I-751 Photo books returned, please help advise

[hamkris 0]

We filed a joint I-751 petition and sent our photos in photo books we had made at Walgreens. Our photo books (2) were just returned with a letter stating , " we are returning items....it is a format we cannot place in your file for review by an officer...." Should I send them back in a different format or is it too late?  These were all the photos we sent so I'm very worried we will get denied because we don't have children together, have a 14 year age gap (wife older) and didn't think to send affidavits. We do have strong financials and other evidence, I believe, though. Is there any hope to for them to get pictures now if I send them?

[walter99 40]

Pictures don t matter so much for I 751 unless you made them while travelling abroad with your partner.

[Crazy Cat 39,938]

Unless they asked for pictures, I wouldn't bother. But, if you decide to send them, scan and print them on paper first.  There is no requirement to have children together or to have a small age gap.  You will not get a denial for those reasons.  If your financials and joint assets are reasonable, I don't think you will have an issue.  Good luck.

 

My calculations seem to indicate that less than 1% of I-751s are actually denied.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[Allaboutwaiting 2,501]

If they need more documents from you, they'll issue an RFE.

[Ash.1101 1,755]

I wouldn't bother sending them back.

But note that anything you send needs to be page by page, if its bound it needs to be easily unbindable (think 3 prong folder or binder, clips, etc.), they have to be able to put them through a scanner.

[Sarah_k92 112]

1 hour ago, Lucky Cat said:

Unless they asked for pictures, I wouldn't bother. But, if you decide to send them, scan and print them on paper first.  There is no requirement to have children together or to have a small age gap.  You will not get a denial for those reasons.  If your financials and joint assets are reasonable, I don't think you will have an issue.  Good luck.

 

My calculations seem to indicate that less than 1% of I-751s are actually denied.

That’s good to know.
I didn’t add my 2019 taxes as we decided to take the extension (July) as we owed a lot of money at the time and my husband lost his job due to covid. 
I’m sure I’ll be getting RFE for this. It has been going round and round in mind and really regret not filling at the time but we did what we had to do. I did include 2018 taxes.  But it’s good to know it’s a low denial rate. 

[Sarah_k92 112]

1 hour ago, hamkris said:

We filed a joint I-751 petition and sent our photos in photo books we had made at Walgreens. Our photo books (2) were just returned with a letter stating , " we are returning items....it is a format we cannot place in your file for review by an officer...." Should I send them back in a different format or is it too late?  These were all the photos we sent so I'm very worried we will get denied because we don't have children together, have a 14 year age gap (wife older) and didn't think to send affidavits. We do have strong financials and other evidence, I believe, though. Is there any hope to for them to get pictures now if I send them?

I wouldn’t worry about it too much. They could just send a RFE or simply not need them. Pictures do not always make a difference. They just want to see your merging your lives together. Good luck! 

[Chicken9999 4]

1 hour ago, Lucky Cat said:

Unless they asked for pictures, I wouldn't bother. But, if you decide to send them, scan and print them on paper first.  There is no requirement to have children together or to have a small age gap.  You will not get a denial for those reasons.  If your financials and joint assets are reasonable, I don't think you will have an issue.  Good luck.

 

My calculations seem to indicate that less than 1% of I-751s are actually denied.

Based on report of USICS that they gave us on their website. I did math on their numbers and found out 5% cases were denied.

Edited July 3, 2020 by Chicken9999

[Crazy Cat 39,938]

8 minutes ago, Chicken9999 said:

Based on report of USICS that they gave us on their website. I did math on their numbers and found out 5% cases were denied.

This is how I calculated it, based on first quarter of FY 2019:

 

In the 1st quarter of FY 2019, a total of 43, 588 I-751s were adjudicated.  Of those only 1287 were initially denied......that's less than 3%.......if 75% of the denials were ultimately appealed & approved (I read that somewhere), that pushes the denial rate for I-751s during that quarter to less than 1 %.....

 

Any way you look at it, denial is pretty rare.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[Chicken9999 4]

20 minutes ago, Lucky Cat said:

This is how I calculated it, based on first quarter of FY 2019:

 

In the 1st quarter of FY 2019, a total of 43, 588 I-751s were adjudicated.  Of those only 1287 were initially denied......that's less than 3%.......if 75% of the denials were ultimately appealed & approved (I read that somewhere), that pushes the denial rate for I-751s during that quarter to less than 1 %.....

 

Any way you look at it, denial is pretty rare.

 

 

I did look up on FY 2020 :).

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports and Studies/Immigration Forms Data/All Form Types/Quarterly_All_Forms_FY2020Q2.pdf

But as you said it's still pretty rare

Edited July 3, 2020 by Chicken9999

[Renegade 11]

Same thing happened with me, I'm just holding the album to take to the interview.

[DSOTM1973 52]

6 hours ago, Lucky Cat said:

Unless they asked for pictures, I wouldn't bother. But, if you decide to send them, scan and print them on paper first.  There is no requirement to have children together or to have a small age gap.  You will not get a denial for those reasons.  If your financials and joint assets are reasonable, I don't think you will have an issue.  Good luck.

 

My calculations seem to indicate that less than 1% of I-751s are actually denied.

Just for the sake of accuracy, it is actually on average 5% of cases get denied based USCIS stats they release every Q. They don't break down the denial reasoning, but it usually around that number. Maybe if you take out clerical errors, hardships, and withdrawals it drops to around 2-3% but that is guessing.  

 

Winning I-751 in court is NOT easy at all, it is a coin flip based on your judge, so it is hard to assume it is actually 75% of denials are approved later.

 

Then again even 5% denial is extremely low compared to other applications. 

 

Edited July 4, 2020 by DSOTM1973

[Crazy Cat 39,938]

7 minutes ago, DSOTM1973 said:

Just for the sake of accuracy, it is actually on average 5% of cases get denied based USCIS stats they release every Q. They don't break down the denial reasoning, but it usually around that number. Maybe if you take out clerical errors, hardships, and withdrawals it drops to around 2-3% but that is guessing.

 

like https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/USCIS/Resources/Reports and Studies/Immigration Forms Data/All Form Types/Quarterly_All_Forms_FY2020Q1.pdf

As I stated in my post above, I gave the numbers for the 1st quarter of FY 2019...In addition, I have read that about 75% of initially denied cases are appealed and approved. 1%, 3%, 5%.......very few I-751s are denied.

Edited July 4, 2020 by Lucky Cat

[mindthegap 2,550]

I sent hundreds of loose photos (printed at walgreens), not a photo book. 

In my FOIA response they are all there, scanned by USCIS. Presumably they bin the originals.