Noorah101

There is much more to anyone's marriage than "joint accounts", but your job is to prove that on paper.

It would only be explored on paper. USCIS does face to face interviews, yes...but they need paper evidence for your immigration file. Just because your wife is the breadwinner does not mean you can't have joint financial proof on paper. It's very easy to add your name to her bank account, or add her name to yours. It's also pretty easy to get your name on the utility bills. Perhaps joint health insurance was more expensive, but if you both HAVE health insurance, you could have shown some evidence that you both receive the bills/insurance cards at the same address. How about wills? If you both have a will, showing each other as beneficiary, that's strong evidence. If your wife has any investments, showing you as beneficiary is good. I added my husband to my car insurance even though he doesn't drive...it did not change the premium I pay, and it lists him as a "non-driver', so that's another piece of evidence. When you think about it, there are tons of ways to document a joint life together, even if only one of you is the breadwinner.

No, it's common knowledge that USCIS will not accept evidence in digital format. It MUST be printed on paper, so it can be placed in your immigration file. Think of this....let's say the officer looked at the photos on the ipod. Later, a problem arises with your case, and they look back in your file. They call up the officer who did your interview, and she says "but I saw photos". Her supervisor will say "OK, so where are they in the file?" The officer will say "oh, I only saw them on an ipod...there's no real evidence". Then it becomes her word against USCIS. Not a good situation. Heck, that officer may have died, and then no one would ever even know you showed photos as part of your evidence of joint life together. I'm just saying...everything needs to be on paper.

I still hope this was just a random selection for quality control, and I'm hoping they gave the case to the "officer from hell" as a training effort.

Rene

FR-US-couple

If our expenses were paid through our joint account I would still be paying in proportion to my income. Welcome to the 21st century: all legitimate couples have business arrangements in one form or another.

My wife earns rent income on assets acquired before the marriage and pays related bills off of that. It's perfectly natural she keeps a financial firewall between us.

Faking financial commingling is easy to achieve. Living in the same closed quarters since around 2007-8 would seem like inhuman sacrifice just to earn and keep the Green card if not for actually being life partners.

In the worse case scenario where I'd be deported, it is my wife that will suffer the most. She's not ready for a long term cultural shift and living away from family, whereas I've already factored these changes a long time ago.

We were not asked about our living habits that would have proved are lives are fused. That is a disturbing omission.

Noorah101

My husband and I also have a sort of unique financial scenario. We both work full time, but I earn a bit more than he does. The nature of his business takes him to Los Angeles most of the time, while I stay at our home in Phoenix. My husband rents a space for his workshop and he also stays there while he's in LA. He comes back home to Phoenix for a long weekend every 3 or 4 weeks.

All of my income goes towards the living expenses in Phoenix. All of his income goes towards his living expenses in LA. We have separate accounts. He uses his account to pay his bills in LA (rent, utilities, food, etc). I use my account to pay the same at our residence in Phoenix. But my name is on his account, and his name is on my account, so we have proof of joint financials. We never dip into each other's accounts. We don't pay the bills from just one joint account.

That said, it's true that a lot of people do NOT have names on each other's bank accounts. That's not a requirement for USCIS. If you have OTHER proof of comingled finances or joint life together, then it's fine if you don't have the joint bank account. Everyone has a different financial arrangement suited to their own comfort level.

As for not being asked about living habits, I take that as a good sign. It means they were not subjecting you to that level of investigation.

Rene

Noorah101

For you, maybe. But a lot of people do just that.

Rene

ian-mstm

My wife earns almost 3x what I do, and I also pay my share of the bills in proportion to our income.


Well, here's the problem... you believe USCIS is a 21st century organization!


You write this as though you think it should make a difference to the US government!


There are many couples who do exactly that - specifically to get a GC and keep it long enough to get the conditions are removed... and then they go their separate ways. I'm not condoning such action, but it happens all the time.

Ian

Nutmegger

Sigh . . . you are missing my point. Not every couple is trying to clear the hurdles put in place by the immigration authorities -- being snippy isn't going to help matters.

FR-US-couple

Thanks, but telling us I could travel 'as long as I have a Green card' while not telling us I wasn't getting it back (I realized after the fact) is disquieting.

Rete

Assuming the FR in your name stands for France and that you are male, I can, because of my close relationship with my in-laws from Quebec Province in Canada, understand why you feel as you do.

Please understand that this is the US and you are dealing with a US Government Agency. Although your wife is a US Citizen, the USCIS has no obligation to grant you a green card to live and work in the US. She only receives preferental treatment in being allowed to apply for you via the I-130 without having to wait for a quota number to be available.

You have absolutely no rights when it comes to the USCIS and your obligation is to fulfill to their satisfaction THEIR requirements in order to be given the 'privilege' of permanent residency in the US to pursue your marriage to your US spouse.

Your financial situation is not much different, if there is any difference at all, from a great many of us. In particular many USC females who marry foreigners make more than their foreign spouses if only because they are citizens of the country they live in, are continuing employment that was obtained before their marriage, etc.

I earn far more than my husband did while he was working. We filed our taxes as married, joint, even when he was not working in the US after failing to find employment after six months of living here. We had one joint checking account for household bills and each of us maintained separate bank accounts both here in the US and for him also in Canada and it was never questioned by the USCIS.

It would appear that much of your problem with the USCIS during the removal of condition process is based on your assumptions and attitude. The USCIS is the shark who has the teeth and you are nothing but the guppy who wants to continue swimming pass the shark with all your gills in place.

Please retain an immigration attorney, or at the very least consult one, if you are not the recipient of an approval notice in a few weeks time.

ian-mstm

Just to clarify, the GC is proof of your status as a PR... it is not the status itself. You remain a PR until 1 of 2 things happen: an immigration judge decides that you are no longer a PR, or your I-751 is actually denied.

Until there is an actual denial, nothing much changes and you remain a PR... although, I have to admit, not having the physical GC does restrict your ability to travel internationally, since you need both the GC and the letter for such international travel.

Even so, there is an appeal process should your I-751 actually be denied. As others have already suggested, getting an immigration attorney involved is probably a good idea.

Ian

FR-US-couple

Your comments about the French is a generalization. My expectation of the USCIS interview process is based on my experience of the USCIS interview I had upon applying for permanent residence. The communications valves were open in the first one, barely so in the second.

I know very well the Green card is not a given. This said, I'm entitled to fair treatment, even as I am alien. I'm writing here to collect opinions as to whether that was the case or not.

FR-US-couple

In the file, I'll accept that, but interviewer refused to even *look* at the iPod. There is no valid reason for denying us that opportunity.

The rest of your arguments implies that hearing evidence (since AFAIK no physical record of the interview) takes precedence over visual evidence, as reported by the officer. I don't accept that as a valid argument: what the officer saw should be as good as what the officer heard during the interview.

We have a joint account and a joint auto insurance. The first time around, USCIS deemed evidence insufficient because it did not span entire period of our marriage. I provided additional evidence both were opened and uninterrupted since marriage. If it was up only to me there wouldn't even be an auto-insurance (I'm happy to be chauffeured or use PT/bike); she's the one who forced the driving test on me.

I preempted further criticism in writing as to why there was little activity on the joint account: we just had a different arrangement that allowed us to use separate accounts. She opened an account in my native country to meet expenses when we go there and as currency diversification measure. I wire money (albeit modest) to that account on a monthly basis from family savings in my native country. Evidence included in the file. I also included
statements from my US individual account showing such miscellaneous expenses as hardware/grocery etc in a one mile radius from our house.

My last two health insurance contracts list the same address indeed and are in the file.

I am listed as her h/c proxy in duly certified document since prior to marriage and that is included in the file. We were negligent about wills, that's all. Death isn't upon us save for very unusual circumstances.

We have this in the file.


Thanks, but telling us I could travel 'as long as I have a Green card' while not telling us I wasn't getting it back (I realized after the fact) was, as I've already stated, disquieting.

Is it possible the officer withdrew the green card as temporary measure until she reviews the file in full? That would be sensible/acceptable.

Rete

The generalization is from my personal undersanding a fact. In France, as in Quebec, a woman does not take a husband's surname upon marriage and their assets are not comingled. If either of those things happen, it is only because they choose to do so, not because it is the norm.

Actually you aren't. My husband was not on several occasions given fair treatment by USCIS personnel and he was from Canada and English was his primary language. He had his papers thrown back at him by desk personnel and told that he should of hired NY local counsel rather than one in California. When a legal counsel in the room noted the treatment he attempted to intervenue and my husband was told to leave or be escorted out by security. It was the same type of behavior as social security personnel when he questioned their decision based a decision that was repealed by the agency but not known by the personnel.

In both instances, he filed formal complaints and although he heard back in response to both complaints he was in essence told nothing would be done to the personnel in question and that more or less he was to suck it up.

You asked for an opinion. I gave you two. One without mention of your interview itself but rather how you should have gone about preparring for your interview and then this one.

I will now politely remove myself from this discussion, wishing you the best. After nearly 15 years of participation in this discussion forum, yours is not the first case of this nature nor will it be the last. As we say: It is what it is.

FR-US-couple

Whatever the evidence provided there is always a possibility it is fake, so that argument is void. It's not about condoning, but the weight of evidence.

The evidence is overwhelming we live together had we been asked, but we weren't. If not for being life partners, doing this for business purposes would seem a very high sacrifice for both parties.

Mind you, neither of us is a pauper, My assets in my native country are locked in but nonetheless count towards my wealth.

I can live anywhere in the EU, have a decent background and I'm multilingual. I don't fall in a category whose incentive to cheat the US system is high, and my wife doesn't fall in category whose incentive to make such a deal is high.

celticgrid

I'm reading your comment as that the foreign account was opened in your wife's name, and you are paying into it.

If so...

Why on earth was not that new foreign account a joint account? It seems that rather than this being weak evidence, it is harmful evidence.

Take the advice previously given several times, and see a lawyer.

januarymix

With due respect, the people of this forum seem to be giving you well intentioned, helpful perspectives and advice for your consideration. They are not arguing you, nor are your opponents.

FWIW I am in the EU at the moment and the way the immigration people treated me here was terrible, and I can say the same about my 'status' back home etc...

Well wishes