DaniG

The general consensus is that USCIS doesn't care about utility bills too much - they prefer the "real stuff" (bank statements, mortgage, insurance, 401k, etc.). The reasoning is that you have to pay for utilities married or not, but for example, few people would pay for their spouse's health insurance or put them on their 401(k) if it's not a real marriage. If you have joint utility bills, by all means send some, they're not going to hurt you. If you don't, send more of the other kinds of evidence. I only sent one utility bill from a couple of months after I first got my green card. Then my husband and I moved into our house and we didn't even bother to put the utilities in both names since the deed and the mortgage are joint.

hi

Plz i need help on march 1,2012 we received I797 after 9 days we received I797E, what should i do, should i go and make biometrics finger print or

send all evidence one more time regarding I797E

plz reply ASAP.

Go to the biometrics appointment (before or on the date & time listed) AND send them the evidence listed in the I-797E. What does the I-797E say?

Got the biometrics letter today (for 4/12) and I'm trying a walk in tomorrow.

I would send the previous lease, especially if it includes a period of time after the green card was issued. And you can have your parents do a lease for you, or write an affidavit explaining you live with them. Having absolutely no joint billing seems impossible to me for two people that live together though! You must have at least a bank account or a store card together, even if you are not actively using them, right? Maybe if your parents pay all the bills, show they paid some of her bills. If you list all the documents you have gathered so far, maybe VJ-ers can help you with some more ideas

I know of one person who never got the NOA - they just stamped the passport during the biometrics appointment. If USCIS cashed the check, that means they got your petition, so you should be fine. Sometimes it takes a while for mail from CSC to reach the Midwest. My NOA is dated March 1 and I only got it in the mail last Friday (I'm in Iowa), so you should be getting yours any time now.

you need more then that.you need to show a bona fide marriage every thing togather jointy,as husband an wife.your joint banking credit cards,your insurance, filed joint taxes,your utility bills.your rent or least receipts, did you buy any thing on credit car, household goods,showing both names on the reciepts,any medical bills, child in school report card,your church dues receipts, a letter from two friends affidivit of support that you both are a loving happy married couple,cell phone bills, some junk mail at your address trips togather, some pictures with family and friends togather dates,wedding photos,copy of both driver license showing the same address.this is just some things you can use or put togather, tax transcripts are very good, any thing finicial.

Definitely add as many financial documents as possible - USCIS loves that. Even if you are a student and she doesn't work, you have expenses that you can show you've been paying jointly - joint accounts, copies of joint cards from stores, medical bills as above is a good one (I'm sure you've had them for the kid), even medical records that show you're listed as each other's emergency contact and as the kid's parents (call your doctor for a copy); any other records listing each other as emergency contacts; car insurance listing both or any other kind of insurance (life, health, renters); if your parents paid any of her expenses or vice versa (travel, med bills, rent, tuition, etc. - give them the bill & copy of payment) that's a pretty good sign of bona-fide marriage; any other documents that list your status as married.

Look at page 2 of the I-751 instructions and try to have as many documents as possible for each of the 5 categories listed - be creative: http://www.uscis.gov.../i-751instr.pdf

The following recent thread, among others, has a lot of good info listed concisely: http://www.visajourn...e-past-2-years/

Seems like a good package to me with lots of great documents. You might want to throw in a couple of affidavits from family/friends because sometimes they RFE if you don't. Copies of DL's showing the same address (even though you already have the lease). Car insurance/titles with both names. Read the instructions of I-751 re: supporting documents requirements slowly - in my case that jogged my memory about some additional docs to send.

There are two sample forms on VJ: http://www.visajourney.com/examples/I-751_support.doc & http://www.visajourney.com/examples/USCIS_I751_Affidavit.doc

They received our package on March 1 (mailed Feb 28). This is the date of my NOA as well but I did not receive the NOA in the mail until March 8. The check was not cashed until March 5. You could contact USPS or whoever you used for sending the package for more info and proof of when it was delivered.

I tried to check my case status on the USCIS website by entering the WAC******** from my NOA letter, but it says it can't find the case in their system. Is it normal for it to not show up for a while? There's no other number on the receipt, so I assume I am entering the correct one.

We have a joint bank account but differently numbered cards. I honestly thought that was standard. No?

Hmm... this is the first time I hear of a joint account where the cards don't have the same number. We have a lot of accounts (bank + stores like Home Depot, Lowes, JCPenney, etc.) and all our cards have matching numbers. On the AOS interview, the USCIS officer specifically asked to see our joint account cards and said he was looking for the same number on both cards, of which he made copies there. You might want to get a letter from the bank explaining that it's a joint account with cards numbered this & this and maybe open a couple of joint store credit cards just to be on the safe side if they RFE you or ask for that on the interview later. It's just my personal experience though, it would be good to hear from other VJ-ers as well on this.

In addition to more bank statements from various months within the two years, maybe add copies of debit/credit cards that show the same number for both of you. That's what they asked us to show at the AOS interview and luckily we had those with us, so this time around I sent a whole stack of bank statements + copies of all cards that we have in both names just to be on the safe side.

If you have joint title of any of the cars (or any other big purchase), you could send this as well, but it's not as important considering all the other stuff you are giving them.

Btw, for the purposes of determining tuition, most universities in Europe look at your citizenship, not your residence, so they don't care where you reside. Therefore there is no problem to declare US residency, thus meeting the LPR requirements, and still get a free ride if you are a EU national. Similarly, I get (almost) free health care in my home country due to the same criteria - as long as I am a citizen.

Got Receipt Notice dated 3/1/12.

I have a friend who sent all other kinds of evidence (including common child, financial, etc - her husband is in the military, so she had a ton of docs showing mingling of assets, joint residence and travel together) and she got an RFE specifically and only for the affidavits, which she thought were not important. I notarized ours, it's pretty easy to do in any bank, law office or bigger business and it's usually free.

The same thing happened to us. I filled out the online form for change of address as soon as we moved, and US hubby sent them a paper form and got a receipt from them acknowledging change of address. I have copies of both forms, so I am not worried. It must be something they send based on the info in your AoS petition, because the letter they sent was addressed to D. "Last name", and I never abbreviate my first name. I think it's a problem with their system, where they just fail to update all their data when you send in new info. It's common in large institutions, happened to me in college too - for 3 semesters after graduation, I kept getting letters from the Foreign Student Advisor telling me that I had violated the conditions of my student visa by not signing up for courses, and every semester I had to call and explain that 1) I have graduated, 2) I am a resident & 3) they are idiots.

Below is what we sent, it might give you a few more ideas. We didn't have any of the following: 401(k), health insurance or life insurance; pay stubs showing deductions made as "Married" status; medical or any other records listing each other as emergency contacts, etc.

1. Joint property ownership:
   • Quit Claim Deed and Mortgage for real estate showing joint ownership and joint liability
   • Vehicle registration showing joint ownership

[*]Financial records:

• Joint checking account statements (May 2010 to present)
• Joint credit card statements (August 2010 to present)
• Copies of joint credits cards with same account number – Bank of the West, Best Buy, Lowes
• 2010 joint federal tax return transcript and Adjusted Refund (we were not married yet in 2009 and have not filed 2011)
• Joint insurance policies:

• State Farm Renters Policy, 4/11/2010-4/11/2011, listing both as policy holders
• Farm Bureau Property Insurance Policy, 8/18/2010-8/18/2011, listing both as policy holders
• State Farm Homeowners Policy, 1/15/2011-1/15/2012, listing both as policy holders
• State Farm Homeowners Policy, 1/15/2012-1/15/2013, listing both as policy holders
• State Farm Auto Policy for Car 1, both spouses listed as drivers
• State Farm Auto Policy for Car 2, both spouses listed as drivers

• Joint utility bill

[*]Affidavits:

• from mother of spouse
• from sister of spouse

[*]Other evidence of bona fide relationship:

• Expired Iowa Driver's Licenses showing joint residence prior to 9/1/2010
• Current Iowa Driver's Licenses showing joint residence
• ID Card and Passport issued by the Republic of Bulgaria, showing registration of our marriage and legal change of name before Bulgarian authorities
• Travel confirmation for our trip to Bulgaria in March-April 2011, showing joint itinerary
• Boarding pass from the trip to Bulgaria in March-April 2011
• Flight confirmation for my mother, purchased by US hubby
• Letter from Destri Andorf, dba D&ORFS Photography, dated 12/3/2011, giving us permission to make prints of our family photo session images + cover image of photo session CD-ROM <- she is the best photographer we've met in Iowa
• Photographs from the last two years of Petitioners' marriage.
  
  

Just got the delivery confirmation for the flat-rate express (with signature & exact delivery time) - it got to the California Service Center in less than 48 hours. Total cost was under $20 and I sent a big pile of paper to them

They sent a reminder to my old address, even though after we moved both US hubby and I changed our address with USCIS using the appropriate forms.

I sent mine in a flat-rate express mail envelope. The post office clerk said it couldn't get any faster than that (unless you went to FedEx) but priority would cost about twice as much. You can track it online and print a delivery confirmation for your records. With this option the package gets from IA to CSC in 1-2 days, which for me was good enough.

Barely made it into February filers but here I am. Today is 90 days before my GC expiration, so I sat down, assembled the package to USCIS and it's going in the mail tomorrow. Whew... it was so much easier to do than adjusting status (of course, I adjusted status 3 times before I married and became permanent resident, so I shouldn't complain)! It's nice to see that some of you are already done with biometrics, I hope it goes smooth and fast for all of us

If you don't mind me saying you're looking for excuses to get out of almost everything in this situation. Are you asking VJ members to condone or help make excuses for you? You 'forgot' to renew insurance, you weren't following too close, you want to claim extreme hardship so you can avoid paying your fine. The facts are the facts...you didn't have insurance, the policeman noted 'no insurance' (which is true) on your ticket when you had the collision and frankly if you can pay car insurance you can pay a fine.

Really, my goodness...man-up (or woman-up which ever the case may be) and take care of your situation without trying ways to get out of it.

I don't think it's just about excuses or being a coward in some way because that's a quite significant fine for any family's budget. And it goes into the state budget, not to the person that was rear-ended. And people genuinely forget sometimes, that's why the banking industry makes so much money from late fees. That's why in some jurisdictions it's actually the unwritten policy to let you off on some offenses if you remedy the situation promptly (e.g. forgot to renew registration, headlight not working, etc.) If you choose not to use the loophole in that case, it's your loss only, like not using a tax deduction when you can cause manly men are in the high tax brackets. If that court's policy is to not let this particular offense go without a fine, then the judge will make sure you pay up no matter what you tell him (well, unless you have really compelling evidence that it wasn't your fault). I don't know if they would let you get away with having no insurance given that you caused an accident (I personally doubt it) but it wouldn't hurt to show the judge that you have renewed it, say you forgot to renew it and politely ask if he would be willing to give you a break this time. If they gave you several tickets, sometimes you can even strike a deal with the county attorney to plead guilty to some and get some withdrawn - call them and ask (good to do also if you want to be done with this fast so you can show immigration how it ended without having to wait over a month for your hearing).

Also, car insurance policies often have a grace period where they don't drop your insurance right away if you pay within so many days. Not sure if this is the case, but worth checking.

You owe it all students following your footsteps to make sure this guy doesn't screw up any longer. However, at this point you are an LPR so none of this has even the slightest impact on your current and future status.

Thanks for calming down my fears, Just Bob! This is exactly how I feel, by the way.

Luckily, all the correspondence was through e-mail because that person does not bother to answer his phone or reply to voice messages... He is the only employee in the International Students office, so I guess I would have to contact the provost or president. I just can't help wondering if other students are in the same situation because of that individual... I was lucky I got a green card, but if someone has just gone back home or changed to another non-immigant status all these alerts would show up when they apply for a new US visa...

What is your current status in the US?

Each department has a chair or a director, you can find out who the director is for your DSO and begin asking questions about your advisor.

I'd make an appointment with your international advisor first and not leave until this is sorted out. If an apointment cannot me made, simply show up and not leave until you have your answers

You can also file a Freedom of Information Act request with SEVIS to find out what has been reported in your case

Good luck

Thank you so much, Canadian WIfe! I can't make an appointment with the guy because I just started a full time job & have no vacation to waste on that but I will find out who is his boss & write a letter to them. It sounds it will be easier to get my file from SEVIS than from this guy...

My current status is conditional resident & I have to file for permanent in a year, this is why I am worried this situation might complicate my case. We also just got tickets to go see my family in Europe this spring & I don't want any ugly situations at the airport that cause me to lose precious days of short our vacation.