Just wonderinig if I understand this correctly. They sent us an RFE which simply asks us if we have been convicted of a crime. So now do they send these questionairs back to the DHS for validation/verification/actual background check? Or are they simply going to take our word for it (that we don't have a record)??

It seems crazy to think they wouldn't do an actual check. Yet it seems that everyong posting here is expecting them to resume processeing the visa once they have received the RFE back in the mail from us. (In this case the DHS's role would be to provide a form?...which they didn't even make?)

Seems like I'm missing something here.

cuckoo cuckoo

USCIS service centers have many data bases at their disposal to run name/security checks on the beneficiary, petitioner and anyone for that matter in connection with a petition, even a lawyer. This was done before IMBRA even came about. That would continue. What they are after now in regards to criminal history of the petitioner is any court and police records as well as an authorisation to release this information (via signing the RFE or new I-129F) to the visa applicant at the interview.

I imagine that anyone submitting a waiver for a violent crime will undergo much more scrutiny as to whether that waiver is granted.

From the IMBRA...

(iii) The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide
to the Secretary of State any criminal background
information the Secretary of Homeland Security possesses
with respect to a petitioner under subsection
(d) or ® of section 214 of such Act (8 U.S.C. 1184).
The Secretary of State, in turn, shall share any such
criminal background information that is in government
records or databases with the K nonimmigrant visa
applicant who is the beneficiary of the petition. The
visa applicant shall be informed that such criminal
background information is based on available records
and may not be complete. The Secretary of State also
shall provide for the disclosure of such criminal background
information to the visa applicant at the consular
interview in the primary language of the visa
applicant. Nothing in this clause shall be construed
to authorize the Secretary of Homeland Security to
conduct any new or additional criminal background
check that is not otherwise conducted in the course
of adjudicating such petitions.