The Stupid RFE Thread

[philandhannah 0]

Category:

1-130

My RFE was:

We only submitted my wife's abstract birth certificate instead of full birth certificate as proof of citizenship

What I learned:

Make sure to send in photocopies of passport and birth certificate

[sachinky 464]

Category:

AOS Package

My stupid RFE was:

USC petitioner's bank statements of all savings and checking accounts. Despite joint sponsor being fully qualified.

What I learned:

Make sure to send in everything you can regarding your financials, even optional stuff you don't think they will ask for.

[estrellademiel 7]

Category:

DS230 PACKAGE

My stupid RFE was:

proof of the DS2019 form of the J1 visa... wich I dont have..

What I learned:

keep all your papers in a safe place even if this was from 2005.. I am hating NVC so much now..

what I would do?? I have request a letter from my sponsorship program which will certifed that I applied for a J1 visa in 2005 receive it and works in USA ..I will add a copy of the Visa itself and the entry to USA and returned to Dom Rep.. according to the operator this should be fine.. I will add a letter of myself explaining why I dont have the Form DS2019

[sachinky 464]

RFE (Request For Evidence) NOTES from the LingChe guides:

Stay on top of your case during your stay in NVC so you catch an RFE as soon as it pops up.

IF YOU ARE NOT SURE THAT YOU HAVE AN RFE, USE CAUTION. The RFE advice below is under review. A VJ member has reported that they know of instances where sending in RFE information has delayed cases. We are waiting for specific information on these instances, and until such time we caution all users of the guide to use their best judgement in responding to a "possible RFE".

If you review your packages, you might even find an RFE before NVC does, and can send the correction at anytime.

When reviewing your package, it's helpful to know some common RFE as linked here as well as searching the forums.

If you are issued an RFE, send the required documents.

IF YOU CONFIRM WITH NVC THAT YOU HAVE AN RFE, DISREGARD THE WARNING ABOVE.

BARCODED cover sheet you printed from the website, but when addressing your package, change the Attention line from "ATTN: CMR" to "ATTN: DR"

Your own Cover Sheet listing the documents you're sending and reason.

Include the documents missing or corrected based on operator suggestion and your own common sense.

[atsleumas 3]

Hey all

"double present" means that in question 30- we put his current address (8-2004 to present) and then underneath his date of birth to "present" for his prior address. Should have been his date of birth to 8/2004 not "present again. Hence "double present" MAN.. I even confused myself there.. LOL

[wilgrace 3]

thank you sachinky.

so im just gonna send them a new ds230.

I got RFE for original marriage contract, birth certificate for in my understanding of certified copy i can go to any lawyer and photocopy my stuff and certified it....well now i know certified copy means a certified copy has stamps and certified from the national statistics office

[Emmamama 2]

I got three RFEs..

1. My husband's Argentine certified copy of his BC was NOT accepted. Even though it is recognized as a valid/legal document in Argentina, outside it expires every 6 months. Had to get a new copy. It was also laminated, which according to the officials issuing the new BC, once laminated it is no longer considered to be legal. Again, this only applies when the BC is being used OUTSIDE of Argentina.

2. I, the petitioning sponsor, got an RFE for Form I-864, Part 6, Q#25. I did NOT file taxes because I did not make enough money. I didn't check either of the boxes for that question and I left the lines blank when it asks for reported income for the last 3 tax years. I wrote "see attachment" as I had attached a written letter explaining why I didn't file. I got the RFE for not writing zero. !

3. My co-sponsor got an RFE for not including his 1040 and "all of his schedules", which he did. We talked to operator and they said to just send them again. ?

[RPS 1]

My (husband's) stupid RFEs:

1. Question DS230 Question 30, Most recent address he wrote "present" MUST INCLUDE START DATE-PRESENT

2. Birth Certificate original is considered a civil copy since we obtained it from Italy. (Husband born to Italian parents in Libya).

3. Police certificate missing from Maldives (though he listed other countries for over 6 mo.) We only included Italy b/c this is the only country since 16 of which he has been resident.

What I learned:

1. Don't let your husband fill out paperwork.

2. Get the copy from the country of birth only (... and international backgrounds while attractive can make this process take too long).

3. The US is more concerned about certain countries.

Edited April 15, 2010 by RPS

[paulthind 0]

got an RFE saying that pictures were missing when i clearly remember putting them in the folder. so i resent them today on april 16 2010

and should be at nvc on april 19 2010. now we wait again to see how long it takes them to check everything again.

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

On Monday April 26, I was issued an RFE from the NVC in relation to our DS-230 form. I found out about it today when I called the automated phone system to check status, and it said that they recieved my packet but found that information was missing or incomplete. An operator told me that our RFE was because we had not checked the "Yes" or "No" box next to 34. Previous Military Service. When I looked at my copy of the submitted DS-230, we DID check the "No" box very clearly, and we had put N/A for all of the blanks below this question. I explained this to the operator, and she said that our case will be sent to a supervisor for review, so now we should wait another 8-10 days and check status again.

This was a mistake on the part of whomever reviewed our DS-230, and unfortunately has delayed our case by 2-3 weeks. It it nice to know, however, that it was NOT necessary for us to re-submit a new DS-230 in this case, and that the operator was able to instantly adjust the status of our case for review by a supervisor.

I just hope that this was indeed a mistake on their part and it doesn't come back again. The RFE made no sense at all!

[sandra&mladen 2]

I got RFE on missing police certificate. My husband born in Serbia and moved to Italy after 2 months after his 16th birthday. So I did not need serbia police certificate since he lived there for 2 months after his 16th birthday. So I attached Italian original police certificate plus additonal english translation. I called NVc and they stated missing italian police certificate, they stated they have Serbia police certificate. I told them to review again, and right now I have to wait 10-15 days for supervisor review. Ahh, caused me more blood pressure since they mistake.

[rosco_qa 0]

Category:

IV Package

My stupid RFE was:

I forgot to check the country specific document page (Reciprocity by Country). In my case (Bangladesh), both marriage certificate & marriage contract certificate (Nikah Nama) are required. But i sent only marriage certificate NOT Nikah Nama.

What I learned:

Always select your country from below link (Drop Down). Make sure you send all the country specific required documents

http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/reciprocity/reciprocity_3272.html

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

Update: I am STILL waiting for a supervisor to review my erroneous RFE from April 26th. The RFE said that I did not check Yes or No in the "Military Service" question on DS-230, but we DID check No very clearly. It has been 22 calendar days since the operator forwarded our case for supervisor review, so that they can see their own mistake and finally approve our case!!!

I am now seeing people who submitted their DS-230 on April 28th getting case complete at the NVC! It is taking them longer to review our case to correct their mistake than it takes them to do an entire case from submission!

I am really getting frustrated. I called in again and all the operator could do is flag our case for supervisor review AGAIN. I really hope that this did not reset our position in the queue. They said 10-15 days but it's been 22... this is driving me crazy.

[Jeremy&Kathy 4]

Ok, I have made progress today and I wanted to share this with others so they can learn from my experience.

Recap:

April 11: Submitted DS-230 electronically

April 26: RFE for "missing information" regarding 34. "Military Service".

April 28: Verified that this information was NOT incomplete. It was all there in the PDF that I sent.

April 28: Called NVC and spoke with operator. Operator submitted our case for supervisor review (10-15 days).

May 10: Called NVC, operator told me to continue waiting for review.

May 17: Called NVC, operator marked case for review AGAIN and told me to keep waiting.

May 21: Called NVC, operator put me on hold to speak with her supervisor. Came back and told me to call next week.

May 21: NVC called ME (wow!). A supervisor named Mari explained what was wrong.

Mari explained to me that page 2 of my DS-230 form was cut-off halfway down the page. This detail was NOT conveyed to me in my official RFE letter OR by any of the operators that I had spoken with before!!!

It is very strange, because I still have the exact copy of the PDF file that I emailed them, and the page is NOT cut off. I am wondering if perhaps they printed it out and their printer is what cut off the page!

Anyhow, I was instructed by Mari to send in a re-scan copy of page 2 ONLY, along with a cover letter and the bar code page. I just did that today and I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't take another 3 weeks for them to review and finally approve our case. We have been hoping for a July interview date and I've afraid we may have lost our chance because of this.

Anyhow, if I had been smart I would have demanded that an operator put me through to speak with a supervisor right away, the first time I called them on April 28th. It is ridiculous that it took 23 days just to get a proper explanation of what the missing information was!

So to all you other people, I strongly advise that if you get an RFE that doesn't make any sense, demand to speak with a supervisor right away so that you can get the details of what you need to re-submit ASAP.

[Brandon&Jorey 0]

stupid RFE

Category:

*AOS PACKAGE*

proof of relationship to household member..<birthcertificate of sponsor>..