NEED HELP FOR REQUEST FOR EVIDENCE (REF)

[nzawake 0]

Hi,

I am in the process of removing of my conditional on marriage based-green card, after submitting the documents (at the end of March 2015) and biometric (in the mid of August), I received a RFE in September 25th. it requested "

GOOD FAITH MARRIAGE:

You have not established that the marriage upon which you were granted conditional status was entered into good faith. You provided some evidence of marital bona fides. However, the documentation submitted is insufficient because:

Bank statements do not include the transaction pages which are vital for verification of shared financial obligations and household expenses normally associatedwith a marriage such as but not limited to rent/mortgage, utilities, tax returns refunds/payments, insurance payments and groceries

For our situation:

1) We submitted all our joint account monthly bank statements since the month we marry and we think on the bank statements it shows the monthly transactions, so not sure what it means by "transaction pages" ??

2) We have separate credit card account which pay for most grocery and shopping and gas, but all paid from our joint account, do I need print all credit card statements of both of us?

3) For our joint owned house, the monthly mortgage is also deducted from our joint -account, our house insurance is included in the monthly loan paymentthe. only thing here is for the monthly bank loan statement, my name is not on it, because when we bought the house and borrowed from the bank (January 2013), I didn`t have established credit history (I was internation student then and not graduated from school and no income yet), so bank didn`t permit loan to me and put my name on it, but on the house deed, there are both of our name. After that, I started to have job and finally approved to have a secured credit card since January 2014, until this year, just establish credit. So it explains why my name is not on the loan and we haven`t got chance to refinance then began this removal application process; Do I need to print all bank loan statement and ask for a letter to explain this??

4) Our car loan are both paid from our joint account, but we have seperate car loan, he bought his car before knowing me and I have my car about last half of last year, because I want to have independent credit score, so I didn`t do co-sign. Do I need to print our our car loan statements even though it is seperate??

5) We submitted all gas and water bill together (with both our names on it), they are paid from our joint account; Cable bill and electricity bill are also paid from our joint account, but because only his name (electricity) and my name (cable bill) shows, so we didn`t provides these bill; Do I need also provide these cable bill and electricity bill statements even though just one name on it??

6)Tax refunds/payment came to our joint account and we submitted the joint tax filing in 2013 and 2014;

7) Both our car insurance are deducted from our jonint account, but our car insurance are seperate; Do I need to print out these statement too?

Sorry to type so much and hope it clearly demonstrate my situation, just really no clue what documents or what I can do to response this RFE. Sincerely appreciated for any kind of advise and help!!

[Rich and Wen 101]

We haven't filed for ROC yet, but in about 6 months we will be.

Your situation is similar to ours, in that some of the evidence they want is non existant, or doesn't show both names on it. In our case, I already had a household set up, so why change the gas bill, electric bill, cable bill, water bill, etc? Most bills will not put both names on the bill anyway.

I think our car insurance has both names on it, life insurance too. Our new car I made them put both names on it even though they did not want to because my wife had not yet developed a credit rating. Most of our financials are still separate since I wanted my wife to become familiar with the American banking system which is so different from China's. She now has a good credit score on her own, under my direction as to which steps to take, but still needs me to help her navigate some of the confusing bank rules and regulations. I do this by putting her on speaker phone while I talk to the bank, so she can hear both sides of the conversation.

But as to hard physical evidence, I'm afraid we will be lacking too. Most of the steps I have taken to have her develop a good financial identity of her own (in case something happens to me, she won't be lost), can also be looked at as "lack of bona fide marriage".

I only hope that other evidence such as joint tax returns, trips taken together, photos taken together, will be enough to sway the IO. I also plan to write a good statement such as this, outlining much of what I said here.

Edited October 8, 2015 by Rich and Wen

[Penguin_ie 5,985]

**** Moving from Bringing Family to ROC forum ******

[jdba 22]

Did you send every page of the bank Statement? I only had one bill changed to my husbands name. But I had online invoices that showed things I ordered online and sent him.( same bill to ship to address) I sent Vet bills showing both names. I also sent a long letter explaining why his name was not on anything. ( mortgage, bills,and why we didn't have both names on the cars) If you have two cars usually everyone is list on the insurance bill. You should be able to get copies of those.

I would start printing out everything. I also sent copes of card and envelopes showing both our names that were mailed to us. My package was pretty thick but it was missing a few core things and we were approved. I just explained why they were missing.

[nzawake2 0]

Thank you for your reply, I think I just focus on the bank statements and put notes and try collect some bill statements illustrate the transactions.

Do you think credit statements (if it is not joint) will help even though it shows daily grocery buying and paid by joint account?

[nzawake2 0]

Thank you "jdba"

Yes I sent every pages of the statements ... That is why I am not sure what other trasaction pages I can find..

[nzawake2 0]

Hi, "jdba",

You mentioned that you wrote a letter to explain the mortgage loan didn' t have both of your name, so you still submitted the monthly loan statements with one name on it? Or you just explained it because joint account showed the payments? Thank you in advance

[Pitaya 2,576]

OP: Do you have two active accounts?

[jdba 22]

Hi, "jdba",

You mentioned that you wrote a letter to explain the mortgage loan didn' t have both of your name, so you still submitted the monthly loan statements with one name on it? Or you just explained it because joint account showed the payments? Thank you in advance

I didn't send any mortgage statements. I sent a letter saying I bought the house 7 years before I got married and I plan to add my husband when I do a refi. I said I didn't have very many utilities in my husbands name because the companies didn't want to put his name on the bill because they said there was no need to. I told them that I didn't put my husbands car in both our names because I wanted him to have something he could say was his. I said that I have my own car and so does my son and it's only fair my husband did to. And if they want to hold that against us I was fine with that.

I sent 6 or 8 bank statements ( plus check stubs from my husband for each month so they could verify that it was his check being deposited), 6 gas bills, 4 vet bills, 2 home / auto insurance bills, 5 medical bills for my husband paid by my insurance. I sent a paper from our works showing him as my beneficiary and me as his. Then I had 8 or 10 sales receipts for items I ordered online and sent to my husband. Items they could tell were for my husband.(like we order Turkish tea online because I can't find it here.) Theses were the only solid things I had. The rest were copies of mail showing his name and our home address, cards from friends showing both our names and home address. 3 letters from friends and 1 from my husbands boss saying our marriage was real.

Like you I have almost every bill auto deducted. I live on my debit card. I don't get any paper bills. But I was able to go online and print off the gas bills and the gas company is the only one that would add my husbands name to the actual bill.

I'm sorry they are asking you for more evidence. Is it possible that you have another account connected to this one ( like a savings account) ? Maybe they want to see copies of that account too. If you have large amounts transferred out of your checking to another account they may think you're keeping separate accounts.

[nzawake2 0]

I didn't send any mortgage statements. I sent a letter saying I bought the house 7 years before I got married and I plan to add my husband when I do a refi. I said I didn't have very many utilities in my husbands name because the companies didn't want to put his name on the bill because they said there was no need to. I told them that I didn't put my husbands car in both our names because I wanted him to have something he could say was his. I said that I have my own car and so does my son and it's only fair my husband did to. And if they want to hold that against us I was fine with that.

I sent 6 or 8 bank statements ( plus check stubs from my husband for each month so they could verify that it was his check being deposited), 6 gas bills, 4 vet bills, 2 home / auto insurance bills, 5 medical bills for my husband paid by my insurance. I sent a paper from our works showing him as my beneficiary and me as his. Then I had 8 or 10 sales receipts for items I ordered online and sent to my husband. Items they could tell were for my husband.(like we order Turkish tea online because I can't find it here.) Theses were the only solid things I had. The rest were copies of mail showing his name and our home address, cards from friends showing both our names and home address. 3 letters from friends and 1 from my husbands boss saying our marriage was real.

Like you I have almost every bill auto deducted. I live on my debit card. I don't get any paper bills. But I was able to go online and print off the gas bills and the gas company is the only one that would add my husbands name to the actual bill.

I'm sorry they are asking you for more evidence. Is it possible that you have another account connected to this one ( like a savings account) ? Maybe they want to see copies of that account too. If you have large amounts transferred out of your checking to another account they may think you're keeping separate accounts.

OP: Do you have two active accounts?

Thank you for your response. Our Joint account are separated as checking and saving, there are multiple transfer between these two accounts, I reviewed each transaction, I didn`t see any large amount going to other account, I didn`t connect our joint account to other accounts

[nzawake2 0]

Thank you for your response. Our Joint account are separated as checking and saving, there are multiple transfer between these two accounts, I reviewed each transaction, I didn`t see any large amount going to other account, I didn`t connect our joint account to other accounts

I didn't send any mortgage statements. I sent a letter saying I bought the house 7 years before I got married and I plan to add my husband when I do a refi. I said I didn't have very many utilities in my husbands name because the companies didn't want to put his name on the bill because they said there was no need to. I told them that I didn't put my husbands car in both our names because I wanted him to have something he could say was his. I said that I have my own car and so does my son and it's only fair my husband did to. And if they want to hold that against us I was fine with that.

I sent 6 or 8 bank statements ( plus check stubs from my husband for each month so they could verify that it was his check being deposited), 6 gas bills, 4 vet bills, 2 home / auto insurance bills, 5 medical bills for my husband paid by my insurance. I sent a paper from our works showing him as my beneficiary and me as his. Then I had 8 or 10 sales receipts for items I ordered online and sent to my husband. Items they could tell were for my husband.(like we order Turkish tea online because I can't find it here.) Theses were the only solid things I had. The rest were copies of mail showing his name and our home address, cards from friends showing both our names and home address. 3 letters from friends and 1 from my husbands boss saying our marriage was real.

Like you I have almost every bill auto deducted. I live on my debit card. I don't get any paper bills. But I was able to go online and print off the gas bills and the gas company is the only one that would add my husbands name to the actual bill.

I'm sorry they are asking you for more evidence. Is it possible that you have another account connected to this one ( like a savings account) ? Maybe they want to see copies of that account too. If you have large amounts transferred out of your checking to another account they may think you're keeping separate accounts.

we connected our credit card payment with joint accounts, so I need to prepare some credit card statements ?

[jdba 22]

H[quote name="nzawake2"

we connected our credit card payment with joint accounts, so I need to prepare some credit card statements ?

I think now is not the time to skimp on evidence . I would send every page of every bank account and credit card you have. Starting from the date your wife came to the current month. Maybe highlight which are your checks being deposited and which is hers. Make a note of which transactions are for what utilities. Note which transaction is for her cell phone and yours or if together note that. Now is the time to explain every transaction to show mingling of money and to prove you are not keeping separate accounts.

[nzawake2 0]

H

I think now is not the time to skimp on evidence . I would send every page of every bank account and credit card you have. Starting from the date your wife came to the current month. Maybe highlight which are your checks being deposited and which is hers. Make a note of which transactions are for what utilities. Note which transaction is for her cell phone and yours or if together note that. Now is the time to explain every transaction to show mingling of money and to prove you are not keeping separate accounts.

Thank you for your advice, I will make notes for each transaction and write a cover letter to explain the main transactions such as rental/mortgage; utility, insurance and credit cards payments. auto loan and student loan, I will pick up some transactions in credit cards too to show some furniture buying and house maintenance and etc.

Hope it will help get through..

[Pitaya 2,576]

Ah yes, the current buzzword at USCIS for ROC petition RFE processing seems to be "marriage bonafides." This forum is rife with similar RFE tales, including ours, check our timeline.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/558375-received-rfe-for-i-751-removal-of-conditions-what-else-is-there-to-send/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/562694-how-we-responded-to-an-rfe-for-a-removal-of-condition-application/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/550902-advice-evidence/page-2

Agree with jdbe, suggest that you give them all of the evidence they want in spades, that what we did. For us, our RFE stated that we needed to provide more "marriage bonafides" since the inception of the marriage. I had initially sent in a sampling (1 per quarter) of financial records, various account statements, etc. The initial ROC package weighed in around six (6) pounds at the post office when I mailed it. After receiving the RFE notice, I scoured our records for anything that even hinted of 'marriage bonafides' since the inception of the marriage. I included ALL records, statements, wills, etc., "everything 'cept the kitchen sink." Our RFE response package weighed in around four (4) pounds. The RFE response cover letter was five pages, of details and explanations, in length. CSC approved our ROC petition about one week after acceptance of the RFE response box o' papers.

YMMV,

Good luck on your immigration journey.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Pitaya

[nzawake2 0]

 

Ah yes, the current buzzword at USCIS for ROC petition RFE processing seems to be "marriage bonafides." This forum is rife with similar RFE tales, including ours, check our timeline.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/558375-received-rfe-for-i-751-removal-of-conditions-what-else-is-there-to-send/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/562694-how-we-responded-to-an-rfe-for-a-removal-of-condition-application/

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/550902-advice-evidence/page-2

Agree with jdbe, suggest that you give them all of the evidence they want in spades, that what we did. For us, our RFE stated that we needed to provide more "marriage bonafides" since the inception of the marriage. I had initially sent in a sampling (1 per quarter) of financial records, various account statements, etc. The initial ROC package weighed in around six (6) pounds at the post office when I mailed it. After receiving the RFE notice, I scoured our records for anything that even hinted of 'marriage bonafides' since the inception of the marriage. I included ALL records, statements, wills, etc., "everything 'cept the kitchen sink." Our RFE response package weighed in around four (4) pounds. The RFE response cover letter was five pages, of details and explanations, in length. CSC approved our ROC petition about one week after acceptance of the RFE response box o' papers.

YMMV,

Good luck on your immigration journey.