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

[Ontarkie 13,920]

~~Hijack post removed. Please do not post questions for your own case in other member's threads.~~

[MrsSmithh 29]

On 7/29/2022 at 12:01 PM, chaoticenergy said:

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process as of now and if it is older than 6 months, by the time you respond to an rfe your police certificate will be out of date).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.

So when -#5 happens, what do you do ?

[chaoticenergy 32]

1 minute ago, MrsSmithh said:

So when -#5 happens, what do you do ?

Yeah, it's so frustrating. What I was told was to send the document again (maybe with a cover letter explaining that it was already accepted) and send an inquiry and wait all over again. If anyone else has a better way to resolve an issue like this, please comment

[MrsSmithh 29]

3 minutes ago, chaoticenergy said:

Yeah, it's so frustrating. What I was told was to send the document again (maybe with a cover letter explaining that it was already accepted) and send an inquiry and wait all over again. If anyone else has a better way to resolve an issue like this, please comment

For their mistake ? This is absurd .. waiting another 2.5 months…… did you get DQ’d after you did this ? Did you get a response to the inquiry fast ?

Edited August 18, 2022 by MrsSmithh

[chaoticenergy 32]

3 minutes ago, MrsSmithh said:

For their mistake ? This is absurd .. waiting another 2.5 months…… did you get DQ’d after you did this ? Did you get a response to the inquiry fast ?

No, I am not DQ yet. I made this list to reduce my anxiety for myself. I am dealing with an RFE (but obvious fault of our own).

 

I did have some private chats with people who were going through similar situations like you and honestly the prognosis is not very encouraging. I hope someone else will come to this thread and suggest a different solution. So sorry.

[Ricardo Silva 0]

On 7/29/2022 at 4:11 PM, M.Knaebel said:

 

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."

I believe the problem here is the fact that some police certificates have expiration dates different from NVC rules (in Brazil it's valid for 3 months). But in this case, in my understanding, NVC expiration date (2 years) prevails.

[Serpentmoon 2]

Number 5 .. twice now I;ve had to re-submit documents I already have,, So we've had to re-submit and wait another 65 days each time.. So frustrating. And theres nothing you can do but re-submit.. No onee to call and talk to and yeah, submit an email taht takes another couple months to reply..

[Chanel H. 41]

1 hour ago, Serpentmoon said:

Number 5 .. twice now I;ve had to re-submit documents I already have,, So we've had to re-submit and wait another 65 days each time.. So frustrating. And theres nothing you can do but re-submit.. No onee to call and talk to and yeah, submit an email taht takes another couple months to reply..

Do you mean this is your 5th RFE?

[Serpentmoon 2]

NO.. it was number 5 on the list... OH my -just turned in my second set today... Almost gave me a nervous breakdown when I opend my email and logged in and saw I had sumit more again !  I cant imagine doing it 5 times....I wonder what was the most times people had to keep  submitting document again?

[NikoTaino 51]

1 hour ago, Serpentmoon said:

Number 5 .. twice now I;ve had to re-submit documents I already have,, So we've had to re-submit and wait another 65 days each time.. So frustrating. And theres nothing you can do but re-submit.. No onee to call and talk to and yeah, submit an email taht takes another couple months to reply..

Did you double check everything is right?

- Household size

- Current Individual annual income

- Total income from most recent tax returns

- Signature and date by hand

 

[Serpentmoon 2]

Actually the first time was my fault- I did not hand sign the support affadavit... So I hand signed it and sent it back...Then yesterday was told that I need to send all the 10 pages of affadavit -which I already did once...Had they told me the first time to send hand signed page 8 and re-submit all the other 9 pages I would have done that..But they didnt't -just asked for page 8 hand signed and dated.. So here I am back of the line again for another 65 days unless I get lucky and they check the documents sooner..

[NikoTaino 51]

3 hours ago, Serpentmoon said:

Actually the first time was my fault- I did not hand sign the support affadavit... So I hand signed it and sent it back...Then yesterday was told that I need to send all the 10 pages of affadavit -which I already did once...Had they told me the first time to send hand signed page 8 and re-submit all the other 9 pages I would have done that..But they didnt't -just asked for page 8 hand signed and dated.. So here I am back of the line again for another 65 days unless I get lucky and they check the documents sooner..

That’s why they didn't DQ your case 😔.

They mention page 8 to let you know which signature is being requested. But you should always upload all pages at once. 

Hope you get an answer soon! Good luck! ☺️

[Serpentmoon 2]

I know now.. Maybe others will learn... I wish they had said to submit all 10 pages... but its been done yesterday... so my ignorance cost me.. I just dont see the pint of having people go back to the end of the line.. It is what it is..

[NikoTaino 51]

19 minutes ago, Serpentmoon said:

I know now.. Maybe others will learn... I wish they had said to submit all 10 pages... but its been done yesterday... so my ignorance cost me.. I just dont see the pint of having people go back to the end of the line.. It is what it is..

Unfortunately the CEAC doesn't help with those generic RFE messages.