Help I-751 RFE

[KiRilie 16]

Hi All,

 

I received an RFE yesterday 2/3/19.

Good Faith Marriage, insufficient evidence. You provided the following evidence that the marriage as entered in good faith:

-auto-insurance

- Bank Statement

- health insurance

- letters

-photographs

-travel documents

-tax documents

 

However, the documentation submitted is insufficient because you submitted limited evidence. Aside from a shared address between you and your spouse displayed on multiple financial documents, you submitted no other evidence of joint occupancy with your spouse at the same residence. Such evidence  might include: mortgage payments, a shared deed to a property, a lease/rental agreement, or property taxes. In its' entirety, the evidence submitted is insufficient to prove joint occupancy with your spouse at the same residence. 

 

To establish eligibility for removal of conditions of residence, please submit additional evidence to show you and your spouse entered the marriage in good faith and continue to share a life together. The evidence may include the following :

 

- Children: Copies civilly registered birth certificates, adoption decree, court guardianship records stepchildren, school/medical records listing steparent)

- Resided together/share responsibility: leases both names, deeds and mortgages in both names show joint ownership, copies of you/spouse driver's license or identity card

- Combined financial resources/ joint ownership of assets: checking/saving account statements, property/live/health insurance documents, federal/state tax returns (w2), utility bills or loan/credit card account statements.

- Estate: will, trust, durable power of attorney.

- Affidavits from third parties who have knowledge of the bona fides of your marital relationship.

 

Any other relevants documents  not already mentioned. Please do not send copies of documents already submitted. 

 

So looking at the above of what they want is really a documents showing my name on the property/lease. Little background, my husband has purchased his house before we met. So then we decided to move in together in the same house. But my name is not on the house, we did not think it was necessary since we were planning to move in the future. 

But my husband is adding me to the property,  would that be sufficient? do you think we should add more evidence? 

 

we are also expecting  a baby due in May 7 .  

[Cryssiekins 976]

Do you both have a license or state ID card with the same address?  You can send that in.

 

Write a letter explaining the circumstances behind the purchase of the house.  Maybe look at a quit claim deed as well to put your name on the property?  My thought here is having the quit claim deed would show good faith, and the letter would explain why it took until this point to do so.

 

My husband and I haven’t been successful in conceiving yet, so I’m not sure if there’s something from a doctor you could provide to show a baby is on the way (also, Congrats!!), maybe an ultrasound picture and a letter?  

 

From the wording above it looks like everything else you submitted is good, they just need something official to show cohabitation. 

[dilip 187]

Cryssiekins gave good advice.  A letter from Doctor that you are expecting the baby would be good, but Ultrasound picture seems too much.

[Sukie 1,439]

I am the US Citizen in our marriage.  I owned our house long before I met my spouse.  She is NOT on the deed (and I do not have a mortgage).  I submitted a note stating the fact that I owned our house prior to our marriage.  BUT, I also submitted our Homeowner's insurance which clearly has her as an additional claimant should anything happen.

 

You do NOT have to have both spouses on the deed of a home.  There are many couples where only one of the people own the home.  So go for the copies of both of your driver's licenses.  And just explain the situation.

 

For all of you with homeowner's insurance....be sure your spouse is also listed.  Should something happen to you, your spouse would not be able to file an insurance claim on your house.  Example:  Your spouse is hanging Christmas lights on the outside of the house and falls from a ladder, landing on the front porch roof, which subsequently collapses.  Unfortunately, your spouse dies.  An unnamed spouse would not be able to file a homeowner's claim to fix the front porch.  Sorry to be morbid, but this is important.

 

Sukie in NY

[Cryssiekins 976]

25 minutes ago, Sukie said:

I am the US Citizen in our marriage.  I owned our house long before I met my spouse.  She is NOT on the deed (and I do not have a mortgage).  I submitted a note stating the fact that I owned our house prior to our marriage.  BUT, I also submitted our Homeowner's insurance which clearly has her as an additional claimant should anything happen.

 

You do NOT have to have both spouses on the deed of a home.  There are many couples where only one of the people own the home.  So go for the copies of both of your driver's licenses.  And just explain the situation.

 

For all of you with homeowner's insurance....be sure your spouse is also listed.  Should something happen to you, your spouse would not be able to file an insurance claim on your house.  Example:  Your spouse is hanging Christmas lights on the outside of the house and falls from a ladder, landing on the front porch roof, which subsequently collapses.  Unfortunately, your spouse dies.  An unnamed spouse would not be able to file a homeowner's claim to fix the front porch.  Sorry to be morbid, but this is important.

 

Sukie in NY

@Sukie As always, your advice is invaluable.  👍👍

[G Walters 136]

Go on line and do a will and medical power of attorney. America the completed documents to a lawyer and get the looked at and notarized. This will help.

[dandk 72]

When we did our AOS, we also included Electric, Gas, Cable, landline phone, and cellphone. All those utilities, we added both of our names to show the same resident address.

[Commish10 427]

Is going to cost a lot of money to re-title a house.  Title Search, Title Insurance, etc

[Cryssiekins 976]

8 minutes ago, Commish10 said:

Is going to cost a lot of money to re-title a house.  Title Search, Title Insurance, etc

Not necessarily.  In NY state (specifically western NY) you can just quit claim deed from husband to husband and wife.  No need for the abstract or title insurance because the named insured is still in title.  

 

It’s generally about $350-$400 for the deed and county/state recording fees. 

[Russ&Caro 1,548]

2 hours ago, Commish10 said:

Is going to cost a lot of money to re-title a house.  Title Search, Title Insurance, etc

That's why a quit claim deed, as mentioned above, is so attractive. Gets your spouse's name associated with the house for only about $20.

[carmel34 3,527]

21 hours ago, KiRilie said:

I received an RFE yesterday 2/3/19.

Good Faith Marriage, insufficient evidence. You provided the following evidence that the marriage as entered in good faith:

-auto-insurance

- Bank Statement

- health insurance

- letters

-photographs

-travel documents

-tax documents

Aside from no lease or mortage together, it does look strange that you did not submit ANY utility bills showing both names at the same address when you have been living together in the US for nearly two years.  Phone, cell phone, electric, gas, water, internet, cable TV, etc.?  So submit all utility bills, hopefully you are both listed on them, if not add the missing spouse and submit them.  Also, what about beneficiary on retirement plans, investments, will, living will?  Send them everything they suggested that you send.

Edited February 4, 2019 by carmel34
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[Cryssiekins 976]

5 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

Aside from no lease or mortage together, it does look strange that you did not submit ANY utility bills showing both names at the same address when you have been living together in the US for nearly two years.  Phone, cell phone, electric, gas, water, internet, cable TV, etc.?  So submit all utility bills, hopefully you are both listed on them, if not add the missing spouse and submit them.  Also, what about beneficiary on retirement plans, investments, will, living will?  Send them everything they suggested that you send.

They have already stated that the shared address is listed in the other documents, so sending in bills will not suffice, otherwise what she sent would already be enough.  They are also not asking for anything else, except for proof of cohabitation.  A will/other benefit statements, while good evidence, isn’t what they want here.

 

I don’t know where everyone else lives but I cannot get utility bills to show two names.  Neither our mobile bill or cable/internet, so we sent none of those.  Just kept it simple with taxes, banking, asset ownership, leases, and driver licenses.  

 

I think everyone overthinks the i751.  It’s a burden filing to process the removal of conditional status.  Showing that you share finances and live together is (very simply stated) what they’re looking for.  Too many people, I find, are focusing on quantity of evidence rather than quality.  

[carmel34 3,527]

10 minutes ago, Cryssiekins said:

I think everyone overthinks the i751.  It’s a burden filing to process the removal of conditional status.  Showing that you share finances and live together is (very simply stated) what they’re looking for.  Too many people, I find, are focusing on quantity of evidence rather than quality.  

Based on their RFE, clearly they didn't submit enough quality or quantity of evidence.  No lease, no joint mortgage or deed, no driver's licenses, no utility bills, all things asked for in the RFE because most couples married for two years have them.  My husband is listed on all of my utility bills and he lives in Brazil. All it took was a phone call.

[Cryssiekins 976]

4 minutes ago, carmel34 said:

Based on their RFE, clearly they didn't submit enough quality or quantity of evidence.  No lease, no joint mortgage or deed, no driver's licenses, no utility bills, all things asked for in the RFE because most couples married for two years have them.  My husband is listed on all of my utility bills and he lives in Brazil. All it took was a phone call.

To me, the bottom half of the RFE is the standard language.  The paragraph above that one, says insufficient evidence of joint occupancy.  

 

More evidence doesn’t hurt, of course, but I would say the evidence of joint occupancy is most important since she already sent financial stuff.  And to me, a driver license or lease/deed/mtg is stronger than utility bills, only bc it stated that their financial docs already display the same address. 

 

I’m more impressed with people who have joint utilities.  Gas/electric here will only put one name on the account, as with Verizon.  They have an internal record that states each of us is authorized, but I couldn’t get a letter to that effect.  Maybe just the individuals I dealt with on the phone. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Ketsuban 1,033]

I couldn't get on any utilities either so we didn't bother with those. We used our lease, and driver's licenses to show we live in the same place. And I suppose our bank/health insurance statements also had the same address. I also included my W2s and some pay stubs to show I had that same address registered for my income and taxes.