10 yr approved! No RFE, No Interview - Whew

[dmck 80]

Just thought we would share our latest step in our journey. My wife received her 10 year card a couple of days ago. We were delighted of course, but frankly suprised by no interview. I know they don't interview everybody, but it sure seems like more do than don't. Also a pleasant suprise was the lack of a RFE. After watching so many posts where people were providing financial documents for every month from the moment of marriage to the application, or other bills showing every month, we were worried we didnt supply enough evidence. In our application, we provided 3 credit card statements from the 2 year period, 2 utility bills, copy of a car registration with both our names, 2 affidavits, 3 photos and the fees and forms. Glad that part is done!

[LoveMyTico 999]

Congrats... So you didn't send in any bank statements? My husband's co- worker just received his 10 yr greencard with barely any evidence. No bank statements or joint ownership of anything. Glad to see we won't have to send in crazy amounts of evidence that we don't even have.

[KASH2011 382]

Congrats to you!

[VA-FEB 13 FILER 2]

Just thought we would share our latest step in our journey. My wife received her 10 year card a couple of days ago. We were delighted of course, but frankly suprised by no interview. I know they don't interview everybody, but it sure seems like more do than don't. Also a pleasant suprise was the lack of a RFE. After watching so many posts where people were providing financial documents for every month from the moment of marriage to the application, or other bills showing every month, we were worried we didnt supply enough evidence. In our application, we provided 3 credit card statements from the 2 year period, 2 utility bills, copy of a car registration with both our names, 2 affidavits, 3 photos and the fees and forms. Glad that part is done!

Congrats!

[squareleg 69]

Congrats!

I think, the veteran members on VJ advocate sending every bank or credit card statement. Hence, it may have become a norm for folks that take the word at face-value.

At least based on my experience, it is not required to send every statement. In my opinion, USCIS is rather looking for diversified evidence and not for the 3-years worth (36) bank statements....

[rjm_cmyk 75]

Congrats!

I think, the veteran members on VJ advocate sending every bank or credit card statement. Hence, it may have become a norm for folks that take the word at face-value.

At least based on my experience, it is not required to send every statement. In my opinion, USCIS is rather looking for diversified evidence and not for the 3-years worth (36) bank statements....

I don't know about veteran - probably the more naturally cautious or those coming from countries or situations where they might expect more scepticism on the part of the the DHS.

I remember some advising the kitchen sink approach when I did my K1 embassy interview. I took the view that it was quality and clear answers to questions that would win the day. A couple of good quality (in terms of evidence) photos rather than your entire photo album being an example.

Same goes for this bank statement issue. I've sent in four representative bank statements from the last two years with certain entries highlighted to demonstrate co-mingling. I really don't think that the IO is really going to look through three inches of bank statements. Like you say I think it's range rather than depth.

[charmander 692]

At least based on my experience, it is not required to send every statement. In my opinion, USCIS is rather looking for diversified evidence and not for the 3-years worth (36) bank statements....

Same goes for this bank statement issue. I've sent in four representative bank statements from the last two years with certain entries highlighted to demonstrate co-mingling. I really don't think that the IO is really going to look through three inches of bank statements. Like you say I think it's range rather than depth.

USCIS says average adjudication time for I-751 is less than an hour (0.99 hours exactly) https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-05-04/pdf/2016-10297.pdf Table 6 (Page 23). Imagine all 200thousand I-751 petitioners send 2 years worth of bank statements, utility bills, and such for each month. You gotta be an uber super officer to be able to go through that much of document under an hour.

They want evidences to span last 2 years, not every step along the way is necessary. It is a checkbox on their list that the couple kept a joint bank account which was actively used from the time the couple got married. That's it. No one is going to dig into the small details who spent how much on whatever on each month.

[TBoneTX 43,247]

Don't let the member Pitaya (for one of many) hear any of the above.

[Pitaya 2,576]

You guys can call it what it may, in our successful response to the RFE that we received last year, we sent in every page of every financial document that we had. We had sent financial statements for every quarter with our initial six pounds of evidence. The CSC adjudicator that handled our case sent an RFE wanting more "marriage bonafide evidence," including every financial document since the inception of the marriage. We complied, we sent in everything 'cept the kitchen sink. Our RFE response, which included copies of our newly completed wills, DPOA, and living wills, weighed in at just under four pounds. We received our ROC approval, without interview, two weeks later.

That is the essence of our ROC evidence of experience. In total, we send in approximately ten (10) pounds of "marriage bonafide" evidence.

YMMV.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[LoveMyTico 999]

Honestly...I think it depends on the country the immigrant is from and the mood of the adjudicator. My husband's co-worker is from Italy. They barely had any evidence and they don't even have a joint bank account. They don't own anything together and she is 12 years older than him. They were approved by Vermont service center without question. My husband and I just opened a joint account and we only pay a few bills from it. He's been here since last January. We won't have2 years banking history when we file ROC in October. We don't own the house togther because I owned it way before I ever met him. I didn't put him on my car loan because he would have made the interest rate much higher due to his lack of credit history. I guess we'll see when our time comes. They can call us for an interview all they want. We would prefer them to see us together rather than put a 10 lb package of garbage together. Costa Rica is a low fraud country. I guess we'll see

Edited May 17, 2016 by LoveMyTico

[squareleg 69]

..................put a 10 lb package of garbage together...

Exactly, that's what it turns out to be "garbage", given that average adjudication time for I-751 is less than an hour. (thanks charmander)

[rjm_cmyk 75]

All fair points. Ultimately it's what you feel comfortable sending in. ATEOTD you just want to sleep well at night so you send in what suits your personal circumstances, the perceived view of the DHS of your country, what you actually have to offer and what your personal comfort level is.

I'm happy with all that but suggestions that you *have* to send in 30lb of paper may well be well meant but it's not an absolute requirement for everyone.

Edited May 17, 2016 by rjm_cmyk

[TBoneTX 43,247]

It's a mystery why anyone would want to risk an RFE or having to perform an extra step unnecessarily during any part of the immigration process.

[dmck 80]

Fundamentally we are not big risk takers, and combed over lots of previous posts. It came down to an assumption that each case has a limited amount of time to be reviewed. We felt it would likely be easier to follow several snap shots of time for banking, insurance, property etc. to make the conclusion our marriage was about us. Obviously some couples get questioned and they end up having to provide a stack of added docs. Fortunately our supplied evidence was just enough. Don't worry though, we don't plan to advocate our route is the right answer.

[charmander 692]

It's a mystery why anyone would want to risk an RFE or having to perform an extra step unnecessarily during any part of the immigration process.

There are ~180-200 thousand ROC petitioners each year and looking at the traffic on this website maybe 1-2%, but let's exaggerate and say 10% of all ROC cases gets advice from websites like this when they prepare their package. God knows what percentage also work with an attorney, let's say 30% but still on a good estimate more than 50-60% off all ROCs do not research what is needed thoroughly and prepare a simple package without even knowing they are risking anything. I don't think there is any mystery there. Once they get RFE, then they join VJ and desperately ask for suggestions. That's a different story.

If someone actively participates on this website and despite all horror stories wants to send a weak list of evidence, then yes it could be a mystery.