Robert B

Hello my fellow good people at VJ...this is another Year in our journey. I am really grateful that i was able to use this site for successful completion of my CR-1. I am just starting to arrange things for 2013 june when i will remove condition on my Residency. I have a problem i will like to share with you guys...i am like seeing it as a red-flag and i wanted to tackle it....my wife is currently in deep financial mess and when i wanted to open my bank account here...she was hesitant to joint it with me..because both of us were at the bank...later she told me...though during our courtship she told me about it...but she told me that...if she had a joint account with me..her bad credit and bankruptcy...she is about filing will affect my credit equally...I really don't know anything about good or bad credit but when i came to the USA it is something that i came to embrace here....

So my concern is...since one of the requirement for removing condition is financial co-mingling. Am i going to have a problem with USCIS...though we still have life insurance policy...telephone bill...car insurance...her mother added us in her insurance policy and because of condition in the family...we have to live with the parents in the parents house...I just want to hear your view...so that i will be able to think of a way out right away...from my understanding...having a good credit will surely help me to progress here...but if it can separate...i guess i rather have a bad credit and be with my wife.

Thanks you guys in anticipation of your views.

Kevin

Bank account ownership should have no bearing on credit rating. Credit rating is just that, it rates your credit worthiness. Having a bank account with your money in it does not expose the banks to any risk of losing money (except for a couple of dollars you might not pay back if you overdraft). Anyways, her credit can only negatively affect your credit rating if she were to add you as an additional card member on her credit card account, in this case that particular credit history becomes yours (including all the bad stuff). The reverse is also true, if you have accounts with no delinquencies and you add her as an additional card holder, that card's history becomes her history. Also, it really depends on what kind of "bad" credit we are talking about. If it is so bad that she is at risk of getting sued I would not make the joint account the primary account since your money becomes her money, which in return can be subject to a judgment. What I would do is this. Open a joint account, put enough money in there for bills and pay those bills with them, add a little bit of money for groceries etc. and keep the rest of your money separate. May I suggest www.schwab.com, they have all free accounts with no minimums and atm fees.

Please dubble check this information before you do anything though, and if somebody thinks I am wrong please correct me.

Ok, so your saying with current Greencard, he can just walk in and out and no problems. I just worry because his visa is of course is now expired. So I have been wondering if he needed to apply for a visa. With all the trouble it was getting him here, as with any of us getting our spouses here, that when we try to come back with will be a big drama.

You should be ok, especially if the green card is still valid upon re-entry. If you file for ROC your first NOA will serve as a one year extension of the green card as well. Somebody correct me if I am wrong, since I won't go through this until June.

I tend to agree with Harsh_77 behavior in the past is usually a good indication of the behavior in the future. When she goes for her J1 or F1 interview she has to show that she has all the intentions of returning home. This is difficult to do when you already overstayed another visa.

It is way more than I brought, I would say you're doing good. More is better.

I applied for a J1 visa twice but both times i was denied a visa by the counselor officer.

The first time i went for the interview i was denied a J1 visa as the officer told me that my work program was not specified and detailed. so i contacted my employer in the US and they changed my work program.

The second time i went for the interview i was denied saying that i was not able to convince the officer that i will return back to my home country. I told the visa officer that after my training program in the US i will return back to my home country and my present employer will give me a higher post and high salary. I also told them that i am engaged and will return back to my home country to get married.

The visa officer was not convinced and i was denied a visa..Please can anyone give me a valid reason as to how to convince the officer that i will return to my home country the third time i go for a visa interview ?

Please help me out

They won't take your word for these type of things. Get a notarized letter from your fiancee, get a letter from your employer that they will give you a higher pay and promote you. What they really want is to SEE that you are intending on returning. This can also mean, bank statements with lots of money in them, mortgage statements. Anything that you think will help prove to them that you are leaving.

When you go for your next interview just come back on these forums and post what you are intending to bring, and I'm sure we'll be able to give you pointers.

hi Robert, I notice from your timeline that you sent I-130, I-485 and I-765 to Chicago - did you put all of your forms in one package and sent them all together? did you put separate checks for I-130 and I-485 and just put it in the same package? I'd appreciate your reply, thank you!

Yup all one package. I wrote out two checks. All in the same package

A short while ago I was in the same place as all of you. My advice, be patient, everything will come sooner or later. And before you know it it is all over

Good luck to you all!

Check out signatures

Well, at least you know they got your stuff. Still sucks though

Congrats!!

I consulted with a lawyer since I was thinking about getting one. It cost us $300 just to speak to her, she gave us some good pointers, and she gave us a checklist of what we needed to gather. It was pointless for us, all the information is on this site.

Also think about this. Who knows you best? You.... So when a paralegal is typing your names in, he/she doesn't know if it is spelled correctly, there is just so much information to be transfered there are bound to be some mistakes made in the transcription from what you provide them, to the USCIS forms.

I say, unless you've got a more complicated case than most (and you would know if that was the case), you can do it yourself. Also I have heard of stories where the lawyer is horrible at getting back to you etc.

When I was at the interview today, there was a lawyer there with her clients (and I don't know their story). But she was just prepping them through and through for all the questions (I think they think that they have to make you believe that what your paying for is worth it) and through all this prep I think a lot of people overestimate the interview and work themselves up. If your marriage is legit, and you have nothing to hide...easy case.

Yes, I think you're right.

If they didn't like the income info we provided (documents from the VA outlining his benefits and a copy of a bank statement showing several months electronic deposits from the US Dept. of the Treasury and a letter explaining that his disability is considered complete(unemployable),permanent and service related)they would have RFEd us by now.

I do have some nice pictures going back 4 years, just not a ton.

Thanks for your kind support

It's about quality not quantity

It wouldn't let me edit my post again...

I adjusted from F1.

Congratulations to you Were your adjusting from B1/B2 or F1 visa? I am adjusting from B2 visa, and I expect my interview to be in the next one month or so! How long have you guys married for, and what proofs did you carry? I am anxious to know!! Can you give a brief account of your interview, please?! Thank you - and very happy for you guys.

Edit : Oh, i just saw your signature - you guys got married a week before we did Our case is so similar, and I'd definitely want to know more about the proofs you gathered! Its such less time for intermingling of financials..

Well I wrote a review here: http://www.visajourney.com/reviews/view-dos-cis-reviews.php?entry=6647

As far as proof goes (and she didn't look at any of it except pictures)

Both her and I had checking accounts with two different banks, so we just signed each other up as joint owners. The bank will have you sign this "Change of Relationship" form, we just included that. And then bank statements for a couple of months with both of our names on the address field (and I think this works retroactively, so if you sign a joint owner up now, there name will still show up on previous statements). All of them printed out online (who gets official bills in snail mail these days anyway?). Also, if you have time, you can call the 1800 number on the back of your debit card and ask them to send you a letter for immigration purposes that establishes joint ownership (costs $10) and it will be on nice letterhead with an official looking signature (we didn't have this).

Also, since I wasn't working I wasn't able to make my car payments for a couple of months. So we printed out the statements from Honda and highlighted the payment made with her account (as to say that she pays for my bills).

Copy of the lease agreement.

We managed to get her on the Cox bill (cable Internet), one of the few official bills I receive (can't seem to turn paperless on).

We have joint car insurance (and if you haven't done this already, you will save quite a bit of money just for being married). So we got a print out of that.

We included: Wedding invitation, wedding program, and thank you card.

Go to your cell phone provider, print out a couple months worth of bills, and highlight all the calls you made to each other (very tedious work in our case).

Office Max sells these three hole binder sheets that are meant for business cards, but instead I put all her credit cards on the left and mine on the right (matching them by account number). If you haven't done so already, go on your credit card account and add each other as authorized users. If you both have good credit and aren't using too much credit this will also be a great way to boost your credit score. And on top of it all you will get a duplicate card with the other's name on it, and with the same account number (more commingling of finances).

Let's see....

Well the pictures of course, we tried to get a quite and dirty overview of our relationship, so at least a picture from every month since we have been together.

This filled up a 2" binder no problem, but all pages were inside sheet protectors, so those made it quite a but thicker. I will admit this is probably way overkill, but I really wasn't in the mood for having to provide more evidence.

Edit: I believe (water-cooler talk around here) that USCIS knows that 2-3 months isn't too much time to intermingle finances, so they don't focus on it all too much. I hear that this is more important during your removal of conditions.

Sounds like a good experience I hope we'll be fine, I'm a little concerned because we don't have a ton of pics (I'm kind of camera shy) and my husband's income is VA disability benefits, so he doesn't have tax returns.

Even though I had brought IRS transcripts of my wife (USC), they didn't ask to see them. I think if you submitted the affidavit of support thing, and they haven't RFE'ed you by now, you should be ok in that area (still doesn't hurt to bring what you got though). I don't think they are looking for a lot of pictures, but instead enough pictures to establish the length of the relationship. Just bring what you got . Seriously you will be fine

I'm so happy for you Robert Our interview is in a couple of weeks and I'm a bit of a nervous wreck!

Really don't worry about it, read my review of it under the Phoenix office. It's cake.

It's a good day today!!! Thank you Visa Journey!!!

To all that have an interview soon: Good luck, and seriously don't stress, it is a PIECE of cake!!

You'll be fine. The interviews are a piece of cake. Can't wait for you to come back and put an APPROVED!!!! post on here!

That was a piece of cake, I spent hours putting together this beautiful binder full of evidence, and all she wanted to see were some pictures.

The whole interview took about 10 minutes.

So excited!!!! Thanks everybody for all your help, this community has been a great help, and will remain a great help till I become a USC

THANK YOU ALL!!

So excited, and also nervous!!!

I will let you all know how it goes!

Technically she has 60 days past her expiration date to leave before she would accumulate any overstay. And also, usually any overstay is forgiven for AOS. Know however that she can't keep on working after the expiration of her OPT.

Thanks Robert. I did do everything you mentioned-- compiled a 24 page document with a chart of all our expenses, bills, receipts and my husband's pay stubs showing how we do not make it!! I faxed it to my congress person and she was willing to work with me and sent it to USCIS. I had offer emails printed out in the package, but unfortunately the USCIS wanted an actual offer letter on company letterhead. That wasn't going to happen. I work in publishing and EVERYTHING is full-time freelance these days. Letters to immigration are terribly scary for them! So, USCIS would not accept my case and I had to turn down the most amazing job. Seems like I will not get my EAD before my interview= sort of useless to have applied. But oh well!

I'm sorry to hear that...You know there is a wonderful application called Photoshop ...Anyways, yeah I think it was meant for a time where the AOS applications took a lot longer. They aren't too useful now (unless you get it expedited)

I think I will try to get up the guts to go in in person tomorrow!

I know it is a late reply, but here goes. I don't know if you contacted your congressman or not. But if you haven't you should. All you need is a job offer letter, print out a couple of bills, make it look like you don't have enough money to survive just of off your significant other's salary. And submit it all with a cover letter. My EAD was backdated and approved for July 29th (The date I asked the congressman to expedite it). Technically you can work even if you don't have the card in hand yet, once you will receive it it will have the dates on it that proved that you weren't working illegally.

Dear VJs,

In relation to my last post regarding our upcoming Strokes Interview, do we need to hire an attorney? Does it really help our case? If yes, where to find a good one?

We are really so worried. Please help. Thanks.

I have no personal experience with the Stokes interview, but from what I have read it is fairly easy if indeed you have a bona fide marriage. A lawyer would only do you any good if the IO starts asking questions that he/she isn't supposed to.

Also when does the OPT expire, you said it would allow her to stay in the US for 90 days. Does that mean it expires in 3 months? or are you referring to the period after the OPT expires in which she has to leave the country (60 days)? You will have to be married to go through this process, and it takes about 90 days from start to finish.

Clarification: I was referring to the things that people were most concerned with (namely, that any police interaction could have immigration status brought up if there was a 'reasonable suspicion' of illegal presence); the federal courts ruled that it held only for arrests, and applied to all arrests. So, if you're not arrested, you should be good to go. But do be aware that CBP has random border checks throughout the southwest (CA, AZ, NM, TX) within 100mi of the border. Having those documents with you will help you if you find a CBP border check - which is FAR more likely than being pulled over for speeding and having your documentation demanded by the sheriff.

I don't know how it is between NM and AZ, but every time I go to CA there is a border patrol check.