atom99

Hi, thanks everyone for the quick response. I've decided to go ahead and purchase life insurance for my wife, just for my own peace of mind. But I'll not submit it for RFE, as it may look bad as "Scramble for evidence".

So looking at the existing evidence, I've ordered more copies of bank statements to cover one per quarter. On the residence front, I obtained copy of rental lease from the landlord, and copies of rent check from the bank. I ordered old auto insurance policies so it covers the whole marriage period. Also got utility bills, though only in one of our names, the cable/phone/internet bill in my name, and electricity bill in my wife's name. I'll submit copies of driver licenses too, with the correct address shown. Should I send some photos too? we went back to China after our marriage, and have photos together with our family.

About our joint tax return, I did get tax transcripts from IRS for the past 3 years. They do show both our names as we filed jointly. One question I have is that I'd been unemployed for much of that period until late last year, when I got a part-time job. We lived off our savings mostly, and did not pay taxes for the last 3 years. Will this look bad in the eyes of an Immigration Officer? will they ask me to do a proof of income and the affidavit of support (I864) again? that's the main reason I didn't submit the tax return with the original filing.

Good luck to everyone!

Hi,

Haven't posted in two years since my wife got her conditional GC on July 6 2011, really appreciate all the help we got around that time.

We were married in Feb 2010. We filed for I-751 in late April, and got the dreaded RFE in August. We have no kids, and here are the things we've submitted:

--One bank letter confirming that we've had a joint checking/savings account since 2008

--copies of joint car titles and joint car insurance

--Affidavit of support from a relative and a best friend

I guess I took it too easy for the I-751, and thought the removal of condition would be a walk in the park. Boy was I wrong! Anyway, after reading through many topics in this forum, now I know I should get more monthly bank statements instead of just one confirming letter. So I've collected 2 monthly statements per year since our marriage date of 2010, with detailed daily transactions. I've also obtained tax transcripts from IRS since 2010, and we filed jointly in those years.

Since I read that USCIS want us to show that we co-mingle our finance, I'm thinking about getting a life insurance policy for my wife. My question is: is it too late to do this now, and submit it as extra evidence? I'll buy a substantial one, like 1/2 million dollars coverage. I'm just wondering if the Immigration Officer might ask "why are you doing this in the last minute?". Or is it still better to go ahead and do it, as it is better than nothing at all?

Thanks a lot everyone, any feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Yesterday me and my wife went to our interview at LA office, and it went pretty much painlessly. The IO was a middle-aged woman, and she was very friendly and courteous. She asked about how we met, who pursued whom, when was the proposal etc, and we all had a good time recollecting the beginning of our love life. Then she asked about proofs of co-mingling of assets, we showed her our joint bank statement, joint tax return, car titles, car insurance. I said that we also have photos and cashed rent checks, she said that she already had enough. Then she asked me if I was previously married, at this point I told her about our annulled marriage, just as other members of this forum had suggested. For details about the annulled marriage, you can read up on a previous post of mine. She asked for the annulment paper and the first marriage certificate, also the old divorce paper between my wife and her ex from the Chinese court. She ended up taking a copy of the annulment paper, and that's about it. Afterward, she said "I'm going to approve you, and you should receive your card in 4 weeks". Yeah!

Thank you all for your support and suggestions, and best of luck!

Thanks a lot for all the replies. To sum it up, we plan to only talk about it when asked, with full documentation. That way, we won't make things more complicated, and at the same time, won't be construed as material misrepresentation.

Hi, My wife and I are going to have our AOS interview in early July. I'm a US citizen, she is an overstayed Chinese citizen. All our documents are ready, joint tax return, joint bank account, photos together etc. But we do have a little issue that I'm not sure about, and like to get people's opinion here.

The issue is that we actually married twice! It's kinda long story. We've known each other for a long time, and decided to marry in late 2008. She was married once before, and divorced her ex-husband in 1997 when they were both in California. The only thing is that the divorce was done by representatives(her father and her ex's brother) in a Chinese court. So when we were about to send our I485 application in 2009, we were advised by an experienced attorney that the state of California doesn't recognize the divorce by representatives. So we held back our application, let my wife and her ex did a divorce again in a California court. After that, we annulled our first marriage, and got married again in 2010. Finally we were able to submit our application early this year. When doing so, to simplify the matter, we only mentioned our second marriage in 2010 and my wife's divorce in California court. We did NOT mention our annulled first marriage and her divorce in Chinese court.

Now my question is, should we tell the IO about these details during our interview? I'm afraid that he might ask some questions about this. He might look at the timeline, and noticed that we've been living together since 2008, before she "divorced" her ex in 2009; or why our wedding ceremony was so simple(because that's our "second" one!). We don't want to give him the impression that we have something to hide. We did everything the right way, and really have nothing to hide. So what should our strategy be? we are leaning towards only talking about it if he asks something about the timeline etc, to not complicate the matter more than it should be. But then I was told that we maybe interviewed separately, and am worried that we may answer it differently depending on his questions. In principle, there shouldn't really be that much to worry about, as we did everything according to law, and have proper documents for every step. But still, we don't want to screw it up because of some stupid nuances of California divorce law.

Any of your feedback will be greatly appreciated!

Sounds good Lady26, we do have pictures on all those occasions you mentioned. Our marriage is very legit and we've known each other for a long time. But like Jim said, we'll prepare for a tough interview and not take things for granted. Thanks for your good wish.

Lady26, thanks very much for your information. 10 minutes of question is not bad at all, we can certainly handle that :-). We do have joint bank account statement and joint car ownership. About the pictures, how many did you show to the IO? we've selected about 25 of us together on different occasions, wonder if that's enough.

Hi, I'm a US citizen and filed for my wife on Jan 31. We received the interview notice on June 3, and the interview date is July 6 at LA. Just wondering how the interview process goes. I've heard from different sources, some say that the IO interview the couple together, some say that the couple are interviewed separately. So I want to get more expert's opinions here, and we'll be more prepared. Also, usually how long is the interview time? what kind of questions do they ask? do they tell you the decision right there, at the end of interview?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you all very much, that answers exactly my question. Yes, I'm going to file for I130/I485 concurrently, and certainly hope the visa journey to progress smoothly.

I came here on H1B visa and it expired a year ago. I married a US citizen and am applying I485 together with I765. On Line 10 of I765, it asks for A-number or I-94 number(if any). I don't have an A-number, so should I put the I-94 number there even though my status has expired? or should I just put "None" there.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.