wildcrdj

We got a similarly vaguely-worded RFE (it didn't list any specific documents they wanted, but had the "Please submit additional evidence to show you and your former spouse entered the marriage in good faith" section the same).

In our RFE response we sent:

* Updated residential lease

* Both of our wills (didn't send / have first time)

* Electric bill with both our names (had to call and argue with electric company to get my wife's name added, as the service predated our marriage. They don't normally do that, but I explained that we needed it for USCIS and they eventually agreed)

* Updated 401k statement with my wife as beneficiary

* 2016 and 2017 tax forms / statements

* Health insurance cards

* Credit card statement with both our names

* Notarized affidavit from my parents

* My wife's family registry (koseki) from Japan

* Photos from our life/trips since the i-751 filing

In our original i-751 we had sent:

* i-751 form, passport copies, etc

* Proof of residence (various statements / letters addressed to us)

* 2014 and 2015 tax statements (jointly filed)

* Health insurance coverage information (cards and 1095-C)

* 401k statements/beneficiary

* Adoption records for a cat we adopted together

* Credit card and bank statements with joint accounts

* Trip receipts from joint vacations

* Photos of life/trips together since marriage

We just got the "card being produced" email today, so I assume that means it worked...

Spent much of the past weekend trying to assemble evidence for RFE but still not very confident, as there's little we didn't send the first time.

I wish they would be clear about what they didn't like about our evidence. We gave them stuff from every category except affidavits (which we are working on). Not feeling very hopeful, as it seems so random (can't think of anything that would have triggered a flag or whatever, we have no unusual circumstances).

Yeah, we sent all the tax returns that existed at the time, but thanks to the delay there are more now....  might as well send them too. Since we already sent a couple years worth I doubt it will make much difference, but who knows.

Hopefully affidavits will help.

On 9/3/2018 at 5:47 AM, Lemon23 said:

You answered your question, and yes you cannot ask why they sent you RFE. RFE is way better than interview since interview is more prone to mistakes. 

 

I believe it was listed on the RFE all the USCIS were asking. Just provide all of those evidences and explain to them in writing just in case you don't have the evidences that they were asking, for them to know why you don't have it.  

 

Good luck!

The RFE just lists the same thing that the i-751 document does, it does not specify any specific missing thing. (Same as the list on page 5 of i-751 instructions, "Evidence of the Relationship"). 

We already sent a bunch of stuff from this list, so its not clear what they thought was missing. Only things I can think of are updated financial records (taxes for 2016 and 2017 which weren't available when we filed, for example) and affidavits (which we didn't include since I had read they were not very useful, perhaps a mistake).

Does anyone know if it is possible to make an Infopass appointment to inquire about _why_ you received an RFE? Ours just says to send evidence of bona-fide marriage, but since (as I mentioned) we already sent evidence in every requested category, I'm not at all sure what we can send that will fix the situation. I had hoped they would say _why_ in the RFE...

But I suspect the answer is no, as the officer would not be aware of why the reviewer gave us an RFE. So I guess there is not much to do... just resend some of the same stuff? Only new hting I can think of is affidavits and one more year tax return..

Ugh. Despite sending in a giant packet of evidence, we got a RFE. I had expected it would say "here's what we think you need" but it just asks for the same kinds of evidence we sent in first time. We sent bank statements, tax records, beneficiary info, insurance documents, photos, etc. Will have to spend the weekend thinking up more stuff (I guess affidavits? More photos and such? We already sent almost all the financial documents... I can send 2017 tax records now too I guess)

9 minutes ago, designbg said:

I don't think there is a specific order in those case numbers. You might find WAC17223 to be have a receipt date of 5/9/17, and WAC17214 a receipt date of 5/30/17 for example.

Yeah, and I don't think the order filed implies processing order, either. Which could be due to how they hand them out to officers (like if they randomly assign, some staff might process faster than others or run into issues, etc).

We filed May 5 at CSC (WAC17222...) and no updates, but nice to see some CSC filers getting movement.

The buttons are disabled --- I was able to go into console and remove the disabled param, but that only affects the style (instead of grey text, it changes to blue and gets a grey box background on hover). But the click handler is still not working.

Best guess is they have a javascript bug in Chrome and Safari (which use the same underlying engine). The JS code is large/obfuscated and they don't have any error messages / debug info.

Best solution for now is to use Firefox or IE or Edge if possible.

41 minutes ago, Tina and Johan said:

I was also using a laptop, and both chrome and safari.  It was just easier for me to screenshot my phone.

I had the same problem! I think I ended up using Edge (Microsoft) or Firefox to get around it. Not sure if everyone is having this problem with Webkit browsers (Chrome and Safari) or if there are other conditions that cause it, but I did see the same thing (unable to go to "Next Week"). 

Edit: Just tried again now in Chrome and "Next Week" is not clickable.

5 minutes ago, Jameson78 said:

Well, you wrote that we should never forget why we came to Amerikwa, in the context of sympathizing with DACA applicants, whose parents illegally snuck into the country in order to derive benefit from being in an affluent economy and in proximity to high agency, white people. Since you wrote it in that context, this strongly implies that you yourself moved for the same reasons. I'm literally going on what you wrote. Maybe you meant it, maybe you didn't (I'm not a mind-reader), but you are the one who wrote it, not me, lol.

Wow, racism and mind reading in a single post! So talented.

I don't blame the officers themselves, but the policy is ridiculous. The wait is because they can't process applications in a reasonable time. Everyone should get an automatic 1 year extension, not this weird completely arbitrary system.

We got lucky and got a 1 year extension, but it shouldn't be luck. But again, my complaint is with USCIS not the individual officers.

Extension time seems arbitrary. We mentioned travel without any specific plans (just "we will be going back to Japan sometime this year") and got a 1 year extension (we didn't ask for any specific length of extension). Others seem to have gotten short extensions even with some specific plans. I suspect the particular person you end up talking to has a lot of latitude on this.

CSC is way behind VSC it seems, and estimate on USCIS says "18-20 months" now which would put first ones around November...

We brought the NOA, green card, passport, and a copy of our 751 app. However, I dont believe they looked at the 751 stuff.

We did say we were going to travel (but didn't have any dates yet, we just know we will be going back to Japan for a few weeks at some point this year) so maybe that was the difference. 

Yeah, we got 1 year extension at our infopass appt in Los Angeles for CSC filing (which means if they stick to the current timeline and we are processed after 19 months, we shouldn't need _another_ stamp). If they had given us 6 month stamp we'd have had to go back in November... 

There doesn't seem to be any official policy I can find, so hopefully when you go back you'll get someone who does a 1 year stamp (although I suppose it could depend on which office you do infopass at).

Yeah, CSC looks like December 2018 according to their current timeline. 

Very inconvenient. (While we have the stamp now, we can't use anything that relies on an actual card, like CLEAR or Global Entry machines, and airlines are not very smart about it either now that they have to do screening outside the US --- actual immigration officials in the US are fine, its Delta/United/etc personnel in foreign airports that we have had problems with). 

Finally got our infopass and 551 stamp (for 1 more year, hopefully we'll get GC by then...). Although the woman at the counter seemed annoyed that we didn't have a specific trip planned soon (in a "why are you bothering with this" tone). But given how hard it is to get an appointment, we didn't want to wait until we needed it (and will almost certainly be going out of the country before the 10 year card arrives, since CSC is currently on October 2016 according to website..)

Good luck to those of you doing N400 (we won't be, because Japan doesn't allow dual citizenship).

Is there any way to make an Infopass appointment other than online? I've been trying via https://my.uscis.gov/appointment but every time it just says "Currently, there are no available appointments. Please check again tomorrow."

Since current process is from September 2016, it seems unlikely they will get to us by May. https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/processTimesDisplayInit.do

And we can't make an appointment to get stamp or even just basic info (since I don't see any way to check i-751 online)?

.

1 hour ago, Marco&Bettina said:

There's nothing wrong with additional screening. Honestly, screening has been needing improvement for years. It's about people being illegally refused entry that's the issue and that seems to be a non-issue.

GC holders who have been in the country for decades being detained for hours with no explanation is not OK. I mean, it's legal, sure. But it's not how America used to be. We've decided to move away from being a country of immigrants to a country of suspicion and hatred, and its VERY obvious to anyone who has done a border crossing recently.

And we don't need additional screening, there is no actual problem being solved here. 

4 hours ago, Leo7777 said:

Surprising to see you write that "I know."  That would indicate you  know them personally.  Is that really true . . . or do you mean that you have only heard of several instances?  And just where did you 'hear' of these instances?  Do you think the instances were real; or just more of the hyper rumor mill ??

Yes, I know these two personally. Also a couple people at work (I work for a large multinational company) have had this problem (on green card and also on H1B, but not from the 7 countries). The two I know are Japanese GC holders like my wife who (unlike her) have lived here for decades (since Japan has no dual citizenship, its rare for Japanese to become US citizens). At work I personally know a Pakistani citizen with green card (not one of the 7) and a Egyptian citizen with H1B (not one of the 7) who had major detain/delay scenarios (again, both eventually let in). 

I'm not talking about being denied entry, but being pulled aside for a couple hours of extra screening/questioning. That is not normal in their/my experience for green card holders, however. Even the normally routine questioning people encounter has been more aggressive recently. It's not like it was before January (and may not be again, given the direction CBP is heading). 

I know several GC holders from countries other than the 7 who have been held up / taken for hours of questioning since the order. Odds are you'll get in, but scrutiny is super high right now and the odds of running into trouble are increased. I suspect there is a lot of chaos in DHS/CBP in general right now with all the back and forth, but it was surprising to see GC holders run into so many issues. 

Yeah its very hard to say. When my fiancee and I entered, it took her less than 5 minutes at POE (in Los Angeles). But as previous poster said, if they choose her for secondary screening/processing it could take longer (either a few minutes longer or hours longer, all depending on her situation and their attitude). So I agree with them that 3-4 hours would be playing it pretty safe (nothing is guaranteed about entry, but if it takes more than a few hours you're in pretty unusual territory I think).

Once you enter the US you can travel anywhere inside it without dealing with immigration again. So LA->Hawaii->Dallas or whatever is all fine, they won't be checking her immigration status at all (just passport for identification at TSA).