shoesoff

Instead of interviewing both of you are the beginning, they separate you and ask one person questions followed by interview the other person to see if they provide the same answer. Normally they do this if they don't believe your relationship is legit.

Hello VJers,
 
My wife and I returned home from a short trip up to Olympia on the weekend to a scary looking yellow letter from USCIS with 'REQUEST FOR INITIAL EVIDENCE (I-485)' written on the front. Our first ever RFE!
I read through the letter and rather than get panicky and worried about my case and what it meant for our timeline, I simply became very confused.
Here's what they are asking me to provide:
 
All supporting tax documentation submitted to the IRS for the most recent year.  
We submitted a copy of my wife's W2, her 1099g (federal and state tax documents) and her Turbotax transcript for 2017. The RFE lists form 2555 and 'all supporting tax schedules' but in all my research for the AOS package, all I heard about was people submitting their tax transcript, W2s and 1099s. Did we miss a document? What is a 2555? And what would a tax schedule look like!?
I also wondered if maybe they are asking for 2018 tax documents, but at the time we sent the package we hadn't filed our 2018 taxes yet (and actually wont be until later in the year because, without an SSN I cannot file) and what about people filing in January who also wont have necessarily filed their taxes yet?
Did I simply miss some documents?
 
Based on the documents submitted with Form I-864, Affidavit of Support, the income did not meet 125% of the poverty guideline for the household size. Submit evidence of assets or obtain a joint sponsor.  
My wife was the sponsor. She filled out the I-864 and we included 8 of her most recent pay stubs and a letter from her employer stating her current job title, hours and salary (just under $38,000). I just checked, again, what the poverty guideline amount is for a 2 person household - it's $16,240. Making 125% equal to $20,300. So, what is it that is leading them to believe my wife doesn't earn enough? We obviously wrote her current salary in the form itself too, which makes it all the more confusing. They are asking for us to list assets to make up the difference in the income amount but there is no difference.  Are they basing it on the amount that she earned last year? Because that wasn't above the FPL - but I distinctly remember discussions on here about it being more important what the sponsor is 'currently' earning. Not what they happened to earn last year.
 
Any thoughts on these? I feel like I've missed something but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is. I genuinely considered the fact that the letter arrived on April 1st... and whether this is all some big joke.

Obviously I'm keen to get this all squared away as soon as possible.
We really appreciate any help or advice y'all can share.
 
Thank you.

Hey guys,
 
This isn't really a question, just some information I wanted to share based on my current AOS application.
We filed our I-485 on March 2nd, with an NOA1 date of March 10 this year. I had my medical exam on May 26th in 2017 so I sent a copy of my DS-3025 in the packet. It had all of the necessary rows filled out and included a tick in the summary to say 'US vaccination requirements COMPLETE'.
 
However, yesterday I received a letter stating that  'a completed and signed I-693 was not submitted' for my application. It turns out that the waiver for submitting the I-693 that comes from your examination being within the last year, only counts AT THE POINT THEY LOOK AT YOUR APPLICATION. For example, if they happen to look at your application on June 1st, and you had your medical on May 31st, it's technically more than a year old and they will ask that you submit the I-693.
 
So, a heads up to anyone about to send off their applications. If, like me, circumstances prevented you from filing immediately after getting married, or, if you think there's a chance your application wont be looked at before the year is up on your DS-3025, simply be prepared to get a letter down the line that asks you to have an I-693 ready for your interview, or if you're not being interviewed, ready to respond to an RFE at a later date.
It's frustrating. But at least it's not currently holding up my application (or at least the letter does not imply it is!).
 
I hope that helps anyone who might come into this problem down the line.

Hey guys,
 
This isn't really a question, just some information I wanted to share based on my current AOS application.
We filed our I-485 on March 2nd, with an NOA1 date of March 10 this year. I had my medical exam on May 26th in 2017 so I sent a copy of my DS-3025 in the packet. It had all of the necessary rows filled out and included a tick in the summary to say 'US vaccination requirements COMPLETE'.
 
However, yesterday I received a letter stating that  'a completed and signed I-693 was not submitted' for my application. It turns out that the waiver for submitting the I-693 that comes from your examination being within the last year, only counts AT THE POINT THEY LOOK AT YOUR APPLICATION. For example, if they happen to look at your application on June 1st, and you had your medical on May 31st, it's technically more than a year old and they will ask that you submit the I-693.
 
So, a heads up to anyone about to send off their applications. If, like me, circumstances prevented you from filing immediately after getting married, or, if you think there's a chance your application wont be looked at before the year is up on your DS-3025, simply be prepared to get a letter down the line that asks you to have an I-693 ready for your interview, or if you're not being interviewed, ready to respond to an RFE at a later date.
It's frustrating. But at least it's not currently holding up my application (or at least the letter does not imply it is!).
 
I hope that helps anyone who might come into this problem down the line.

Take the hyphen out and use SPACE instead. 
so your last name will be EVANS PRITCHARD..
My husband and I have the same issue. Our last names are hyphenated.

I started out with everything SO organized in neat little plastic sheets, and then I read that this causes a lot of extra work for the people who process the applications.  I ended up disassembling my entire binder and starting over.  I used the binder and the plastic page protectors for my fiancé's copy of the petition.

Sure, it is giving them extra work though and they will have to take out each sheet of paper in the protector things before being able to scan them, which could just as well mean a higher risk of them messing up..
 
on USCIS tips websites it says:
"In preparing your packet, please take note of the following: Do not use binders or folders that cannot be easily disassembled https://www.uscis.gov/forms/forms-and-fees/general-tips-assembling-applications-mailing   still up to you ofc..

Overkill on the photos.....4-5 are plenty.  They are secondary evidence.
 
I would keep the binder and protector sheets.  They are just going to take everything out of them and throw them in the garbage.  You should save them to use for another project.....AOS interview documents maybe?  Just stack the documents neatly one on top of the other in order of your cover letter and slide into the mailing envelope.  Use paperclips if you want to group certain items together.  This is what I did for our K1 petition and AOS filings.
 
Good Luck!

I think you will be fine with what you are providing.
You may want to reconsider the 3-ring binder and sheets, as they disassemble it and reorder how they like to scan into their system. I had also compiled a binder (which I was extremely proud of!) but ended up using binder and paper clips to group things together, one large clip for the entire packet, then slid that into an envelope. It makes it easier for the person processing your application.
Best of luck to you guys! 

Sounds like you went above and beyond.  Never hurts to be prepared.   Good luck to you guys and congrats on getting the ball rolling!

We have the following in a turquoise 3-ring binder I would not use a ring binder, it's advised to use a large clip to hold everything together, one point is the extra postage, all separated into separate sheet protectors (with paper clips to secure groups of documents together):
 
Cover letter Check for $535 I-129F I-129F - Continuation Sheet for 34.a (brief but including dates and locations of each time we have visited each other) Petitioner and beneficiary's G325a with passport photos taken two days ago. Printed name on back of photos and put them in bags? Continuation sheets for both of our employment history questions for the G325a Both of our G-1145 forms Copy of USC's birth certificate (both sides) Copies of all pages of her US passport Copy of both sides of Social Security card Petitioner and beneficiary's intent to marry letters Screenshots of both of our engagement announcements on Facebook (showing the number of likes and comments) Copy of the valuation of the engagement ring that I had made in the UK (showing the ring's value at a few thousand dollars) 3 conversation excerpts between petitioner and friends/family about wedding planning 2 conversation excerpts between beneficiary and friends about wedding planning 23 photos of us together printed 3 to a page with the date, location and brief description - beginning with our engagement and dating back to February 2016 - in various locations around the world - 7 of them showing us with family and friends Copies of all pages of my UK passport 15 boarding pass / travel documents showing me flying to America, to Portland to see her, her coming to England, us travelling around Europe and me coming back in November to see her 4 different months' bank statements for her and me showing us spending money in the same places at the same time 20 pages of excerpts from our WhatsApp conversation - beginning with the first messages we ever sent to each other (after talking on Tinder) - then several screenshots of snippets from each month up to now  
 
You are all good! lol lot's of evidence, like the others I believe more than needed
I'm assuming none of you have ever had another name or been married before since there is no such documents included
Happy filing!

We didn't... I never read anything about it being an issue. I think the rest of the evidence proves that it wasn't Tinder that really 'set us up' anyhow. I moved us onto WhatsApp pretty quickly after messaging on there and have included the first ever messages I sent (with a little context) to explain.
 
Same. We have ended up scrapping the folder. I popped down to Target to get some big bulldog clips and I dismantled everything and just put it all in as sheets.
We left the dividers in there to point them to specific information (and because aesthetically it looked nice - which was important to us having spent two weeks putting it all together!) and then included sheet protectors to enclose the check and our g325a forms with the passport photos (they looked like they'd slide around). It's done though.
 
Done.
 
Sent.
 
Gone.
 
I'm praying for an easy process.
 
Thanks again for all your comments and the continued support of everyone on here.
A few people have messaged me already asking for help - if you'd like to ask anything, please don't hesitate.

Thanks for all of the replies guys! We're really happy to be finished with getting the package together. We'll be heading down to USPS after work today!

With regards to the binder folder, we're not so worried about them just throwing it away (a shame but not devastating) - as long as them having to take everything apart isn't going to affect our application.
Having seen sooooo many others being sent in the same way, I think we're going to be OK. The folder is set up so that there's absolutely no confusion as to what all the evidence is (all separated by coloured and labelled separators) - so hopefully USCIS will consider the binder helpful rather than a hindrance... right?

Thanks again.
I'm really quite excited to start listing our progress on the timeline here!

Hey guys,
 
We are ready to send off our package today, thanks in a large part to the good people here at Visa Journey.
I just wanted to very quickly list what we have included and get your thoughts on whether we really are, as we think, good to go!
 
We have the following in a turquoise 3-ring binder, all separated into separate sheet protectors (with paper clips to secure groups of documents together):
 
Cover letter Check for $535 I-129F I-129F - Continuation Sheet for 34.a (brief but including dates and locations of each time we have visited each other) Petitioner and beneficiary's G325a with passport photos taken two days ago. Continuation sheets for both of our employment history questions for the G325a Both of our G-1145 forms Copy of USC's birth certificate (both sides) Copies of all pages of her US passport Copy of both sides of Social Security card Petitioner and beneficiary's intent to marry letters Screenshots of both of our engagement announcements on Facebook (showing the number of likes and comments) Copy of the valuation of the engagement ring that I had made in the UK (showing the ring's value at a few thousand dollars) 3 conversation excerpts between petitioner and friends/family about wedding planning 2 conversation excerpts between beneficiary and friends about wedding planning 23 photos of us together printed 3 to a page with the date, location and brief description - beginning with our engagement and dating back to February 2016 - in various locations around the world - 7 of them showing us with family and friends Copies of all pages of my UK passport 15 boarding pass / travel documents showing me flying to America, to Portland to see her, her coming to England, us travelling around Europe and me coming back in November to see her 4 different months' bank statements for her and me showing us spending money in the same places at the same time 20 pages of excerpts from our WhatsApp conversation - beginning with the first messages we ever sent to each other (after talking on Tinder) - then several screenshots of snippets from each month up to now  
And that's about it!
We know there's always more we could include but we feel there would be no reason for USCIS to question the validity of our relationship (and therefore the application) based on what we have supplied.
Would you guys agree? Or is there some glaring piece of evidence we're missing?
We're very excited (and relieved) to be getting this underway and being able to enjoy our next week together before I head back to England.

Thank you so so much, everyone. You've been fantastic at easing our minds and clearing up issues during this process.
We will definitely be sticking around on here to help out others when we can.

Peter (& Alexa)

 

Never thought about it, but mine never fits either. Hasn't hurt me so far,

No nothing she can visit as many times as she would like.
 
No she would not have to be in the US to send the papers off. 
 
But as said if you marry and send papers now then in about a year you can move. And you can still have the 2nd wedding in the UK with family and friends