Co-mingling of financial resoucres....will it be enough for the I-130?

[millefleur 5,034]

This is country dependent and i had to do a lot of comminging of finances for Morocco

added him to taxes

added him to wter bill

added him with ITIN to bank account

added him to the deed of house with quick claim deed

this was the information i received from USCIS that i had to commingle and it actually does say they can ask for it on letters requiring proof of relationship

Thanks! I cannot get an ITIN number for him, it's only possible to do in person in the US or at an acceptance agent in some country (of which Russia is not included). So it's a dead end for us, as I mentioned earlier. :/

I'm just going to hope the US Consulate in Moscow understands how backwards and weird Russia is about bills, property rights, etc. I'll find out if I can add my husband to my taxes here, thanks, hadn't thought of it.

[NikLR 13,220]

You would be filing your taxes as married. If you want to file your taxes as married filing jointly, you can use the W7 and get an ITIN for your husband.

[millefleur 5,034]

You would be filing your taxes as married. If you want to file your taxes as married filing jointly, you can use the W7 and get an ITIN for your husband.

I'm not going to file taxes as I don't make enough money to be required to file. The ITIN number was requested by my bank in order to add him a a joint account holder. We can't apply for the ITIN outside of the US, they only accept "certified copies" of passports from the original issuer of the passport, and such copies don't exist in Russia. The passport issuing people in Russia (known as the FMS) do not offer this service. I've read multiple cases online of people stuck in the same cycle (usually from other "non-first world" countries like Russia), they sent notarized copies of the passport (not "certified") and were rejected, so the whole thing ended up being useless.

We were planning to do all this stuff in the US (as you can apply in-person for an ITIN without the need of the passport copy), but then my husband's tourist visa was rejected so we're just kind of stuck without it for now. :/

Moments like this is when I'm really jealous of people's spouses who have 90 day visa free entry to the US!

Edited September 16, 2016 by millefleur

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

I'm not going to file taxes as I don't make enough money to be required to file. The ITIN number was requested by my bank in order to add him a a joint account holder. We can't apply for the ITIN outside of the US, they only accept "certified copies" of passports from the original issuer of the passport, and such copies don't exist in Russia. The passport issuing people in Russia (known as the FMS) do not offer this service. I've read multiple cases online of people stuck in the same cycle (usually from other "non-first world" countries like Russia), they sent notarized copies of the passport (not "certified") and were rejected, so the whole thing ended up being useless.

We were planning to do all this stuff in the US (as you can apply in-person for an ITIN without the need of the passport copy), but then my husband's tourist visa was rejected so we're just kind of stuck without it for now. :/

Moments like this is when I'm really jealous of people's spouses who have 90 day visa free entry to the US!

We didn't have jointly filed taxes for our CR1 (seemed like an unnecessary hassle) and it was no problem. That is something to more worry about for Removal of Conditions.

Some of these people get carried away with comingling before moving to America, but remember that you are already living together and unless your relationship has some red flags or you are dealing with ME or Africa or something, you needn't overly worry yourself. If they come back at you in the interview and ask for more, then at that point, you can address it.

Edited September 16, 2016 by N-o-l-a

[millefleur 5,034]

We didn't have jointly filed taxes for our CR1 (seemed like an unnecessary hassle) and it was no problem. That is something to more worry about for Removal of Conditions.

Some of these people get carried away with comingling before moving to America, but remember that you are already living together and unless your relationship has some red flags or you are dealing with ME or Africa or something, you needn't overly worry yourself. If they come back at you in the interview and ask for more, then at that point, you can address it.

Our relationship does have some red flags. :/ Since we got rejected for the tourist visa, we are just really paranoid about this whole process. We want to have as much stuff as possible to avoid any complications.

[amsid_usa 12]

As for a certified copy of your passport, you need to contact the US Embassy. They are the ones who certify your passport for years purpose of ITIN. My wife had hers done at the US Embassy on Islamabad.

Do you have any money transfers (Western Union,Moneygram etc). That can help towards comingling of financial affairs

[amsid_usa 12]

As for a certified copy of your passport, you need to contact the US Embassy. They are the ones who certify your passport for years purpose of ITIN. My wife had hers done at the US Embassy on Islamabad.

I found this. It may help.

https://moscow.usembassy.gov/mobile//notaries.html

Do you have any money transfers (Western Union,Moneygram etc). That can help towards comingling of financial affairs

Edited September 17, 2016 by aghaaz0719

[NikLR 13,220]

Our relationship does have some red flags. :/ Since we got rejected for the tourist visa, we are just really paranoid about this whole process. We want to have as much stuff as possible to avoid any complications.

He's married to an American. Of course his tourist visa was denied.

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Do you have any money transfers (Western Union,Moneygram etc). That can help towards comingling of financial affairs

They live in the same country and in the same apartment. Kind of doubt they are sending money that way to each other.

[millefleur 5,034]

As for a certified copy of your passport, you need to contact the US Embassy. They are the ones who certify your passport for years purpose of ITIN. My wife had hers done at the US Embassy on Islamabad.

Do you have any money transfers (Western Union,Moneygram etc). That can help towards comingling of financial affairs

They made a certified copy of her non-US passport and it was accepted by the IRS? How much did it cost?

[millefleur 5,034]

They live in the same country and in the same apartment. Kind of doubt they are sending money that way to each other.

I have a US bank account. We need to transfer money into it anyway. (Russian banks are a joke and nobody trusts them with USD.) Would my husband doing so to my US account mean anything in terms of proof? Otherwise I'll just transfer it to myself under my own name.

[millefleur 5,034]

He's married to an American. Of course his tourist visa was denied.

I didn't realize that that would result in an automatic denial. Otherwise we would not have wasted the time and money.

[NikLR 13,220]

You're not providing proof. You're providing evidence. Proof of your marriage is your marriage certificate, everything else is evidence of a genuine relationship aka bona fide marriage.

So instead of finding PROOF that you're married, find evidence that supports that fact.

As I mentioned before, look on the EZ spouse guide in the wiki for a huge list of marital evidence suggestions. And ask the bank about a w8ben to add your husband to your US accounts. That's what I used to be added to my husband's accounts and to even start my own in the USA before I'd moved.

[millefleur 5,034]

You're not providing proof. You're providing evidence. Proof of your marriage is your marriage certificate, everything else is evidence of a genuine relationship aka bona fide marriage.

So instead of finding PROOF that you're married, find evidence that supports that fact.

As I mentioned before, look on the EZ spouse guide in the wiki for a huge list of marital evidence suggestions. And ask the bank about a w8ben to add your husband to your US accounts. That's what I used to be added to my husband's accounts and to even start my own in the USA before I'd moved.

Asking the bank: I've already done that. The W-8 BEN form requires an ITIN number. It says you can also put a foreign tax ID but the US bank won't accept the foreign tax ID, so it's just another dead end for us. There is a list of countries who can apply for it abroad, but Russia isn't on the list so we're stuck. List here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/acceptance-agent-program

I did look on the EZ spouse guide. Practically all of the financial stuff is unattainable for us. Even if we have something, we can't get each other's names on it. We've got a lot of stuff from our wedding (receipts, invitations, cards, etc.). But it seems like they'd want to see more than ONLY wedding stuff.

We have evidence of traveling together, photos....but it's really hard to get things both of our names on it. Even when I booked a hotel, it's under just one name (it says two guests, but only my name is there). We have passport stamps with the name dates/destinations. We have mail in either my name or my husband's name at the same address. The only thing we have with both names are food delivery bills because we specifically asked for it.

At the moment we have a cat, again, the cat is only under one name. Russian people are just insanely reluctant to put any non-Russian persons name on anything official, even if you're married, even if you have a work visa. So the travel and marriage evidence is basically all we have for now.

My whole concern here was that would stuff like that be considered strong enough? I mean, nobody can know for sure. I was just posting here to see if anyone else had advice beyond what's on the EZ spouse guide, since more than half of the EZ spouse guide either a.) is impossible for us or b.) is "weak" evidence, like third party letters and affidavits.

[NikLR 13,220]

w8 ben does NOT require an ITIN. I used my passport number. Try a new bank.

Stop worrying about FINANCIAL stuff and worry more about what evidence shows you live and spend time together. That's more important! if you both get mail there, send evidence of you individually getting mail at that location. Get your family and friends to send cards and such addressed to both of you. Right now, since you've barely been married, they want wedding stuff. People send this form immediately after getting a marriage certificate after their wedding, do you think they have more items than you do? Probably not.

Send the items, if they want more, they RFE.