Dont have my name on the deed

[happyblah 1]

Hi all, I will be filling for removal of conditions in the begining of October. My husband bought a house 10 years prior to meeting me so my name is not on the deed, we didnt want the hussle of trying to add my name or pay the fees, we are not even sure what exactly has to be done to have my name on the deed. We do have utilities in both our names though.... does anyone else has similar situation? If we send join utilities but no elase or deed along with that will that be an issue? Or should we add husbands deed to it and explnation? Would would you suggest?

Thanks in advance

[Ian H. 207]

You shouldn't have an issue with that because there are other ways to prove the bona fides of your relationship, and owning joint property isn't the only thing.

Keep in mind that even though your name isn't on the deed, by being married, it's considered marital property. Just by you paying one bill for the house, like a utility, makes the house marital property.

There is no requirement that you own property together, but you should have as many joint things as you can. It may have posed an issue if he bought the house during after the marriage and put his name only, but since it was 10 years before, it shouldn't be a problem. Having a joint bank account, insurance policies, credit cards, you can even put utilities jointly, these all help prove bona fides.

The important thing here is that they see you guys are living together as a married couple and actually share a life together. This can be proved by a myriad of things, in addition to the above there are: holiday/birthday/anniversary cards from friends and relatives addressed to the both of you, vacations/trips taken together after marriage, joint taxes, joint car registration, affidavits from neighbors/friends/relatives, gifts to each other, etc.

This is all in addition to the overall strength of your relationship in their eyes, ie the circumstances surrounding your relationship, how you met, how long you've known each other, etc.

[Pitaya 2,577]

What other forms of evidence do you have? Focus and highlight the rest of your bonafide marriage relationship evidence.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[happyblah 1]

Thank you for your responses.

We havent started gathering all our evidence but from what I know is we have following:

Joint checking account (used to pay many bills)

Joint health insurance

Husband's luife insurance im beneficiary

Husband's 401k im the beneficiary

Car tital in both names

Car insurance in both names

Some utility bills: gas & water

Phone/internet/cable bill in both names

Tax return filed jointly

We dont have any loans or credit card together.

The rest of evidence is not financial such as affidavids, vacation receipts, photos, cards

Does this look pretty solid so far?

[Ian H. 207]

This all sounds pretty good to me. I'm sure that adding other things like affidavits, vacation receipts, photos, etc would just make it stronger, not worse. The instructions say you can use whatever documents you feel would help establish that your marriage is legit.

If you have an entire box of evidence, I would submit it all, because it's better that you overwhelm them with proof than submit just the basics. We have like over 100 pages worth of receipts, bills, statements, as well as at least 20 affidavits from my relatives, her relatives, and our friends that we are going to send when our ROC comes up because I don't want to risk any RFE's. I know it may seem like a lot but we were apart for too long and were already denied a visa once and we can't go through that again.

[tuckin14 58]

I wouldn't worry at all about the house deed, although I might include an explanation (not an apology). I don't think it will be an issue at all.

One thing I might do is try to show some evidence of joint residence throughout the marriage - if you can, document some bill or mail or something from the earliest date possible, then show something every couple months thereafter.

[NickD 202]

A friend had this problem, got an interview and brought in a letter from his bank showing the huge expense they would face by having to refinace to add his wife's name to the deed. Also a copy of Wisconsin statue state laws, married long enough where she could claim half of everything anyway with out no fault divorce laws.

Since my home was paid off and knowing our divorce laws, just did't want to lay out 500 bucks for some dumb crooked attorney to type out a quit claim deed. Major effort was to find the form, copied the form verbatim transferring my home from me to my wife and just paid the register of deeds ten bucks for the transfer.

She was surprised I did this, but wasn't so happy to see her name on our property tax bill, assured her, it doesn't make any difference, as a married couple we are liable for each others bills. I gather the USCIS doesn't know this.

We were warned by a friend ahead of us to also bring in a completey worthless joint utility bill, they don't give a darn whose names are on these bills go against the property owner. But this caused our friend severe delays, so we got one. Ha, my wife's b!tch of an IO was shocked when my wife pulled it out.

I gather the USCIS's definition of a happy marriage is where a couple pays taxes and bills together.

[shendon 1]

Thank you for your responses.

We havent started gathering all our evidence but from what I know is we have following:

Joint checking account (used to pay many bills)

Joint health insurance

Husband's luife insurance im beneficiary

Husband's 401k im the beneficiary

Car tital in both names

Car insurance in both names

Some utility bills: gas & water

Phone/internet/cable bill in both names

Tax return filed jointly

We dont have any loans or credit card together.

The rest of evidence is not financial such as affidavids, vacation receipts, photos, cards

Does this look pretty solid so far?

These is what I sent for our ROC except for health insurance and 401k since we don't have it on both names and I got RFE. Try adding some more. We live in in-law's house and they made a letter saying they're paying for mortgage and stuff and made copies of driver license and mortgage showing same address where we live. More bank and credit card statements, Tax transcripts from IRS (transcripts are more solid). We also pay utility bills but most of them are on father in-law's name. we just have cable and internet and both names. The more evidence the better. Goodluck!