Surprised to get RFE

[rocks 494]

My husband doesn't drive, and my car predates our marriage by 13 years! I did not get affidavits from friends and family, but will definitely do it now.

It doesn't matter if he drives or not or how long you have had the car. You can still get his name added to the vehicle's title, although this could take a few weeks. This would be proof of intermingled finances, which would help your case.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I read once that you should not do anything in your life just for immigration purposes. Do not change your house deed. Go through the list on the RFE as I did and provide them with as much possible evidence for each question as you can. If there is something you can not provide like the names and addresses of every living relative of yours living in the United States, just list the ones you have. Many of us have gotten a three page list of an RFE and answered to the best of our ability and gotten our NOA2.

OP states her husband is not on the mortgage due to his "minimal credit history". Which has nothing to do with ownership. It sounds as if the OP and husband would have had joint ownership originally were it not for trying to seek a particular type of loan, or a particular interest rate.

If the OP can add her husband to the deed, I don't consider that "doing something for immigration purposes". She knows the answer to that better than you or I.

The OP could contact a qualified real estate attorney to find out if adding her husband to the deed somehow violates the mortgage. In most cases it does not.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

To the OP -

At this point, do try to gather any other paper evidence you have which shows co-mingling of assets.

More importantly than that though, get three notarized affidavits from three people who know you and your husband. These statements need not be wordy. Each statement should testify to the person's knowledge of your "couplehood". For instance -

"My name is ________. I live in _______________, the same town in which Mr. and Mrs ___________ live in. I have known Mr. and Mrs. ____________ since _______. I have had dinner at Mr. and Mrs. __________'s home and attended other social events with Mr. and Mrs. ____________________. They are in every act of my knowledge a legitimate and bonafide married couple and active members of our community"

These types of affidavits are not necessary for every ROC case. Given though that you have been RFE'd for evidence, such affidavits are powerful evidence of your marriage.

*For future readers (and on another tangent), a simple legal document that shows co-mingling of assets are reciprocal Last Wills and Testaments.*

Edited April 19, 2012 by Rebecca Jo

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

This is my instinct, too. My main frustration with the RFE, as I mentioned above, was they didn't specifically ask for anything. The list of types of evidence they sent me in the RFE is the exact same thing you'd read on the USCIS website, and I'd already included many of those things. I'll send them a few additional things that might help, but I wonder if I should also explain in a letter why certain things, such as the mortgage, are the way they are.

It wouldn't hurt to attach a letter to your RFE response explaining why you DON'T possess certain documents that other people may have.

As to why your previous evidence was not enough, there is always the possibility that some of it was lost from your file. So re-send your old evidence along with any new.

[supermoth 0]

It wouldn't hurt to attach a letter to your RFE response explaining why you DON'T possess certain documents that other people may have.

As to why your previous evidence was not enough, there is always the possibility that some of it was lost from your file. So re-send your old evidence along with any new.

I had the same thought on both of these comments.

[freetv 7]

You should also bear in mind that uscis uses notions of marriage that are considered common among reasonable married couples in America. Most Americans are included on car titles, houses, bank accounts, power bills, water bills, etc etc and the system is setup so that two people can be included on all of those things.... Why do you think divorce is so complicated in this country? We intermingle EVERYTHING.

With that said, many people that marry foreigners do things the way their partner does... In China you can't have two ppl on a bank account, house, car, etc etc so only one person gets on the document. You also go out with friends and one person often pays for everything and you return the favor later on. The problem for a uscis officer is that he doesn't know what people in China do, what people in peru do, he only knows what normal Americans do... so anything that goes against that norm makes him pause and the result is an rfe... The best thing people can do is just follow the typical American idea of what married couples do and you won't really have many problems.

Edited April 19, 2012 by freetv

[wasabi 4]

I got that generic RFE letter too and at first was scared by it since most of the items it suggested I had already sent. I ended up sending a few new financial docs, some new pictures, 6 unnotarized affidavits from friends, family, and landlord. I also sent 4 years of travel receipts + a few original items. We successfully got approved. It may be too late to start creating joint accounts and things like that now if you haven't already. The USCIS wants to see a history of commingling not actions taken in response to the RFE.

Good luck.

Edited April 19, 2012 by wasabi

[milimelo 4,481]

Now would be the time to send in 2011 taxes, medical bills for either one of you showing the same address (EOB statements from insurance company also helps), any mail addressed to either one of you at the same address (if junk mail or catalogs, just rip the page with your address on), your beneficiary list from employer showing your spouse.

Doesn't matter if your husband doesn't drive - get him an ID card with your current address.

[rocks 494]

Now would be the time to send in 2011 taxes, medical bills for either one of you showing the same address (EOB statements from insurance company also helps), any mail addressed to either one of you at the same address (if junk mail or catalogs, just rip the page with your address on), your beneficiary list from employer showing your spouse.

Doesn't matter if your husband doesn't drive - get him an ID card with your current address.

Agreed. It doesn't take much to get a new ID card. Anything official from the government that has both of your names on that shows you share the same address is good proof. That is why I suggested adding his name to your car title, it won't cost much either. If you send that with 2011 tax transcripts and affidavits that should be plenty of evidence for them.

Edited April 19, 2012 by rocks

[bigdog 376]

Give them plenty of evidence and you can move on.

[ManuFred 10]

We filed i-751 for my petitioner husband in October 2011. Last week, we received a RFE in the mail. Here are the items we included as evidence (from memory, I don't have the papers in front of me). :

• Joint tax returns from 2009 and 2010
  
• Joint health insurance
  
• Joint credit card
  
• My retirement account showing petitioner as beneficiary
  

We bought a house, but at the recommendation of my realtor and broker, only my name was listed on the papers because of my husband's minimal credit history. Same with utility bills, I already had accounts with most of the companies, plus I'm the one that takes care of paying the bills. We have separate checking accounts simply because that is our choice.

My other frustration is that the RFE we received doesn't ask for anything specific to our case. They just give a general list of different types of evidence, much of which I'd already provided.

So I'm curious what is going to happen next. Could they deny his visa just because we don't live our lives according to their requirements? Will they call us in for an interview? It is pretty obvious when we're together that we're married.

Any advice would me much appreciated.

What you sent seems to be quite substantial if you would ask me so no clue why the IO handling your case would like to see more. Maybe some personal stuff like pictures of certain trips will do.

It is very unfortunate your realtor was such an idiot because the house would have been an excellent way to get him a credit history. You bought the house on your own which shows that your score and resources were enough. They could have tagged your husband on. No credit history is not a bad credit history so no problems there.

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

What you sent seems to be quite substantial if you would ask me so no clue why the IO handling your case would like to see more. Maybe some personal stuff like pictures of certain trips will do.

It is very unfortunate your realtor was such an idiot because the house would have been an excellent way to get him a credit history. You bought the house on your own which shows that your score and resources were enough. They could have tagged your husband on. No credit history is not a bad credit history so no problems there.

A lack of credit history pulls down a credit score.

So indeed his lack of a high enough rating would have eliminated them from certain more desirable loan products.

It's no different than having a spouse with a poor credit rating. That person's credit can inhibit the purchasing power of the other spouse. So the simple solution is to leave them off any big credit purchases.

[Steve D. 22]

A lack of credit history pulls down a credit score.

So indeed his lack of a high enough rating would have eliminated them from certain more desirable loan products.

It's no different than having a spouse with a poor credit rating. That person's credit can inhibit the purchasing power of the other spouse. So the simple solution is to leave them off any big credit purchases.

That's EXACTLY my situation. My wife (USC) has a short credit history. When we went to get a loan for a house, which eventually will be our parents' retirement home, the loan officer goes "if you are putting both of your names on the loan, chances are it's going to be EXTREMELY difficult. However if it's just under my name it'll be a breeze."

When I submitted my package, which end up with a RFE, we simply didn't include the loan. Title-wise my wife actually decided to do a quit-deed as the loan officer told us it'll be much MUCH easier to transfer the title to our parents down the road as a single sole property owner than co-joint.

Sometimes it's funny how a born USC has less than an immigrant... I guess that's how the topic of bring back the economy got started.

[DaniG 3]

That's EXACTLY my situation. My wife (USC) has a short credit history. When we went to get a loan for a house, which eventually will be our parents' retirement home, the loan officer goes "if you are putting both of your names on the loan, chances are it's going to be EXTREMELY difficult. However if it's just under my name it'll be a breeze."

When I submitted my package, which end up with a RFE, we simply didn't include the loan. Title-wise my wife actually decided to do a quit-deed as the loan officer told us it'll be much MUCH easier to transfer the title to our parents down the road as a single sole property owner than co-joint.

Sometimes it's funny how a born USC has less than an immigrant... I guess that's how the topic of bring back the economy got started.

That was our case too, I had no credit history whatsoever, so it was not even a question that the mortgage would be for my husband only (he is the USC). But because we are married, I had to sign tons of paperwork for the house, including signing the mortgage contract countless times as a guarantor - that's what I sent with my I-751 package. The realtor was supposed to then get the deed in both of our names but goofed up and did it just in my husband's as a single person. We then called the bank (BOA) to check if they were okay with us fixing that, they said they didn't care (some banks require notification or approval by the bank) and we did a quit claim deed to own the house jointly. Btw, part of the paperwork for purchasing the house by hubby was some sort of gift acknowledgment document, where I gifted whatever funds I contributed towards the downpayment to hubby because the origin of all funds had to be shown for the purposes of the mortgage application - I didn't send that to USCIS, but if you have something similar, it could be included too. I could have also sent proof that I made payments towards hubby's mortgage, which we both consider joint since we own the house jointly.

Edited April 20, 2012 by DaniG

[Steve D. 22]

That was our case too, I had no credit history whatsoever, so it was not even a question that the mortgage would be for my husband only (he is the USC). But because we are married, I had to sign tons of paperwork for the house, including signing the mortgage contract countless times as a guarantor - that's what I sent with my I-751 package. The realtor was supposed to then get the deed in both of our names but goofed up and did it just in my husband's as a single person. We then called the bank (BOA) to check if they were okay with us fixing that, they said they didn't care (some banks require notification or approval by the bank) and we did a quit claim deed to own the house jointly. Btw, part of the paperwork for purchasing the house by hubby was some sort of gift acknowledgment document, where I gifted whatever funds I contributed towards the downpayment to hubby because the origin of all funds had to be shown for the purposes of the mortgage application - I didn't send that to USCIS, but if you have something similar, it could be included too. I could have also sent proof that I made payments towards hubby's mortgage, which we both consider joint since we own the house jointly.

Meh, sometimes USCIS doesn't care about there hard-to-ignore situations based on economy and such. All they want is you fit what they think is "legit" stereotype and fits the square hole that's been made back in God-knows-when.

Sigh, mine is 10 months in and still nothing. I've responded to RFE last September, all I got was a relocate to local office in October then nothing. I put in a SR 2 months ago and I heard nothing within their promised 60 days. Tomorrow I'm going to my N-400 bio, I'm just going to let them sort this BS out internally.