ACalmCountry

Just dropping in again to say that I received a notice in the mail today to say my submission has been approved! Wanted to thank everyone on this thread who helped me especially @OldUser and @Rocio0010 Thank you so much I really appreciated your help and encouragement!

Our package was finally sent today. There were some last minute dramas but I feel like I’ve done everything I can possibly do. Last post for some time. Thanks again everybody who helped me through the last few months on this thread. I cannot thank you all enough.

Just the photos to go now. I've been working on my cover letter all day. It's far too long currently. There is no real right or wrong with cover letters i know so i'm trying not to stress too much about it. Thanks again for everyone's help in this thread.

Thanks. Yeah it probably is overkill but i'll message them Monday see if i can get it won't hurt to try. Thanks so much for your help.

Ok. Thank you. It's pretty much done i will send it Monday.

Just have a quick question regarding the submission date on my RFE. It states Your response must be received in this office by February 15 2024. Does that mean that as long as i send it and have it postmarked before or on that date i am ok? Just wanted to confirm my instincts/thoughts on this as that is the way i've always done this in the past with submissions.

Hi if i may ask another quick question. I notice that you had bank statements from Chase for each year and month. But you also had a Chase Deposit Account Balance summary. We have a Chase account and have already printed out all our statements but i can't seem to find much about that Deposit Account Balance summary. Any idea how i download that online from Chase?

Ignore this post. Problem sorted

Ok so I have the lease and a statement saying when I was added to it and that we have been exceptional tenants. It’s dated for 2021 which was when I was added. Not sure why we waited until two years into the marriage but that year falls within my probationary period so that’s fine. I’m still a little stessed though. Will the statement dated 2024 from my landlord saying I was added in 2021 be enough. Looking at the lease it says term will end 2021. So it’s a lease for one year. If that’s the first year I was added that’s fine. But do I need other years? Or is that being the original lease that we signed together enough.

Spoke to my older landlord today. It appears my wife did add me to the lease when I moved in. Thank god, Huge weight lifted off me! Now I can focus on putting the package together this weekend. Thanks again to everyone here who’s been helping me I really appreciate it.

Ok so I’m having trouble reaching the old landlord. Panicking a little. Need to get things straight in my head. What would you guys do in my shoes? Assuming I can get myself added to the lease. Or even if I can’t because let’s face it that doesn’t prove we were living together for the probation period which is what they will be mostly focused on. What kind of statement would I need from the landlord? In my mind the first statement would be to state that we have been living together with our daughter ( since the first date that they have on file for myself being added In the income certification?) this is where I’m getting frazzled. The first landlord is the one who wrote a statement similar to my above example although he didn’t mention my wife and child. He could only really go on the date he has on file. Just said “has been living here as early as” and then the date. The date he mentioned is within the probationary period. But it’s after our marriage. But if that’s what he has on file that’s what he has. Or alternatively I write up a statement stating that I have been living with her from the moment I arrived here , that we were married two months after arriving and continue to live together. Both statements are true. Hence my dilemma. If I can’t get on to the old landlord I’ll have to go back to our new one and get him to write a new statement as the one he wrote doesn’t cover what I need. If the original lease with just her name on it and the income certifications each year with all our names on it is what we have. I guess I would have to explain why I didn’t add myself to the lease. There was no real reason just never worried about it. When the time came to do recertification I was called to the office with my wife and signed. Did that every year right up till now. But uscis wants a lease agreement so this is a huge concern. I will need to explain a few things but just getting down what I need to cover ( especially now in my heightened state of stress isn’t easy! )

Thanks yes I agree with that advice. It’s what I was thinking myself. We do have an ace up our sleeve in that we have a former landlord who also knew us well. He was the landlord during part of the time in question. So my first port of call will be to call him and ask a few questions. But yes, formulating what I need in a statement is crucial. It will also be helpful for myself to write down exactly what I need to get this done before I talk to him. Thanks so much for your thoughtful advice I really appreciate it.

The timeline went something like this ; arrived in December 2018 on k1 visa. Married in Feb 2019 . At the next certification was added I think will have to check the income certifications he gave me. So I will have to ask him if I can be added to the original lease. Or if not at the very least I need an explanation written for uscis of why we don’t have lease agreements. He had offered to put his number in there too. This would be the second or third time I’ve been back to him. He’s very friendly and knows us fairly well but it’s stressful having to keep doing this. I thought I explained pretty clearly last time. I didn’t even ask him for an affidavit of support just an explanation of the non use of lease agreements.

@OldUser I do understand 100 percent what you are saying. This lease stuff has been the source of the majority of my stress. So much so that the letter I asked my landlord to write I hadn’t even opened till just now. Your response actually prompted me to finally open it I’ve been too nervous to do so. Well I just read it and it’s not what I need at all. It appears he hasn’t understood. He has not explained why we don’t have a lease agreement and also he has mentioned me being a tenant there since 2020 when in fact I had moved in of December 2018. Perhaps I wasn’t added to the certification until then who knows I would have to check. We were married in Feb 2019 and I think by the time the next certification was done I was added and signed. So now I’m in a bind. The combination of your response and reading his has be extremely stressed again. I still have time. I will have to go back and see him again it appears. Thanks @OldUser it’s not as though I wasn’t aware of what you are saying I have been very aware of the lease issue. But your response today prompted me to read his letter which I had been avoiding. Whilst I am now freaking out at least I can try and get this resolved on Monday when he’s back in the office.

I am listed on every years certification that I have lived there. My daughter is listed on there too There is no lease agreement as such. The original lease agreement was her living in a completely different apartment ( same complex) so I’m not sure how I could be added to it. As I mentioned previously there are no lease agreements just yearly income certifications which do show us all as tenants and are signed.

The original lease agreement is just her. Before we were married. Several years before.I’m not listed. But I may include it anyway with explanation.

No joint utility bills. I may have time to put myself on them perhaps. The lease is tricky and is the one causing me the most concern. Our RFE listed that income certification forms were not acceptable that a lease agreement was. Our apartments rent is based on income. I went to our landlord and asked him for lease agreements he explained that he has the income certifications we do each year but no actual lease agreement as such is done each year. The income certification forms are signed and have all members of the household. The original lease agreement was with my wife and then every year after it’s just a recertification. Obviously it’s a concern and is the biggest worry I have because I’m giving them exactly what they said they don’t want. I went back to my landlord and asked him for a letter explaining why we don’t have lease agreements as such. He put his phone number on too.

Well a lot of the stuff on your list we just don’t have! With around three weeks to go I feel like I have some strong evidence and quite a lot of secondary evidence to make up for what I dont have. We have affidavit from the pastor who married us for example which although secondary evidence I feel is pretty good. There’s a lot of what we don’t have though. No trips together, no health insurance on her side. I have a 403b she’s listed as a benificiary. It’s automatic but I made sure I added her manually and printed it out. No emergency contact stuff on her side or mine, no will, we have car insurance but she’s the only one listed. The car title is in both at names though so that’s good. The car title is the only thing I have really as a joint asset. We rent don’t own a home. I spent a lot of time compiling various mail showing the address we live at. It’s probably more skewed towards me but there are a few of hers too. As well as a joint P.O. Box we share. We have the application for that with me listed as a user. My California Real ID arrived so that’s good. Has the residential address on it (although her drivers licence has the P.O. Box so it’s really only beneficial to show I live at our address) still I felt I needed it. So at that stage I’ve hit a wall. Not sure what other joint stuff I have apart from the car. It’s worrying. I have joint bank statements for all years and the tax returns and tax transcripts.lots of photos from various years to now.which I will print shortly . My daughters birth certificate I will include obviously. Christmas cards, wedding congratulations etc I have some text messages I printed out of mundane daily stuff: “put the dog out” “there’s some food there when you get home” that kind of thing. Secondary evidence is ok. It’s a big package so far but I keep worrying of course. Next weekend I will spend compiling what I have in to some sort of order. Then work on my cover letter. And then send it. Hope to send it a week before due date. I just wish I had a few more joint assets or stuff like that. Happy with the bank statements and tax stuff and rent stuff but wish I had more joint assets but I can only give them what I have I guess.

I still have a few weeks. I know I’ve been told several times I’m overthinking it! I guess I recall seeing somewhere regarding groceries being mentioned as a way of showing commingling and I just keep going over it in my head how do I show that! Some of our older bank statements we don’t even have the cards for anymore. It’s ridiculous I know. This whole process has worn me down. My stress levels are just off the charts right now. I’m feeling confident one minute then stressed the next. Anyway thanks to you all again for your reasoned, patient advice! I feel our evidence is pretty good and I just have to keep reminding myself that most cases are accepted. I just don’t want to lapse into laziness with a few weeks to go (as I said I’m getting worn down) or miss anything that I may need to put in hence my returning now and then to this thread. I’m waiting on a real ID I applied for and I’m now working on photos. I really wanted to get this in with two weeks to go so hopefully I can id rather get it in a week or so before the due date. The cover letter will be completed last as I attempt to assemble this mass of papers into a somewhat coherent order. I have folders and paper clips and whatnot ready to go. So final stages for me the package not far away.

If I may ask a quick question of you. In your answer you describe using an internet bill as evidence. Is that just showing your partner’s name or both names? Also in your bank statements you describe evidence of the purchase of groceries but I’m interested in how you specifically showed or highlighted that. This is one thing I keep going over in my brain. Is it enough to show that we have joint bank account statements. I’m curious how people highlighted who was buying groceries etc obviously one way is to copy our cards and show that they are both being used but curious as to how you did that.

My wife filed them online so electronically. We have had a small setback in that one of the returns was done through a different company ( h and r block) and were unable to download the return. We do however have the tax transcript from that year so hopefully that will be enough. But all other years we have the returns and tax transcripts. We could order the missing one from the IRS but it’s 47 dollars and can take up to 75 days which is too long. I have to get this package in by early February. I am hoping the IRS transcript from that missing year will be ok to satisfy.

We managed to get our tax returns printed out so that’s fine (we also have the IRS tax transcripts). A quick question though the federal and state tax return copies we printed out from turbo tax would they need to be signed? I have seen conflicting info on this in the site just curious what others think.

Just spoke to the wife she does it through turbotax thank god so it should be pretty easy to get them. I was freaking out thinking id have to get them from the IRS because there is not enough time and its costly. It looks like i have my W2s so that's all good too. Once again i thank you @powerpuff for your help. 🙂

Yes I’ll ask her. The W2s for some years I may have I’ll check. I found this on the IRS website: Copy of Your Tax Return To get a complete copy of a previously filed tax return, along with all attachments (including Form W-2), submit Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return. Refer to the form for instructions and for the processing fee. looks like it costs 47 for each copy and may take 75 days which may take too long as I have to have this in by early February. Hopefully my wife had the returns. Thanks so much for your help today @powerpuff I really appreciate it. I’m trying to stay calm!

Where would I get full tax returns including W2s and schedules? Once again excuse my ignorance of these matters my wife does our taxes.