Avoiding RFE...

[Carolyn 1]

Hi all,

I am finally going to try to send our paperwork tomorrow or Tuesday, and am wondering if I should try to explain why my husband's name is not on the deed to our house in order to try and avoid an RFE...

I owned the house prior to our marriage, and have an excellent fixed-rate mortgage. I checked into adding his name, but it seemed complicated (there is no clear answer for how to do it), potentially expensive, and may require refinancing (no way). Furthermore, in Minnesota, all property is considered to be jointly owned upon marriage, so there is no legal reason to do it.

I think we have an abundance of other evidence, but is it worth adding this?

Thanks in advance,

Carolyn

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I am in exactly the same situation, so in the covering letter I just made the statement that I was not including a joint mortgage or house ownership as my husband had bought the house before our marriage, had an excellent 30 year fixed rate that we didn't want to change, and that Georgia is a joint-ownership state so there was no legal reason to add my name to the lease. I just included a lot of other information about how we have mingled our finances and our lives. I have just submitted myself so haven't had the chance for an RFE yet, but I think addressing the situation up front with a reasonable explanation is the best approach to avoid one for that reason.

[kaydee457 13]

Hi all,

I am finally going to try to send our paperwork tomorrow or Tuesday, and am wondering if I should try to explain why my husband's name is not on the deed to our house in order to try and avoid an RFE...

I owned the house prior to our marriage, and have an excellent fixed-rate mortgage. I checked into adding his name, but it seemed complicated (there is no clear answer for how to do it), potentially expensive, and may require refinancing (no way). Furthermore, in Minnesota, all property is considered to be jointly owned upon marriage, so there is no legal reason to do it.

I think we have an abundance of other evidence, but is it worth adding this?

Thanks in advance,

Carolyn

There's no requirement to divide premarital property, nor is it the business of the USCIS that you choose not to. The USCIS does not negotiate, nor does it represent any spouse in theis process.

My wifes name is not on our homes deed, nor do I have any intention to put her name on it as I owned it outright prior to the marriage.

I wouldn't fret about explaining anything to the USCIS other than a short explanation to describe the circumstance, and that's it.

I added a short note to my I-751 evidence stating that I have no mortgage, and that my house was/is premarital property.

In your case I would add a note saying that your house is premarital property and that by adding your spouse to the mortgage document would require refinancing, an unacceptable alternative to you at this time.

[ao_cons 1]

I think just a short explanation in the cover letter would do. We included all explanations in an extra page of our cover letter. Just make sure the front page of the cover letter is kept short (if you add anothe rpage at all).

I've been wondering though. My husband and I have proof of joint tenantship. But we don't own a house (yet). Would we get an RFE for showing only an apartment lease and bank transfers? We could add photos, letters and money transfer receipts to our families, for example, but now we're wwaiting for NOA2 we don't know if we should wait for it and then send the additional evidences to the NVC.

[kenk3z 0]

You have a child together? That's extremely good evidence. Be sure to include a copy of the child's birth certificate. We also included our child's US Passport ID page.

I already had the house for 10 years before my wife came to this country. I hate extra taxes and fees, which is what you will pay plenty of if you try to rework the deed and mortgage to joint ownership.

We had plenty of other evidence, as you do also, so I just put a statement on the cover letter that we do not have a joint mortgage or house deed due to the above circumstances. (I didn't mention the part about not liking taxes. )

Having the child together, filing joint taxes, having a life insurance beneficiary form, etc. was sufficient.

kenk3z

[jethro 0]

You have a child together? That's extremely good evidence. Be sure to include a copy of the child's birth certificate. We also included our child's US Passport ID page.

I already had the house for 10 years before my wife came to this country. I hate extra taxes and fees, which is what you will pay plenty of if you try to rework the deed and mortgage to joint ownership.

We had plenty of other evidence, as you do also, so I just put a statement on the cover letter that we do not have a joint mortgage or house deed due to the above circumstances. (I didn't mention the part about not liking taxes. )

Having the child together, filing joint taxes, having a life insurance beneficiary form, etc. was sufficient.

kenk3z

We didn't submit any photos, or cover letter or anything. Plenty of bank statement info, medical insurance, vet info all with the same address. Some had just my name, some just her name and some with both names at the same address.

Sometimes I think the country of origin of the applicant makes a difference other than the randomly picked apps for interview.

[3600rs 24]

There is no foolproof way to avoid an RFE. But after looking at other experiences RFE are triggered because of lack of evidence, partners having different addresses, country of citizenship ( some Asian, African, middle eastern, south american and eastern European countries were fraud is high) and then the usual random quality checks.

There sure is no perfect formula.

[honeyblonde 0]

It's too late to worry about it now, but if you really want his name on the house you can do a quit-claim deed. Ownership of the house and the mortgage are two different things. I gave my husband joint-ownership as a birthday present one year in the form of a recorded quit-claim deed transferring ownership from myself only, to the two of us jointly. I did the form myself and pulled the propery description and other details from the initial property deed and went to the courthouse and had it recorded myself. It cost me about $12 and did not impact our taxes at all. He does need to go down at some time and file for the homestead exemption on local taxes so if something ever happens to me he would still automatically get the exemption, but that isn't urgent - he could go do it if something happened to me.

I notified my mortgage company and they told me they really didn't care but if I want to change my name on the mortgage to send them a copy of my marriage license, and if I want to add him I have to refinance, which I don't want to do.

Of course as others said this is not mandatory in any marriage. I only did it because we are renovating an old house and he has put as much work into it now as I have and deserves to get back what is his or at the least keep his home if something happens to me.

[Merp 0]

We are in the same situation. We indicated in the cover letter that I had a loan out on the home before we met (since 2002 and we were married in 2006), do you think we should include the home note and loan for further evidence of that fact?

[Jasman0717 8]

I didn't say anything about Claudeth not being on the deed. We submitted the electric bill, our joint checking accout, our phone bill and several affadivits from friends and family.

[Mich3 0]

Hi all,

I am finally going to try to send our paperwork tomorrow or Tuesday, and am wondering if I should try to explain why my husband's name is not on the deed to our house in order to try and avoid an RFE...

I owned the house prior to our marriage, and have an excellent fixed-rate mortgage. I checked into adding his name, but it seemed complicated (there is no clear answer for how to do it), potentially expensive, and may require refinancing (no way). Furthermore, in Minnesota, all property is considered to be jointly owned upon marriage, so there is no legal reason to do it.

I think we have an abundance of other evidence, but is it worth adding this?

Thanks in advance,

Carolyn

I just sent in a copy of my monthly mortgage statement with a note on it explaining my husband owned our house before I met him. I sent in my I-751 on Dec 23 and they received it on Jan 2/09. On Jan 9 I received the extension letters for my two boys (they are also on my application) extending the expiry date of their green card which will expire in March. I didn't get mine yet though!!