List of Common Reasons for RFE at NVC Stage (2022)

[chaoticenergy 32]

Hello all, I am trying to collect all the common reasons for getting an rfe at NVC stage. Below, I summarize what I have found so far:

(reasons <- possible preventative measures)

 

1. Financial Evidence

- signature/date on AOS/I-864 <- make sure the signatures and dates are handwritten with black ink and scanned properly.

- W2/1099 missing or numbers do not match <- Be sure to provide all W2 and 1099 available. If missing, include an explanation. Also submit IRS tax return transcript alongside. Be sure that all the numbers match exactly on the AOS.

- I864A is missing when a married sponsor's tax was filed jointly (issue when it is unclear whether the individual's single income alone can cover the support amount)

- Petitioner has no W2/1099 for not living/working in the US <- Be sure to include a signed/dated letter of explanation. Do not just provide a foreign tax form without any explanation.

 

2. Civil Documents

- Police certificate missing/incorrect format <- make sure to check out the reciprocity table on the Dept of State website. Also make sure the form is correct with others who went through similar processes involving police certificates from the same country. Make sure you have an up-to-date information as the reciprocity table can change abruptly without notice. Make sure the police certificate is not over 6 months old (NVC takes 3 months to process as of now and if it is older than 6 months, by the time you respond to an rfe your police certificate will be out of date).

- Foreign police certificate <- Be sure to provide a police certificate from every country you stayed for over 6 months. Sometimes NVC asks for police certificates from countries you stayed for less than 6 months. If you cannot get a police certificate from a faraway country you temporarily stayed, be sure to include a letter of explanation clearly stating how long you stayed there. It is a good idea to get a police certificate if possible (but it takes a few months for many countries and may be difficult to get one overseas).

- Birth Certificate <- Again country specific. For example, for a Korean national you need the Basic Certificate + Certificate of Family Relations, both "detailed". Regardless of your nationality, all documents must include certified translations (in a single PDF) which is not over 1 year old. A very common rfe I saw was translators leaving out a mostly blank second page. The translation must also include the second page even if it is blank with just a page number at the bottom.

 

3. Petitioner Domicile Issue

- Your petitioner (and of course any joint sponsor) must provide proof of US domicile status. It is very common for a petitioner to be residing abroad with their spouse (applicant), in which case a letter of intent to (re-)establish US domicile status must also be submitted along with as much evidence as possible of the petitioner having maintained US domicile status (voting record, driver license, evidence of filing taxes, bank certificates based in the US, home address, letters addressed to the petitioner, US insurance information, phone bills, etc). Some petitioners end up moving to the US beforehand for this very reason - others sign a lease (some with their extended family members) on a basement or cottage house.

 

4. Scan/Document Quality Issue

- Scan blurry/illegible <- make sure your scan is legible and clear

- Document cropped <- I've seen people getting rfe for submitting a document that was improperly cropped and the decimal digits were cut off in the dollar amount (1900. instead of 1900.00 for example). This is a very dumb rfe to have.

- Passport Scan <- be sure it is color scan showing the full 2 pages. It cannot just show your bio page like a card.

 

5. No reason/NVC mistake

- Surprisingly common: even when you do everything right, sometimes NVC requests the same document you already submitted and flags it missing for no apparent reason.

 

Can you think of/remember other issues people faced at this stage? It is critical for a lot of us to get DQ'ed on the first try to avoid unnecessary delays (pending obligations, pregnancy, kids school, etc). Thanks.

Edited July 29, 2022 by chaoticenergy

[M.Knaebel 25]

3 hours ago, chaoticenergy said:

2. Civil Documents

- Police certificate ... Make sure the police certificate is not over 6 months old (NVC takes 3 months to process as of now and if it is older than 6 months, by the time you respond to an rfe your police certificate will be out of date).

 

 

Police certificates are valid for two years according to this website.

 

https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html

 

"Important: Police certificates expire after two years, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued."

Edited July 29, 2022 by M.Knaebel

[Pat2021 43]

On 7/29/2022 at 5:01 PM, chaoticenergy said:

2. Civil Documents

- Police certificate missing/incorrect format <- make sure to check out the reciprocity table on the Dept of State website. Also make sure the form is correct with others who went through similar processes involving police certificates from the same country. Make sure you have an up-to-date information as the reciprocity table can change abruptly without notice. Make sure the police certificate is not over 6 months old (NVC takes 3 months to process as of now and if it is older than 6 months, by the time you respond to an rfe your police certificate will be out of date).

Why 6 months? On the official website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html) it states:

"Have ever lived in another country for 12 months or more"

 

I've lived in Singapore for 10 months and somehow had it as "required document", so I submitted a signed affidavit saying that I've only lived there 10 months, with entry and exit proof, and as such do not believe I require a police certificate.

Am I likely to get an RFE?

[chaoticenergy 32]

9 hours ago, Pat2021 said:

Why 6 months? On the official website (https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/the-immigrant-visa-process/step-5-collect-financial-evidence-and-other-supporting-documents/step-7-collect-civil-documents.html) it states:

"Have ever lived in another country for 12 months or more"

 

I've lived in Singapore for 10 months and somehow had it as "required document", so I submitted a signed affidavit saying that I've only lived there 10 months, with entry and exit proof, and as such do not believe I require a police certificate.

Am I likely to get an RFE?

No one can say and you are likely to be okay for NVC but your consular officer might ask for a police certificate from that country. This is not based on their official statements but from what I have observed and advice from other applicants and immigration attorneys. NVC required a Canadian police certificate from me even though I had only been in Canada for 1 month at the time. Like you, I attached an explanation in place of a police certificate, but because I obtained a Canadian police certificate after my docs were submitted, I simply added it in “additional documents”. Once I get DQ’ed (hopefully), I will be getting an updated police certificate from Canada to take with me to the interview because I have been here longer now while waiting to get DQ’ed.

Edited August 1, 2022 by chaoticenergy

[Pat2021 43]

13 hours ago, chaoticenergy said:

No one can say and you are likely to be okay for NVC but your consular officer might ask for a police certificate from that country. This is not based on their official statements but from what I have observed and advice from other applicants and immigration attorneys. NVC required a Canadian police certificate from me even though I had only been in Canada for 1 month at the time. Like you, I attached an explanation in place of a police certificate, but because I obtained a Canadian police certificate after my docs were submitted, I simply added it in “additional documents”. Once I get DQ’ed (hopefully), I will be getting an updated police certificate from Canada to take with me to the interview because I have been here longer now while waiting to get DQ’ed.

Thank you. I mean, I don't live there anymore and haven't for years, it was just for a study abroad program. So hopefully it should be OK?

[chaoticenergy 32]

I found an old post with a spreadsheet. Maybe we can do something similar with updated information for 2022?

 

 

[chaoticenergy 32]

Does anyone know if we need last 3 years of tax documents or would the most recent tax year (2021) docs suffice?

[Chancy 6,233]

52 minutes ago, chaoticenergy said:

Does anyone know if we need last 3 years of tax documents or would the most recent tax year (2021) docs suffice?

 

The income numbers from the last 3 tax years must be listed on the I-864, but only the tax documents from the most recent tax year are required for submission.  The tax documents from the other 2 years are optional.

 

[chaoticenergy 32]

Adding another reason for an rfe (and I should have included in the original post): missing divorce decree when applicable.

[chaoticenergy 32]

On 8/5/2022 at 11:08 PM, Chancy said:

 

The income numbers from the last 3 tax years must be listed on the I-864, but only the tax documents from the most recent tax year are required for submission.  The tax documents from the other 2 years are optional.

 

I was actually told if you are not providing supporting documents, only 24a must be filled out (eg. 2021 income). In several I864 guide videos and my own lawyer insisted.

 

The wording is not so clear; just says don't leave out 24a, but there's nothing about 24b and 24c. Quite confused and maybe this stuff is immaterial after all, but would like to get clear answers.

Edited August 9, 2022 by chaoticenergy

[ramiz 0]

nvc errors can be more extensive like in our case. They re-flagged paid applicants and sponsor as un-paid and duplicated applications of children. 

[chaoticenergy 32]

16 minutes ago, ramiz said:

nvc errors can be more extensive like in our case. They re-flagged paid applicants and sponsor as un-paid and duplicated applications of children. 

Your situation is technically not an RFE because it became problematic even before anything was reviewed by NVC due to technical glitch, but technical glitch can happen at any stage. Wish there was a way to resolve it quickly in such cases, but really, back-and-forth emails will just take forever. Whoever came up with the idea to suspend all phone communications to reduce "critical backlogs" was really short-sighted in my opinion.

[chaoticenergy 32]

Learned from @Chancy today.

 

If your sponsor or joint sponsor filed taxes as "married filing jointly", then they need to provide every W2 AND 1099 as it is stated on the tax transcript even if they are submitting IRS Tax Return Transcript to go with it.

 

So, the rules appear to be:

1. Submitting Tax Returns (1040) = provide all W2s and 1099s

2. Submitting Tax Return Transcript but not "married filing jointly" = the transcript should do the job

3. Submitting Tax Return Transcript and "married filing jointly" = provide all W2s and 1099s

4. For 2021 taxes not processed yet: IRS Wage and Income Transcript can be asked additionally (+ W2s and 1099s if married filing jointly per my FE Note)

 

It is a good idea to also add recent pay stubs, employment letter, etc.

 

Someone correct me if above is incorrect.

[Chancy 6,233]

21 minutes ago, chaoticenergy said:

If your sponsor or joint sponsor filed taxes as "married filing jointly", then they need to provide every W2 AND 1099 as it is stated on the tax transcript even if they are submitting IRS Tax Return Transcript to go with it.

 

Not quite.  The W2/1099 might be required along with the Tax Return Transcript if the transcript indicates MFJ filing and the sponsor is not combining income with their spouse.  Note also that for those who filed MFJ and indicated in their tax filing that they are self-employed, different instructions apply.

 

Best to refer to the latest official form instructions for the I-864 here -- https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864instr.pdf

 

[chaoticenergy 32]

2 minutes ago, Chancy said:

 

Not quite.  The W2/1099 might be required along with the Tax Return Transcript if the transcript indicates MFJ filing and the sponsor is not combining income with their spouse.  Note also that for those who filed MFJ and indicated in their tax filing that they are self-employed, different instructions apply.

 

Best to refer to the latest official form instructions for the I-864 here -- https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/forms/i-864instr.pdf

 

Yes, thank you! MFJ + not combining income with spouse to qualify.

 

Also good point about self-employed folks.