I-751 Removal of Conditions, September 2023 Filers

[top_secret 2,458]

Well since we will be mailing our packet tomorrow I guess it's time to start a September 2023 thread.

Our 90 day window started the last week of July but we were out of the country last month so we put it off until we got back to avoid any surprise biometric appointments or missed notices.

 

It looks like we will be sending in....

 

G-1450 credit card authorization.
G-1145 E-notification.
I-751 of course.
Copies of their green cards, front and back, and passports.
Copies of California Real ID Driver Licenses for my wife and I plus California Real ID card for my stepdaughter all at the same address.
IRS tax return transcripts of our 2022, 2021, and 2020 joint US tax returns.
Statements from our joint checking account showing joint ownership of the account and direct deposits of both of our salaries plus payments of bills in each other’s names.  However only the last 5 months.  Prior to that we had separate accounts and just shared expenses.
Dated photographs of our family together in numerous places at intervals throughout our time together in the US, plus photos of my almost 80-year-old American mom meeting her Filipino in-laws on vacation in Manila.
Copy of a California car title showing joint ownership and two years joint car registration.
Copies of various car insurance notices and proof of insurance listing both drivers, covering almost the entire period they have been in the US.
Copies of both of our 401K’s beneficiaries with each listing the other spouse as beneficiary.
Copies of our Visa, Mastercard and Discover credit cards showing joint accounts.
Copies of various club cards and membership cards showing joint accounts.
Copies of various airline boarding passes and receipts for vacations we took together.
Copies of my stepdaughter's continuous registration from our address in our neighborhood’s public elementary school for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade.  The school registration lists both of us as emergency contacts with full authorization to pick her up from school.
Copy of my stepdaughter's California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress test results showing two years results with her living at our address and enrolled in our neighborhood public elementary school.
Paystubs for my wife periodically throughout her time in the US showing her continuous presence at our home address.

 

We’ll be double triple checking everything this evening and probably send it by Priority Mail flat rate mailer ("if it fits, it ships") to Phoenix drop box in the morning.

 

I'm hopeful that is good enough, however notable deficiencies would include not having any joint lease or other paperwork associating both names with the house.  All of our health insurance is separate since my wife and I each get it from our employer and neither plan is any good for adding the step-daughter so we just pay her insurance separately out of pocket.  No kind of joint utility bills or anything like that and as I mentioned only the last 5 months have we had a joint checking account.  I also didn't bother to get any affidavits from anyone.

 

I guess we will find out if it was good enough in like 2025 or something.

[OldUser 6,983]

Good luck @top_secret

All the evidence looks solid, other than the absense of joint lease / mortgage. How would you explain it to the officer?

 

Also, be careful with credit card payments, hopefully the charge won't be blocked as fradulent (this forum has examples of it).

[top_secret 2,458]

19 minutes ago, OldUser said:

All the evidence looks solid, other than the absense of joint lease / mortgage. How would you explain it to the officer?

 

Well our rent is kind of by gentlemen's agreement and a handshake with the owner and has been that way for years.  The owner is charging us fairly substantially under market rent and throws in utilities to, but he doesn't like being bothered so I'm not going to bother the guy about some paperwork we never needed before and if anything ever needs fixed on the place, I just fix it myself.  I do however totally get it that it is less than ideal on this petition.

 

19 minutes ago, OldUser said:

Also, be careful with credit card payments, hopefully the charge won't be blocked as fradulent (this forum has examples of it).

 

I like living dangerously. 😉  I figure if I can book a last minute plane ticket from some sketchy travel agent in north Jakarta without triggering a fraud alert, my bank has apparently finally come to terms with my spending profile.

 

19 minutes ago, OldUser said:

Good luck @top_secret

 

Thank You

Edited September 5, 2023 by top_secret

[Sukie 1,464]

You have given us a lot of "explanations" (finances, housing) here on Visa Journey.  I strongly suggest that you add a cover letter with these explanations to ward off any RFEs.  Normally I would suggest getting an affidavit from your "landlord" explaining your housing arrangement.

 

Definitely talk about the fact that you had separate accounts until 5 months ago - remember, you are supposed to be showing evidence since your marriage.

 

Best of luck to you!

 

Sukie in NY

[top_secret 2,458]

6 minutes ago, Sukie said:

You have given us a lot of "explanations" (finances, housing) here on Visa Journey.  I strongly suggest that you add a cover letter with these explanations to ward off any RFEs.  Normally I would suggest getting an affidavit from your "landlord" explaining your housing arrangement.

 

Definitely talk about the fact that you had separate accounts until 5 months ago - remember, you are supposed to be showing evidence since your marriage.

 

Best of luck to you!

 

I figure if I ever did get a RFE on the lease it wouldn't be that difficult to answer.  The separate accounts was specifically checking.  We have intermingled credit card accounts going back 7 or 8 years and I did include that.  But yea, I do wish we had opened the joint checking account earlier.

[Scandi 4,173]

16 hours ago, top_secret said:

 

Well our rent is kind of by gentlemen's agreement and a handshake with the owner and has been that way for years.  The owner is charging us fairly substantially under market rent and throws in utilities to, but he doesn't like being bothered so I'm not going to bother the guy about some paperwork we never needed before and if anything ever needs fixed on the place, I just fix it myself.  I do however totally get it that it is less than ideal on this petition.

 

When I had to file for ROC we lived kind of like you guys do, never had a rental agreement written up as the house was owned by my USC husband's mother and we paid a crazy low "rent". But we made up a rental agreement anyway, just printed one from the net, filled it out and just asked her to sign it. I obviously have no idea if it made a difference or not, but that was all we could do. 

I totally get that you don't want to bother your landlord, it's not the same as a close family member like in our case. He might even find it weird and become suspicious, who knows. 

[SalishSea 17,970]

I owned my house before getting married.  We included nothing in our packet regarding the house itself, or mortgage.  We did include jointly paid household bills as well as jointly owned vehicles.

 

No RFEs or interview.  I don't think we even wrote a cover letter.

[Daphne . 1,901]

19 hours ago, OldUser said:

Good luck @top_secret

All the evidence looks solid, other than the absense of joint lease / mortgage. How would you explain it to the officer?

 

 

We also don't have that, the house is already paid off. I did explain that in a cover letter though, so I think it doesn't have to be an issue.

[OldUser 6,983]

6 minutes ago, Daphne . said:

We also don't have that, the house is already paid off. I did explain that in a cover letter though, so I think it doesn't have to be an issue.

But @top_secret doesn't have joint bills and only began comingling money in checking account recently. Not saying this would be a problem, given other good evidence is present, just bringing it to attention.

[Daphne . 1,901]

23 minutes ago, OldUser said:

But @top_secret doesn't have joint bills and only began comingling money in checking account recently. Not saying this would be a problem, given other good evidence is present, just bringing it to attention.

Gotcha! I need to learn how to read, completely missed that part!  

[top_secret 2,458]

Well it's off. For better or worse.  I myself am not completely satisfied with it but there is quite a bit of quality evidence so hopefully "good enough".  Priority Mail to the Phoenix lockbox.

 

It's kinda' anticlimactic when you consider it will probably be a couple of years before anyone looks at it anyways.

[top_secret 2,458]

USPS tracking says they already delivered it in Phoenix today. 

[Lrjohnsona 7]

@top_secret Good luck! Thanks for starting this months thread. We're working on my husbands packet right now.. I think our 90 days starts this week. We're hoping to get it done in the next week or two. I am so over the immigration paper work... I can't wait until we can just file for his citizenship, so we don't have to do it anymore (which he might get before getting this 10 year green card... or so I think according to the processing times.) Does anyone know how they decide which service center to send the I-751's to?

[Tjg312 14]

I just sent out my wife's packet last Tuesday, it got there Thur and just this morning got notice of receipt. Honestly we both forgot about it until super last minute (her conditional card expires next week). Whipped up the packet over the weekend, think I have a decent amount of evidence but have a feeling we'll get an RFE. At least should hopefully get an extension letter now that receipt has been confirmed.

Edited September 11, 2023 by Tjg312

[top_secret 2,458]

5 hours ago, Tjg312 said:

I just sent out my wife's packet last Tuesday, it got there Thur and just this morning got notice of receipt. Honestly we both forgot about it until super last minute (her conditional card expires next week). Whipped up the packet over the weekend, think I have a decent amount of evidence but have a feeling we'll get an RFE. At least should hopefully get an extension letter now that receipt has been confirmed.

 

Wow, that was fast for USCIS to acknowledge it. I guess we are a day behind you.  Mailed Wed, delivered Fri.