I-751 evidence - bank statement question

[PatGia 16]

Hello all.

 

We are gathering, copying, and printing all of our needed documents, and I have a question regarding bank statements. In several different threads I have seen people who included a bank statement from each quarter, and some who said they sent all of them. I also had seen someone who said they had heard of an RFE being issued requesting all bank statements, but some of these threads were also several years old so I'm not sure if they are still relevant. I would have 2 1/2 to 3 years of joint statements since we were married, at what looks like an average of 5 pages per month, so maybe over 150 pages just for that. Is there any consensus on what is required or best practice? I can err on the side of caution and print them all, but don't really know if it's deemed as necessary. We also have utilities, which I was planning on one per quarter, our lease, and insurance documents. 

 

Any thoughts on this are really appreciated.

 

Thanks!!

 

 

[Crazy Cat 42,614]

March I-751 filer here.  I saw the same threads.......so I included all of our joint checking account statements since my wife arrived......we just received her biometrics appointment letter.......

[millefleur 5,047]

There's no official requirement to send in every bank statement. 

 

I opted to do so because of the recent increase in RFE's asking for all statements. I know that faking bank statements is endemically common in the US visa process, so it could be just that USCIS is catching on to this and wants to see the continuity from statement to statement to ensure that they are genuine. This is my theory behind the recent rise in RFE's regarding statements.

 

I sent in all bank statements, but did quarterly for credit cards and utilities. Bank statements ended up being about 50% of our whole file, but I just didn't want to risk it. At the end of the day, it's your call. 150 sounds like a ton, I totally get why you would not want to send that much. But nobody here can predict whether or not you will get an RFE...that's the frustrating part.

 

 

[PatGia 16]

Wow, thank you for the fast replies missileman and millefleur. I hadn't really been thinking of the fraud aspect and showing the continuity. Given that, I will be sending them the entire stack of statements. Coincidentally enough, we just bough 5 reams of paper on sale the other night, so we are well stocked. 

 

Semi unrelated, did you also send photos? And if so, how many?

 

Thanks again!

[Crazy Cat 42,614]

3 minutes ago, PatGia said:

Wow, thank you for the fast replies missileman and millefleur. I hadn't really been thinking of the fraud aspect and showing the continuity. Given that, I will be sending them the entire stack of statements. Coincidentally enough, we just bough 5 reams of paper on sale the other night, so we are well stocked. 

 

Semi unrelated, did you also send photos? And if so, how many?

 

Thanks again!

I had to order two extra sets of printer ink....lol.......

[millefleur 5,047]

1 minute ago, PatGia said:

Semi unrelated, did you also send photos? And if so, how many?

I believe we sent in around 15 photos, mostly of us travelling together and with family/friends. None from the wedding or ceremony, just photos from our life together since our relationship began (we got married VERY soon after meeting, so in our case it made sense) to the present. 

 

Again, there is no hard and fast rule for how many photos to send. But I think sending in at least a few photos makes sense, particularly with family and friends, as that is good evidence of other people being aware of the relationship.

[gregcrs2 1,778]

3 minutes ago, PatGia said:

Wow, thank you for the fast replies missileman and millefleur. I hadn't really been thinking of the fraud aspect and showing the continuity. Given that, I will be sending them the entire stack of statements. Coincidentally enough, we just bough 5 reams of paper on sale the other night, so we are well stocked. 

 

Semi unrelated, did you also send photos? And if so, how many?

 

Thanks again!

We also sent all monthly bank statements.  We also sent photos, about 24 captioned with month/year/where/with friends or relatives.

1 minute ago, missileman said:

I had to order two extra sets of printer ink....lol.......

You are not alone!!!

[Crazy Cat 42,614]

I sent 4 or 5 photos...printed them and included a caption........some of us traveling (Las Vegas, Arizona)...and some of us with other family members.

[millefleur 5,047]

I wanted to add that in our photo captions, I put the date (Month/Year), place (City, State, and sometimes Country), and put brief description of the other people in the photo, such as family friend, brother-in-law, etc and put that person's first and last name. Not sure if that was totally necessary but I wanted it to be clear that these are not just random people we decided to take photos with.

Edited April 14, 2019 by millefleur

[cyclone27 710]

We sent all bank statements and maybe had 20 or so photos w/explanation.

[PatGia 16]

All great information. Thank you to everyone for taking your time to reply. We've been away from here for a while (boy the time between filings sure flies), really happy to see that the community here is still so helpful.

[kline19 102]

I had entire two years of bank statements included.

 

I also created a Cliff Notes type of word document in which I copied pasted screenshots from my bank statements. These screenshots showed transactions that we did at special events like being on a trip. These transactions would show up such as buying coffee at an airport terminal, buying stuff in a different city etc. and it helped that statements list them chronologically.

 

 

I highlighted those transactions and connect them to the photos from that particular travel along with boarding passes and itinerary emails from Priceline etc. 

 

 

[Cryssiekins 976]

For my petition, we sent every statement from checking, saving, and credit card, only because I’d rather not have them ask for anything.  Our bank account is mainly used to pay bills since we use a credit card for everything (points and building a positive payment history).

 

I had 5 photos w/ receipts from travel, and then about 20 or so from just random events.  2 to a page with an explanation of date, location, and who was in the photo. 

[ch3john 308]

We sent every 3 months of credit card and bank statements, no pictures. Approved in February no RFE or interview. 

Wouldn't hurt to send every month though. Never know how picky your adjudicator will be. 

[Becci391 340]

16 minutes ago, ch3john said:

We sent every 3 months of credit card and bank statements, no pictures. Approved in February no RFE or interview. 

Wouldn't hurt to send every month though. Never know how picky your adjudicator will be. 

I'm going to do the same.

It's way too much to send all bank statements.