Unfortunately, after I'd spent most of yesterday afternoon copying leases and car insurance policies and stuff, when I asked my husband if he could spend today [he's not working ATM] photocopying the first page of our bank statements ... he said "Oh, I've been shredding the first page of every statement because it has too much identifying information on it."

Now, on p. 3 of each statement, there is a tiny note of who has access to the account (with both our names), but will it be a problem to send them the center part of the statement instead of the cover sheet? In other words, will they find it suspicious that we send page 3 of every statement?

Unfortunately, we don't have any joint bills since we moved to Albuquerque, since all our new utility companies (electric/gas, cable/Internet, cell phones, and VoIP phone) forbid putting bills in multiple names; also, my new job's health insurance only puts the primary insurance holder's name on the card so we no longer have insurance cards with both names.

So before last February, we have leases, car insurance policy (the car itself is in my name alone since I've had it since before we got married and I'm still paying it off), electric/gas bills, cell phone bills, health insurance cards, credit cards (we're authorized users on each other's cards), and driver licenses.

Since February, we only have our lease, car insurance, and credit cards and driver licenses. Oh, and our 2005 tax returns (we can't find the 2004 ones).

We do, in both cases, have the bank statements, so if those don't raise more questions than they answer, I'd like to use them. But to me it looks pretty weird.

We're not planning to submit affidavits, since there's almost no one who's seen us together both before and after we moved. We do have miscellaneous stuff like thank-you cards for wedding presents and birthday cards from each other's families (e.g. from my mom to him, from his mom to me), but almost all of those are un-dated. And we have some photos but I don't know if they're worth sending.

(Our application date is still a month off, but we'll have people visiting for most of that time, so we'd like to get as much done before they get here as possible.)

I get my bank statements in PDF form, from my bank, they keep 1 years worth on the website, perhaps you can check your bank for online banking, and they may provide the statements in that form, just download and print.

Poor Gareth! Don't beat him up too much.

I think you can safely send your middle pages of bank statements. You could also look and see if you can reprint your statement page from your online account. It won't be all of them, but some.

DO order your tax transcript for the missing year.

Costco, gym membership, bowling league? Other stuff like that shows you have a joint social life as well as financial.

Mail or bills that are addressed to only one of you are OK; if you have some and he has some and they both have the same address, it proves the same point. You don't have to be jointly responsible for all things.

Saying that, I'm happy to say that we just took out a big fat loan that is finally in both names! Woohoo! He's on the hook!

Hi!
I would suggest you to send what u have plus your hudsand mother can write a letter about you as my husbands mother did by hand and its a strong piece of evidence . to show that the mom knows u guys.
If his mothers handwrtiting is not clear u should type it on computer and verify that the translated information is true and correct .
You should defenetely submit the photos.
Write and explanation to each piece of evidence u have doubt to submit as the page 3 somewhere an etc...
if your drivers licenses indicate the same adress ,would be not a bad idea to submit it ,plus the car insurances on both names,car ownerships,lease or homeonwerships agreements ,any recreational center mameberships on both names,credit cards statemenets on both names and etc....
I am sure you will be able to find a plenty evidence u need just think about it.

If you can't get your bank statements online as someone else suggested, you should be able to request reprints from the bank, but they may charge a fee for this.

Yes, at our bank, you can get copies of statements for a small fee (actually, our branch president is an immigrant himself and waived the fee once I explained what the copies were for! ).

Ask the bank...

Good luck!



Maya

Seeing as how I'm the USC, I doubt that they care much what Gareth's mother thinks of me. In any case, both our mothers (1) can use a computer and (2) speak English (in fact, they're both English teachers). My concern with having my mom do an affidavit is that we haven't seen her in seven months because we've moved cross-country. She may be coming to visit about the time we have to submit the application, but that's up in the air (she was supposed to visit in November, before that she was supposed to visit in August, now it looks like mid-October ... maybe).

I think I covered the rest of your suggestions in my original post, except that we don't belong to any clubs together. Well, except a book club.



We do have the cover pages from some of the earlier statements—just not since we bought the shredder (about a year ago).

I'm holding out hope we'll find the actual 2004 returns. I mean, I have neat folders for 2001, 2002, 2003 (those were the ones I needed for the I-864), a folder of supplemental documents for 2004, and a 2005 folder. So the actual 2004 returns must be around somewhere, right?

We don't have any memberships except one for Colonial Williamsburg that expired about a year ago. I think we might copy the front page of PNM (Power New Mexico) bills and ... I hate it when words come to me in Spanish and block the English ones ... err, stick them in with the T-Mobile bills alternating them so each month is together.

We're planning to buy a house next year, but so far, no joint debts.

Suggestion on health insurance:

Our health cards are like that too, they only show the primary's name. I had some Explanation of Benefit letters and a print out from HR which showed my husband was insured under my policy (and in a different time frame, me under his).

Note: Explanation of Benefit letters are what your insurance company sends you after you go to the doctor, to tell you how much they paid to the doctor.

As for utility bills, we didn't have any joint ones either, I felt too stupid calling up and asking PG&E to put two names on a bill. Some were in my name, some were in my husband's name.

The IRS Tax Transcripts are free and don't cost anything. Even the call is to a 1-800# and they arrive pretty quickly.

One of our letters came from a friend who lives in Seattle and we haven't seen in a while but we all talk on the phone about once a month or so

Don't stress...this really is much easier than most of the process. Of course, I stressed, freaked, panicked, etc. I can't help it, it's my nature

The IRS Tax Transcripts are free and don't cost anything. Even the call is to a 1-800# and they arrive pretty quickly.

One of our letters came from a friend who lives in Seattle and we haven't seen in a while but we all talk on the phone about once a month or so

Don't stress...this really is much easier than most of the process. Of course, I stressed, freaked, panicked, etc. I can't help it, it's my nature

Not true, I live in Albuquerque and we had the PNM (electric and gas bill) in both of our names, during the time we were married... also most banks have electronic versions of the statements online and you can also print these off if you need them, though some might only go back for the last year...

As for your 2004 tax return, you can always get a transcript from the IRS if you need to.

-- Dan

PS: When you go for your AOS interview you may not want to tell the USCIS officer that "my husband is an idiot" as part of the verification of your marriage... ya think??

ha ha.. good thing it is not for an AOS interview then.

I'd be perfectly comfortable going into an I-751 interview and saying my husband is an idiot.

Context and delivery.

Well., computer is computer and everybody has it but the letter form the mom written by her hand makes it look real ,well i think at least a one piece of evidence like that wont hurt.
Just my suggestion.
Best wishes.
Sincerely.

Actually, we just met a couple who recently went through AOS at our local office (wife-USC, hubby-Irish). The hubby, in his utterly charming Irish accent, specifically advised us that the AO doesn't want to see you acting as though you're in love.... he said they are more likely to believe the marriage is valid if you don't get along perfectly...

So if you are fortunate enough to actually be in a relationship where there is a lot of respect and affection, you might have to stage a tiff for USCIS's benefit. I'm planning ours now....

....that is IF we ever get to our AOS interview.

At any rate, good luck to the OP.... I bet you'll be fine...



Maya

Rolling pin or frying pan is SOOOO classic; don't overlook it!

Maybe that's an old policy, then, because PNM refused point-blank to put the bill in both our names when we moved here in February, despite demanding both our SSNs to open the account. (G says he'll call again and see if the customer service person he talked to that said no was just completely inept.)

Frankly, I think the fact that he moved from New Jersey to Albuquerque with me would be given far more weight than the fact that I call him an idiot.