Late and Stressed Out

[Ken&Barbie 0]

Hi, I just got back into the country and I am freaking out because my GC expires on the 14th of this month, I plan to overnight the documents to USCIS on the 9th or sooner, if possible. Are my documents enough?

Documents Supporting I-751

1. Joint Lease from three apartment complexes we have rented since we got married including current lease

2. Official USPS change of address

3. Water Bill in both names

4. Power Bill in both names

5. Copies of 2 actual Credit Cards with same account number but one in my name and one in spouse name

6. Car Insurance with both names

7. Joint Tax Return for 2006 and 2007 ....we filed online on HR block, so we printed it out, should we sign it and make a copy?

8. 2 different tickets for vacations we took last year and the year before

9. Pictures ( i am including 12 pictures printed on 8x10 photo paper....4 pictures per page)

10. Only 1 Christmas Card from a family friend

11. 2 Affidavits from friends who are LPR

12. Joint checking account

13. Joint Savings account

14. Life Insurance with me as rider on his policy and with him as rider on my policy

15. Drivers licence with our old address but same address, we never changed it, is that a problem?

16. Marriage licence/certificate

17. I couldnt find many statements from our auto loan but i have one though, which shows us both on the auto loan

18. Statement from Credit cards

We both have individual health insurance from our jobs so no joint health

We both have contracts on our cell phones, we dont have joint cell phone

Comcast wouldnt put both names on bill so not sending it in

i am punching holes in documents and putting in a folder with acco fastners

I would really appreciate any advice or help, what to do and what not to do

Are documents sufficient, i know i am late already but want to be sure i am doing the right thing

[Wichita 0]

Looks really really good! We did not submit lease or affidavit from friends but we were approved in 43 days. Good Luck!

[ELW 5]

Looks like you have enough info. Congrats on getting it together so fast, now SEND IT IN!!

Edited March 4, 2009 by ELW

[tom&tata 2]

The only difference we had w/ regards to evidence sent in:

On copy credit cards evidence, you might want block out the number & leave only the last 4 digits just to be safe.

For the taxes, we requested tax return transcript from the IRS for the years we filed jointly. It arrived within a week after requesting it over the phone.

[GlobeTrekker 0]

Everything looks in order.....Way to go, best of luck!

[J&D 0]

If you're using HR Block tax returns and not official IRS transcripts, it would be best to include copies of your W-2's also. I have seen some people getting RFE's for that reason.

Of course, I sent in TurboTax tax returns without copies of our W-2's, but our case has not been decided upon yet. Just in case of an RFE, I have since ordered tax transcripts from the IRS.

[Ken&Barbie 0]

Thanks guys for the encouragement phew!

Wow, I didnt know about the Tax transcripts?! Now, I am starting to freak out, I really do not want to get an RFE....

But I am really late right now, don't think I can wait for IRS transcript for a week, thats dangerous....

But like J&D suggested, I would order them and have them handy in the event I get an RFE......which I really do not want to get!

I am keeping my fingers crossed.....

Another question, I read that it was good to highlight in bright yellow important information to help the Immigration Officer......do you think thats a good idea?

[jasminelily 1]

Thanks guys for the encouragement phew!

Wow, I didnt know about the Tax transcripts?! Now, I am starting to freak out, I really do not want to get an RFE....

But I am really late right now, don't think I can wait for IRS transcript for a week, thats dangerous....

But like J&D suggested, I would order them and have them handy in the event I get an RFE......which I really do not want to get!

I am keeping my fingers crossed.....

Another question, I read that it was good to highlight in bright yellow important information to help the Immigration Officer......do you think thats a good idea?

I did it. I even wrote my full name, form number and description, i.e. I-751 JOINT petition to remove conditions on permanent resident, and A-NUMBER on every single page, because I've heard that they like to lose paper or mix with someone else's file, it took me forever to write for like 80 some pages x 2 (front and back) = 160 times. We have to act like the IO is blind and dumb, it might not be the truth for all IOs, may be some are smart, but highlight with bright yellow and note your information is definitely going to help.

[J&D 0]

I agree. While not absolutely necessary, highlighting important info would be a good idea. I enclosed a lot of documents such as Irish tax-related docs so I could include evidence from the entire life time of our marraige as my wife and I lived in Ireland for a few years before we moved to the US and the IO would not be familar with those types of docs.

Of course as per not including official IRS transcripts and putting in TurboTax docs only without W-2's, I also did not highlight names/addresses on the docs I sent. I found out about all that and thought it a good idea after we sent the I-751...doh!

[jasminelily 1]

I agree. While not absolutely necessary, highlighting important info would be a good idea. I enclosed a lot of documents such as Irish tax-related docs so I could include evidence from the entire life time of our marraige as my wife and I lived in Ireland for a few years before we moved to the US and the IO would not be familar with those types of docs.

Of course as per not including official IRS transcripts and putting in TurboTax docs only without W-2's, I also did not highlight names/addresses on the docs I sent. I found out about all that and thought it a good idea after we sent the I-751...doh!

Hi J&D,

I don't think you need to worry about much of the TurboTax docs, if they really want to see actual IRS return transcripts, they would have send you RFE already. Looking at your timeline, you should get your approval soon. Good Luck!

[Emancipation 2]

Thanks guys for the encouragement phew!

Wow, I didnt know about the Tax transcripts?! Now, I am starting to freak out, I really do not want to get an RFE....

But I am really late right now, don't think I can wait for IRS transcript for a week, thats dangerous....

But like J&D suggested, I would order them and have them handy in the event I get an RFE......which I really do not want to get!

I am keeping my fingers crossed.....

Another question, I read that it was good to highlight in bright yellow important information to help the Immigration Officer......do you think thats a good idea?

For what it's worth we only sent in our hand written EZ tax form and no W-2's. We did the same thing for AOS (hubby hadn't even filed his taxes, just wrote a cover and said he WOULD file the taxes in a few weeks), and we never got an RFE.

We may get an RFE, we may not.. I'm not going to stress over it.

[Jasman0717 9]

Get them in the mail. Once you get the receipt NOA you can relax.

[Ken&Barbie 0]

Get them in the mail. Once you get the receipt NOA you can relax.

You are right, I should just focus on getting everythin in the mail..

Quick follow up question...how many pages average were most peoples packages? I just saw 80 pages....and I freaked, I am not sure mine would make up to 80 pages maybe 40...some bills, I only include first page that shows both names and address....but subsequent pages were excluded.....

any advice on how many pages are ideal?

[jasminelily 1]

Get them in the mail. Once you get the receipt NOA you can relax.

You are right, I should just focus on getting everythin in the mail..

Quick follow up question...how many pages average were most peoples packages? I just saw 80 pages....and I freaked, I am not sure mine would make up to 80 pages maybe 40...some bills, I only include first page that shows both names and address....but subsequent pages were excluded.....

any advice on how many pages are ideal?

Not sure what the guideline is. I did include bank statements, utilities (phone, electricity, cable tv), image of cashed rent check from online banking, tax return transcripts, etc. Some of the stuff are double sided. Plus I did pick 2 out of each year from each kind, so more like e.g. 4 bank statements from 2 years and each statement consist of 4-6 pages = 3 pieces of paper double sided. So just from the bank statements, it's 12 pieces of paper already. What they want you to prove is bona fide entire marriage, so what I submitted covers the whole span of marriage, even some from before marriage but we were already living together. I also included about 8 pieces of paper that contains probably 12-15 photos with different trips, holidays, with friends, with family. So that's twenty pieces of paper already. Plus different kind of utilities bills, health insurance, auto insurance, life insurance, easily 80 pieces of paper for me. That's just me, but it's better to be overkilled then later getting an RFE. By the way, I did include all pages from bank statement and everything, I've read some where people got RFE if you just send in the first page that shows both names and address (don't remember exactly where I read it from), I think they might be considering you're fabricating evidence or submitting incomplete evidence if you skip the rest of the pages.

Edited March 4, 2009 by jasminelily

[Ken&Barbie 0]

I see I guess I could see how that could be 80 pages.....if I add all pages of bank statement, I am sure it would ebd up being a lot of pages. I also did 2 utilities from each year, 3 years altogether since we have been married. I thought of adding comcast cable which is in my name only but someone advised not to include anything that is not joint bill and it could potentially work against me. what do you think? i will update soon before week runs out exactly how many pages i ended up with.....

thanks soooo much for all the help so far