How many months of JOINT bank statements is acceptable

[ineedassistance 0]

My wife and i only recently jointed our bank accounts together this past April.  She's the immigrant spouse (petitioner for I-751).  By the time we submit her ROC, we would've only had 6 months of joint bank statements.  In addition, i also only recently added her as "authorized user" on my credit in in March of this year...the CC statements only show my name though...but we use my CC to pay nearly EVERYTHING just to get the rewards points!

I'm deliberating how to go about doing this as far as what i'm going to submit.  I've been told that i'll be ok with just the recent 6 months of bank statements because everything else that i have is pretty strong like: co-deed on my condo, co-named on my condo HOA ledger (6months of statements of paying our  HOA), co-homeowners insurance for the condo, co-registered and co-titled on my car, my company 401k and my wife's company 401k has each others names as beneficiary, wife listed as beneficiary to my IRA, me listed on my wife's investing account with Robinhood, i have her on my company group life insurance and company group Accidental Death and Dismemberment beneficiary, she is listed on my company health and dental insurance, i'll be sending in a record our health and dental claims going back two years, 2 years of joint tax transcripts, we'll send in 3 months of our energy bill (NOT jointed, only has us both as mailing correspondence), 2 affidavits from my uncle and a friend of hers who is a naturalized US citizen, and then a whole lot of pictures because we went on a whole lot of trips which includes pics, hotel and airbnb bookings, flight bookings and venues.  We're both listed as emergency contacts on each other's work portals and we're both listed as emergency contacts on our healthcare provider charts.  and i'm sure there's more stuff.

 

Given that info, my big thing is, i'm concerned about showing "co-mingling" of finances for the full 2 years that we've been married...and this falls back on our bank accounts only being joint since April of this year.

 

So please help me decide.  I'm thinking of going one of two routes:

 

1. should i just go with the 6 months of joint bank statements along with all the other stuff i just listed?

or

2.  in addition to everything in option 1, i was thinking of adding a letter of explanation why we didnt "co-mingle" our banks.  Even though those weren't JOINT until 6 months ago, we did "co-mingle" to a degree.  In the first year that she's been here, i pretty much paid all the expenses and bills and just kept a seperate account for her to keep her money that that she brought from abroad.  i pretty much just told her to save that money until she got settled with a job (which she has now and actually makes more money than me now).  It was our intention to get our accounts JOINTED sooner than we did, but we just didnt get around to doing it until this April.  So i was thinking of adding bank statements from her bank account (before we jointed them together) showing where she did voluntarily pay for groceries here and there from Walmart and from Harris Teeter (local grocery chain).  She also did help pay for one of our trips entirely (flight, hotel, venue) when we went to Disney from the money she was saving (knowing that she would be working soon).  She also, on occasion help pay my credit card that we both use that's in my name.  

 

Please help me decide.  Choose one of the two and why you think so.  Thanks

Edited Sunday at 12:39 AM by ineedassistance

[OldUser 10,503]

I-751 instructions ask for as much evidence as you can produce from start or marriage until date of filing. I went with this approach and got approved.

 

I wouldn't write letters about not comingling. Don't highlight it.

Edited Sunday at 12:59 AM by OldUser

[TBoneTX 47,998]

Do what OldUser says.

Your cache of evidence is strong; therefore, affidavits are unnecessary.

 

A glaring omission, however:  Wills, medical & financial powers of attorney, and similar estate documents.  These make superlative evidence for ROC, and they're even more crucial to have in "life."  If your state (like mine, Texas) has templates online that cover necessary protocols, use those; if not, shop for a lawyer who can draft these for you.  (Remember, for the future, that if you move from one U.S. state to another, your will may need to be redone.)

[Sam Burns 214]

I sent two about a year apart

[FeelingYoung66 30]

In my opinion you have abundant evidence. And with regard to your concern about having "only" six months of a joint bank account.. who really cares? It's not 1975 any longer. Married couples now often keep their finances completely separate, especially if they are not raising a family. Do you have kids together? If so, it might then be of some value to show a joint account. But otherwise no, the interviewer is not likely to care. I would argue that evidence of filing taxes jointly is of far more importance than joint bank accounts. Leases in both names are really helpful as well as is joint credit card use. But don't sweat the six-month thing. A complete non-issue. Besides.. by the time your I-751 interview happens it will be a heck of a lot longer than six months and you can then show evidence of that.

 

Don't worry. You're good just as you are. Send it in.

[OldUser 10,503]

7 hours ago, FeelingYoung66 said:

It's not 1975 any longer. Married couples now often keep their finances completely separate, especially if they are not raising a family.

It's USCIS. They look for financial comingling

7 hours ago, FeelingYoung66 said:

 Besides.. by the time your I-751 interview happens it will be a heck of a lot longer than six months and you can then show evidence of that.

 

Don't worry. You're good just as you are. Send it in.

Agree with this

[ineedassistance 0]

22 hours ago, OldUser said:

I-751 instructions ask for as much evidence as you can produce from start or marriage until date of filing. I went with this approach and got approved.

 

I wouldn't write letters about not comingling. Don't highlight it.

So should i just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts and just count that the other pieces of info will be enough supporting evidence?  Because our accounts were not joint before 6 months ago.  I imagine there's no use sending those statement if they weren't joint at the time.  I'll probably upload the proceeding months of bank statements on their portal once they receive my wife's I751 packet up until the day of interview.

Edited Sunday at 11:44 PM by ineedassistance

[ineedassistance 0]

17 hours ago, FeelingYoung66 said:

In my opinion you have abundant evidence. And with regard to your concern about having "only" six months of a joint bank account.. who really cares? It's not 1975 any longer. Married couples now often keep their finances completely separate, especially if they are not raising a family. Do you have kids together? If so, it might then be of some value to show a joint account. But otherwise no, the interviewer is not likely to care. I would argue that evidence of filing taxes jointly is of far more importance than joint bank accounts. Leases in both names are really helpful as well as is joint credit card use. But don't sweat the six-month thing. A complete non-issue. Besides.. by the time your I-751 interview happens it will be a heck of a lot longer than six months and you can then show evidence of that.

 

Don't worry. You're good just as you are. Send it in.

So you think just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts will be ok and count on all the other supporting evidence to get me through?

20 hours ago, Sam Burns said:

I sent two about a year apart

Really?  were you approved?

[OldUser 10,503]

10 minutes ago, ineedassistance said:

So should i just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts and just count that the other pieces of info will be enough supporting evidence?  

Yes

[Sam Burns 214]

9 minutes ago, ineedassistance said:

So you think just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts will be ok and count on all the other supporting evidence to get me through?

Really?  were you approved?

Well my wife will be eligible to apply for citizenship in 10 months and the I751 will maybe happen in 2 years based on current processing times so I don’t think it will matter.

[FeelingYoung66 30]

22 minutes ago, ineedassistance said:

So you think just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts will be ok and count on all the other supporting evidence to get me through?

Yes, yes, and yes. The longer you wait the longer it will be before your 751 interview takes place. Our 751 interview was last month after a 28 month wait. Keep in mind that joint bank accounts are not a requirement for a successful I-751 application. Stop overthinking this and use the evidence that you presently have.

[grumpypiggy 299]

17 hours ago, ineedassistance said:

So you think just send in the last 6 months of our joint bank accounts will be ok and count on all the other supporting evidence to get me through?

I think so too, that's the most you got so far. Along with the rest evidence you have, I believe it's pretty strong.

 

For my case, we submitted all statements since we had the joint account opened after married in 2023....so that's a lot lol

 

On 9/20/2025 at 6:45 PM, TBoneTX said:

Your cache of evidence is strong; therefore, affidavits are unnecessary.

I think to have affidavits along with other strong evidence is always the safest option. Our packet is 337 pages...just want to avoid any possiblity of RFE as much as we can

Edited Monday at 05:14 PM by grumpypiggy

[Fr8dog 497]

No joint account here, never had one, probably will never have one. 

It's not required to have one, financial co-mingling is not required. Having a real marriage is required and somehow people feel that shared finances proofs that. 

You give them what you have and if they have questions they will ask them.  

 

[OldUser 10,503]

2 minutes ago, Fr8dog said:

No joint account here, never had one, probably will never have one. 

It's not required to have one, financial co-mingling is not required. Having a real marriage is required and somehow people feel that shared finances proofs that. 

You give them what you have and if they have questions they will ask them.  

 

We don't just feel, USCIS routinely issues RFEs and NOIDs asking for evidence of shared financials 

[Fr8dog 497]

14 minutes ago, OldUser said:

We don't just feel, USCIS routinely issues RFEs and NOIDs asking for evidence of shared financials 

 

Might be but it is still not a requirement. Instructions on the form still use "should" instead of "must".