SFbound

Back in November 2012, I had entered the U.S. on a K1 fiancé visa. The entire immigration process had gone very smoothly all the way up to, and including, the Adjustment of Status. Then, in February of this year (2015), my wife and I applied for Removal of Conditions.
End of June, however, we received an RFE. The adjudicator stated that we had not provided sufficient evidence of a bona fide marriage. This was a set-back, but not a reason to freak out, thanks to the many posts about RFEs here on VisaJourney. So, thank you very much to all of you who have shared your experiences with Requests for Evidence on this site! In our original application, we had included the following documents: Pictures from joint vacation trips Travel itineraries that correlated with the pictures Complementary assignments as primary beneficiaries for retirement accounts Recent statements showing joint ownership of checkings and investment accounts Recent tax statement showing joint ownership of our car Recent utility bill addressed to both of us Recent mobile phone invoice, listing both of our mobile phones on the same contract The keyword here is "recent." Our assumption was this: If we can show that we're living together and have shared financial interests now, then that would sufficiently demonstrate that we have a bona fide marriage. After all, we had already successfully proven in our Green Card interview that our marriage is, indeed, bona fide. We were wrong. The letter from USCIS expressly stated that we had only included recent documents, instead of covering the entire duration since our wedding. This is important to note, because quite a few posts in the VisaJourney forums state that it is not necessary to cover this entire duration. At least our adjudicator very obviously did not agree with that point of view… The stack of documents -- just under an inch thick -- that we then sent to USCIS contained the following, all of them starting as far back as the month after our wedding: Both drivers licenses Both SSN cards Joint checking account banking statements for every four months since our wedding Health insurance cards showing shared coverage Beneficiary information for IRAs, listing each other as primary beneficiary Enrollment confirmation for employment benefits, listing each other as primary beneficiary Car insurance listing both of us as "operators" Purchase and loan documents for jointly purchased car Jointly filed tax returns for 2012, 2013, 2014 Selection of utility bills, showing both of our names, and/or shared services -- like a Hulu subscription -- under one of our names Excerpts from our Wills and Powers-of-Attorney Year-end card from 2012, telling our story, and a receipt showing that 70 copies of the card were ordered We submitted this package mid-July, and it was delivered to the service center in Laguna Niguel, CA, on July 29. On August 10, we received our approval letter. The now-unconditional Green Card arrived a week later. I hope that sharing this little story, and our list of document, will make the process a little bit easier for other VisaJourney members out there. Good luck to all of you! J & J