How we responded to an RfE for a Removal of Condition application

[SFbound 1]

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

[Darnell 8,478]

Thanks for posting this !

Unca Darnell mention to show 24 months, from day o marriage to day before RoC submittal, but I get lost in the noise.

[Sukie 1,439]

Glad you got through eventually. Many people make the mistake of only submitting evidence from POE to ROC. The instructions really mean it when they say from "marriage to ROC". I know I have had many arguments with my spouse - I'm on the side of "document every single little thing" and she's on the side of "surely they will believe we have a bonafide relationship with one or two pieces of paper".

This is one time when "less is NOT more"!!!

Sukie in NY (238 days until we can apply for ROC. I've been collecting things since we married!)

[Pitaya 2,576]

I have been preaching a similar theme since our RFE submission and subsequent recent ROC approval this past June. Our RFE notice indicated that they wanted ALL "marriage bonafides" from the inception of the marriage to the present. In the RFE response we included everything 'cept the kitchen sink.

YMMV,

Good luck on your immigration journey.

[NikLR 13,220]

What did ssn cards do? Im not sure those were necessary but the rest was.

[ali.cha 18]

Your story sounded depressing to me. In my case since I've been in the US I was a housewife and appropriately didn't work. My husband got medical insurance to me in a half year after stepping in the US land. We also didn't have a joint lease agreement because he signed it while I was waiting for my visa.