Remove Conditonal Residency (I-751) - Notice of Action - More Evidence

[moosemunch 0]

Hi,

My wife and I have prepared our/my papers to file I-751 a few months ago after 2 years of conditional residency, from which, we received a letter back in the mail titled: "Notice of Action" (I-797E)

Copy of the letter

http://i.imgur.com/2STD5v6.jpg

We submitted a LOT of information, as you can see in the first paragraph, however, I have a problem giving them all of the all information, as we simply do not have it. I didn't re-submit any of the other stuff from the original application (http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/394825-aos-spouse-concurrent-filing-of-i-130-i-485-i-131-i-765/), as I assumed they would already have it on file.

Marital bona fides, the problems we have are:

- The bank statements do not cover the entire marriage as we didn't get around to this for a few months as we had to prepare to join our lives together

- We do not jointly own the property, as my spouse had the mortgage previously with a friend and we don't see any reason to change how that works.

- The bills are in my wife and friends name as they own the property.

We did submit 3 joint accounts, debit and credit, joint car insurance, joint tax returns as we operate a husband and wife business. I REALLY though this would be enough for the financial co-mingling part. We submitted a ton of travel documents and pictures also.

The Good Faith part, I included ALL of this with the original application (For which a two yea visa was granted), I have no idea why they want it all again, this is 2 years down the line, I assumed the martial bona fides are the main focus in I-751. We had pictures, multiple signed statements, round trip travel documents, the list goes on...

The only logical thing I can do is write a letter explaining that we do not have this stuff, and they are welcome to visit our home and meet us in person. Maybe include the evidence from our original application as they may have lost it(?). I did visit USCIS with this problem, but they were absolutely useless. The lady just stared at us as though we had snakes crawling out our eye balls; saying she had never heard about this problem before. Surely, We're not the only ones?!

Here is a letter I wrote (Is this a good idea???)

Dear USCIS examiner:

In response to the Notice of Action (I-797E) we received dated June 16^th 2015, I enclose the following documents to further support the application to Remove Conditional Residency (I-751).

The Request for Evidence indicated that we did not provide enough evidence to support the marriage was entered into in good faith. We originally sent this evidence with form I-130 during the initial application; therefore, we did not re-include this evidence with form I-751. We have re-attached this evidence for your consideration and included further evidence to support our marriage was entered into in good faith.

Further to the previously submitted documents: joint income tax returns (Including evidence supporting our Business Owned by Married Couple self-employment status), joint car insurance, joint bank accounts, joint credit card, drivers licence, Nevada State ID, signed statements, travel documents, photographs and joint auto insurance; please find attached additional evidence to support our marital bon fides. The attached bank statements (For 3 accounts: 2 debit and 1 credit) do not cover our entire marital period as it took a few months to comingle our financial situation. In the first few months, we invested a lot of time into moving [Applicant]’s life from the UK to the US, everything involved with that task took time and careful consideration. One of the many things included in this task was becoming joint account holders and comingling our financial assets. [Applicant] was required to obtain a Nevada State ID and social security number; these were used as required evidence (by Chase Bank) to become joint account holders. Respectfully, the bank statements do cover a good portion of our marriage considering the effort it took to not just comingle our financial situation, but comingle our lives as a married couple.

Referencing the final part of the request for evidence, we do not have documentation as evidence to support joint tenancy or ownership of property. I (Spouse) was in full ownership of the current residence with a friend prior to the marriage. The residence is very spacious with 4 bedrooms and allows us to live together as a home, within a home. Our living arrangement works really well for us as it allows our families to visit for extended periods of time and stay with us while on vacation. We welcome you or any USCIS representative to visit our home and see our marriage through our home, our friends and each other.

You may feel free to inquire at any of the sources of enclosed documentation for validity of their statements, and you are always welcome to visit our home should you ever desire to do so. Please advise me if you have any further questions or problems related to this petition.

Sincerely,

It's all I can think of... getting kinda worried about it all now! I dont want them to deny the application, does this happen or would they ask for an interview first? People keep saying that if your marriage is genuine, then you have no worries, but it's hard not to worry when you're dealing with all of this! Sorry for the long post, and I hope it makes sense! Any advice is appreciated, thank you so much!

[Nich-Nick 3,353]

I think this is the main problem: - The bills are in my wife and friends name as they own the property.

It looks like your wife and friend could be the couple and they are just helping you out. It is a very strict RFE. We didn't have the house and bills in both names, but I also didn't have it with somebody else. I hope your letter helps. Perhaps you should deal with the issue of the relationship of co-owning property with another person and how it came to be. What is their relationship and how did they come to commingle financially? Is it a life-long best friend, cousin, old boyfriend, etc?

[moosemunch 0]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. It's a life-long best friend.

I did include a letter from the life-long best friend in my original application explaining the living arrangement and situation.

I appreciate how it may look, but if they would just simply visit our house and see how we live they would know immediately that our marriage is genuine. It's really hard to get this across on paper with photos.

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

No time and money for every home visit. Explain everything on a letter, gather more evidences (tax, health insurance, medical power of attorney, drafted wills...) The worst scenario is an interview, which is not that bad.

[KayDeeCee 4,891]

~ Moved from AOS from Work, Student & Tourist Visas to Removing Conditions - topic is filing ROC, not AOS ~

[deleted this acco 44]

what about cellphone plan; Sam's or Costco membership cards; envelopes addressed to both of you. they like to see two years of being together l think. I went through the list of what they asked when l filed and submitted what we had. Instead of mortgage l gave Lease copies etc. It helps to go through their list and gathering everything that way.

[TBoneTX 43,040]

No time and money for every home visit. Explain everything on a letter, gather more evidences (tax, health insurance, medical power of attorney, drafted wills...) The worst scenario is an interview, which is not that bad.

Nancy is right -- draft wills and medical powers of attorney ASAP. These are great evidence and even more valuable in "life."

[neodragon0l 6]

No time and money for every home visit. Explain everything on a letter, gather more evidences (tax, health insurance, medical power of attorney, drafted wills...) The worst scenario is an interview, which is not that bad.

True that USCIS has no resources for a home visit, but OP just indirectly implied that I have nothing to hide. No harm to include that phrase in the letter.

@OP ----As @Nich-Nick pointed out, the joint property with a friend triggered a doubt in the minds of USCIS examiner. By itself, it can probably prompt an interview, but not a denial. I suggest combing through the documents you initially submitted to the USCIS before responding to the RFE. A lot of information does not mean good information. What exactly did you send USCIS regarding the joint property with the friend? Let's start with that. Well drafted wills can demonstrate joint property in the event the spouse passes away.

[moosemunch 0]

Thanks for the response, great help!

"The worst scenario is an interview, which is not that bad." - Is this a fact? I didn't know that. We did have an interview at the USCIS office after the initial application. We didn't receive any RFE's then, just asked to attend the interview, which actually went really well. We are actually hoping they will interview us, as it will give us a chance to explain and that they can see us in person, which would be great!

Maybe I need to expand on my letter a little more? We have a TON of document-able evidence to prove we have a genuine marriage. We have a travel video blog with 1000's of videos on it over the span of our entire marriage; Phones, flight and travel tickets for these trips etc. It seems like they just want the paperwork for the more serious stuff (House, possessions etc). Would drafting a Will be a worthwhile investment at this time? (I have no idea how to go about this and how much it would cost) especially as the worst thing that could happen is an interview? Of course we didn't sign any prenuptial agreements, should I mention this?

My wife has durable power of attorney (POA) (healthcare), I can include that! (With my name on of course! lol) - Great advice there!

In my original application, I submitted a letter explaining the housing situation and a signed statement from the friend. I was thinking of adding an additional statement from the friend again in this application(?) (Along with the letter in the OP)

Edited July 23, 2015 by moosemunch

[aurpol 17]

When you submitted your credit card statements, did it include the first statement where both of your names are indicated? How many did you send? We sent the first statement my wife added me to her card then at least one each quarter up to the present.

You may also add sworn affidavits from your friends, relatives, co-workers, and/or neighbors which can attest to that your union is a real one. Also, Advance directive, insurances, power-of-attorneys, ITRs, utility bills, and pictures of the two of you taken in your home. The last one I think was a factor in USCIS approving my ROC.( We were on a dining table and just finished having breakfast when we thought of taking random pics taken months ago, which we later thought was a good proof in my ROC application.)

Goodluck.

[moosemunch 0]

wow, yes! I think pictures inside our home would be great, thank you for that! We have so many photos on our walls, our wedding certificate is hanging up too, and we even have a Guinness record hanging with those also! We also have a tattoo on our wrist of each others nickname, I guess I could include that too!

As far as Advance directives go, we have drafted up a Last Will and Testament for each other and power of attorneys: one for healthcare and one for finance each. We are going to get them checked and notarized today.

As for the bank statements, we have 3 accounts (1 credit, 2 debit) where we are joint account holders. I submitted proof that we co-own them, however, they asked for statements spanning the length of the marriage in the RFE. I read that a lot of people do this (submit proof but not continuous statements) as in the original I-751, it asks for proof of co-mingling. So I think submitting statements every quarter for each account is a good idea, I think every month might be a bit overboard (save the rainforest and all that).