RFE 2 year meeting requirement-what constitutes solid proof in the absence of passport stamps etc

[Rentybs 0]

We got an RFE for the 2 year meeting requirement. As it's our only chance, I want to make sure we do this right. Bit of context, my fiance (petitioner) and I met in a third country. Spain. I soon moved into his apartment but we don't have a rental agreement with both our names on it. I do have a census document with the same address along with a residential card, however they rejected it as the lease was signed by him before the qualifying period. We didn't require visas for the places we travelled to, therefore we don't have any passport stamps to show, and didn't think of keeping the airline tickets/boarding passes. What we have are :

One previous airline receipt with both our names on it

Social media pictures with dates

Airbnb booking history ( but I have to manually add the guest's name so not sure how valid this is ) 

iCloud pictures showing the place and date

 

I am kicking myself thinking we should have recorded something more while we were together, but we left due to Covid in a messy state and living together made us believe that we had enough. 

 

Do we send all this and hope for the best?

 

[Adventine 3,187]

Do you have any of the following?

 

- Email versions of your flight tickets/boarding passes. Normally airlines send you electronic notifications starting from the moment you purchase a ticket until boarding pass generation.

- Credit card or bank statements with transactions showing you made transactions in the same places and on the same dates 

[powerpuff 5,981]

ATM/credit card transactions from both of you would be best in this situation.

 

You say you didn’t need visas to visit places (within the EU I assume) but wouldn’t your fiancé have stamps when entering Spain from the US?

[Rentybs 0]

9 hours ago, Adventine said:

Do you have any of the following?

 

- Email versions of your flight tickets/boarding passes. Normally airlines send you electronic notifications starting from the moment you purchase a ticket until boarding pass generation.

- Credit card or bank statements with transactions showing you made transactions in the same places and on the same dates 

 My email searches have brought up nothing, I am a little OCD with cleaning up my emails and it has come back to bite me in the ###. I will check with him but I doubt it.

We could show bank statements I suppose, I have to look more into that. Do both statements have to be on the same dates? 

 

[Rentybs 0]

9 hours ago, powerpuff said:

ATM/credit card transactions from both of you would be best in this situation.

 

You say you didn’t need visas to visit places (within the EU I assume) but wouldn’t your fiancé have stamps when entering Spain from the US?

Yes, I will try but I doubt we both have entries on the same exact dates in the same place, usually one of us takes the money and we use that.

 

Yes you're absolutely right, he will have stamps of entering and leaving Spain, but those dates are also different from mine. But I suppose that could be useful to show that we were in fact in the same place during the same time. Thank you

[powerpuff 5,981]

4 hours ago, Rentybs said:

but those dates are also different from mine

So? When we included passport stamps we only included the petitioner’s because he visited me. Definitely include this😉 this is the best evidence out of all.

 

Try your best to look for bank transactions. It doesn’t have to be the same exact line for line, just here and there.

Edited August 4, 2021 by powerpuff

[Adventine 3,187]

4 hours ago, Rentybs said:

 My email searches have brought up nothing, I am a little OCD with cleaning up my emails and it has come back to bite me in the ###. I will check with him but I doubt it.

We could show bank statements I suppose, I have to look more into that. Do both statements have to be on the same dates? 

 

I also dislike seeing a full email inbox but I use the Archive function, not the Delete function.

 

The best evidence would be transactions done on the same date but if you don't have them, you don't have them. You'll have to see if there are transactions on close dates and show a pattern of the two of you being in the same places at approximately the same time.

 

[molehills 67]

8 hours ago, Rentybs said:

 My email searches have brought up nothing, I am a little OCD with cleaning up my emails and it has come back to bite me in the ###. I will check with him but I doubt it.

We could show bank statements I suppose, I have to look more into that. Do both statements have to be on the same dates? 

 

If you booked with a 3rd party like Expedia, the flight records might still be stored there. Same for any travel/lodging.

[Ed&Midori1031 330]

19 hours ago, Rentybs said:

We got an RFE for the 2 year meeting requirement. As it's our only chance, I want to make sure we do this right. Bit of context, my fiance (petitioner) and I met in a third country. Spain. I soon moved into his apartment but we don't have a rental agreement with both our names on it. I do have a census document with the same address along with a residential card, however they rejected it as the lease was signed by him before the qualifying period. We didn't require visas for the places we travelled to, therefore we don't have any passport stamps to show, and didn't think of keeping the airline tickets/boarding passes. What we have are :

One previous airline receipt with both our names on it

Social media pictures with dates

Airbnb booking history ( but I have to manually add the guest's name so not sure how valid this is ) 

iCloud pictures showing the place and date

 

I am kicking myself thinking we should have recorded something more while we were together, but we left due to Covid in a messy state and living together made us believe that we had enough. 

 

Do we send all this and hope for the best?

 

Airline tickets, passport stamps, hotel receipts, all strong sources of evidence. 

[Daisy.Chain 317]

Do airlines keep records of past tickets? Maybe you could contact them directly and ask! Worth a shot?

 

Could yourblandlord wrote an addendum pointing out that you have lived in the apartment since such time even though your name isn't formally on the lease? Ours did and I think it helped, but that was for ROC.

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

10 hours ago, Rentybs said:

 My email searches have brought up nothing, I am a little OCD with cleaning up my emails and it has come back to bite me in the ###. I will check with him but I doubt it.

We could show bank statements I suppose, I have to look more into that. Do both statements have to be on the same dates? 

 

Where did you book the ticket? You can find your past information on their websites if you have an account. For example if you are a JetBlue TrueBlue member you can see your past flights. If you booked on Expedia you can find your past tickets/bookings. Did you write a narrative about the time you spent together? I arrived in country on this date we moved in to an apartment on this date and lived there from X to X we traveled to this country on this date etc. Along with that add some photos and have them labeled with place, persons and dates. You can also have your entry stamp into/out of the country. Both of your credit/bank statements can show you were both in Spain in May and then you were both in Italy in June etc. 

For a bit of clarity; your fiance is American and had an apartment in Spain and you are from a European country? And you guys traveled in Europe together?

[Rentybs 0]

8 hours ago, powerpuff said:

So? When we included passport stamps we only included the petitioner’s because he visited me. Definitely include this😉 this is the best evidence out of all.

 

Try your best to look for bank transactions. It doesn’t have to be the same exact line for line, just here and there.

Thank you, we are trying this.

[Rentybs 0]

2 hours ago, Daisy.Chain said:

Do airlines keep records of past tickets? Maybe you could contact them directly and ask! Worth a shot?

 

Could yourblandlord wrote an addendum pointing out that you have lived in the apartment since such time even though your name isn't formally on the lease? Ours did and I think it helped, but that was for ROC.

Wow, I don't even remember which airline we used, it was pre -Covid. Well, again we have to get in touch with an old lady who lives in Spain, we really don't want to go to to all that trouble.

[Rentybs 0]

2 hours ago, Luckycuds said:

Where did you book the ticket? You can find your past information on their websites if you have an account. For example if you are a JetBlue TrueBlue member you can see your past flights. If you booked on Expedia you can find your past tickets/bookings. Did you write a narrative about the time you spent together? I arrived in country on this date we moved in to an apartment on this date and lived there from X to X we traveled to this country on this date etc. Along with that add some photos and have them labeled with place, persons and dates. You can also have your entry stamp into/out of the country. Both of your credit/bank statements can show you were both in Spain in May and then you were both in Italy in June etc. 

For a bit of clarity; your fiance is American and had an apartment in Spain and you are from a European country? And you guys traveled in Europe together?

I usually book throgh third party websites, in guest mode. All I could come up with is one flight history. Again, it's not a ticket or boarding pass. Yes we can easily do the pictures in those places we travelled to, but not sure if a screenshot from icloud showing the date and place  will be considered legit. 

Bank statements are hard as we both closed our Spanish bank accounts, we did make a few transactions using our parent country banks so hoping that some of them align. 

No no, he has  American and EU citizenship and I was from India with a Schengen visa.

Edited August 4, 2021 by Rentybs

[carmel34 3,538]

1 minute ago, Rentybs said:

he has  American and EU citizenship and I was from India with a Schengen visa

Best evidence will be his passport stamp showing the date he entered the EU.  Arriving from India to the EU, you should also have a passport stamp from the country of first EU entry.  I recall trying to put together evidence of my first visit to meet my now husband in Brazil, back then I had no idea it would be the beginning of a serious relationship and knew nothing about US immigration evidence for petitions, etc., so I did not keep any of the original boarding passes from the trip.  So I included ATM records, credit card transactions for the airline tickets, hotel and restaurants showing the dates I was in Brazil, and passport stamps (Brazil does entry and exit stamps) plus a couple of photos together for that first trip.  Later when our relationship got serious I did more research on the US immigration process and saved everything from all the many subsequent trips.  Good luck responding to the RFE!