jmood

I "sort of" asked the following question before but because I asked it as a result of a thread for a different question in the original post, it didn't get the proper answer. So, please let me ask it again.

Regarding evidence to support the bona fides of the marriage (I-130). One of the most obvious documents is a joint lease. However, my situation with the lease is as follows:

I started living in the US in 2003 on an H1B. The H1B expired in 06, and I "moved" back to UK but always kept various apartment in the US. Over the next 3 years I kept travelling back and forth between the US and the UK always on a visa waiver. During this time, I always had a lease in the US and lived in that apartment whenever I was present in the US.

I got married at the end of February 09, my husband moved in with me into my apartment in the US in April, and I had my landlord add my husband's name onto the lease. However, the landlord being the highly scrummy landlord that they are, just typed (type-writer typed) my husband's name onto the existing lease. To me, it looks very unprofessional and could easily be a fake. The landlord refused to issue a new lease saying they will put his name properly on the lease when the lease is up for renewal. That is in October. Given that the lease looks so fake, I asked and asked (almost begged) the landlord to add my husband's name onto the rent notice. They finally did that after 2 months. So now, I do have the rent notice for May that looks professsional and real.

I have several concerns: The lease for the present apartment that my husband and I live in starts in September 07 (we got married in Feb 09, my husband moved in in April 09). Also, this lease looks like I could have just faked and added my husband's name onto it. Additionally, when I last entered the US in December 08, I had a 2nd tier interview. The immigration office gave me a hard time and threatened me with deportation. They pulled up data that said that over the last x years I had stayed in the US for more days than I had stayed outside of the US. Finally they were convinced and let me in

I do want to present proof that 100% convinces the officers looking at our file. I'm concerned that if I present the lease, they may (a)think it's fake (b)it may raise questions as to it's start date, taking into account my extended grilling at my last entry into the US.

Should I submit just my rent demand notice instead of the lease? If I do submit that, do you think they will then ask to see the accompanying lease? If they do ask that question, depending on the timeline, if it is after October 09, I will have a good-looking (!) lease to submit. Do you think submitting the rent demand notice with my application opens a can of worms?

For perspective, the other documents I will be submitting are a joint bank account statement and a joint health insurance plan.

Sorry for the long explanation and thank you!

Rete

Have your husband write one of the rent checks on his checking account or sign one on your joint account. Also include utility bills if they bear both names. Or if you share a cell phone account use that as well. Envelopes addressed to him at the apartment are good also. A letter from employers stating who are beneficiaries to various company benefits. Joint bank accounts if available. My husband was no on our lease and we didn't have a problem.

jmood

The rent goes out automatically from our joint account.We don't write any checks for it. Unfortunately we won't get the utility bill in our joint name for another month and I do need to submit the immigration file this week to avoid furter delay with me being out of status. And the only company benefit which is the life insurance, his minor daughter is the beneficiary. As I said, we do have joint health insurance though.So what are your thoughts/suggestion re. my specific questions though?

ian-mstm

Have you ever seen IRS transcripts?

Ian

jmood

Not sure I have seen an IRS transcript.
But sorry, I don't understand the question or its relevance to my question.

Noorah101

IRS trasnscripts are THE official IRS documents, but they look very unprofessional and "fake".

Just submit what you have. It's OK not to have a joint rental agreement. Just submit whatever joint items you have at the moment. You will be able to collect more while you're waiting for the AOS interview, and will have the opportunity then to show them to the Officer.

Rene

jmood

:-) Got it re. the transcript.

If I were to show the current lease, during say the interview, do you think they'd question the fact that the start date was in 07 - a time when my status was visitor?

Noorah101

Why not just not show it, just to be on the safe side, if you're worried? You should have plenty of other evidence. My husband was not on the deed to my condo for much of our married life, and it was not a problem for USCIS.

Rene

jmood

Ummm, yes a possibility. It's the worry of do I have enough evidence on the one hand (e.g. we won't have any wedding photos for example, and very few photos in all, just circumstantial. We have what I described above) and will I get into trouble by using the "rent demand" or the "lease" on the other.

Noorah101

You are a newly married couple in the eyes of USCIS, at this point you are not expected to have a ton of evidence.

Several months later, by the time of your AOS interview, you will have some utility bills in joint names, and you know you'll need to show joint evidence, so you can make a point of taking more pictures, but really whatever evidence you have is basically what they'll have to accept. Many people do not have joint rental of joint mortgage paperwork. We also had no wedding photos, and it was not an issue.

Rene

ian-mstm

You had an apartment while you were living here as an H-1B and you kept an apartment afterwards. Lots of people who are only visitors to the US keep a lease on an apartment. My parents kept a place in Florida for 10 years even though they were just visitors! It's not a crime... there's nothing to say you can't lease an apartment. I don't understand why you're so concerned about this.

Ian

jmood

I'm concerned because at my last entry to the US in December 08, I got an extreme grilling at a 2nd tier interview over why I had stayed so many days over the last year (or perhaps they said last few years I can't remember) in the US.

ian-mstm

Okay... but that's different from your keeping an apartment while in visitor status - which seems to be your concern at this point. These are not related incidents, and keeping an apartment isn't an issue. You are joining together two unrelated events because they seem to be immigration related... they aren't. Having an apartment is unrelated to immigration.

Ian

jmood

So then, what's your take on whether I should or not submit either the rent demand notice with both our names, that looks real and professional but isn't a lease, or the fake looking lease itself which has the 2007 start date?
Thanks.

Noorah101

Personally, my take on it is that you're stressing way too much about this one thing.

If you feel the need to include more evidence right now than what you have, go ahead and include the rent demand notice with both your names on it, as Ian said it's not illegal to have property in both names, even if you don't live here.

If the lease has both your names on it, submit that. If not, don't submit it.

Don't worry about whether documents look "real" or not. Many official documents do not look professional or real....IRS tax transcripts for one.

Just submit whatever you're comfortable with. As I said also, many people NEVER have a joint lease or mortgage or property, and that's also not a big deal to USCIS.

It's really up to you, what to include as evidence or not.

Rene