What is after approval of a 2 year conditional green card)

[Rocio0010 5,573]

Hello everyone!

I understand that most people here are not approved for their green cards yet. First of all, I want to cheer you up, your approval will come soon!

If you have been married for less than 2 (two) years at the time of your GC approval, you will get a conditional green card. That green card will have an expiration date. Two years minus 90 days from that date, you will have to file for the I-751 , aka Removal of Conditions or ROC. There is a wonderful guide here in Visajourney for that. What I wanted to tell you is that once your approval comes, you want to make an envelope/ box, label it ROC evidence or something easily identifiable, and be intentional in collecting evidence. Be proactive.

So you are wondering, what evidence is solid for the i-751? 

- Joint bank accounts

- Joint tax returns.

- Joint car/ health insurance

- Joint retirement accounts or 401ks

- Joint leases/ deeds/ mortgages

- Living wills, POAs, etc.

This is what I call "primary" evidence. Some of you for AOS might not have joint bank accounts with your spouses, but that is something to consider for ROC. 

 

Additionally, you can also include trip reservations, pictures, affidavits, memberships, etc. This is what I call "secondary" evidence, which is not nearly as strong as the primary one, but it can help if your package lacks some of the primary ones. 

I am about to submit my ROC package in two days, and so I have been visiting the ROC forum long enough to see that some couples try to gather evidence last minute. This can be easily avoided if you plan ahead of time. If you are proactive, all you will have to do is to put the package together. Happy journey, everyone!

[JeanneAdil 6,275]

so very important to keep all this evidence as the questions asked for each stage are repetitive and remembering things are hard

even keep the petition itself

i kept mine in a carry bag with divisions for the different processes (a rather huge bag)

[Rocio0010 5,573]

6 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

so very important to keep all this evidence as the questions asked for each stage are repetitive and remembering things are hard

even keep the petition itself

i kept mine in a carry bag with divisions for the different processes (a rather huge bag)

Yep. And since for ROC the instructions state that they want to see evidence for the whole period that you've been married, I am sending some evidence that they already have (such as leases and bank statements from 2019, for example)

7 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

even keep the petition itself

I still have my AOS package, and I made a copy of my ROC package as well. Both petitions and the naturalization one are going to be kept for quite a few years.

[CMJuilland 484]

I kept both a physical and digital copy of everything since the K1 (still have it; you never know!).  It took some time, but I scanned in everything I physically sent them for ROC so that I would be sure to have a record of it, even in the unlikely event of losing everything else. 

 

I hope future filers will use the search function and find this thread. 

[Rocio0010 5,573]

2 minutes ago, CMJuilland said:

I scanned in everything I physically sent them for ROC

Can I ask you what method did you use to scan? What's the fastest way to do it?

[CMJuilland 484]

I have a scanner with a document feeder, and everything I had to physically sign or that was not digitally available, I just put through there.  Things like bank account statements, leases, health insurance plans, life insurance, etc. that you can download and need to print anyway, I just saved in the respective folder as an additional digital copy.  

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any better method... Here is my organization (for ROC, in a subfolder called "scans", and the stuff marked in blue are documents I had to scan in physically). 

 

 

I thought in the event of an RFE, organizing it that way would be best for us to check what we already sent.  I should add that I didn't send them all of our account statements; it was about one per quarter. 

 

Edited January 28, 2022 by CMJuilland

[Rocio0010 5,573]

4 minutes ago, CMJuilland said:

I have a scanner with a document feeder, and everything I had to physically sign or that was not digitally available, I just put through there.  Things like bank account statements, leases, health insurance plans, life insurance, etc. that you can download and need to print anyway, I just saved in the respective folder as an additional digital copy.  

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any better method... Here is my organization (for ROC, in a subfolder called "scans", and the stuff marked in blue are documents I had to scan in physically). 

 

 

I thought in the event of an RFE, organizing it that way would be best for us to check what we already sent.  I should add that I didn't send them all of our account statements; it was about one per quarter. 

 

That's a good method. I thought about scanning them when I went to OfficeMax to get the copies done (self- service) but honestly I thought it would be too much. I did make a copy of everything though.

[Rocio0010 5,573]

7 minutes ago, CMJuilland said:

I have a scanner with a document feeder, and everything I had to physically sign or that was not digitally available, I just put through there.  Things like bank account statements, leases, health insurance plans, life insurance, etc. that you can download and need to print anyway, I just saved in the respective folder as an additional digital copy.  

Unfortunately, I cannot think of any better method... Here is my organization (for ROC, in a subfolder called "scans", and the stuff marked in blue are documents I had to scan in physically). 

 

 

I thought in the event of an RFE, organizing it that way would be best for us to check what we already sent.  I should add that I didn't send them all of our account statements; it was about one per quarter. 

 

Also, I made a thread for February 2022 filers where I posted all the evidence I will submit. I would appreciate your input. Thanks!

[CMJuilland 484]

I believe you're fine with the copy.  Especially because more and more of it is digital anyway, so the digital file is the default so to speak (when will they finally make ROC available for online filing and digital upload...). If you ever think it's necessary to have a digital copy as well, you can always use a scanning app on your phone, especially because there's not too much that's purely paper anymore. 

[CMJuilland 484]

I saw what you sent in another post, and it looks quite comprehensive (way more than what I sent, and we were just approved one day as we had already interviewed with them for AoS).  

When I went in for my N400 interview, the interviewing officers actually joked a bit with me regarding our thick folder (and the digital copies I uploaded for my naturalization weren't even in there; they don't seem to print them).  Every case is different, but I believe you have a really good handle on things, and it's really nice of you to be so proactive to help others!  

If ever you have questions, just let me know.  I'm no expert, but I've been through it (although, again, I don't think you have anything to worry about).  I'll go find the Feb 22 thread now  

[Ellie_7 101]

As is it with accomplishing other things in life, the best way is by consistently taking a little time periodically to compile documents in advance, instead of procrastinating and then panicking when the deadline looms! 

[dwheels76 5,463]

5 hours ago, JeanneAdil said:

so very important to keep all this evidence as the questions asked for each stage are repetitive and remembering things are hard

even keep the petition itself

i kept mine in a carry bag with divisions for the different processes (a rather huge bag)

Yep we had a folder from day he entered US. And we printed statements and such every month to put in. It works so much better than saying damn 2 years later wish we still had that evidence.

[mam521 1,806]

30 minutes ago, dwheels76 said:

Yep we had a folder from day he entered US. And we printed statements and such every month to put in. It works so much better than saying damn 2 years later wish we still had that evidence.

It never fails...you're asked for something that you think is completely irrelevant, but yet you have to show it.  I'm scared to remove anything other than birth and marriage certificates and passports from our flexifolder used for our I-130 petition.  It just sits there, happily storing all that was needed to get through the consular interview....

[Dashinka 23,396]

4 hours ago, dwheels76 said:

Yep we had a folder from day he entered US. And we printed statements and such every month to put in. It works so much better than saying damn 2 years later wish we still had that evidence.

We did almost the same thing keeping a file of everything from the day we got married.  Our I751 package was over an inch thick which was basically a waste of paper as my wife naturalized and never actually ever received a 10 yr GC.

[George & Roth 1,485]

Some more ideas

*Life insurance - both of us have policies with the other one as primary beneficiary

*Birth Certificates for children - we have 2 kids together, go have babies ASAP for this evidence

*I made an excel timeline of our relationship with key dates and cross referenced it with evidence (i.e. Point D was our trip to Florida with family so I had photos and receipts for "D") 

I used a template like this https://templates.office.com/en-us/timeline-with-milestones-yellow-tm03987160