No Lease/Utilities/Mortgage/Bills evidence - help!

[AmelieAino 40]

Hi all, I will be filing the I-751 this month but I'm concerned about whether my evidence is solid enough or not. My husband and I have been living with my parents at their house since [before] our marriage in March 2014, so we don't have any kind of bills in our names.

 

What we do have:

 

Joint bank account since October 2016 - we opened it when my husband got a job. We have been both depositing checks and sharing medical/car/etc expenses since then. Obviously that only shows a couple months of activity, but we had absolutely no major costs and no income that we shared before then because, again, we are living with my parents. Will this be an issue?

 

Joint tax returns since 2014(?... have to double check dates)

 

Health & dental insurance since January 2015 - shared, covering both of us

 

Car insurance - the car we use is owned by my father, my husband and I are both listed on the insurance.

 

Driver's Licenses - showing both of us at the same address

 

This feels so weak because we were not able to share expenses together since getting married... my parents had us covered. My husband spent most of his time either job searching or learning new skills to add to his resume... to help the job searching. Any expenses we had were paid by my credit card or my parents. I can show that we have been living at the same address together for years (using mail addressed to him here?), but that seems like about it. Should I write this all out for the I-751 or send what we have and wait for some kind of RFE?

 

Any help on what else I can provide? I'll be adding pictures together and the affidavits, of course. Would a Power of Attorney document be worth creating, or is it suspicious to make it the same month as sending this package?

[lucybelle 453]

Write up a lease saying you are living at your parent's house.  Write down a sum you are "paying" every month in rent.  Have everyone sign, that's your shared lease.

 

Get power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and wills drafted and signed.  Good to have even if you weren't applying for ROC!

[HK12 273]

I had my in-laws (who we are living with until our house is built) write an affidavit of living arrangements saying that we have been living with them (and that they were paying for all utility bills). Personally, I would not make up a fake "lease", as that may seem a bit fishy.

 

 

Edited January 4, 2017 by HK12

[AmelieAino 40]

20 minutes ago, HK12 said:

I had my in-laws (who we are living with until our house is built) write an affidavit of living arrangements saying that we have been living with them (and that they were paying for all utility bills). Personally, I would not make up a fake "lease", as that may seem a bit fishy.

 

 

This is what I was considering to do, so that's good to hear. Were those separate from your affidavits in support of your marriage, or is it the same thing?

[HK12 273]

3 minutes ago, AmelieAino said:

This is what I was considering to do, so that's good to hear. Were those separate from your affidavits in support of your marriage, or is it the same thing?

Mine were separate from each other.

[lucybelle 453]

1 hour ago, HK12 said:

I had my in-laws (who we are living with until our house is built) write an affidavit of living arrangements saying that we have been living with them (and that they were paying for all utility bills). Personally, I would not make up a fake "lease", as that may seem a bit fishy.

 

 

 

It's not a fake lease, it's a real lease.  You can find lease forms online, fill in information, sign and done.  I wrote one up for when husband & I were staying at my mom's place until we got on our feet in the USA.  We paid X amount every month, and we lived in her house.  We singed papers to agree to that (mostly for visa purposes, but still).

[HK12 273]

6 minutes ago, lucybelle said:

 

It's not a fake lease, it's a real lease.  You can find lease forms online, fill in information, sign and done.  I wrote one up for when husband & I were staying at my mom's place until we got on our feet in the USA.  We paid X amount every month, and we lived in her house.  We singed papers to agree to that (mostly for visa purposes, but still).

OP has been living with their parents rent-free since March 2014. If they set up a lease now, after almost three years, that would look fishy and as if it had only been set up for immigration purposes (which it would have been). In my opinion, an affidavit of living arrangements is sufficient in OP's case.... It was for me and my husband.

[AmelieAino 40]

7 minutes ago, lucybelle said:

 

It's not a fake lease, it's a real lease.  You can find lease forms online, fill in information, sign and done.  I wrote one up for when husband & I were staying at my mom's place until we got on our feet in the USA.  We paid X amount every month, and we lived in her house.  We singed papers to agree to that (mostly for visa purposes, but still).

1 minute ago, HK12 said:

OP has been living with their parents rent-free since March 2014. If they set up a lease now, after almost three years, that would look fishy and as if it had only been set up for immigration purposes (which it would have been). In my opinion, an affidavit of living arrangements is sufficient in OP's case.... It was for me and my husband.

^This. I would be worried about being asked to prove rental payments (which there are none of). It would have been an interesting idea 3 years ago, though.

 

Thank you both for your help!

[Calikitkat 16]

I wouldn't do a last minute power of attorney. seems like more hustle than it'd help.

 

but i would do brief and to the point letters of explanation, as the above vj-ers have mentioned. have your parents-in-law explain you lived with them. 

 

explain the job situation and why you only recently started a joint bank account, in a short letter.

 

I believe the goal is that if you read through the package of evidence you send it tells a story that has no holes in it. all makes sense together. 

Edited January 4, 2017 by Calikitkat

[ShanghaiSurfer 135]

11 hours ago, AmelieAino said:

^This. I would be worried about being asked to prove rental payments (which there are none of). It would have been an interesting idea 3 years ago, though.

 

Thank you both for your help!

Also could pose a problem for the parents as this should be reported as income in their parents tax returns if the IRS finds out about it.

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

15 hours ago, Calikitkat said:

I wouldn't do a last minute power of attorney. seems like more hustle than it'd help.

 

 

I don't think this is very good advice. Power of attorney and will are good to do at any time during your marriage.  Even if it is last minute, the actual documents benefit you and your spouse beyond just evidence for your immigration documents. Any evidence submitted is likely to help you, even if it's discounted from being created at the last minute.

 

My wife and I are assembling our information to file the ROC papers in April. We've amassed a lot of evidence. However, we're only now putting together power of attorney and will. I don't see the problem with creating these doc's late in the game.

[Calikitkat 16]

10 hours ago, Russ&Caro said:

 

I don't think this is very good advice. Power of attorney and will are good to do at any time during your marriage.  Even if it is last minute, the actual documents benefit you and your spouse beyond just evidence for your immigration documents. Any evidence submitted is likely to help you, even if it's discounted from being created at the last minute.

 

My wife and I are assembling our information to file the ROC papers in April. We've amassed a lot of evidence. However, we're only now putting together power of attorney and will. I don't see the problem with creating these doc's late in the game.

I personally didn't do a POA or a will for my application. I don't think that will be detrimental to my application. I will keep you guys posted if I get approved smoothly. 

 

If you are planning to do a POA and will in any case, then by all means do it before you apply and include it. But I haven't done it just to help me with the application as I do not believe is necessary.

[AmelieAino 40]

Thank you all for your feedback so far, it's very helpful. It's interesting to see all of the POA opinions.

[FROWNcat 22]

On 1/4/2017 at 2:07 PM, HK12 said:

I had my in-laws (who we are living with until our house is built) write an affidavit of living arrangements saying that we have been living with them (and that they were paying for all utility bills). Personally, I would not make up a fake "lease", as that may seem a bit fishy.

 

 

We are in the same situation, we've been living with his parents/ my in-laws and the bills have been in their names always. Did you have any issues since you, as a couple, didn't have a lease or bills in your name? We are thinking of getting his mother to write down that we've been living with her since I moved here and MAYBE include some of the mail she gets here, to show we all live at the same address.

 

[HK12 273]

1 minute ago, FROWNcat said:

We are in the same situation, we've been living with his parents/ my in-laws and the bills have been in their names always. Did you have any issues since you, as a couple, didn't have a lease or bills in your name? We are thinking of getting his mother to write down that we've been living with her since I moved here and MAYBE include some of the mail she gets here, to show we all live at the same address.

 

 

Nope, no issues at all. Just a statement from my in-laws was sufficient. We did include a joint deed for a property we had bought together (for our future primary residence), so that might have helped... But I think as long as you have other good evidence, you will be fine.