Success in Opening a Joint Account with my Spouse! (Pre visa approval)

[Jamie Solo 70]

Hey guys,

 

I'm currently visiting my spouse whilst in America (still waiting on NOA2 FYI) and one thing we decided to try and do was open a joint bank account to help out in evidence for the process and also cause it would be useful to get my name in the system etc. right now.

 

I obviously checked here and saw lots of conflicting info so wanted to give my experience:

 

First - we visited Chase. Chase sucks when you're an intending immigrant and they will also not be very friendly to you on arrival. So don't bother.

 

We instead visited Bank of America and we had a whole bunch of help and a smooth ride in setting up our accounts! 

 

All that was required was a passport and Driver's license for the US citizen (but any normal ID would be fine too including utilities and stuff. And for the non-US citizen, your passport, and a secondary form of ID, which could even be a Visa/Mastercard from your home country.

I quizzed them on why we could open it with them when we didn't have success with Chase and they said this was fine as the US citizen essentially acted as the "anchor" in our joint account and the person helping us mentioned that Visa/Mastercard is a good secondary ID as they're global so the bank can access some kind of record on you. This also allowed me to apply for a US credit Card (approval is pending so we'll see on that!).

 

So just wanted to share that opening a joint account in the states is possible whilst going through the process for anyone who wants to get it done! 

[Joyoussinger 1,425]

1 hour ago, Jamie Solo said:

Hey guys,

 

I'm currently visiting my spouse whilst in America (still waiting on NOA2 FYI) and one thing we decided to try and do was open a joint bank account to help out in evidence for the process and also cause it would be useful to get my name in the system etc. right now.

 

I obviously checked here and saw lots of conflicting info so wanted to give my experience:

 

First - we visited Chase. Chase sucks when you're an intending immigrant and they will also not be very friendly to you on arrival. So don't bother.

 

We instead visited Bank of America and we had a whole bunch of help and a smooth ride in setting up our accounts! 

 

All that was required was a passport and Driver's license for the US citizen (but any normal ID would be fine too including utilities and stuff. And for the non-US citizen, your passport, and a secondary form of ID, which could even be a Visa/Mastercard from your home country.

I quizzed them on why we could open it with them when we didn't have success with Chase and they said this was fine as the US citizen essentially acted as the "anchor" in our joint account and the person helping us mentioned that Visa/Mastercard is a good secondary ID as they're global so the bank can access some kind of record on you. This also allowed me to apply for a US credit Card (approval is pending so we'll see on that!).

 

So just wanted to share that opening a joint account in the states is possible whilst going through the process for anyone who wants to get it done! 

Thank you for sharing your experience. My husband and I are about to open a joint account, and were wondering which bank to go to. Bank of America it is!

[Wuozopo 4,293]

Congratulations. I've also heard of better success with BOA for new K1 immigrants.

Each bank is charged by federal requirements with getting ID and certain information from their clients, but it's somewhat up to the bank to put together their own policies on how they will comply. Some banks just aren't as flexible as others.

[Zach2015 211]

Wells Fargo allowed me to add my fiancé to my accounts, no problem.

[stephanie918 46]

has anyone opened from overseas? we won't get back to the US before the visa is hopefully approved

[crono_clone 213]

Literally just came back from Chase to research this topic after getting turned away for the 5th time in trying to put my husband on a joint account with me. Chase would not accept my husband's passport because it has his unmarried name, and would not accept our marriage certificate as a proof of name change. Instead, they'd rather have us go all the way to the consulate to have his passport changed, even though the last time I was there they said all I needed to do was go to DPS (and waste an entire day) to get his state ID in his new name which should serve as his proof of identity and proof of address. Now they're saying that his ID is great, but his new name doesn't match his passport 😠. They just keep moving the goalposts on us and it's beyond frustrating.