Lease or mortgage contract - HELP

[john2005 0]

Hello everyone,

Do I need a lease or mortgage contract to show joint occupancy? Is this neccessary to get 10 year green card from the I-751 form? My house is almost done payment and I want to change after the reconveynance soon, otherwise you have to refinance. I got the utility bills and bank statements and so forth, except the house. Did anyone send in the I-751 and got approve without the lease or mortgage contract for joint occupancy? Please let me know. Thanks.

---

John

[BRIAN AND ISA 0]

You may be able to just add her to the title work instead of refinancing just to add her on the mortgage. Call a local Title Company and they can help you out with this.

[lucyrich 20]

We didn't provide a lease or mortage to show joint occupancy, and we were approved. The only evidence of joint residence we presented were our drivers licenses showing the same address.

I don't think there's any single piece of evidence that is absolutely required (though I've never seen an approval without some form of tax filing showing some type of married status, so I don't know what they'd do if you left out tax returns). Lack of one specific kind of evidence can often be made up by other convincing evidence. In our case, we had our child's birth certificate, lots of evidence of joint travel together, our car which was jointly titled/registered, joint insurance, joint tax filings, joint credit card accounts, joint cellphone account with statements showing we call each other all the time, etc.

[Peter&Dana 0]

We bought our house over a year ago and I just realized hubby was not on the title. I just called up a real estate attorney (many Remax offices have them on site) and asked them to place him on title. I showed up at the office that same day and they gave me a notarized copy and charged me $40. Easy as pie.

Tax statements, insurance statements (particularly life insurance) and joint bills are just as good for evidence, though.

[john2005 0]

Thank you, folks for all your answers! I do have the joint tax returns, joint car insurance, joint title of car, joint health insurance, life insurance beneficial to wife, joint vehicle loan, joint bank statements (hope last two months is enough?), and joint utilities bill. Our son's, birth certificate, marriage certificate. That driver's license sounds like a good idea or I'll go down to Remax office. God bless you folks.

------

John

[lucyrich 20]

Thank you, folks for all your answers! I do have the joint tax returns, joint car insurance, joint title of car, joint health insurance, life insurance beneficial to wife, joint vehicle loan, joint bank statements (hope last two months is enough?), and joint utilities bill. Our son's, birth certificate, marriage certificate. That driver's license sounds like a good idea or I'll go down to Remax office. God bless you folks.

If you've had a child together, I wouldn't worry too much about the other stuff. Yes, put together what you have, and make a reasonably comprehensive submission, but you don't need to go to extraordinary measures. And don't worry. It's been suggested here that you could be approved by ONLY sending in tax returns and the birth certificate of your child. Nobody here has been brave enough to test that theory, and I wouldn't recommend you be the first, but remember, your only obligation is to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the marriage was not entered into solely for the purpose of evading immigration laws. If you can prove you've had a child together, it's pretty hard for them to argue the marriage had no purpose except evasion of immigration laws.

[john2005 0]

Yes, we have a child together. If I had a previous child from prievious marriage, who is not living with me, do I have to put her down on page 2 of the I-751 form on Part. 5?

----

John

[Peter T 0]

It's been suggested here that you could be approved by ONLY sending in tax returns and the birth certificate of your child. Nobody here has been brave enough to test that theory, (...)

I wasn't aware of that discussion here; otherwise I might have just tried it - to send only the birth certificates for a test (we have two children). I am looking on my I-751 rather relaxed anyhow - I keep my status, and I can work and travel until a decision. I would have expected in the worst case an RFE asking for tax returns, lease etc., upon which I would have sent the complete package, of course.

[lucyrich 20]

Yes, we have a child together. If I had a previous child from prievious marriage, who is not living with me, do I have to put her down on page 2 of the I-751 form on Part. 5?

The question says list all your children. The "you" in the I-751 is referring to the alien. So all children of the alien should be listed, regardless of whether they're from prior marriages. A child of the USC shouldn't be listed unless that child is also a child of the alien.

[john2005 0]

Thanks for the input, Lucy and Rich. I just sent my I-751 yesterday afternoon not knowing. I did list our son in the marriage, which is correct on Part 5, but I also listed my daughter from a previous marriage, not of my current wife, (which like you said shouldn't be there). Hope this won't cause any problem for USCIS when they see this little error

? But I did wrote down my daughter is a U.S. citizen on the line after the address fill in on Part 5 as well as my son.

-----

John