Documents referring to you and your spouse

[champi 13]

Hey VJ members,

I am guessing this question has been probably asked before but I could not easily find any threads so I apologize if this is duplication but greatly appreciate your time and feeedback.

In the 'Documents referring to you and your spouse' section, there are bunch of documents listed such as IRS transcripts, mortgages, bank documents, etc. How much do I need to send from this? Or, the other way to ask is, is following documents enough for to support 'Documents referring to you and your spouse' requirement?

1. Last 3 years of IRS tax transcript (2008, 2009, 2010)

2. 2 joint checking account bank statements per year for past 3 (total of 6 statements)

3. Registration of Deed for the house we bought together last year (mortgage is only on my name so it's not 'referring' to both of us)

4. Yearly joint stock account statement (3 statements for last 3 years)

We don't have any kids so nothing related to that. There are other things I could add such as 401k beneficiaries, joint auto insurance, joint AAA account, etc. but I am not sure if these type of things are necessary if I am already including the major financial mingling documents mentioned above.

[Justdazed 1]

Hello champi, it sounds like you and I are at the same step in this process. I'm also planning to submit benefit statements since I claim my husband as a dependant, life insurance statements, and rental insurance (since we don't own).

Good luck!

Edited February 28, 2012 by Justdazed

[NickD 203]

Would define the N-400 three year marriage as a combination of both the AOS and ROC stages, when I first saw the N-400, they asked us all these same questions before, just opened those files and use a copy and paste operation with some minor one year updates.

Same with evidence, like proving you were free to marry, have a marriage certificate, spouse is a US citizen plus all of that joint ownership and paying bills and taxes together. If you purchased a home without your spouses name on it, could be a very strong reason for denial. Happened to a friend.

One easy solution is to forget about that three year and wait another two years before applying.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

Your list is quite solid, I don't imagine it would hurt to include some bills that are addressed to 1 or both at the same address or a photocopy of both your driver's licenses at the same address (although that doesn't demonstrate financial co-mingling). Beneficiaries on financial items such as the 401K is a good idea as well.

I personally did not go overboard - quality over quantity

Hey VJ members,

I am guessing this question has been probably asked before but I could not easily find any threads so I apologize if this is duplication but greatly appreciate your time and feeedback.

In the 'Documents referring to you and your spouse' section, there are bunch of documents listed such as IRS transcripts, mortgages, bank documents, etc. How much do I need to send from this? Or, the other way to ask is, is following documents enough for to support 'Documents referring to you and your spouse' requirement?

1. Last 3 years of IRS tax transcript (2008, 2009, 2010)

2. 2 joint checking account bank statements per year for past 3 (total of 6 statements)

3. Registration of Deed for the house we bought together last year (mortgage is only on my name so it's not 'referring' to both of us)

4. Yearly joint stock account statement (3 statements for last 3 years)

We don't have any kids so nothing related to that. There are other things I could add such as 401k beneficiaries, joint auto insurance, joint AAA account, etc. but I am not sure if these type of things are necessary if I am already including the major financial mingling documents mentioned above.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

If you purchased a home without your spouses name on it, could be a very strong reason for denial. Happened to a friend.

I purchased a home without spouses name and don't fear denial over that. It boiled down to me being able to get pre-certified for a big mortgage in about 10 minutes. Wasn't going to lose out on the house or pay a higher rate because spouse was new immigrant with no job and no credit history. Didn't have months to dally around when I qualified by myself with a letter faxed to me after a phone conversation. No way that one single item would be reason to deny.

[Udella&Wiz 325]

I purchased a home without spouses name and don't fear denial over that. It boiled down to me being able to get pre-certified for a big mortgage in about 10 minutes. Wasn't going to lose out on the house or pay a higher rate because spouse was new immigrant with no job and no credit history. Didn't have months to dally around when I qualified by myself with a letter faxed to me after a phone conversation. No way that one single item would be reason to deny.

Totally agree - My name was originally not on our mortgage or the deed due to my lack of credit history. There's a perfectly legitimate reason for not being on them and is easily explained.

[pepper 34]

I purchased a home without spouses name and don't fear denial over that. It boiled down to me being able to get pre-certified for a big mortgage in about 10 minutes. Wasn't going to lose out on the house or pay a higher rate because spouse was new immigrant with no job and no credit history. Didn't have months to dally around when I qualified by myself with a letter faxed to me after a phone conversation. No way that one single item would be reason to deny.

I totally agree! My name is not on our mortgage because my credit history when we bought the house was non existent. We're not gonna bother with re-financing just to please USCIS. IMHO for Naturalization, you don't have to provide truckloads of financial co-mingling evidence/s unless the IO doubts the authenticity of your marriage. Just my two cents.

Edited February 28, 2012 by pepper

[NickD 203]

I totally agree! My name is not on our mortgage because my credit history when we bought the house was non existent. We're not gonna bother with re-financing just to please USCIS. IMHO for Naturalization, you don't have to provide truckloads of financial co-mingling evidence/s unless the IO doubts the authenticity of your marriage. Just my two cents.

Is this actual experience or an opinion, if an opinion, I totally agree, my friend was in the Milwaukee field office and in the state of Wisconsin, getting married already lets your spouse own half of everything you have. They did approve of my friend finally, when a letter of bank was brought in stating that to add her name to the deed would require refinancing of the home and a copy of our state statue regarding marriage ownership.

With her experience, and to avoid that since my home was already paid off, added my wife to my deed, darn attorneys wanted $500.00 for that. Worse part was finding the form, attorneys keep that locked up, but found one. Filled it out myself took it to our register of deeds with ten bucks, basically sold my home from me to me and my wife. And the register of deeds stated, everything was perfect, commented that attorneys make many errors. Filling out the state tax form was a brain twister, but since I was selling my home to myself, no taxes had to be paid.

But even with that and everything else we had, her b!tch of an IO wanted even more, like a worthless joint utility bill, but that also happened to a friend in the Chicago office, even with her name on the home deed. Also from her experience, got one of those and my wife surprised her b!tch when she pulled it out.

But a lot depends upon your IO. With my wife, thought we were going to Africa, with my stepdaughter, thought we were applying to China, neither IO could speak English very well.

[champi 13]

Thank you guys for all the feedback and replies.

For the home stuff, since my husband's name is already on the deed, I can simply explain in the cover letter why his name is not in mortgage note (same reason as many of you have pointed, non-existing credit history). All the utility bills are on his name because most of them do not allow 2 names. I'll go ahead and add a 401k beneficiary documents since we already have it.

Frankly, I am not overly worried about getting delayed in process if they ask for more proof, he already has 10 years to go before green card expires so there is no immediate concern of him falling into illegal status.

Again, thanks for the info!!!