RFE on I-485; and some follow up questions

[Vegas-Dreamer 0]

Hey everybody and happy holidays!!!

well, let me just go ahead and tell you about the situation:

my wife sponsored me for the AOS from my tourist visa to permanent residency. unfortunately, she makes a little under the poverty line this year. so we included a document stating our assets and also bank statements from our joint account here ( about $3ooo ) in the US and also from my account in germany (about 20.000euro). so these assets should be well enough to make up the difference...at least we thought they would... i set up a document stating the most recent balance on the german account, the exchange rate to US-$ on that day and the according $ amount. i also included all bank statements over the last 1.5 years from this account.

i did some research before we mailed everything in and i read that some offices apparently don't accept foreign bank accounts as assets. but since we didn't want to look for a co-sponsor, we wanted to give it a shot that way...

well, we received a RF Initial E today....stating that the net value of the assets does not make up the difference between the sponsor's income and the povery line.....

so we thought that they obviously did not accept the money on the german account as assets....what we already knew could happen....so we'd be fine with that and go forward to figure out how to solve that problem....

the only thing that makes me think is this:

there are some general instructions on the RFE letter about what to submit and how to do so....and the person who handled our case underlined with a red pen, that "all submitted documents need to be translated into enbglish and that both the original and the translation need to be submitted"...

...so here is my thought: i only submitted the bank statements in german language and the document i mentioned earlier about the exchange rate....so as a matter of fact i did not submit these bank statments translated into english ( i did not think that this would be necessary )...so is it possible, that this caused the RFE?.....and the person who handled our case wanted to give us a hint?....i could imagine that the USCIS has some prepared documents for all kinds of cases and maybe not for our specific case....so this person sent out the standard document about 'not meeting the requirements' and underlined these parts to give us a hint...what do u think? is that imaginable? or am i day-dreamin' a little?......if so: please wake me up!!!...:0

and what would you do in our situation? i was gonna call there tomorrow and try to get some information, but i can imagine that it'll be tough to get a satisfying answer....

...it would also be interesting to know if our response to the RFE will be handled by the same person who did the initial review, or by someone else...cause if it's the same person, maybe i could get a hold of this person and talk about the situation...

ok...that's all i can think of right now.....

thanks a lot in advance for your time and answers!!! we really appreciate all of your input!!!

Edited December 2, 2011 by Vegas-Dreamer

[ndu26 114]

Hey everybody and happy holidays!!!

well, let me just go ahead and tell you about the situation:

my wife sponsored me for the AOS from my tourist visa to permanent residency. unfortunately, she makes a little under the poverty line this year. so we included a document stating our assets and also bank statements from our joint account here ( about $3ooo ) in the US and also from my account in germany (about 20.000euro). so these assets should be well enough to make up the difference...at least we thought they would... i set up a document stating the most recent balance on the german account, the exchange rate to US-$ on that day and the according $ amount. i also included all bank statements over the last 1.5 years from this account.

i did some research before we mailed everything in and i read that some offices apparently don't accept foreign bank accounts as assets. but since we didn't want to look for a co-sponsor, we wanted to give it a shot that way...

well, we received a RF Initial E today....stating that the net value of the assets does not make up the difference between the sponsor's income and the povery line.....

so we thought that they obviously did not accept the money on the german account as assets....what we already knew could happen....so we'd be fine with that and go forward to figure out how to solve that problem....

the only thing that makes me think is this:

there are some general instructions on the RFE letter about what to submit and how to do so....and the person who handled our case underlined with a red pen, that "all submitted documents need to be translated into enbglish and that both the original and the translation need to be submitted"...

...so here is my thought: i only submitted the bank statements in german language and the document i mentioned earlier about the exchange rate....so as a matter of fact i did not submit these bank statments translated into english ( i did not think that this would be necessary )...so is it possible, that this caused the RFE?.....and the person who handled our case wanted to give us a hint?....i could imagine that the USCIS has some prepared documents for all kinds of cases and maybe not for our specific case....so this person sent out the standard document about 'not meeting the requirements' and underlined these parts to give us a hint...what do u think? is that imaginable? or am i day-dreamin' a little?......if so: please wake me up!!!...:0

and what would you do in our situation? i was gonna call there tomorrow and try to get some information, but i can imagine that it'll be tough to get a satisfying answer....

...it would also be interesting to know if our response to the RFE will be handled by the same person who did the initial review, or by someone else...cause if it's the same person, maybe i could get a hold of this person and talk about the situation...

ok...that's all i can think of right now.....

thanks a lot in advance for your time and answers!!! we really appreciate all of your input!!!

It does not hurt to try ...its just a phone while you are rethinking your optons. so I would say between 8am and 830 EST get to the phone and call USCIS follow the prompts and key in the numbers 1 then 2 then 2 then 3 and then 1 for an operator ...

have your receipt #

priority date, etc information on hand and ask them for clarification on the RFE if the rep can answer politle request to speak with a tier 2 service person tell them the amount you submitted in german account and the RFE (emphasize the part about english translation accompanying submitted documents)that followed so u want to know if the instruction is to resend the account papers with translation before it will be accpeted since all assets combined are above the poverty line.

if not ...then co-sponsor

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

Just because there is no way they verify your foreign assets, they cannot just call your foreign bank and ask how your account is... So RFE is a must. Bank statement from another country is just a paper to them. I guess you better find a co-sponsor to make everything easier for the journey, you don't have much time to figure how to persuade USCIS people with your foreign asset. Good luck.

[Vegas-Dreamer 0]

hey!!!

thanks for your answers guys!!!

well, i called the USCIS this mornin' but unfortunately the ladys could not really help me further....i called 3 times and like i expected got different answers each and every time... only the last lady seemed very knowledgeble and transferred me to some kind of supervisor....and since even she can't look into the indivudual cases she could not do anything other than telling me what i already knew from the RFE letter....and giving me some standard answers on how and where to get help from a lawyer and so on...

so we probably won't find out what exactly the reason for the RFE was. anyway, we gotta reply to the RFE now.

since we DO have enough assets to make up the difference to the poverty limit ( and we really want to avoid getting a co-sponsor into the boat, especially cause it's really not necessary because of our assets ) we think the best way to solve the problem is if i just transfer the money from germany to my account here and submit the new bank statements....that should do it then, or what do you think?

i read somewhere earlier in the process that there are people who had problems when a huge deposit was made shortly prior to the petition ( i guess USCIS suspected a temporary 'loan' or somethin' the like )...but this should not be a problem in our case since the money comes from my own account, and not from someone else...

if you have any other ideas or aspects we should possibly consider we'd be very very thankful for that!!!

thanks a lot!!!....

[Soapz 14]

1st option: Get the German bank statements translated and certified - they will not look at papers that are not written in English. Also, if you can, send 2 or 3 statements - that way they'll see that the money has been there before and not just deposited for the purpose of showing an asset.

2nd option: Transfer the money to the US - put it in a savings account in both of your names and it will count towards your wife's income.