darth vader

I made sure to do this and it really made putting together the evidence for ROC so much easier. And I kept doing it, so we'll have new evidence for naturalization. 
 
Also to add a related note to a couple of things you listed - adding your spouse as an emergency contact everywhere you can (doctor, work, uni, church, whatever) can also be useful evidence and just good practice in general. For instance, I was able to print out my emergency contact info for work and school to send in our ROC packet.

One additional thing, we have CCTV in our garage and around the front and back yard. We use the garage as a bit of a 'man cave' for projects and do gardening together. The CCTV has timestamps and with the garden you'll see the changing seasons. So getting photo stills of us basically living a life together over the conditional period should be pretty helpful.
 
Also another vote for USPS informed delivery. Don't delete those notification emails...they've had scans of mail addressed to the both of us, and I'm saving these down as evidence. Letters addressed to the both of you, or at the same address like from the doctor's office, HOA, and govt are pretty good evidence. Others are prescription stubs, me and the hubby use the same pharmacy and our med stubs have our address and date stamp on, so that might help too.

Here's more for your list..
 
1.  If you are having to do the I-751 in two years (ROC), START COLLECTING DATA NOW!  Get a plastic bin, or old shoe box, or something, and drop any mail addressed to both of you (holiday greetings, invitations, personal notes, etc.) in it.   Have copies of all rental leases/deeds/mortgages in the box (or scan them electronically). Do the same with an electronic folder on one of your laptops or desktops or have a USB stick that lives in the shoebox, too.  Diligently copy any and all bank statements, insurance papers with both names, credit card statements, yearly tax transcripts to your hard drive/thumb drive.  If you don't keep things electronically, then save the paper copies.  Do this throughout the two years between immigration and ROC, and save yourself the heartache of trying to find back copies of everything at the last minute.
 
2.  Have both parties listed on rental/homeowners/car insurance policies as an authorized claimant.  This has nothing to do with USCIS and everything to do with protecting each other in a terrible situation.  Example:  your house is demolished in a storm, and the person who is listed on the policy dies.  The other spouse cannot file an insurance claim if they are not listed as a party that is AUTHORIZED to file a claim.
 
3.  Make wills and have medical powers of attorney for each of you.  USCIS likes to see this, as it shows that both parties are looking to the future.
 
4.  If you travel, take pictures together with recognizable landmarks in the background.  Keep all boarding passes of airline/train trips.  If you make a hotel reservation, put BOTH names on the reservation. Save your receipts and copies of the reservations.  If you visit family or friends, take pictures together.
 
5.  If you don't have kids, then pets can count!  Have both names on your account at the vet, and print out vet receipts.  We shipped our cat from Australia to the US and used all the paperwork from HER travel as documentation.
 
Best of luck on the rest of your journey!!!
 
Sukie in NY

I was late to file AR-11 so many times 😅 And my USC spose never filed one 🥴

Our neighborhood has no names on mailboxes, but I was still paranoid about USPS not delivering my official mail.  I signed up for Informed Delivery, so I'll be listed in USPS records as a resident at our address.
 
USPS Informed Delivery -- https://informeddelivery.usps.com/box/pages/intro/start.action
 

Refer to the USCIS Guide for New Immigrants -- https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/guides/M-618.pdf
 
 
Not listed in the PDF, but mentioned in the paper brochure that comes with the plastic green card --
Report foreign bank and financial accounts.  (Google "FBAR".)

That one depends on the neighbourhood, but always a good idea to write your name on the mailbox.  Some mailpersons won't deliver official mail (eg. LPR card, USCIS notices), unless the name appears on the mailbox.  

7.  Do NOT try to vote.
 

Getting credit in the US with a new SSN can be fun. The most effective thing was to have my husband add me as an authorized user on his credit cards, it effectively copied his credit file over to me and I was then approved for a $5k limit Apple Card around 1.5 months after immigrating. Then we were jointly approved to refi the mortgage on our house under a pretty low interest rate.

As mentioned, photos have to be to recent (taken within last 6 months). Many have waited over a year from submitting to NVC to get interview letter, so obviously the photos submitted would not work. I had to take new photos which were not identical to the ones submitted to NVC. The two photos have to be identical to each other.
 
Side note - it is funny they ask for two, but then return both during the interview. No idea what they do with two if they only need to scan them.

I will send you the list I created for myself by DM. 

I got my tracking information a day after my interview. According to Canada Post, I should be able to collect it Mon/Tues. I will update once I have the Visa on hand. 

Yup, the immigration process is not known for its compassion or empathy with the separated couples. They just do their jobs as per the laws and policies. Good thing is, it almost always works out in the end. Hang in there!

I was talking about time taken to receive the form and fill it and send it back, not the actual DS5535 processing time, which I know can be more than 6 months. If the time in receiving and sending the form back adds only one or two weeks to the whole dreaded process, I would rather not waste time before interview in filling it. Hope that makes sense. And yes, I am done worrying about this. Off to gathering and double checking all the interview documents. Thank you!

ah ok, my mom got the follow up email two days after the interview, which included the DS 5535 instructions

I was talking about time taken to receive the form and fill it and send it back, not the actual DS5535 processing time, which I know can be more than 6 months. If the time in receiving and sending the form back adds only one or two weeks to the whole dreaded process, I would rather not waste time before interview in filling it. Hope that makes sense. And yes, I am done worrying about this. Off to gathering and double checking all the interview documents. Thank you!

I am an Indian with a Muslim name, with some significant living/ travel history in Middle East and some in India, and I was (removed) scared of being issued the DS-5535. I somehow dodged the bullet.
 
Religion in itself is not a parameter. There is no way for them to know your religion. It is not in any of your documents. (I am atheist, but my birth name is Arabic/ Muslim, so name doesn’t necessarily indicate religion.) That being said, the way I understand it, the primary reason for being issued a DS-5535 is a match with an individual in their database of people deemed a security risk. It’s reasonable to assume a good portion of those are with Muslim names, so yeah, I was scared on that basis. 
 
But something I have noticed is Canadian PRs don’t seem to be issued DS-5535s at Montreal. They seem to be issued to Canadian citizens. Why? I don’t know. One reason I can think of - we PRs have been vetted recently by Canada which shares security databases with US, so maybe we have been cleared? Also ties in with my other theory that US has some intelligence of security threat originating in Canada by a Canadian citizen.
 
A lot of this speculation of course.
 
Bottom line, as you wait for your interview, there is no way to predict whether or not you will be targetted. So best you can do it go in with the hope and confidence you will be approved on the spot, but being mentally prepared for the DS-5535 should you unlucky enough to get it. @Danii recommends even filling the form in advance and keeping it ready. Maybe even whipping it out should the CO say you will be issued Supplementary questions.
 
In summary, you cannot predict if you will be issued DS-5535, but what you can do is prepare for it.
 
 

I have been to Iceland, England, France, Italy, India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Colombia, Mexico, and USA. 

dont freak out! at this moment DS 5535 is being handed out without any rhyme or reason. Even people who havent visited any crazy countries are getting it! And yes, India is not a country that trump has listed as needing "Extreme vetting"
my mom only has india travel, 2-3 times in the last 15 years. and aside from india she has come multiples times to USA to visit me and my wife. She was born in India but is a canadian citizen since 2005.
 
just do your best at the interview and dont even think about DS 5535 being an option! no bad vibes!
 
 

Yup, the immigration process is not known for its compassion or empathy with the separated couples. They just do their jobs as per the laws and policies. Good thing is, it almost always works out in the end. Hang in there!

Update - I received my Green card in the mail today. Crossed border on Feb 12, so faster than expected.

Yup, the immigration process is not known for its compassion or empathy with the separated couples. They just do their jobs as per the laws and policies. Good thing is, it almost always works out in the end. Hang in there!

Yup, the immigration process is not known for its compassion or empathy with the separated couples. They just do their jobs as per the laws and policies. Good thing is, it almost always works out in the end. Hang in there!

Thanks for the reply @darth vader. No, I don't have Canadian passport unfortunately and need a visa to travel to the US. It is just hard to comprehend that they think it is OK to separate couples for so long.

No, as long as every sentence is also in English, you are fine.