Did Anyone Encounter a Problem with Bills?

[americanjetset 0]

Hello Visa Journey!

It's been quite a while since I last posted, but I am just beginning to compile my evidence list.

While I have joint car title, lease, tax transcripts, his name under my auto insurance, etc (I'm afraid we are still setting up financially, so don't have the money for a lawyer and a will as is often suggested), I am running into a problem with the bills.

Most are under either of our names but not both. This is making me not want to submit them as I don't want USCIS to think that it is inadequate proof of co-mingling of funds.

I tried to contact my internet provider, energy, and car insurance to get both our names added to the bill statements.

• Internet (in his name) and Energy (in my name) said that they could only have one user on bills as they only input one social security number on the account. There is nothing I can do to add a second bill payer on the statements.
  [Note 1: I can add a user so it shows our user names on the webpage, but I am not sure how useful this is as there are edit buttons with 'add new user' on the page]
  [Note 2: I also asked if they could provide any documents that list him on the account and they said they couldn't send anything]

• Similarly, with the auto insurance, I was told it was my membership and while I can have someone under my policy, I cannot have anyone under my bills.

I want to do what I can so that we are hopefully approved at round one. The joint bank statements and tax returns show shared financial responsibility, but I'm concerned that this will not be enough. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Ms Hogan 295]

I also have only one name on most of our bills. So I included all of them to show we're both in the same place paying for bills at the same house.

[milimelo 4,194]

Nothing to worry about - you're perfectly fine with those types of bills - one in your name, the other in yours.

If you have medical insurance, you can provide EOBs that indicate who's the patient and who's the policy owner.

[Cheezees 1,514]

The bills show either joint residence or joint liability, not the comingling of funds.

Some of my bills had both of our names, some didn't. I submitted all and highlighted their payments in our joint banking account. So no matter whose names they were in, they were paid from a single account.

Do you have joint credit cards? Gym memberships? Etc. No single piece of evidence is needed but in aggregate they help boost your case. Good luck!

Edited May 25, 2015 by Cheezees

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

I had all the bills in my name and so sent none of them. Also had no wills yet. Still approved based on other evidence. There are MANY suggestions, but you aren't going to have all of them.

[Maria2012 16]

We only had 2 months of bills when we applied for ROC and we got approved without RFE

[TBoneTX 43,057]

Do a Google search for "Texas will template." You'll find some low-cost options, and you might even stumble upon an actual template into which you could plug your own information. I am not a lawyer and am not recommending one path or another.

[americanjetset 0]

The bills show either joint residence or joint liability, not the comingling of funds.

Some of my bills had both of our names, some didn't. I submitted all and highlighted their payments in our joint banking account. So no matter whose names they were in, they were paid from a single account.

Do you have joint credit cards? Gym memberships? Etc. No single piece of evidence is needed but in aggregate they help boost your case. Good luck!

I hadn't thought of highlighting the payments (I was considering highlighting both our names on every document, but not sure if that is overkill), but that is quite a good idea and it navigates the 'bills in only one name' issue nicely. Thank you!

We have 2 joint credit cards that we've had since March (we thought we could rely on debit forever until we began thinking about the credit history needed in buying a house ).

[americanjetset 0]

I had all the bills in my name and so sent none of them. Also had no wills yet. Still approved based on other evidence. There are MANY suggestions, but you aren't going to have all of them.

This is a good point and it is reassuring to know that if you lack one strain of evidence, other types will make up for it. I will have to begin the great sifting-through of all the paper we have accumulated. Thank you!

[Cathi 5,610]

copies of drivers licenses showing the same address, life insurance policies showing the other as beneficiary, if you are renting and you are the only one on the lease get a written, signed statement from the landlord stating you are both residing at said address, if you have traveled together internationally you can send copies of passport stamps from both of you, joint homeowners/rental insurance policy. I am trying to think of what else we sent that hasn't been mentioned, we bought a house together so we had a lot of evidence as far as that goes. I sent 2 affidavits for the heck of it even though we sent a lot of evidence, as far as I was concerned I would rather send more in terms of evidence rather than take the chance of an RFE. If I think of anything else I'll come back.

My husband's removal of conditions was approved with no RFE and no interview. We didn't use an attorney at any point during the entire process from the filing of the petition and up to and including removal of conditions. We never received any RFEs and the process has been basically painless for us, even with some major red flags. Next month hubby will apply for citizenship. Good luck!

Edited May 26, 2015 by mimolicious

[Adil & Jeanne 296]

do a quick claim deed to add to your house deed, some utiitiy providers will not let you add him unless he is in US but my water company did. Hope when you did your taxes you applied for ITIN and added him to tax returns/can only apply for that at tax time

[Arinlars 19]

The bills show either joint residence or joint liability, not the comingling of funds.

Some of my bills had both of our names, some didn't. I submitted all and highlighted their payments in our joint banking account. So no matter whose names they were in, they were paid from a single account.

Do you have joint credit cards? Gym memberships? Etc. No single piece of evidence is needed but in aggregate they help boost your case. Good luck!

Hi,

this is a silly question but, did you actually used a highlighter in the copies that you sent to show them this? I have a bunch of similar documents and I would like to highlight them to point out the common address, expenses or even each others names as an emergency contact.

[Cheezees 1,514]

Not silly at all. I highlighted payments that were made via our joint account for bills that came in just one name. For example our cable bill was in my name only and the water bill was in his only. Some companies just don't have multiple names on bills so we showed that they were paid from the same account just to emphasize joint liability. Generally though they don't want you color coding your application since it is seen as a nuisance because they have their own system. Good luck! ?

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

Hi,

this is a silly question but, did you actually used a highlighter in the copies that you sent to show them this? I have a bunch of similar documents and I would like to highlight them to point out the common address, expenses or even each others names as an emergency contact.

I lightly highlighted everything I wanted them to notice in my evidence so they could quickly see the point I was making. Furthermore I noted what it was at the bottom of the page with red Sharpie. Example--

Two boarding passes photocopied on same page.

Highlight: date, His name, seat 6A

Highlight: date, Her name, seat 6B

Note in red at bottom: Trip to Alaska June 2012

Next page same thing but "Trip to England April 2014"

They could quickly see we took trips together and sat beside each other.