Questions about financial evidence for I-751

[microcebus 40]

I am preparing my wife’s I-751 packet.  We need to send it in about a week.  We had thought it would be very quick to prepare because it doesn’t require another Affidavit of Support, but it’s a lot more work than we thought!  We saw some RfEs on this forum today that definitely showed us the importance of preparing this package well.

 

Our current situation:

 

• We don’t have kids yet.
• For nearly the first year of our marriage, we didn’t have a home of our own and didn’t have utility bills.  We were staying at my parents’ condo officially while we were looking for a house, then having our house built.  During the last 3 months that our house was being built, we rented from friends during the workweek (it was not a formal lease) and stayed at the condo on the weekends.
• Several of our utilities now are paid through our HOA and not separate bills.  Our HOA’s directory lists both of us as living at our house.  None of our utility bills have my wife’s name on them.  I’ve asked these companies today if they can change this.
• My wife’s name is on the contract and title of our house, but not our mortgage.  We had thought that her lack of credit history in the US would impact our interest rate.
• We have 2 affidavits from people we know and will hopefully get at least one more.
• We filed our taxes separately in 2018 (we got married that December) but jointly in 2019 and 2020.
• In general, we are beneficiaries on each others’ benefits at work, but we don’t share any medical insurance policies because it would cost us more this way (due to how these policies are set up with our employers).  We do have the same doctor and dentist and try to get back-to-back appointments where we can.  And we do have the same car insurance policy.
• We have had a lot less travel, going out, and photos than we had anticipated before the pandemic.  
• Only one of our bank accounts is truly set up as a joint account.  About 6 months after we got married, I set up my other accounts to transfer on my death to my wife.  Her name has been on these accounts’ statements since then, but the accounts are individual.  We use one Mint account to keep track of all of our bank accounts.   My wife’s paychecks get deposited to the joint account, and mine get deposited to my checking account since that account is used to pay our mortgage.
• My wife does not have a credit card in the US.  She has one back in Singapore (her country of birth and citizenship; she lived in Australia when she met me) and uses my card for her online purchases.  I think she is an authorized user of my card according to our bank, but I’d need to double check.  Only my name is on these statements.

 

In light of all this, I have been thinking about different sources of evidence we could also provide:

 

• Receipts (with both of our names) for furniture for our house
• Receipts for online purchases that both of us have made (showing that we live at the same place)
• Other bills that show both of our names and address

 

Given the information above, I have several questions about proving our joint financial assets:

 

1. Do I need to send USCIS the bank statements for my individual bank accounts too, or only the joint account?

 

2. Do we need to include each month’s statements for my credit card?  (If so: the bank provides a “Summary of Charges” document each year which shows all of our transactions with the card for the year and would save a lot of paper.  Could I send that in instead, to cover as much of the time since we got married as possible?)

 

3. Where the VisaJourney I-751 sample refers to a copy of the title of our house, which document is that?  Is this the same thing as a title deed (in our case, a several-page document on legal-sized paper) or a one-page certificate of title (which I’m not sure if we have or even can get in the time we have)? 

 

4. I have a similar question about the title of the car in both of our names.  I haven’t found a certificate of title or it yet, just our registration, which has both of our names on it.  May I just send in a copy of the registration?

 

5. Is there anything else about our current situation that we should be aware of as I prepare the packet?  Any other ideas or advice?

Edited June 20, 2021 by microcebus

[Ed&Midori1031 330]

3 minutes ago, microcebus said:

I am preparing my wife’s I-751 packet.  We need to send it in about a week.  We had thought it would be very quick to prepare because it doesn’t require another Affidavit of Support, but it’s a lot more work than we thought!  We saw some RfEs on this forum today that definitely showed us the importance of preparing this package well.

 

Our current situation:

 

• We don’t have kids yet.
• For nearly the first year of our marriage, we didn’t have a home of our own and didn’t have utility bills.  We were staying at my parents’ condo officially while we were looking for a house, then having our house built.  During the last 3 months that our house was being built, we rented from friends during the workweek (it was not a formal lease) and stayed at the condo on the weekends.
• Several of our utilities now are paid through our HOA and not separate bills.  Our HOA’s directory lists both of us as living at our house.  None of our utility bills have my wife’s name on them.  I’ve asked these companies today if they can change this.
• My wife’s name is on the contract and title of our house, but not our mortgage.  We had thought that her lack of credit history in the US would impact our interest rate.
• We have 2 affidavits from people we know and will hopefully get at least one more.
• We filed our taxes separately in 2018 (we got married that December) but jointly in 2019 and 2020.
• In general, we are beneficiaries on each others’ benefits at work, but we don’t share any medical insurance policies because it would cost us more this way (due to how these policies are set up with our employers).  We do have the same doctor and dentist and try to get back-to-back appointments where we can.  And we do have the same car insurance policy.
• We have had a lot less travel, going out, and photos than we had anticipated before the pandemic.  
• Only one of our bank accounts is truly set up as a joint account.  About 6 months after we got married, I set up my other accounts to transfer on my death to my wife.  Her name has been on these accounts’ statements since then, but the accounts are individual.  We use one Mint account to keep track of all of our bank accounts.   My wife’s paychecks get deposited to the joint account, and mine get deposited to my checking account since that account is used to pay our mortgage.
• My wife does not have a credit card in the US.  She has one back in Singapore (her country of birth and citizenship; she lived in Australia when she met me) and uses my card for her online purchases.  I think she is an authorized user of my card according to our bank, but I’d need to double check.  Only my name is on these statements.

 

In light of all this, I have been thinking about different sources of evidence we could also provide:

 

• Receipts (with both of our names) for furniture for our house
• Receipts for online purchases that both of us have made (showing that we live at the same place)
• Other bills that show both of our names and address

 

Given the information above, I have several questions about proving our joint financial assets:

 

1. Do I need to send USCIS the bank statements for my individual bank accounts too, or only the joint account?

 

2. Do we need to include each month’s statements for my credit card?  (If so: the bank provides a “Summary of Charges” document each year which shows all of our transactions with the card for the year and would save a lot of paper.  Could I send that in instead, to cover as much of the time since we got married as possible?)

 

3. Where the VisaJourney I-751 sample refers to a copy of the title of our house, which document is that?  Is this the same thing as a title deed (in our case, a several-page document on legal-sized paper) or a one-page certificate of title (which I’m not sure if we have or even can get in the time we have)? 

 

4. I have a similar question about the title of the car in both of our names.  I haven’t found a certificate of title or it yet, just our registration, which has both of our names on it.  May I just send in a copy of the registration?

 

5. Is there anything else about our current situation that we should be aware of as I prepare the packet?  Any other ideas or advice?

1. Just joint is fine.  For my bank, all my account statements were linked together, so I couldnt separate them anyways, but as long as it shows joint ownership. 

 

2. Would recommend sending a statement one per quarter, same with bank account statements.

 

3.  That would be the deed to your house.

 

4. Are you still making payments on the car?  If so the title wont be in you or your spouse's name.  Car registration would help, and car insurance if you have both names on there too. 

 

5. Anything that can show a strong bond between you and tour spouse, proof of a bona fide relationship.  I'm in kind of the same situation.  For about a year, I do not have proof of utilities or rental, since I was staying in on base housing, but anything else during that time that can prove our marriage, like bank statements, credit cards, copy of orders, etc. I submitted. 

[da95826 387]

 

USCIS is interested in joint commingling of money, you should show that your spouse and you are depositing money and paying bills together each month over time throughout marriage. They want to see transactions money coming in and money going out for both of you together. Joint accounts are best but any common account that show each of you are putting money in and pay bills for the marriage expenses is what USCIS is looking for.

 

Get letters or affidavit from family member who put you up at their home indicating you and your spouse lived together at the home they provided from move in date to move out date.

 

Submit copes state issued of photo IDs with common address for every address you can.

Submit W2 and 1099 forms for each year of marriage they show income, but they also show your address at the time.

Submit any mail you have at current and old addresses addressed to both of you together and/or each of you alone.

Submit IRS Joint Tax transcripts for each year of marriage (download from IRS webpage).

[Sukie 1,463]

In addition to the advice you have given above, it may be very helpful to write a cover letter that 1) explains your living situation from your marriage until now (and those affidavits from the people you lived with are KEY!) , 2) gives a simple explanation of how you handle money in your household, and 3) explains the fact that each of your health coverage comes from your currently employers.

 

That way, an officer who is looking at your case does not have to guess what is happening. 

 

Best of luck!

 

Sukie in NY

[microcebus 40]

On 6/19/2021 at 10:33 PM, Ed&Midori1031 said:

1. Just joint is fine.  For my bank, all my account statements were linked together, so I couldnt separate them anyways, but as long as it shows joint ownership. 

 

2. Would recommend sending a statement one per quarter, same with bank account statements.

 

3.  That would be the deed to your house.

 

4. Are you still making payments on the car?  If so the title wont be in you or your spouse's name.  Car registration would help, and car insurance if you have both names on there too. 

 

5. Anything that can show a strong bond between you and tour spouse, proof of a bona fide relationship.  I'm in kind of the same situation.  For about a year, I do not have proof of utilities or rental, since I was staying in on base housing, but anything else during that time that can prove our marriage, like bank statements, credit cards, copy of orders, etc. I submitted. 

 

1 and 2. Thanks!  In light of the other answer below, I'm going to also include quarterly statements from some of our other accounts.  This would show that some expenses each month are handled by me, and others are handled by my wife.  I just think that since both of us are working, USCIS may want to see where both of our paychecks go.

 

3. Got it and just made the copies of the deed.  Do I also need to make copies of the plat plan, which the title company included with the deed?  The plat plan only has my name on it (and my name is only on one page).  For my house, the deed and plat are on legal-sized paper, which is hard to get and hard to photocopy at home!

 

4. We bought the car new in 2019 and paid it off early last fall.  We have a payoff letter which I'll be including with my evidence.  However, they never sent us a certificate of title.  The car is still registered to us in our state, and its insurance is still current.  Besides this, we are including some paperwork from the dealer saying that we bought the car together and how many miles it had.

 

5. Thanks, this is helpful.  I might also consider including our anniversary cards to one another.

 

On 6/20/2021 at 1:33 AM, da95826 said:

 

USCIS is interested in joint commingling of money, you should show that your spouse and you are depositing money and paying bills together each month over time throughout marriage. They want to see transactions money coming in and money going out for both of you together. Joint accounts are best but any common account that show each of you are putting money in and pay bills for the marriage expenses is what USCIS is looking for.

 

Get letters or affidavit from family member who put you up at their home indicating you and your spouse lived together at the home they provided from move in date to move out date.

 

Submit copes state issued of photo IDs with common address for every address you can.

Submit W2 and 1099 forms for each year of marriage they show income, but they also show your address at the time.

Submit any mail you have at current and old addresses addressed to both of you together and/or each of you alone.

Submit IRS Joint Tax transcripts for each year of marriage (download from IRS webpage).

Thanks, and that affidavit tip is a really good point.  I've asked that family member for an affidavit with details about our staying at their place.  I think we are all set on the photo IDs, W2s, tax transcripts, and some pieces of mail we have gotten (we don't tend to keep much of our mail, so hopefully we have enough!).

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

@microcebus, your evidence looks really good. I just wanted to throw my 2 humble cents in here.

 

1. I would make sure that the evidence you submit covers the entire period you have been married. I know the VJ guide says otherwise but the I-751 instructions state they require evidence since the date of your marriage. 
2. I sent monthly statements for all the accounts. It's my understanding that USCIS wants to see your all transactions and not just a quarterly summary. I would also explain to USCIS how you manage your household/accounts. 
3. Driver's license or state ID showing the same address.
4. If you are listed as each other's emergency contact at work or on your health insurance or anywhere, I would show that.
5. I would also make sure to list your evidence on a table of contents and explain in full sentences what each piece of evidence is proof of. Help USCIS make sense of your evidence. Connect the dots for them. They do not have to do it for you. 

Here is an example of a very comprehensive Table of Contents. (I used that example for AOS and I-751). Scroll down to the second post. Best wishes  

 

 

[microcebus 40]

On 6/22/2021 at 11:30 AM, USC4SPOUSE said:

@microcebus, your evidence looks really good. I just wanted to throw my 2 humble cents in here.

 

1. I would make sure that the evidence you submit covers the entire period you have been married. I know the VJ guide says otherwise but the I-751 instructions state they require evidence since the date of your marriage. 
2. I sent monthly statements for all the accounts. It's my understanding that USCIS wants to see your all transactions and not just a quarterly summary. I would also explain to USCIS how you manage your household/accounts. 
3. Driver's license or state ID showing the same address.
4. If you are listed as each other's emergency contact at work or on your health insurance or anywhere, I would show that.
5. I would also make sure to list your evidence on a table of contents and explain in full sentences what each piece of evidence is proof of. Help USCIS make sense of your evidence. Connect the dots for them. They do not have to do it for you. 

Here is an example of a very comprehensive Table of Contents. (I used that example for AOS and I-751). Scroll down to the second post. Best wishes  

 

 

Thanks for this Table of Contents!  I rewrote our cover letter last night to make it based on this.

 

I am trying to avoid doing statements for every month because it's for 3 accounts plus a credit card, and it's just a lot of paper and ink.  I really wish USCIS would go completely paperless!  What do you think of doing monthly statements only for our joint account... and maybe my checking account too, not the savings accounts?

 

Also, do we need to print statements every month for accounts that don't put her name anywhere on the statement?  For instance, my wife is the beneficiary for my retirement accounts, but those statements don't list her name anywhere.  Same thing with our utility bills (though I have printed those out).  It just seems like a waste of paper (and not really showing USCIS anything) to print it all out.

[USC4SPOUSE 506]

53 minutes ago, microcebus said:

Thanks for this Table of Contents!  I rewrote our cover letter last night to make it based on this.

 

I am trying to avoid doing statements for every month because it's for 3 accounts plus a credit card, and it's just a lot of paper and ink.  I really wish USCIS would go completely paperless!  What do you think of doing monthly statements only for our joint account... and maybe my checking account too, not the savings accounts?

 

Also, do we need to print statements every month for accounts that don't put her name anywhere on the statement?  For instance, my wife is the beneficiary for my retirement accounts, but those statements don't list her name anywhere.  Same thing with our utility bills (though I have printed those out).  It just seems like a waste of paper (and not really showing USCIS anything) to print it all out.

You're so welcome, @microcebus! I am glad you found that table of contents helpful. It is so well organized. 

I am an advocate of sending everything but the kitchen sink. lol. Your approach is reasonable, though. For the retirement accounts, I would definitely print the page that shows her name as a beneficiary. I like to include "headers and footers" under print options. That will display when you printed it and also the URL. 

 

I think you have plenty. If your joint checking account is where most of the financial movement happens, then by all means send all months. Make sure you print everything single sided. That is what they prefer. 

 

See if your accounts give you the option of printing a quarterly statement. .Up to you. But it does sound like you have solid evidence. I would not be worried. Our package weighed 13lbs. lol

 

All the best to you on your journey!  I will keep my fingers crossed for your file to be sent to the texas service center. Processing times 4 to 6.5 months. 

Edited June 25, 2021 by USC4SPOUSE