I-751 - Include non-joint financial accounts?

[Kiss and Vinegar 2]

Hello!

I'm a U.S. citizen currently preparing the I-751 petition to remove conditions on my wife's green card.

I'm uncertain whether to include our individual (non-joint) bank and credit card statements in the packet. During our initial AOS  filing, we were called in for an interview specifically because:

• There wasn’t enough financial activity in our shared bank account
• We didn’t submit statements from our individual accounts

The USCIS officer told us directly that these were the reasons for the interview.

At the time, I had set up the joint account more as a formality. Since I already had all my financial systems in place before my wife immigrated, I hadn’t moved most of our spending over. I was also trying to shield her from financial stress during the transition.

That’s since changed - we’ve now been running shared expenses through our joint account consistently, but only for the past six months.

We also have strong supporting evidence of a bona fide relationship (joint leases, multiple trips together, including international travel to her home country, etc.). I’m not concerned about a denial. My only concern is avoiding:

• Unintentionally complicating things by including non-joint financials

• A delay due to a Request for Evidence

Has anyone been in a similar situation? Did you include individual accounts, or leave them out?

[OldUser 8,810]

12 minutes ago, Kiss and Vinegar said:

During our initial AOS  filing, we were called in for an interview specifically because:

• There wasn’t enough financial activity in our shared bank account
• We didn’t submit statements from our individual accounts

The USCIS officer told us directly that these were the reasons for the interview.

 

That’s since changed - we’ve now been running shared expenses through our joint account consistently, but only for the past six months.

 

It's unfortunate you didn't start using joint accounts to the max since that AOS interview. You knew it was an issue. 6 months is good, but you may be called for interview again and asked why not for the past  2 years?

 

Do you guys file joint taxes? I'd include tax return transcripts.

 

I don't know what value personal accounts would provide other than proving you live at the same address.

 

How about utilities? Do you have monthly statements in both names?

Edited April 5 by OldUser

[Kiss and Vinegar 2]

16 minutes ago, OldUser said:

It's unfortunate you didn't start using joint accounts to the max since that AOS interview. You knew it was an issue. 6 months is good, but you may be called for interview again and asked why not for the past  2 years?

 

Do you guys file joint taxes? I'd include tax return transcripts.

 

I don't know what value personal accounts would provide other than proving you live at the same address.

 

How about utilities? Do you have monthly statements in both names?

 

Yes, to your point, I am worried about muddying things by including non-joint accounts.  That said, while utilities have always been in my name, but I have the following evidence for intertwined finances:

• 3 years of joint tax returns
• 3 joint leases
• 3 joint renter insurance policies
• 3 joint storage unit leases
• 1 joint credit card (she's authorized on mine, same card number)
• 1 joint auto-insurance policy (maintained throughout marriage)
• 2 years of joint healthcare plan
• She's listed as only beneficiary to all my investment/retirement accounts

Edited April 5 by Kiss and Vinegar

[OldUser 8,810]

46 minutes ago, Kiss and Vinegar said:

 

Yes, to your point, I am worried about muddying things by including non-joint accounts.  That said, while utilities have always been in my name, but I have the following evidence for intertwined finances:

• 3 years of joint tax returns
• 3 joint leases
• 3 joint renter insurance policies
• 3 joint storage unit leases
• 1 joint credit card (she's authorized on mine, same card number)
• 1 joint auto-insurance policy (maintained throughout marriage)
• 2 years of joint healthcare plan
• She's listed as only beneficiary to all my investment/retirement accounts

This should help. I wouldn't include personal account statements. Hopefully if by the time you get RFE or interview, you'd get more joint bank statements.

Good luck!

[Kiss and Vinegar 2]

25 minutes ago, OldUser said:

This should help. I wouldn't include personal account statements. Hopefully if by the time you get RFE or interview, you'd get more joint bank statements.

Good luck!

 

Thank you, appreciate your thoughtful advice!

[Sukie 1,487]

As OldUser said, sometimes you have to include individual accounts to prove you live at the same address (if you don't have a lot of co-mingled financial evidence.  In some areas, it's impossible to have two names on utility accounts.

 

Best advice I can give is to put a statement in your cover letter that states how you have done your finances since you married - like you said in your original post.  Explain that utilities were in your name before, and that you wanted to spare your spouse.  This is your explanation...

Since I already had all my financial systems in place before my wife immigrated, I hadn’t moved most of our spending over. I was also trying to shield her from financial stress during the transition. That’s since changed - we’ve now been running shared expenses through our joint account consistently, but only for the past six months.

 

Put this in your cover letter to help explain what the officer is looking at.

 

Good luck!

 

Sukie in NY

[Sam Burns 173]

11 hours ago, Kiss and Vinegar said:

I'm uncertain whether to include our individual (non-joint) bank and credit card statements in the packet. During our initial AOS  filing, we were called in for an interview specifically because:

• There wasn’t enough financial activity in our shared bank account
• We didn’t submit statements from our individual accounts

I don’t understand your confusion, they asked for more financial info, just give them the info! And make some transactions on the shared account!

[Joyoussinger 1,429]

My husband and I have a joint account, and I kept the personal account I've had for decades. We only included statements from the joint account, because my seoarate account seemed irrelevant. At his I-751/N-400 combo interview, the IO asked to see a statement from my account, because she saw, in our joint statements, some transfers I had made from one account to the other. We were not prepared for this. Fortunately for us, she was generous and gave me 15 minutes to get a statement to her, and my husband would be able to take the oath that afternoon. It was a stressful 15 minutes, but I was able to download and email the statement to her, and he did take the oath that day.  My advice is to include everything you can, with a letter of explanation of how you run your finances -  especially since it's already been an issue.

[Kiss and Vinegar 2]

3 hours ago, Joyoussinger said:

My husband and I have a joint account, and I kept the personal account I've had for decades. We only included statements from the joint account, because my seoarate account seemed irrelevant. At his I-751/N-400 combo interview, the IO asked to see a statement from my account, because she saw, in our joint statements, some transfers I had made from one account to the other. We were not prepared for this. Fortunately for us, she was generous and gave me 15 minutes to get a statement to her, and my husband would be able to take the oath that afternoon. It was a stressful 15 minutes, but I was able to download and email the statement to her, and he did take the oath that day.  My advice is to include everything you can, with a letter of explanation of how you run your finances -  especially since it's already been an issue.

 

Oh gosh, that would have been so stressful! I'm glad it worked out at least!

 

You situation is definitely similar.  My wife was basically a dependent for the first 18 months of our marriage, as she did not have viable employment options to continue her career here.  She spent the first year doing odd jobs and taking English lessons.  I tried to shield her from any responsibilities with bills and contracts, so I just put her on my existing credit card and said buy what you need, and I paid for everything from my already established accounts. 

 

This all changed last year when she built up a small business and could then contribute to our finances.  At that point, we started to use the joint-bank account to pay our bills.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience - it confirms that they do want to see the full picture, even if it doesn't present the perfect "we merged everything" narrative.