Married & filing AOS, but not living together due to lease

[hosski]

Hi everyone,

I've browsed through endless pages of this forum but was unable to find an answer to my current situation so I was hoping someone could help! I've (F-1 student on the last month of STEM-OPT) been dating my now-husband (USC) for the past 5.5 years and we got married in April. However, we currently live in different apartments in NYC. For the past year, I've been living alone and he's been living with his best friend, but because I have a studio he's basically been spending almost every day at mine (and when we're not, we stay at his). His apartment is on a 2-year lease and has 1 more year to go. I plan to renew my lease for another year in the summer. Once our respective leases end in 2020 we plan to move in together.

I naively thought this was no problem because he's practically been living with me (makes more sense since his roommate has a long-term girlfriend that basically lives with them) and we could continue alternating between his and mine, but I realize now as we're filing i-130/i-485 that the discrepancies in addresses can cause some raised eyebrows with USCIS.

Knowing this, I had a few of questions:

1) Because my building has a mail room and his apartment is very unreliable with mail, we're planning to put the mailing addresses on both forms under mine. Would this be alright or is it better to put separate mailing addresses?

2) Would USCIS officers accept this explanation in interviews if we can show proof that my husband basically lives at mine (packages, delivery orders, etc.)? Or would it get rejected before then? In case it helps with proof, we're also in the process of opening a joint credit card and savings account, and I'm under his health insurance.

3) Is there a way of explaining this better when we send over the application (e.g. cover letter)?


Thank you in advance to anyone that can help!!

[lina8529]

Why cant you just put him on the lease when you renew? He does not have to pay rent. he can still pay rent for the old place(his place) but stay on the lease with you in your place as he basicly lives there anyways? I did that years ago not for this purpose but at the time I was living with my bfr (ex now) while I had half a year signed leased. We were wanting to live toghetr so when it was time for him to renew he put my name on the lease but I did not start making payments until months after my old lease ended. So basicly I lived there for 6 months but paid rent for my old place because I was locked with the leased, then never renewed and started spliting rent with my bfr at the time.
As far as the interview I dk much but from what i read here its a main thing they look at. Also not sure but they can conduct house visit, so if you put on your aplication taht you live together (use same mailing address) and he is not there if they come check than that would be an issue.

[hosski]

Why cant you just put him on the lease when you renew? He does not have to pay rent. he can still pay rent for the old place(his place) but stay on the lease with you in your place as he basicly lives there anyways? I did that years ago not for this purpose but at the time I was living with my bfr (ex now) while I had half a year signed leased. We were wanting to live toghetr so when it was time for him to renew he put my name on the lease but I did not start making payments until months after my old lease ended. So basicly I lived there for 6 months but paid rent for my old place because I was locked with the leased, then never renewed and started spliting rent with my bfr at the time.

Oh good point! I'll see if my landlord will approve of adding his name to the lease. Thank you!

As far as the interview I dk much but from what i read here its a main thing they look at. Also not sure but they can conduct house visit, so if you put on your aplication taht you live together (use same mailing address) and he is not there if they come check than that would be an issue.

Gotcha - we'll definitely be living together after the interview process starts, but he travels almost every week due to work. Would that be an issue?

Additionally, we're planning on sending the I-130 & I-485 packages before the end of the month. Before then, we will still be "living apart" from each other (aka not in each other's lease). In this case, should I put the mailing address for I-130 and I-485 as his and mine respectively, or should I still make the mailing address as mine to avoid his building's common lost mail issue? Is this something that should be explained in the cover letter as well, and if so, how?

Thank you!

[lina8529]

I will let someone with more experiance to answer this question even tho I have read so much that I feel like I know it all lol. But I think the point is if you live separate then put spearate adreses and bring the joint lease (if you have one) during the interviwe. If you put the same mailing adress bassicly you are saying yes we are living toghter. This is all good but if they conduct ivestigation of some sort and find out that he still resides his place might be interpered in a bad way and cost issues and delays. So in my opinion just say it as it is and then if you manage to get joint lease present that to the interviwe. But again, deffinetly dont take my advice and consider other opinions.

[lina8529]

Also something that I just thought about is try to ask your lanrod via email or if he says he can not be added get a letter from him confirming that he does not approve additional person to live in. At the end if you can't get the lease together you will have a paper to proof that you did try to add him to the lease.