Masha and Bear

Thank you! Thank you for your congratulations and support!!

Hello Visa Journey Community,

I filed our I-129f petition on October 5, 2012. Our NOA1 was sent out October 17, 2012. I made a huge error inexcusable error. Luckily my fiancé forgave me . I sent the I-129f form and the check, no supporting materials of any kind.

When my fiancé realized what I had done, we researched our options. I posted on a message board that immigration lawyers from the country respond to. Half the lawyers told us to wait for our rejection and the other half told us withdraw our petition and re-file. The lawyers seemed certain we would receive a rejection and not an RFE, since I had included none of the supporting materials.

A Visa Journey member sent us a link to the Visa Journey page of couple that had done the same thing. They sent in all the missing material without waiting to hear from USCIS and their petition was approved! So, we decided this was our best option, instead of waiting.

I emailed USCIS twice, both times explaining our situation and asking if we could send in supporting material before getting a response from them. In their first response USCIS said it was okay if I sent in our supporting materials without an RFE, in the second they advised against it and said we should wait to hear from them.

We decided to prepare all of the missing materials and send them in, below is our table of contents. I sent in our supporting materials on December 6th 2012.

I wrote a cover letter explaining my mistake, how terrible I felt and asked them to please consider this supporting material with our petition. I asked some family and friends that had spent time with us together during her visit to America to write a letter of support, and many did. They all included their addresses, phone and emails.

We included a lot of pictures from my visit to Russia and her subsequent visit to the USA. I printed many of them out (2-3 to a page) on photo paper at home using my Epson XP-300 (an inexpensive printer) and made higher quality prints of 6 or 7 of the best photos at a local pharmacy. We included a total of about 30 pictures.

Our evidences from Russia and America included our boarding passes, train tickets, museum passes and tickets, concert tickets and attraction tickets. We made sure to select photos that showed us together at the attractions we had visited.

Each of the 14 points below were placed into their own numbered manila folder, from what I understand they would discard these and put them into their own system with holes at the top. I had my official photos taken at my local pharmacy, she took her photo at home in Russia and I printed it out on photo paper at home. I was worried the resolution wouldn’t be high enough, but it seems to have been fine.

We were pretty sure that because of my massive mistake our petition would just be rejected, or at best we would receive an RFE. We were sure to carefully prepare our materials, and got lucky. Our materials got put together with our petition.

Good luck to everyone and thank you Visa Journey community!!

We have learned invaluable information on this site and will rely on it in the future to hopefully help us successfully navigate the steps ahead.

Table of Contents:

1 – I-797C, Notice of Action for Case with receipt number __________________.

2 – Copy of All Pages in petitioner’s ___________ United States Passport

3 – ________________’s G-325A form

4 – ________________’s G-325A form

- A. Correction – Fiancé does not have a middle name

5 – Official Photo of Petitioner

6 – Official Photo of Fiancé

7 – __________ ___________’s Original Statement of Intent and Ability to Marry

8 – __________ ___________’s Original Statement of Intent and Ability to Marry

9 – Joint cover letter by _________ __________ (petitioner) and ___________ _____________fiancé)

10 – Photos and Evidence from our time together during ____petitioner’s__ trip to ___(City)___ Russia

A. Registration form for __petitioner’s__ Russian Travel Visa in___Russian city____ by ___fiancé___ with certified and notarized translation.

11 – Photos and Evidence from our time together during Russian fiancé’s vacation to The United States:

12 – Letters from family and friends in support of our petition: 5 letters of support from family and 2 from friends

13 – A Sample of __petitioner’s__ and __fiance’s__ E-mail Correspondence

14– A Sample of __petitioner’s__ and __fiance’s__ Skype Correspondence

We are astonished and elated! Our petition was approved yesterday (4-22-2013) without an RFE!!!!!

It is very late, more to come tomorrow...

Thanks for your post, it is nice to now we are not alone . Our congratulations on your long awaited visa!

This is exactly what my fiancee and I did when we initially applied. We just skipped merrily over to the USCIS web forms and filled in the I-129F, slipped the check in there and then waited five months for the initial review to finish, only to be outright denied, with no sign of an RFE. I don't think the file even got to the stage where an RFE would have been possible. I would expect this to be the case with you guys, as it is simply an incomplete filing. It made us feel silly, I assure you!

Following that, we sucked it up, and resubmitted. We did it all again, and put together a pretty impressive evidential package, and it all went through smoothly. I cannot for the life of me remember where, but somewhere along the line they will ask if you have been denied previously, and what your "A Number" is. You'll be able to get that from the denial letter they'll send you, just ensure that you fill that box in, as I assume it allows them to go through and prevent it from flagging up as a duplicate.

There is no need for a lawyer at this stage. It's a simple error, but means you will likely have to start again. It will add a few months to the process for you, which is a pain, but thats the price we pay for not doing our research properly from the get go! We made this very same error last August, and at long last my visa was issued on friday. We never sent any additional evidence in, prior to the denial so I can't say how that would work, but be prepared to refile.

Good luck! And know that you're not the only ones to have made this mistake!

Mike

Wonderful! Thank you, thank you! It does not seem that it can hurt to try.

Masha and Patrick

As you have only sent the form and a check, you will most likely be denied which you know. Some people get RFE'd but that's typically when only a couple of things are missing. Not everything.

However! All is not necessarily lost.

See this thread here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/284658-screwed-up-just-sent-in-form-and-fee/page__view__findpost__p__4384427 in which someone did just as you did, and rectified it without having to refile. Read this thread.

Also here: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/376973-i-think-i-did-the-k1-wrong-help-please/ she also sent the info prior to RFE and was received NOA2. Here is a thread similar to yours where she explains she was approved: http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/394961-sent-i-129f-application-form-and-check-payment-without-other-requirements/

There's no guarantee you'll be okay, but you certainly should try!

Yes you're correct. When there's NO evidence they tend to deny. if there's only some evidence and bits missing then they usually RFE (or RFI)

No. More likely to deny than RFE in this situation.

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OP - DO NOT wait for an RFE. Get on this now. keep a copy of everything you submit in case it doesn't match up and you do get RFE'd (instead of denied). You stand more of a chance of approval by sending the missing documents with a copy of your NOA1 than you do waiting for an RFE that may or may not come.

Thank you for your replies and thanks to all for this forum.

Not surprisingly there seem to be very few examples of petitioners that have made this massive error or omission. We would be very happy to hear from anyone who did the same thing or others who have heard of such an error.

I have called USCIS 5 times and each helpline operator told me that the case would not be rejected without an RFE, but it seems that I should not put too much confidence in what they say.

I am returning to Khabarovsk to visit over my holiday break from teaching, should we marry then and then apply for a K-3?

Is it time to lawyer up? Can they actually cut through the red tape at all?

Your insights are greatly appreciated.

I filed my I-129F with only the petition form and a check. I will not bore you with the excuse for how I managed to do this, sufficient to say I feel awful and very, very foolish. On October 15th the case was accepted and it is now in "initial review". I received an I-797 form with a receipt number a few days ago.

Should I wait for an RFE and then respond with all of our materials, or should I withdraw the petition and then resubmit the I-129F will all of our evidence? I have called the USCIS help line 5 times, one time being transferred to a higher level, and all of them told me that the petition will be placed on hold and I will receive an RFE and that I should just wait for that letter and then respond.

If I withdraw does anyone have a guess as to how long before I can resubmit the petition? Any suggestions would be appreciated. I posted it on one of those free ask a lawyer sites (http://www.avvo.com/legal-answers/filed-a-i-129f-petition-without-any-supporting-mat-973939.html?callable=true&published=true) and the consensus seems to be withdraw the petition and carefully re-file the petition.

Thank you!

Patrick

Congratulations!

HI there. I'm sure this has been asked on the forum before, but I've searched and can't find the answer I need. At question 3 it asks you to list your spouse and any children. As we are not married yet he is not my spouse so does he leave my name out there and just add my children who will be accompanying me? Or does he put my name there and in brackets fiancé (or something like that)?

Thanks

I-134s are not listed in the instructions for the I-129F. Should it be included with the I-129F petition? Is it something that my fiance should bring to her interview?

We did call. Lady said she did not know what that meant. But since there was A-number on the form she suggested to consider it good news.

Is calling USCIS worth while? It seems that I get different answers from different helpers.

The details provided instructions for the I-129F are vague when it comes to "any evidence you wish to establish your mutual intent", is there a comprehensive list or should I just comb through information people have posted?

My fiance has a travel visa and visited me in August. She returned to Russia and we have now filed an I-129F. Will her visa be automatically frozen, or should she be able to visit as long as it is valid? Thank you.