List of Evidence + A Few Questions Re: My List!

[Erica & L 50]

Hey everyone, just wondering if someone can give a once over of my evidence and let me know their opinion? It is copied from my cover letter which is VERY detailed, sorry if it looks overwhelming. In addition, I have some follow-up questions regarding the evidence that I'd appreciate some answers on as well.

Copy of Green Card Conditional Resident

• Back & Front Copy

Copy of Driver’s License for Conditional Resident With Home Address Listed

Joint Bank Account for American Royal Bank of Canada

• Joint Bank Statements (September 2013-June 2016)

• Letter from Bank Indicating Shared Account

Joint Bank Account for Royal Bank of Canada

• Joint Bank Statements (September 2013-June 2016)

• Letter from Bank Indicating Shared Account

Joint Account for Redstone Federal Credit Union

• Bank Statements (Primary Account Holder) [insert Dates Here]

• Letter from Bank Indicating Shared Account

Joint Credit Card or Redstone Federal Credit Union

• Credit Card Statements [insert Dates Here]

Joint Vehicle Ownership

• Receipts for Monthly Car Payment [inset Dates Here]

• Bill of Sale

• Title

• Registration Paperwork

Joint Full-Coverage Vehicle Insurance

• Copy of Insurance Cards [insert Dates Here]

• Policy Documents

• Monthly Statements [inset Dates Here]

• Drive Safe & Save Policy Documents

• Drive Safe & Save Letter Indicating Shared Account

Joint Rental Insurance [insert Dates Here]

• Policy Documents

Life Insurance Policy With Conditional Resident as Beneficiary (Previous) [insert Dates Here]

• Policy Documents

Health Insurance via Sponsor’s Employment With Conditional Resident as Beneficiary

• Policy Documents Indicating Coverage of Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance

Joint Tax Transcripts (2014 & 2015)

• Tax Transcript Married Filing Jointly (2015)

• Tax Transcript for Married Filing Jointly (2014)

(3) Joint Leases (2014-2016)

• Lease for ****

• Lease & Lease Renewal ****

• Lease for ****

Joint Utilities for Electricity

• Monthly Statements (Primary Account Holder - Lily ****)

• Account Policy Indicating Shared Account

• Letter from Company Indicating Shared Account

Joint Utilities for Hydro

• Monthly Statements (Primary Account Holder - Erica ****)

• Account Policy Indicating Shared Account

• Letter from Company Indicating Shared Account

Joint Cable + Internet

• Monthly Statements [insert Dates Here]

Screenshot of Joint Cellphone Bill

• Authorized Users on Shared Account With In-Laws

Both Places of Employment for Sponsor & Conditional Resident Listing Each other as Emergency Contact

• Screenshot from Conditional Resident's Online Employee Account Listing Spouse as Emergency Contact

• Print-out from Sponsor's Online Employee Account Listing Spouse as Emergency Contact

Co-Owner Veterinary Documents of Pets

• Invoice Showing Sponsor & Conditional Resident Both Owners of (4) Pets

• Screenshot of Medical Records Noting Both Parties as Owners

• Joint Contact Information For Canine Microchip

(6) Affidavits from Family & Friends

• (2016) Affidavit from ****

• (2014) Affidavit from ****

• (2014) Affidavit from ****

• (2014) Affidavit from ****

• (2014) Affidavit from ****

• (2014) Affidavit from ****

Correspondence Addressed To Sponsor & Conditional Resident

• Holiday Cards

• Condolence Cards

• Mail from Friends

Itineraries/Boarding Passes For Trips

• Boarding Passes For 2016 Trip To Vancouver, Canada

• Itinerary for 2016 Trip To Vancouver, Canada

• Boarding Passes For 2015 Trip to Vancouver, Canada

Various Photos

• Marriage Photos

• Special Occasion Photos

• Misc. Couple Photos

Questions Regarding Evidence:

1. How crucial is a living will/POT? I’d love to get one but in the time frame I have, I’m not sure how realistic that is. I tried to look up the process for Alabama online but it directed me to bunch of online sites that didn’t look super legitimate and didn’t provide much information. Does anyone any links regarding this?
2. My Redstone bank account unlike our other bank accounts doesn’t list bank statements in both of our names, just my wife’s who is the sponsor (although it does list both for my credit card statements, not sure why) but I have a letter from the bank indicating that we are both on the account, from a certain date, etc. so do I need to include the statements even though they only show her name? Or just include the letter from the bank?
3. I have both tax transcripts for our married filing jointly returns from 2014 and 2015, are the tax transcripts enough or should I provide copies of the full return from where I filed them? One year I filed them on TurboTax and the other was in person at my wife’s work. In addition, do you need to include w2s as well? Our federal returns were filed together however our state returns for one year had to be filed separately because of the laws on gay marriage in Alabama at the time, so do I need to send those as well? I sent JUST the federal transcripts with my AOS package and had no issues but I wanted to be sure, I know this application is a bit different.
4. Is it important to make note of evidence that was PREVIOUSLY in affect? For example, we had Life Insurance on our old policy but when we switched policies, we opted to just get the Rental Insurance for a better cost. But we did have the Life Insurance policy as “evidence” since marriage, even though it is no longer active. Still include it but make note that is was a previous policy?
5. We have our utilities through separate companies, one for water and one for electric. One is listed in my name primarily and one is listed in my wife’s name. I have our original contracts + a letter from each company stating we are both on the account from the time it was opened. Should I still include the bills to show the same addresses at the very least? Also, I got the company who does our electric bill to fix it so we can both appear on the bill, so our latest bill for electric DOES have both of our names on it.
6. Some of this evidence we’ve had BEFORE we got married, like 2 of our bank accounts, so do we have to include all bank statements from BEFORE marriage or just after marriage? I ask because for one of my bank accounts, they only hold the statements online for 24 months and then you have to pay a $25.00 request fee + $7.00 per statement to have any old ones sent to you. I just need to know what I need to put for the starting dates of these accounts and if I need to go ahead and order more statements.
7. For insurance, I am listed as the beneficiary for health, dental and vision however they only list the primary holder on the insurance cards. Do I need to include those if they don’t have my name on them?
8. For car insurance, I am listed on the policy and a letter from my insurance agent’s office but not on the monthly bills. Do I include the monthly bills anyway?

Package/Mailing Questions:

How many cover letters/dividers are necessary? I was going to prepare mine as follows:

• USPS Priority Large Flate Rate Box w/ Signature Added, inside that:
• My "less detailed" cover letter, explaining what is inside, my name, my A#, and making sure “Original Submission” was written clearly, and taped outside a large envelope ..
• Inside envelope (hoping everything fits...) a check for $590.00 attached to the front of my "detailed" cover letter (per the sample letter listed on here) listing all documents sorted in that order.

So basically, do I need to make individual cover letters to separate each “area” in my package?, i.e. tax information separated from banking information, and so on? My cover letter is super detailed so I wasn’t sure if it was necessary.

Sorry for all the questions!! It's been a while since AOS and my immigration brained got shut off for a while so now I want to make sure I'm on the right track. Thanks guys!

Edited May 19, 2016 by Erica & Lily

[Erica & L 50]

Thank you so much for the responses!

My only issue with the living will is that I need to send off my ROC in 59 days and I'm still trying to comply everything. I would have done sooner but I had an emergency with a family member and my cat got very sick, which put me behind. I should have everything sent off by the end of next week. Do you know the approximate cost for those living wills? Is it something people typically get RFE's for?

Regarding the Life Insurance, I don't currently have any but I did for about a year before we switched our policy to Rental Insurance and that + Life Insurance would have made it much too expensive.

My can only access some documents online thus why I opted to include a screenshot, as there is no print option.

So for the affaiavit, include just the one from 2016 that I have even though the instructions say to include 2? The only reason I was going to include all from before is that it technically was overlapping evidence from last time, and I thought better safe than sorry.

I sent a signature required with my AOS package and had no issue but would ROC be different?

I'm unfamiliar with ACCO fasteners because I didn't use them last time, does that require one hole punch to all the documents as well?

[Erica & L 50]

You're not going to get an RFE for living wills. Living wills are more useful for you and your spouse for life than ROC but also makes a good document to submit to show your level of trust. You don't have to submit it if you don't feel ready for it. Last I saw a basic living will on legalzoom was about $40.

As for life insurance and screenshot, that's fine. I wasn't aware of your situation.

Affidavits: you are not required to include them but if you're going to, I would suggest submitting two since instructions say "two or more". Affidavits from 2014 are pointless because a lot would have happened in two years between a couple. You would want someone who knows you as a couple NOW to write about your day-to-day life as it is currently.

Some members here have reported problems when requesting signatures with package delivery. This is because you're sending your I-751 package to a PO box address. If I remember correctly, AOS packages were sent to an address that was not a PO box so there would have been someone to readily sign the packages for you.

Here's the link from USCIS on assembling applications. ACCOs are two-hole punch at the top.

Okay, gotcha. In the event that I include things that are really not relevant (like without realizing it) that won't HURT my application to have extra information, they just won't really look at it as essential evidence, correct? I tend to go a little overboard, haha.

Ah yes, it is a PO Box, that slipped my mind. I'll just get tracking/delivery confirmation then.

Thank you for the link!