I-751 Evidence Shortage

[Sarah&Facundo 577]

13 hours ago, Sukie said:

Definitely add a paragraph to explain your living situation.  It's not unusual for couples to live with relatives when the real estate market is hard.  Get your Mom to write an affidavit explaining that you are living with her, as she is helping you get your feet on the ground for a place of your own.  If you are paying her anything to help with expenses (food, utilities), get her to state that.  Also add the date you started living with her, and how long you plan to do so (and if forever, that's cool!).  You can get wills made easily.  Don't worry about not having life insurance yet.

 

LOTS of couples live with parents - especially at first.  Don't fret this.  Just explain it.  And that affidavit from your Mom will be golden.

 

Sukie in NY

This is FANTASTIC advice. Thank you so much. My mom would be more than happy to write a letter explaining we live with her and stating we pay for our own bills (food, cell phones, cars, healthcare, etc.).  Do you think she should get it notarized as proof as well?

[Sukie 1,440]

9 hours ago, Sarah&Facundo said:

This is FANTASTIC advice. Thank you so much. My mom would be more than happy to write a letter explaining we live with her and stating we pay for our own bills (food, cell phones, cars, healthcare, etc.).  Do you think she should get it notarized as proof as well?

From AVVO (attorney firm)...

The declaration must state that they declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the US that their statement is true. They don't need to have it notarized. Affidavits of friends and family outside the US is recommended to be notarized. Submit original declaration/ statements.

 

BUT....if your Mom CAN have the document notarized, that is a plus.  It just shows the seriousness with which you are putting your case together, in my opinion.

 

Sukie in NY

[Crazy Cat 39,597]

9 hours ago, Sarah&Facundo said:

Do you think she should get it notarized as proof as well?

I would have it notarized.  The notarization only verifies your Mother's signature.  It cannot attest to the content of her letter.

[Adam D 32]

On 11/20/2020 at 1:26 PM, Eu_Sou_Douglas said:

I'm looking for other examples of filers who perhaps didn't have a lot of copies of insurance or utility bill statements over the course of the 2 years from the time of marriage through filing the I-751.  I don't have a good excuse, I guess naiveness and arrogance caused me to not focus on adding my wife to anything other than our bank account because I handle all of the bills and there is really no need to.  I'm now looking through the required evidences to send with our I-751 filing and am in full panic mode.  We won't have copies of utility bills and other statements other than our bank account and tax returns for each quarter for the last 2 years.  She had an issue with a insurance bill not getting paid (she forgot to tell me) which killed her credit and I had to leave her off my mortgage when I refinanced as it would have cost us 1/4 point on the rate.  This is insane, we are married.  We have tons of pictures, could have 20 family members write affidavits attesting to our marriage.  I'm concerned my procrastination has cost us the ability to live in the states and that I will have to uproot myself, my wife and daughter because of my mistake.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me here to try and fill this gap?  Obviously she is my beneficiary on everything.  Has anyone else gotten by without such evidences - is there any hope here for me/us?

It’s one thing to be off the mortgage. I’m the only one on ours too. But is your wife on the deeds at least? My husband is on the deeds even though he is not named on the mortgage. That’s relatively common I think. As for bills, that’s slightly unusual but I guess you should focus more on all the other evidence. Pictures of family gatherings, any vacations taken, your children. Things like that. 

[Successful Pinky 12]

On 11/21/2020 at 10:30 AM, carmel34 said:

We're gathering evidence for ROC, due next May, so this question has been on our minds, what evidence will be sufficient. The utility companies here do not allow two names, so we're focusing on other things we can do.  I added him to the deed on the house, but the mortgage is in my name only.  We did a will, living will, and power of attorney after he moved to the US, have a joint bank account for household expenses, life, health, dental, and car insurance together, a joint credit account which we both use, tax transcripts filing married jointly, driver's licenses showing same home address, beneficiary on retirement accounts, a Costco membership together, county property tax bill addressed to both of us, pay stubs from our jobs showing the same home address, a few photos, boarding passes from trips taken together, mail received addressed to both of us, photos of a big family dinner to celebrate his arrival in the US, and we're hoping that all of this is enough.  The good news is that most ROC applications are approved eventually, either on the first round or after an RFE.  So try not to stress, and gather everything that you can, submit it and hope for the best.  Good luck!

Just happy to hear your words right now, i needed this, I've been feeling down already since I do not have much documents as well, including a bill together from the year I got my Greencard, since I do not have yet a stable job back then. We will be processing a deed to include my name in our house this month. And we will be filing our ROC on Dec. 2020. Hoping everything went well and approved smoothly. 
 

[Successful Pinky 12]

On 11/22/2020 at 4:02 PM, Adam D said:

It’s one thing to be off the mortgage. I’m the only one on ours too. But is your wife on the deeds at least? My husband is on the deeds even though he is not named on the mortgage. That’s relatively common I think. As for bills, that’s slightly unusual but I guess you should focus more on all the other evidence. Pictures of family gatherings, any vacations taken, your children. Things like that. 

Hello, may I know what type of deed will you be executing to add your spouse name? Is it the quit claim deed? We wiil be executing ours too, but not sure of what deed it should be nor where to start..

[N400question12 0]

Just send what you have, and a few letters explaining situation. I didn't have much evidence literally joint bank account and two paid cars in our names. Then some other small things. Included letters about living situation and bill situation as we were living with in laws. 

 

Applied last November my status now says waiting for interview to be scheduled. So don't think I'm going to get an RFE. Will probably have a harsher interview though. I was also worrying about evidence amount. 

 

Irks me when I see people that get divorced a few months after marriage and getting an easier ride with USCIS with ROC. 

[carmel34 3,534]

2 hours ago, Successful Pinky said:

Hello, may I know what type of deed will you be executing to add your spouse name? Is it the quit claim deed? We wiil be executing ours too, but not sure of what deed it should be nor where to start..

It depends on your state.  Here in California it is called an interspousal grant deed, in most states you need a quitclaim deed, a simple document that gives the spouse equal legal ownership of the property.  You can download free forms online, fill one out, get it notarized, and submit it to the county clerk's office for recording, usually with a small fee for the filing.  Legalzoom.com has a service for this, I remember it is around $300, or you can do it yourself and only pay the county filing fee.  We had our attorney do the interspousal grant deed when we had him do our wills, living wills, and powers of attorney.  Start by calling your county clerk's office.  Good luck!

Edited November 29, 2020 by carmel34

[jakelake 222]

On 11/20/2020 at 1:26 PM, Eu_Sou_Douglas said:

I'm looking for other examples of filers who perhaps didn't have a lot of copies of insurance or utility bill statements over the course of the 2 years from the time of marriage through filing the I-751.  I don't have a good excuse, I guess naiveness and arrogance caused me to not focus on adding my wife to anything other than our bank account because I handle all of the bills and there is really no need to.  I'm now looking through the required evidences to send with our I-751 filing and am in full panic mode.  We won't have copies of utility bills and other statements other than our bank account and tax returns for each quarter for the last 2 years.  She had an issue with a insurance bill not getting paid (she forgot to tell me) which killed her credit and I had to leave her off my mortgage when I refinanced as it would have cost us 1/4 point on the rate.  This is insane, we are married.  We have tons of pictures, could have 20 family members write affidavits attesting to our marriage.  I'm concerned my procrastination has cost us the ability to live in the states and that I will have to uproot myself, my wife and daughter because of my mistake.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me here to try and fill this gap?  Obviously she is my beneficiary on everything.  Has anyone else gotten by without such evidences - is there any hope here for me/us?

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2020 by jakelake
Edit

[Eu_Sou_Douglas 75]

On 11/22/2020 at 6:02 PM, Adam D said:

It’s one thing to be off the mortgage. I’m the only one on ours too. But is your wife on the deeds at least? My husband is on the deeds even though he is not named on the mortgage. That’s relatively common I think. As for bills, that’s slightly unusual but I guess you should focus more on all the other evidence. Pictures of family gatherings, any vacations taken, your children. Things like that. 

Our lender requires all parties on the deed to be on the loan so my wife can't be on either at this point.  Based on advice from others, I'm just going to put together the evidence we do have and submit it.  We are married, we have broken no laws or done anything wrong.  We should be able to live our lives without a mountain of unnecessary evidence as every couple's situation is different.  I will just go through what we submitted for the I-485 to ensure we don't submit a bunch of duplicate info.  I believe we will have enough, we will just go through the interview process and hope for the best!  I truly appreciate all of the excellent advice and the support and encouragement on here - such a great community.

[Eu_Sou_Douglas 75]

14 hours ago, jakelake said:

 

 

 

I forgot to update our timeline - we are K-1 but had already submitted the I-485.  I updated our timeline but will need to go back and correct the dates once I'm able to look through our records.  👍

[Adam D 32]

19 minutes ago, Eu_Sou_Douglas said:

Our lender requires all parties on the deed to be on the loan so my wife can't be on either at this point.  Based on advice from others, I'm just going to put together the evidence we do have and submit it.  We are married, we have broken no laws or done anything wrong.  We should be able to live our lives without a mountain of unnecessary evidence as every couple's situation is different.  I will just go through what we submitted for the I-485 to ensure we don't submit a bunch of duplicate info.  I believe we will have enough, we will just go through the interview process and hope for the best!  I truly appreciate all of the excellent advice and the support and encouragement on here - such a great community.

I meant to reply to you earlier. We use Rocket Mortgage/Quicken Loans and they had no issue with my husband being on the deeds but not the mortgage. We did it so that, if we decide to move in future, he can still be a first time buyer and be eligible for any first time buyer products. But, we didn’t have to do anything special or have our whole loan changed. They just asked “will he be on the mortgage?” To which I replied “No, but I want him named on the deeds”. That was that. 
 

I share your frustration about the seemingly never ending “proof” required. You’ll be fine with whatever you have. It’s not weird to not have your spouse on the mortgage. I know many couples in the same position. It does seem weird that your mortgage company insisted on doing it the way they’ve done it. But I don’t know much about it because we didn’t have an issue or have to provide any additional paperwork. 
 

Sorry for the late (and not very helpful) reply. But it was genuinely that easy for us to do what we did. 

[Bob in Boston 630]

On 11/20/2020 at 2:57 PM, Eu_Sou_Douglas said:

I had planned on providing those things just was worried about the utilities and house deed. 

You can file a quitclaim deed and put her as half owner. Does not need to be put on the Mortgage. Thats what I did . Now the quarterly Tax Bill and Water Bill also have her name on it

[astroboy3545 43]

14 hours ago, Eu_Sou_Douglas said:

Our lender requires all parties on the deed to be on the loan so my wife can't be on either at this point.  Based on advice from others, I'm just going to put together the evidence we do have and submit it.  We are married, we have broken no laws or done anything wrong.  We should be able to live our lives without a mountain of unnecessary evidence as every couple's situation is different.  I will just go through what we submitted for the I-485 to ensure we don't submit a bunch of duplicate info.  I believe we will have enough, we will just go through the interview process and hope for the best!  I truly appreciate all of the excellent advice and the support and encouragement on here - such a great community.

I would just add a letter explaining why and if you can get a letter from mortgage company stating that, it would help as supplemental information. We did the same since all our credit cards have each other as authorized users and the statements dont contain both our names. We just got letters from the bank stating that my wife was added as an authorized user to the account on this date.