Please provide feedback on our removal of conditions checklist..

[astroboy3545 43]

Hello everyone.

    I dont have to apply for removal of conditions until October 30th but I have always wanted to be very systematic about how I approach things (especially with USCIS). I am in the process of preparing a checklist of items to send for the removal of conditions and the items in the checklist stored in a shared dropbox folder which me and wife share so that we can keep adding as we get them. I would really appreciate it people could give us some feedback on our checklist and answer some of the questions we have (highlighted in red). 

 

Financial proof of co-mingling

 

1. Statements from 4 bank accounts which have both my and my wife's names - The question I have is do we need to send in all the statements, seems like such a waste of paper.

2. Credit card statements - This is a little challenging since we have three shared credit cards and only one credit card has both me and my wife's name in the statement, the other two are shared credit cards where my wife is an authorized user . My plan is to send a letter from the bank along with the statements mentioning that she is an authorized user - Will this work or do we stick to just one card ? Also do we need to send all the statements  for all the cards or can we send like every 3 months..again seems like a waste of paper.
3. Car loan taken on August 5th 2018 for our second car from GESA credit union showing both the petitioner and the beneficiary on the loan 

4. Tax filings from 2017,2018 and 2019 - we wont have 2020 by the time we file - Also do we send the whole filing ? Thats going to be a ton of paper....

5. Insurance\401K stuff\registrations- Here is the stuff we have 

• Printout of the Beneficiary’s benefits summary page for 2017, 2018 and 2019 which shows the petitioner as the primary beneficiary to the account
• Printout of the Beneficiary’s benefits summary page for 2017, 2018 and 2019 which shows the petitioner as the primary beneficiary to the account
• Petitioner’s Paylocity page which shows the beneficiary as the primary recipient
• Property insurance – showing both the petitioner and the beneficiary as being on the property insurance (all statements)
• Car Insurance – showing both the petitioner and the beneficiary as being on the car insurance (all statements)
• Car registration document – showing both the petitioner and the beneficiary on the car registration document
• Charles schwab 401k beneficiary pages and pages showing each other as the joint holders on accounts

fidelity 401k beneficiary printouts

We dont have any medical documents such as joint health insurance since both of have fully paid insurance cover due to our work and hence we did not opt to put each other on our insurance as that would involve an additional cost due to premiums. - this is something that concerns me. Anyway way to explain this further..planning to do so in the cover letter..

Proof of cohabitation

1. Copy of the rental agreement from October 22nd 2016 to April 30th 2017 (and Month to month post that) showing the beneficiary and petitioners name on the lease  (this was when we were renting)
2. Copy of the deposited Check sent by the landlord returning security deposit - The check was made out in both the petitioners and the beneficiary’s name
3. Copy of the deposited Check sent by the landlord returning security deposit - The check was made out in both the petitioners and the beneficiary’s name
4. Copy of the title deed for the purchased house with both the Beneficiary and the petitioner’s name on it.
5. Copy of the refinance document which shows the petitioner and the beneficiary as co-owners
6. Home owner’s insurance with a date of inception of 06/28/18 which shows both the beneficiary and the petitioners name
7. Proof of address change from USCIS from beneficiary [ AR-11 form confirmation]
8. Water bill in petitioners and beneficiary’s name showing house address - I was dumb and I didnt store all the bills and have a couple missing, so this is one thing i am slightly concerned about.
9. Scanned copies of the drivers license of the petitioner and beneficiary showing the same address
10. Cards addressed to both of us
    
    Anything else we can add to this ? 

 

Proof of relationship

 

1. Selected photos with friends and family from from the time we have known each other - to date
2. Wedding certificate signed by the pastor and two witness (copy) - Certified
3. Marriage license signed by the beneficiary, the petitioner, the pastor and two witnesses (copy) - Certified
4. Selected photos from wedding in US and the reception in xxxxx
5. Letter from the pastor in xxxx announcing no objection to the wedding
6. Tickets and receipts of major trips together
7. Power of attorney documents   (copies - attested)
      --- General power of attorney for the beneficiary and petitionary
      ---  Healthcare power of attorney for the beneficiary and petitionary
8. Joint accounts :
    ---- Costco: Screenshot of the Costco account page online and copies of our Costco membership card showing the same account number
    --- Amazon Prime account: Screenshot of the Amazon prime family page showing the shared account between the beneficiary and the petitioner’s mother
   --- Consumer cellular mobile bill [ Every 3 months statement]– Mobile bill for consumer cellular showing the shared account with data, minutes and texting split across the petitioner, beneficiary and the petitioners’ parents  - do we need to send all the statements
   --- AAA Joint Membership – AAA Membership renewal information which shows the petitioner as the primary and the beneficiary as the secondary
   
   
   Any other suggestions ?
   
   I know there is the I-751 form and the cheque and the high resolution copy of the green card (back and front) but I was wondering if people could provide inputs on anything else you think we should add and please help answer some of the questions I raised in red. 
   
   Thank you so much.
   
    

[igoyougoduke 1,605]

have you tried hiring a lawyer ?

[astroboy3545 43]

12 minutes ago, James120383 said:

have you tried hiring a lawyer ?

I am curious why you ask that. Lot of people file this stage all by themselves 

[Allaboutwaiting 2,500]

It looks really good. And I understand your concerns regarding the waste of paper. 

You could reduce the size of statements and bills to 50% and print on both sides. Also, you can send a few of them, not everything for each month you've been married. 

Same for pictures: print 2-4 on each sheet (they can b/w on regular paper).

[Athens 101]

You have enough but you must bear in mind that no matter the ton of evidence you send, whoever is in-charge of your petition may decide to request for additional proof as such you will continue to keep whatever you gather till your case is approved. 
Hiring a lawyer is entirely up to you but i don’t think you need one since you seem to know what you are doing. 
 

1. If I were you, I will send 4 bank statements since they bear both names. You may decide not to print all pages but I have read about few people receiving RFE for missing months. 
 

2. It’s always advisable to send in evidence that bears both names only. So therefore, sending in one Credit card statements with both names from when an authorized user was added till date will be good. 
 

4. Send complete 2017,2018, and 2019 joint tax returns. 
 

8. Water bill - send in what you have and continue to gather more. 
You have the chance to explain about the missing bills on your cover letter - you can also explain about not having joint Health insurance since its important to include it if you have one. 
 

Good luck. 

[Sukie 1,439]

Please read this:

 

 

 

 

[skaratso 84]

If you send statements from your bank you really should send every single statement. Also, you could probably get away with one or two bank accounts. No need to do all four. People have received RFEs for the missing months in the past. My wife and I sent all the statements from our bank account. Do the same with the credit card. You could probably get by with just one of the credit cards, no need to do all three.

 

For the tax returns, you can just send transcripts from the IRS. You can request those from the IRS website and they usually take about a week to be mailed to you. You don't have to send in the whole return. Each transcript is like two or three pages.

 

The rest of your list looks pretty good.

 

Also, continue to gather the evidence. Save all your water bills and insurance bills and other stuff and continue to do so up to the date of your interview (or you receive the 10 year card if they waive the interview), so that you can bring it with you to the interview in case they ask for it.

 

I'm attaching a picture of the packet we sent to show you how much paper everything was.

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by skaratso
Edit photo to blank our names further

[cyanmavi 101]

I put all 4 pages of the monthly bank statements on one page, making sure it printed somewhat legibly even if it required a magnifying glass. It is better for them to have all the information. Don't worry about what you don't have and wasting paper, just give them everything you have.

Edited June 8, 2020 by cyanmavi

[Orangesapples 1,954]

Your checklist looks similar to mine. I sent all the bank statements, every single month since we opened the account, an insane amount of paper for sure, but I didn't want to risk it. I didn't bother with credit card statements, I don't see the point, the bank statements clearly show both of our paychecks being deposited in the joint account and then the credit cards, the mortgage and other bills being paid from there. You have bought and refinanced a house, the mortgage statements and the deed are pretty strong evidence of both financial comingling and living together. 

 

There was a period when I was on my spouse's insurance and we submitted that for AOS but after a few job changes it was basically impossible to put together good evidence for prior joint health insurance for the ROC package. We had separate plans until recently because it made sense. I'm sure that's very common with couples where both people work because most companies add an extra charge ($100 per month for example) for a spouse if the spouse has a job where they're eligible for insurance. This year, I put my husband on my insurance because it's cheaper in our case and I submitted documents for that but I'm pretty sure joint health insurance is not all that important for ROC. 

 

I didn't include any utility bills, we had some bills for AOS from when we were renting but when we were buying the house, my husband had more free time, so he was the one dealing with this stuff and he set up the utilities in his name only. We've never bothered to change them because it's basically pointless. I think the joint mortgage is pretty strong evidence on its own. 

 

I also created a Word document with photos of us in chronological order, from our wedding day until shortly before filing, with explanations about where each picture was taken and who is with us (my family, his family, friends). I don't know if it was necessary but it was fun to put together and it brought back memories. 

 

I don't know if tickets are gonna be useful. They're not going to hurt for sure but I faithfully kept all our boarding passes from all of us our trips together for the AOS interview but the officer didn't even accept them. He looked through our photos in detail though. It's pretty obvious from the photos we went traveling to different places. Of course, if you want to submit the tickets, go ahead. 

 

I think things like Costco, postcards and Amazon prime are mostly for people that don't have other evidence. I might be wrong of course but I don't see Costco as that big of a deal, I know roommates that share a Costco membership. We have Amazon prime as a household and we didn't bother submitting that because we already had hundreds of pages of bank statements. 

 

But then again I'm still only waiting for approval and it looks like I'm going to wait for quite a while longer with the California service center. So I can't guarantee that I'm right. 

[Scandi 3,970]

Definitely send every bank account statement that you have, so they can see all the activity. They want to see that the account is active and used by both of you on a regular basis.

 

Also, on USCIS' website they specifically write that they don't  want double sided. So only text on one side of the paper.

 

We sent every single statement from the time we got married and I was added to my husband's account. That means 6-8 pages per month for more than 2,5 years. I would never worry about wasting paper when it comes to something this important.

 

I sent absolutely everything I could think of no matter how insignificant it seemed. Anything from primary stuff like joint checking accounts, joint savings accounts, joint money markets, joint tax returns, joint credit cards, joint health insurance, joint car ownership etc to secondary and non-important stuff like photos, adoption papers showing us adopting/buying two dogs together, veterinary/gas/electricity/internet bills in both names, Costco membership showing both our names and so on..

I was approved just fine with what we sent.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Scandi

[astroboy3545 43]

Thank

17 hours ago, Athens said:

1. If I were you, I will send 4 bank statements since they bear both names. You may decide not to print all pages but I have read about few people receiving RFE for missing months. 
 

2. It’s always advisable to send in evidence that bears both names only. So therefore, sending in one Credit card statements with both names from when an authorized user was added till date will be good. 
 

Thank you, I guess I'll go all out,I hate the wastage of paper but with USCIS and thier random restrictions, I dont want to take any chances.

The reason I wanted to send all three credit cards was because we usually split the bills across three credit cards depending on which one has better cash back and hence I wanted to show how we all pay for for purchases (since 2 of them are mine and one is my wife's)

 

 

17 hours ago, Athens said:

4. Send complete 2017,2018, and 2019 joint tax returns. 
 

8. Water bill - send in what you have and continue to gather more. 
You have the chance to explain about the missing bills on your cover letter - you can also explain about not having joint Health insurance since its important to include it if you have one. 

Thanks, I am planning to mention it in the cover letter anyway but I was wondering if anyone had a similar experience of how they handled it.

 

14 hours ago, skaratso said:

For the tax returns, you can just send transcripts from the IRS. You can request those from the IRS website and they usually take about a week to be mailed to you. You don't have to send in the whole return. Each transcript is like two or three pages.

This is a fantastic idea, thank you. The reason I didnt want to print out all our tax returns was because we have a few investments (stock based) and that just adds tons of paper work to each tax filing.

 

14 hours ago, skaratso said:

Also, continue to gather the evidence. Save all your water bills and insurance bills and other stuff and continue to do so up to the date of your interview (or you receive the 10 year card if they waive the interview), so that you can bring it with you to the interview in case they ask for it.

Will do,  I was a little lax for a few months and didnt bother to collect the document and found out to my horror that the water bill company only shows the last recorded bill which I was not aware off. Now I set aside an hour every second sunday of the month to add items to the pile.

 

10 hours ago, Orangesapples said:

We had separate plans until recently because it made sense. I'm sure that's very common with couples where both people work because most companies add an extra charge ($100 per month for example) for a spouse if the spouse has a job where they're eligible for insurance.

This is similar to my scenario here...My work would charge me an extra 150 a month to add my wife on my insurance and would also bump my deductible to double of what I have. After analysis, we both decided it would not make sense financially and we stuck to just our workplace plans. I am really glad you bought up your experience. Thank you.

 

10 hours ago, Orangesapples said:

I also created a Word document with photos of us in chronological order, from our wedding day until shortly before filing, with explanations about where each picture was taken and who is with us (my family, his family, friends). I don't know if it was necessary but it was fun to put together and it brought back memories. 

This is a good idea and something I did for my Initial conditional green card interview but I can easily build it out. I am not sure how much weight it will carry but it would show our story for sure.

 

11 hours ago, Orangesapples said:

I think things like Costco, postcards and Amazon prime are mostly for people that don't have other evidence. I might be wrong of course but I don't see Costco as that big of a deal, I know roommates that share a Costco membership. We have Amazon prime as a household and we didn't bother submitting that because we already had hundreds of pages of bank statements. 

Yeah this is all secondary stuff, not planning to base it as our main content.

 

3 hours ago, Scandi said:

Also, on USCIS' website they specifically write that they don't  want double sided. So only text on one side of the paper.

 

We sent every single statement from the time we got married and I was added to my husband's account. That means 6-8 pages per month for more than 2,5 years. I would never worry about wasting paper when it comes to something this important.

 

I sent absolutely everything I could think of no matter how insignificant it seemed. Anything from primary stuff like joint checking accounts, joint savings accounts, joint money markets, joint tax returns, joint credit cards, joint health insurance, joint car ownership etc to secondary and non-important stuff like photos, adoption papers showing us adopting/buying two dogs together, veterinary/gas/electricity/internet bills in both names, Costco membership showing both our names and so on..

Thanks, looks like thats the route I am going to go.  Need to buy a new printer now

 

 

16 hours ago, Sukie said:

Please read this:

 

Thank you so much, i was not aware of that writeup. 

[Scandi 3,970]

Wish ROC would have an online filing option. Would save the lockbox employees a lot of work. Also scanning goes much faster than printing, and no ink or paper wasted. You'll love filing the N-400 if you choose to become a citizen. So smooth to scan everything and upload it, instead of having to print and ship. 

[astroboy3545 43]

16 hours ago, Scandi said:

Wish ROC would have an online filing option. Would save the lockbox employees a lot of work. Also scanning goes much faster than printing, and no ink or paper wasted. You'll love filing the N-400 if you choose to become a citizen. So smooth to scan everything and upload it, instead of having to print and ship. 

That would be lovely...