S.J.R

Great! Thank you so much! We'll try that and if all else fails resort to a cover letter explaining the situation. I appreciate the help! Looking forward to seeing everything progress for you two! 🥰

I know how you feel. We had so many questions too at your stage and thought we'd need to pay a lawyer for all these questions. But the answers are all there on the forums (from the quick scan I've had since joining today!)
For the joint credit card, no I didn't need to be there to do anything. I think he just contacted them and asked for his wife to be added to his existing account. I then got a card in my name. And the letter from the bank with my name on to add to our evidence pile. 

Hello. Sorry to hear of your experience. We're new to the site too. But a bit further along in the process, having received our NOA1 in June. I'm also from the UK. We weren't able to do joint current account either. But felt (hoped) that we had enough evidence with other things, including joint US credit card. Which seemed easy enough for him to apply for. Can you/have you tried that? Look forward to seeing you progress through your journey.

As others have said it isn't required to have a joint bank account/finances. USCIS gets that it isn't possible for most, especially those who have never lived together and/or are newly married, to have joint finances. Focus on evidence of time spend together instead (photos, boarding passes, passport stamps, hotel receipts, etc)

You don’t need joint finances when you two are living in separate countries, just focus on other evidences.

It seems fairly common that people in our situation, with their spouse abroad, and waiting on the I-130, cannot really have joint finances. Nearly impossible in some cases, and I believe USCIS must understand that.