RFE For Proof of Citizenship (Passport)

[mythlin 5]

Hi there everyone!

 

We got our RFE letter in the mail today and it's asking us to "submit a passport for proof of citizenship for you and your beneficiary".

 

Just to make sure we're gonna do everything right, this is just to provide a scan/picture of the information page of the passport, right? I was thinking just because of the wording that we could submit both our passports just be sure, even though it doesn't seem like the beneficiary's is required? Just to make sure we're not gonna get denied.

 

It's a little bit scary, especially since we sent in the petitioner's birth certificate but oh well, these things happen!

 

Thank you in advance for the help !

[OldUser 10,900]

Can you please post exact RFE wording, redacting any sensitive info?

 

What evidence of US citizenship was provided with I-129F submission?

[mythlin 5]

7 minutes ago, OldUser said:

Can you please post exact RFE wording, redacting any sensitive info?

 

What evidence of US citizenship was provided with I-129F submission?

 

The exact wording is as follows:

 

"Please submit a passport for proof of citizenship for you and your beneficiary."

 

And we submitted a photocopy (a photocopy of a certified copy) of the petitioner's birth certificate with the I-129F submission.

Edited yesterday at 12:48 AM by mythlin

[OldUser 10,900]

10 minutes ago, mythlin said:

 

The exact wording is as follows:

 

"Please submit a passport for proof of citizenship for you and your beneficiary."

 

And we submitted a photocopy (a photocopy of a certified copy) of the petitioner's birth certificate with the I-129F submission.

This is still not helpful. There is probably more text preceding this sentence explaining why it wasn't enough?

 

Was the US citizen born in the US?

Edited yesterday at 12:57 AM by OldUser

[mythlin 5]

8 minutes ago, OldUser said:

This is still not helpful. There is probably more text preceding this sentence explaining why it wasn't enough?

 

Was the US citizen born in the US?

 

That's all there is, unfortunately, and it has no explanation saying why it wasn't enough. For your convenience, however, here's the first page of the letter, which is the typical first page I've seen from others when they post their RFE:

 

And yes the US Citizen was born in the US.

[Sam Burns 220]

2 hours ago, mythlin said:

even though it doesn't seem like the beneficiary's is required?

It literally says in the RFE to send both passport information….

[mythlin 5]

1 minute ago, Sam Burns said:

It literally says in the RFE to send both passport information….

 

Yeah, that's what we thought, but the wording does feel vague, and I was under the impression that the beneficiary does not have to supply proof of citizenship at this stage, but rather at the embassy interview? Just feels strange to ask for both, but maybe something seemed weird and they just want clarification?

[TBoneTX 48,415]

"...for you and your beneficiary" sounds completely clear.  Your success throughout this process relies upon reading carefully, interpreting literally, and responding completely and accurately.

[rbv_shard 29]

1 minute ago, TBoneTX said:

"...for you and your beneficiary" sounds completely clear.  Your success throughout this process relies upon reading carefully, interpreting literally, and responding completely and accurately.

Being literal is usually a good thing, but in this case it says to submit the passport.  Literally, that would be both actual passports.

For my I-129F I sent a complete photocopy of my passport, all pages, in color.  And that was as the proof of citizenship (and proof of travel).  But wanting the actual passport is quite unusual.

[TBoneTX 48,415]

Now it's my turn not to have read carefully.   

 

I'd try what rbv_shard did -- photocopy all pages, in color.  Perhaps even take photos of each page and combine into one document, if feasible, using a program such as smallpdf.com to reduce the bulk.

[rbv_shard 29]

4 hours ago, mythlin said:

Hi there everyone!

 

We got our RFE letter in the mail today and it's asking us to "submit a passport for proof of citizenship for you and your beneficiary".

 

Just to make sure we're gonna do everything right, this is just to provide a scan/picture of the information page of the passport, right? I was thinking just because of the wording that we could submit both our passports just be sure, even though it doesn't seem like the beneficiary's is required? Just to make sure we're not gonna get denied.

 

It's a little bit scary, especially since we sent in the petitioner's birth certificate but oh well, these things happen!

 

Thank you in advance for the help !

It is definitely NOT a scan/picture/copy of just the information page, but the entire passport.  When they want just the biographical page, they say that.

VJ makes "ALL PAGES" quite clear, see bullet 8 at https://www.visajourney.com/guides/k1-fiance-visa/   But the official instructions also say "A copy of your unexpired U.S. passport", not just the biographical page, see "Required Initial Evidence" at https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

However, you've been RFE'd, and the RFE doesn't say "copy".

The only way their request makes sense to me is if whatever you sent the first time doesn't match the official government records (for at least one of you), and they want to see and authenticate the actual physical passport book.

Edited 21 hours ago by rbv_shard

[Demise 1,479]

Send a copy of cover + all pages. There's 2 reasons for this:

1. There is such a thing as a non-citizen national, which are generally people born in American Samoa (though some other instances exist like child born to NCN abroad or possibly birth in US minor outlying islands). The passports they get look the same aside an annotation on one of the back pages. NCNs are treated as US permanent residents for purposes of sponsoring a relative. 

2. Record keeping in US honestly kinda sucks and if you gave up your citizenship then that'd be pretty much just evidenced by a stamp somewhere in the visa pages and possibly a hole punch through the whole booklet which may or may not show up on the photocopy. 

 

Alternatively you can sidestep this whole thing by giving them a different proof, like a copy of a birth certificate or naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship. 

[mythlin 5]

8 hours ago, rbv_shard said:

It is definitely NOT a scan/picture/copy of just the information page, but the entire passport.  When they want just the biographical page, they say that.

VJ makes "ALL PAGES" quite clear, see bullet 8 at https://www.visajourney.com/guides/k1-fiance-visa/   But the official instructions also say "A copy of your unexpired U.S. passport", not just the biographical page, see "Required Initial Evidence" at https://www.uscis.gov/i-129f

However, you've been RFE'd, and the RFE doesn't say "copy".

The only way their request makes sense to me is if whatever you sent the first time doesn't match the official government records (for at least one of you), and they want to see and authenticate the actual physical passport book.

 

Yes, thank you for this. It really does seem like they're asking for the original for some reason and not a copy, otherwise it would say "a copy of a passport" surely right? It's so confusing to me, and I forgot to put that question specifically in the original post. Thank you for picking up on that by the way!

 

But yeah this is stressful. So far we've taken scans of every page of both our passports and scans of both our birth certificates too (as like an extra thing just in case).

 

Seems like they wanted all pages of the passport all along and not just the birth certificate, so that's interesting, definitely something to think about for others in future!

 

I wonder if we can like contact USCIS in some way (maybe using the live chat or something?) to ask for clarification because we're worried about getting this wrong and getting denied.

 

It's just so strange to me it's vague enough that it doesn't say "please send us your original passport" or "please send us a copy of your passport", because you're right, literally it sounds like it's saying it wants both of our actual, physical passports.

[mythlin 5]

7 hours ago, Demise said:

Send a copy of cover + all pages. There's 2 reasons for this:

1. There is such a thing as a non-citizen national, which are generally people born in American Samoa (though some other instances exist like child born to NCN abroad or possibly birth in US minor outlying islands). The passports they get look the same aside an annotation on one of the back pages. NCNs are treated as US permanent residents for purposes of sponsoring a relative. 

2. Record keeping in US honestly kinda sucks and if you gave up your citizenship then that'd be pretty much just evidenced by a stamp somewhere in the visa pages and possibly a hole punch through the whole booklet which may or may not show up on the photocopy. 

 

Alternatively you can sidestep this whole thing by giving them a different proof, like a copy of a birth certificate or naturalization certificate or certificate of citizenship. 

 

Yeah maybe they got confused somehow about the petitioner's birth certificate? And like you say want to check through all pages of the passport? Which is strange because the petitioner was born in California.

 

But yes they're asking for passport so we're planning on putting in all pages (of both of ours) and also both our birth certificates. Just to take what it says as literally as possible. Definitely a little worrying if they mean the actual, physical passports however.

[mythlin 5]

8 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

Now it's my turn not to have read carefully.   

 

I'd try what rbv_shard did -- photocopy all pages, in color.  Perhaps even take photos of each page and combine into one document, if feasible, using a program such as smallpdf.com to reduce the bulk.

 

I think it's definitely difficult to read this one carefully, because taking it literally does still feel vague!! But trust me, we're trying to read it as carefully as possible, hence asking for a second opinion here from all of you . (We were already scanning all pages as I was making this post!)

 

But are you suggesting we have photocopies (which are in colour yes) as well as photos of the pages too? Because we could do both absolutely. We, of course, want to get this right so we don't get denied!