our car loans, one car was paid for and the other I bought soon after she arrived in the US and didn't think it was necessary to have her on the loan since she didn't have a credit history (score). I did add her as an authorized user on my credit cards which helped build her credit history.

I lived in the US before we started dating, so I had my own little credit history going. It just so happens that the things that hurt my score (length of credit) and the things that hurt his (balances) are incompatible. Would you recommend I explain that as well? Or is that just TMI? 

3 minutes ago, ch3john said:

One thing you should consider is a will, power of attorney and medical directives. Not only for ROC but they are good to have in life in general.

 

Good luck!

 

Good call! I've been thinking that we should get our living wills just in the horrible off chance we need it. I've read a little about medical directives and they seem relatively straightforward to do. Do you know if we can just write our own wills and powers of attorney, and just get them notarized? I've seen some websites that cater to this sort of thing, not sure if they're thorough enough. 

 

Thanks again! 

[ch3john 308]

15 minutes ago, eckoin said:

Thank you! So basically, you have a joint account but only your income goes into it. That makes sense. I just don't use my debit card--it all goes on credit cards that we then use to pay for stuff. I'm guessing it's overall impossible to determine who uses the card for expenses anyway, it's not like there's a name attached to each one. Would you recommend I go with the plan for this joint account? It'll only show income coming in, an Allstate payment, and then transfers out... 

Good idea! I'll explain in the letter as well.

I lived in the US before we started dating, so I had my own little credit history going. It just so happens that the things that hurt my score (length of credit) and the things that hurt his (balances) are incompatible. Would you recommend I explain that as well? Or is that just TMI? 

Good call! I've been thinking that we should get our living wills just in the horrible off chance we need it. I've read a little about medical directives and they seem relatively straightforward to do. Do you know if we can just write our own wills and powers of attorney, and just get them notarized? I've seen some websites that cater to this sort of thing, not sure if they're thorough enough. 

 

Thanks again! 

Correct, I just added her to my bank accounts and only my income goes into it. I, like you, use a credit card for almost everything to get the points. Our transactions are basically my income, auto debits for cell phone, car insurance, credit card bills, etc. Adding her as an authorized user on my credit card shows her name on the statements but doesn't show who charged what. Except for AMEX, they issued her a card with her own account number and the statements were broken down by account number and name. 

Explaining your situation in the cover letter is probably a good idea, TMI is not a bad thing when it comes to immigration (and hopes of not getting a RFE)

Our will, MD and PoA's were pretty straightforward. I had attorney draft ours and then had them notarized. I think the cost was about $400. There are online services that do them that should work if you don't have any complicated situations. I personally think it's best to have someone draft them that knows what they are doing versus writing them myself. 

[Loren Y 2,755]

Car title is an easy fix at the DMV, one of the first things I did when we got married was to add her to one of my vehicles. 

For the will it depends on the state. Here in Nevada I was able to write my will on a napkin at McDonald's, sign it, and it is leagally bonding in the state of Nevada. Some states require it to be notorized, some don't, but it is easy to do yourself, don't bother with an attorney, will be a waste of money. Definitely get a will done ASAP or else the state will be in charge of dividing your assets and estate, and that is the last thing you want to happen. Look for a legal aid center in your town, most are free and can help you with many different legal things. Wills, power of attorney, medical directives, etc. You should be able to do your will for under 100 dollars easy even if in a difficult state.

I agree about the deed. That is a complete nightmare to get done. Almost requires a full refinance to make it happen, so I'm not bothering with that.

[eckoin 211]

3 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

Car title is an easy fix at the DMV, one of the first things I did when we got married was to add her to one of my vehicles. 

Thanks! So it's not a county thing? I know we have a vehicle property tax, and it shows who owns the title. So DMV determines who's on the title and the county just takes that info? The title to my leased car belongs to Chase, but I'm not sure if this info had to be provided to them when I got the lease in the first place. Our county sucks for this stuff. 

3 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

For the will it depends on the state. Here in Nevada I was able to write my will on a napkin at McDonald's, sign it, and it is leagally bonding in the state of Nevada. Some states require it to be notorized, some don't, but it is easy to do yourself, don't bother with an attorney, will be a waste of money. Definitely get a will done ASAP or else the state will be in charge of dividing your assets and estate, and that is the last thing you want to happen. Look for a legal aid center in your town, most are free and can help you with many different legal things. Wills, power of attorney, medical directives, etc. You should be able to do your will for under 100 dollars easy even if in a difficult state.

Yeah fair enough! I don't mind writing our own wills with some SC-specific lingo if necessary. Our situation is pretty straightforward, no ex spouses, no other children. All goes to the three of us, no issues. 

3 minutes ago, Loren Y said:

I agree about the deed. That is a complete nightmare to get done. Almost requires a full refinance to make it happen, so I'm not bothering with that.

Yeah it's a total pain. He did take a HELOC out, which makes it so much worse. There's no point in refinancing the HELOC either, it's a good rate. But everyone needs to know about it and we have to jump through so many hoops to get it done, I was over it before I started. 

[eckoin 211]

12 minutes ago, ch3john said:

Correct, I just added her to my bank accounts and only my income goes into it. I, like you, use a credit card for almost everything to get the points. Our transactions are basically my income, auto debits for cell phone, car insurance, credit card bills, etc. Adding her as an authorized user on my credit card shows her name on the statements but doesn't show who charged what. Except for AMEX, they issued her a card with her own account number and the statements were broken down by account number and name. 

OK that makes sense, might as well do it then. I just wasn't sure if it looks dumb, but hey, dumb financial commingling evidence is better than none, right? I did add him as an authorized user on one of my credit cards at some point, and his score tanked next month. Removed him, back to normal. We compared credit histories, and there's no good way not to hurt one of us by authorizing each other, so we figured it isn't worth it. 

 

How come you didn't include some or the other stuff, like cell phone bills? And why not add her to the utilities? I guess my question is, am I overthinking this already? 

 

12 minutes ago, ch3john said:

Explaining your situation in the cover letter is probably a good idea, TMI is not a bad thing when it comes to immigration (and hopes of not getting a RFE)

Yeah, I haven't done any of this for AOS, we just kinda went with what we have at the time. I plan to submit N400 before I even get to ROC approval/interview, so I assume I'll have a double interview for both. Of course anything can change, but my local field office currently adjucates N400s in 3-4 months usually. I'm sure that will come before ROC, at least in the current state of things. 

12 minutes ago, ch3john said:

Our will, MD and PoA's were pretty straightforward. I had attorney draft ours and then had them notarized. I think the cost was about $400. There are online services that do them that should work if you don't have any complicated situations. I personally think it's best to have someone draft them that knows what they are doing versus writing them myself. 

Yeah fair enough. I just don't like lawyers. I consulted with two highest rated firms in our area before I found you guys, and was flabbergasted at how uninformed they were. The first one was operating in 2003 during 2017, and the second one was just totally winging it when she didn't know the answers to my questions. Don't like these guys. Then again, immigration is a totally different beast! 

[ch3john 308]

10 minutes ago, eckoin said:

OK that makes sense, might as well do it then. I just wasn't sure if it looks dumb, but hey, dumb financial commingling evidence is better than none, right? I did add him as an authorized user on one of my credit cards at some point, and his score tanked next month. Removed him, back to normal. We compared credit histories, and there's no good way not to hurt one of us by authorizing each other, so we figured it isn't worth it. 

 

How come you didn't include some or the other stuff, like cell phone bills? And why not add her to the utilities? I guess my question is, am I overthinking this already? 

 

Yeah, I haven't done any of this for AOS, we just kinda went with what we have at the time. I plan to submit N400 before I even get to ROC approval/interview, so I assume I'll have a double interview for both. Of course anything can change, but my local field office currently adjucates N400s in 3-4 months usually. I'm sure that will come before ROC, at least in the current state of things. 

Yeah fair enough. I just don't like lawyers. I consulted with two highest rated firms in our area before I found you guys, and was flabbergasted at how uninformed they were. The first one was operating in 2003 during 2017, and the second one was just totally winging it when she didn't know the answers to my questions. Don't like these guys. Then again, immigration is a totally different beast! 

I didn't add her to the utilities or cell phone because I already had them established before she got here. I figured, don't fix something that's not broken and/or I'm just to lazy to do so. Would rather focus my time and energy on something else worthwhile. 

Trust me, I would rather scrape my eyeballs with a razor blade then have to deal with an attorney for anything. I figured wills, etc. needed to have the legal mumbo jumbo in them that I know nothing about. 

I saw the other day a woman was getting things prepared for ROC and her attorney wanted to charge $4,500. I don't know how these people can sleep at night charging that much and taking advantage of people like that. 

[eckoin 211]

6 minutes ago, ch3john said:

I didn't add her to the utilities or cell phone because I already had them established before she got here. I figured, don't fix something that's not broken and/or I'm just to lazy to do so. Would rather focus my time and energy on something else worthwhile. 

Ah I gotcha. I was in the same boat for AOS, but I figure I have time now. Plus, it'd be nice to be on the electricity account. My husband's card got declined once after the bank sent him a new one, and our electric coop promptly shut off power. Guess who couldn't fix it and just pay the damn bill? Imagine he couldn't be reached? No AC in South Carolina, no internet. I work from home. 

Quote

Trust me, I would rather scrape my eyeballs with a razor blade then have to deal with an attorney for anything. I figured wills, etc. needed to have the legal mumbo jumbo in them that I know nothing about. 

I saw the other day a woman was getting things prepared for ROC and her attorney wanted to charge $4,500. I don't know how these people can sleep at night charging that much and taking advantage of people like that. 

Both law firms were charging about $3k to fill out AOS forms, plus $800-1,500 to attend the interview. But you still have to fill them out yourself... They just looked it over. 

 

The first insisted we needed to start on G325a and just seemed confused about the process. EAD within 30 days, he'd "handle it" if it took longer. OK bud. The second told me that I can't use my income as part of the household, and besides, I'll require a waiver since I'm adjusting from a non-immigrant work status (???). Paid them money to tell me this, too. Ridiculous. 

Edited April 14, 2019 by eckoin

[Cathi 5,748]

A child born in the US isn't proof of anything other than the fact you had sex.

[eckoin 211]

4 minutes ago, Cathi said:

A child born in the US isn't proof of anything other than the fact you had sex.

Why do some people feel like they have to chip this in? Having joint auto insurance in the US isn't proof of anything other than the fact that you drive. 

 

Birth certificates to children together is one of the example pieces of proof cited by USCIS. We have one. That's it. 

[ch3john 308]

8 minutes ago, Cathi said:

A child born in the US isn't proof of anything other than the fact you had sex.

Oh boy, here we go.....