3+ years from filing and received RFE

[marlowecollins 5]

We filed for removal of conditions in May of 2017 with no further action from USCIS after biometrics.  In June of 2018 my wife filed a N-400 citizenship application (in hindsight a mistake, as combining the cases seems to have dramatically increased the delay for both).  In February of this year we made an "outside of normal processing time" inquiry and were simply told what we already knew- that the next step was an interview and there was nothing to do but wait.

 

We just received an RFE for the I-751.  Has anyone else with a longtime pending case had this happen recently?

Edited May 21, 2020 by marlowecollins

[NancyNguyen 1,657]

What does the RFE want?

[marlowecollins 5]

12 minutes ago, NancyNguyen said:

What does the RFE want?

It's not very specific like some of the ones I've seen posted here; for example it doesn't say that our evidence regarding anything is insufficient, nor does it list what we already provided like I saw in another person's RFE post .  It says "...we need more information from you to make a decision on your case..." and then under "what you need to do" it says "Submit evidence that proves that you and your spouse have/had a valid marriage, and it was not entered into for immigration purposes" and goes on to copy/paste the entire list of possible evidence from the original I-751 application instructions.

 

I have three more years worth of stuff I can dump on them, so I'm not worried about that- I'll pretty much just update the package I sent last time with fresh documents.  It's more why is this coming now after three years, and is this happening to other people?

Edited May 21, 2020 by marlowecollins

[portorusa 431]

My friend filed for removal in Jan.2017, she is still waiting...

[Timona 3,931]

That's incredibly a long time. I filed July 2019 and got my 10 card year 2 weeks or so ago. A lot of ROC filers from July 2019 got approved. Feel free to check the thread for statistics 

Edited May 22, 2020 by Timona

[Charmycole 25]

54 minutes ago, portorusa said:

My friend filed for removal in Jan.2017, she is still waiting...

WOW that’s scary now I’m worried about my case. 

[Charmycole 25]

26 minutes ago, Timona said:

I filed mine January 2019 and Im still waiting. I’m getting kinda worried myself 

[African Zealot 1,452]

12 hours ago, marlowecollins said:

I have three more years worth of stuff I can dump on them, so I'm not worried about that- I'll pretty much just update the package I sent last time with fresh documents.  It's more why is this coming now after three years, and is this happening to other people?

Mind reading is a difficult nigh impossible business, even more complicated for immigration.

[killadocg23 52]

Those waiting from 2017, Where are you located? What are your field offices.

[Fr8dog 312]

Mine was not that bad, but still took a long time. (Look at my time line if you want to know the dates).

It appears to me that when you sent in your file they just do a quick scan to see if "everything" is there. You get an RFE if something obvious is missing. Otherwise you go into back into the box of waiting.

When your file finally makes it out of the box, they look at it more in depth and issue RFE's if they want more detailed stuff (or if stuff has gone missing over the years).

Than there appears to be the "RFE for RFE sake" I have seen several people getting RFE's after putting in requests. Almost like the are going "Duh we forgot about your file, lets ask for more stuff so our stats don't look bad".

 

So to answer your question, no it is not uncommon to get an RFE after a long time. Read the RFE carefully and sent what they want. DO NOT ASSUME THAT PREVIOUS SENT ITEMS ARE STILL THERE. If it is requested, or not specifically listed as received, sent it again.

 

I do not believe the N400 delayed it, your file got stuck or went missing that happens at all stages of this "gift that keeps on giving" we call the visa journey.

[Scandi 3,970]

So, this is MY take on it:

 

I suspect this RFE is a good sign, tbh. Since it's been so long since you filed they obviously want more evidence to make sure your marriage is still ongoing, a lot can happen in 3 years.. So the RFE seems very normal to me.

 

I also believe that since they're bothering themselves with sending you an RFE, they're open to approve you without an interview, otherwise they would've just called you in for an interview and you'd bring the evidence then. So they just want to see that the marriage is ongoing (you should have a lot of new evidence since it's been 3 whole years since you filed), and if they're happy with your response they're ready to approve you.

Edited May 22, 2020 by Scandi

[marlowecollins 5]

1 hour ago, Fr8dog said:

Than there appears to be the "RFE for RFE sake" I have seen several people getting RFE's after putting in requests. Almost like the are going "Duh we forgot about your file, lets ask for more stuff so our stats don't look bad".

I've thought this might be the case- a way for whoever is responsible for clearing the case to make it look like it wasn't their fault that it sat with no action for years.  The really irritating part is that we have gone to the field office three times to get I-551 stamps (and now need a forth next month).  Every time we asked about our status and they told us "your interview should be really soon, I'm only going to give you a six month stamp."  Any one of those visits should have prompted someone to get to work.

 

1 hour ago, Fr8dog said:

So to answer your question, no it is not uncommon to get an RFE after a long time. Read the RFE carefully and sent what they want. DO NOT ASSUME THAT PREVIOUS SENT ITEMS ARE STILL THERE. If it is requested, or not specifically listed as received, sent it again.

They did literally just copy the whole list of suggested evidence from the I-751 instructions, so I'm basically going to copy the format of my first package and rebuild the whole thing with updated stuff.  The instructions specifically said not to resubmit anything that was already submitted.

 

5 minutes ago, Scandi said:

So, this is MY take on it:

 

I suspect this RFE is a good sign, tbh. Since it's been so long since you filed they obviously want more evidence to make sure your marriage is still ongoing, a lot can happen in 3 years.. So the RFE seems very normal to me.

 

I also believe that since they're bothering themselves with sending you an RFE, they're open to approve you without an interview, otherwise they would've just called you in for an interview and you'd bring the evidence then. So they just want to see that the marriage is ongoing (you should have a lot of new evidence since it's been 3 whole years since you filed), and if they're happy with your response they're ready to approve you.

That is another possibility that I considered: that they want to close the case, and can't/won't with old evidence, and that there was nothing wrong with my original evidence- they just want current stuff.

 

So, maybe after this she'll be approved.  Which would be good but honestly, since she was due for an I-751/I-400 combo interview, it's not really saving us any time/trouble because she'll still have to do the I-400 interview.  It would have been a lot easier for me to throw everything in a briefcase and just pull out what they asked for in the interview like we did for our AoS rather than scan, copy, index and mail everything like I'll have to do now.  It's also a lot easier to answer questions face to face rather than try and read the mind of whoever is deciding if your evidence is sufficient.

[Tm and Je 32]

6 hours ago, killadocg23 said:

Those waiting from 2017, Where are you located? What are your field offices.

I'm from the Seattle area. My l-751 is from September 5, 2017, and it is still pending. Most of these cases are delayed because we applied for N400 while I-751 pending. 

[marlowecollins 5]

5 minutes ago, Tm and Je said:

I'm from the Seattle area. My l-751 is from September 5, 2017, and it is still pending. Most of these cases are delayed because we applied for N400 while I-751 pending. 

We are also in the Seattle field office jurisdiction.  Through Tm and Je we learned of a third Seattle area filer in the same situation as us (3+ yr I-751/pending N-400).  That forum member also just received an RFE similar to ours.  IDK why all our cases got held up for so long, but it seems like someone is doing something now.

 

What really sucks is that the advice at the time we filed the N-400 was that it sped up the I-751 process, but the opposite seems to be true.

[Scandi 3,970]

1 hour ago, marlowecollins said:

 

Well, we look at it very differently then. What if your wife still has another year before getting an N-400 interview? Covid-19 has likely caused a backlog and for now we have no idea how bad that backlog will be. So let's say you still have another year until the interview, is it not worth it then to scan some more documents to get an approval on the i-751 in the meanwhile? I personally would much rather have a physical greencard while waiting for an N-400 interview, especially if the interview hasn't even been scheduled and may be far into the future. You paid for the ROC, may as well get the darn card. 

 

And regarding processing times, for some people filing for the N-400 does speed things up, while for others it's the opposite.

 

As an example, if the processing times for i-751 is 28 months at California Service Center (which I believe it is right now), and you file the N-400 as soon as you become eligible, and your field office only have a wait time of 3 months.. then yeah, you'll have a combo interview much earlier than waiting for 2 years at California Service Center. 

 

If your field office is super slow on the other hand, then it may have the opposite effect. Then you're likely to have your i-751 "put on hold" until your field office (months or years down the road) is finally ready to interview you, and you get interviewed for both. This isn't always the case, bit seems the most common.