April RFEs

[Ramsey 16]

Wow, you are in California and still have not received it? I was worried (received second notification on Apr. 30th) that I had not received mine yet either, called them and they told me the could not do anything until it has been 15 days. This is killing my fiancee and I, all of this waiting, feel like we are at the DMV from Hell.

Yeah, tell me about it! The wait is pretty nerve-racking, I know...However, I do have some good news....I just received my RFE this morning (Day 8 I guess) so yours shouldn't be too far away I guess they wanted evidence that "Petitioner and beneficiary have met in person". The 2 main things are: "Circumstances of Meeting" (evidence that we met to establish a relationship) AND "Last Personal Meeting".

I guess our 20+ photos including Engagement Ceremony photos did not do the trick. Apparently, the following does not constitute as evidence of meeting: disc, videos, emails, letters, phone bills, greeting, an itinerary, undated boarding passes and undated photos.

Now that I think about it all the photos were undated, so I think that's probably it! Also I included all my itineraries as proof that I visited Lebanon. I guess I will need to photocopy my passport to show the different time stamps on entry and exit of the country. I will overnight it tomorrow with all the required evidence and hopefully that should suffice.

Don't worry, you should receive it in the next day or so probably Good luck on your journey my friend!

[Takeo 6]

Yeah, tell me about it! The wait is pretty nerve-racking, I know...However, I do have some good news....I just received my RFE this morning (Day 8 I guess) so yours shouldn't be too far away I guess they wanted evidence that "Petitioner and beneficiary have met in person". The 2 main things are: "Circumstances of Meeting" (evidence that we met to establish a relationship) AND "Last Personal Meeting".

I guess our 20+ photos including Engagement Ceremony photos did not do the trick. Apparently, the following does not constitute as evidence of meeting: disc, videos, emails, letters, phone bills, greeting, an itinerary, undated boarding passes and undated photos.

Now that I think about it all the photos were undated, so I think that's probably it! Also I included all my itineraries as proof that I visited Lebanon. I guess I will need to photocopy my passport to show the different time stamps on entry and exit of the country. I will overnight it tomorrow with all the required evidence and hopefully that should suffice.

Don't worry, you should receive it in the next day or so probably Good luck on your journey my friend!

Glad you got the hard copy. You submitted a lot of evidence, but it seems they are very particular about having primary evidence. I think the strongest is the passport stamps. Also strong is airline boarding stubs with name and dates on them. I'm guessing photos could be anyone in them, so that is why they are secondary evidence, even if there are dates on them. If you have any reciepts, like hotel reciepts, or tours or things your purchased when visiting your fiancee, send it. ATM or credit card bills showing charges in your Fiancee's country, send it. Good luck!!!

[Ramsey 16]

Glad you got the hard copy. You submitted a lot of evidence, but it seems they are very particular about having primary evidence. I think the strongest is the passport stamps. Also strong is airline boarding stubs with name and dates on them. I'm guessing photos could be anyone in them, so that is why they are secondary evidence, even if there are dates on them. If you have any reciepts, like hotel reciepts, or tours or things your purchased when visiting your fiancee, send it. ATM or credit card bills showing charges in your Fiancee's country, send it. Good luck!!!

Takeo, thanks for all the tips, buddy! I will definitely get them the passport stamps, do you think I should photocopy the whole passport so they know it's me? Or just the pages with the stamps? I also just remembered that we opened a joint Lebanese bank account so I told my fiance to get me dated records of that. Oh and one last question, for the dated photos, do you recommend that I develop them (like at wal mart) or is it fine to include them in a printed word document or PDF?

[Takeo 6]

Takeo, thanks for all the tips, buddy! I will definitely get them the passport stamps, do you think I should photocopy the whole passport so they know it's me? Or just the pages with the stamps? I also just remembered that we opened a joint Lebanese bank account so I told my fiance to get me dated records of that. Oh and one last question, for the dated photos, do you recommend that I develop them (like at wal mart) or is it fine to include them in a printed word document or PDF?

I copied my fiancee's entire passport. It was a pain, but I wanted to be thorough. Make sure the copies are clear enough so they can read the stamps especially with you going there or her coming here. You may even want to put post-its if there are other country stamps and just highlight the ones they need to see.

I have a bank account with my fiancee also. She had to be here in Hawaii to sign and open a joint account. I will use it for the embassy packet to show on-going relationship.

People say the photos must be date stamped, but in todays age, lots of photos are taken without date stamps. I didn't plan on getting engaged and married, so many of our photos do not have the date stamp. The pics I submitted, I printed out at Wallgreens, and then wrote on the back who is in the picture, city and state of where we were, and date. It's more work, but felt it was worth it...after all, you've waited this long.

Lastly, don't forget to make two copies of everything. One copy you will eventually send to your fiancee, the other copy you will hold on to, just in case you need to refer to your packet.

Edited May 8, 2013 by Takeo

[JD & Coconut 35]

I copied my fiancee's entire passport. It was a pain, but I wanted to be thorough. Make sure the copies are clear enough so they can read the stamps especially with you going there or her coming here. You may even want to put post-its if there are other country stamps and just highlight the ones they need to see.

I have a bank account with my fiancee also. She had to be here in Hawaii to sign and open a joint account. I will use it for the embassy packet to show on-going relationship.

People say the photos must be date stamped, but in todays age, lots of photos are taken without date stamps. I didn't plan on getting engaged and married, so many of our photos do not have the date stamp. The pics I submitted, I printed out at Wallgreens, and then wrote on the back who is in the picture, city and state of where we were, and date. It's more work, but felt it was worth it...after all, you've waited this long.

Lastly, don't forget to make two copies of everything. One copy you will eventually send to your fiancee, the other copy you will hold on to, just in case you need to refer to your packet.

I still can't fathom why I received an RFE, hired a lawyer who seemed to be pretty thorough, submitted things such as:

-10 photos, names of those in the photos, where the photos were taken and the month and year (not the exact date which may be the cause? Lawyers instructions told us to put this on the back of the photos)

-Copies of boarding passes for the flights

-Copies of all hotel, train and attraction receipts (translated if in Chinese)

-Copies of our passports, every page, which included the stamps from the country visited

-About 60 pages of Emails and chat messages

From what I read it may have been better to just taken screen captures of the Emails and chats showing how many pages there were? We use QQ on a daily basis to communicate and we have over 3,000 pages of chat history. The audio/video call logs are a bit more difficult to capture, haven't found a good way to extract that info from the program.

Hope I get the hard copy soon, driving me crazy trying to think of what we may have missed.

[Takeo 6]

I still can't fathom why I received an RFE, hired a lawyer who seemed to be pretty thorough, submitted things such as:

-10 photos, names of those in the photos, where the photos were taken and the month and year (not the exact date which may be the cause? Lawyers instructions told us to put this on the back of the photos)

-Copies of boarding passes for the flights

-Copies of all hotel, train and attraction receipts (translated if in Chinese)

-Copies of our passports, every page, which included the stamps from the country visited

-About 60 pages of Emails and chat messages

From what I read it may have been better to just taken screen captures of the Emails and chats showing how many pages there were? We use QQ on a daily basis to communicate and we have over 3,000 pages of chat history. The audio/video call logs are a bit more difficult to capture, haven't found a good way to extract that info from the program.

Hope I get the hard copy soon, driving me crazy trying to think of what we may have missed.

Sorry to hear that you have not received your hard copy yet. I have heard of others waiting 10 days or so, so hopefully you get it in in the next day or two.

Sound like you had a decent amount of primary evidence of meeting, which is what they are really interested in. Passport stamps, if clear and legible, is probably one of the best evidence. Boarding passes and hotel receipts with your name on it would also be strong, without name, not as strong. Copies of your ATM or credit card transactions in her country, proves you were there. The stuff like emails and chats are secondary evidence and probably more important for the next stage of showing you had an on-going relationship. For now, you need to prove you met in person.

As I stated earlier, my mistake was missing a question, quickly found that when I went over my I129F, such a stupid mistake. Hang in there!

[JD & Coconut 35]

Copies of your ATM or credit card transactions in her country, proves you were there.

Good point! I never even thought to send them that information and I used my credit card pretty much everywhere we went. If they need more evidence will definitely dig that stuff up because the receipts were in Chinese and my name probably was not on them. Thanks for the advice.

Oh and day 9, no RFE hard copy.

Edited May 8, 2013 by JD & Coconut

[Ramsey 16]

Good point! I never even thought to send them that information and I used my credit card pretty much everywhere we went. If they need more evidence will definitely dig that stuff up because the receipts were in Chinese and my name probably was not on them. Thanks for the advice.

Oh and day 9, no RFE hard copy.

Sorry to hear that you haven't gotten your RFE yet, buddy! Maybe it's because of the distance? I am in Cali and got it on Day 9. Hang in there. The good news is that you can turn it around pretty quickly as soon as you receive it. So I got it yesterday, gathered all my evidence and sent it this morning overnight so they should be getting it tomorrow before noon

Thanks for the advice, Takeo! I wrote a very good RFE explanation, as well as a declaration from myself, dad, photocopies of my passport, front to back, joint bank statement, etc...Hopefully I hear back from them by next week.

Good luck to both of you!

[Takeo 6]

Sorry to hear that you haven't gotten your RFE yet, buddy! Maybe it's because of the distance? I am in Cali and got it on Day 9. Hang in there. The good news is that you can turn it around pretty quickly as soon as you receive it. So I got it yesterday, gathered all my evidence and sent it this morning overnight so they should be getting it tomorrow before noon

Thanks for the advice, Takeo! I wrote a very good RFE explanation, as well as a declaration from myself, dad, photocopies of my passport, front to back, joint bank statement, etc...Hopefully I hear back from them by next week.

Good luck to both of you!

Sounds great! I've been monitoring Igor's list and the recent NOA2s are being approved in just a few working days after receiving the RFE reply. Some have had their NOA2 approved just 2-4 days after CSC received the reply, that's exactly how it should be

[Ramsey 16]

Sounds great! I've been monitoring Igor's list and the recent NOA2s are being approved in just a few working days after receiving the RFE reply. Some have had their NOA2 approved just 2-4 days after CSC received the reply, that's exactly how it should be

I totally agree with you there, that is definitely how it should be I've analyzed a lot of the recent RFE's on Igor's list and it looks like after RFE reply,it typically takes anywhere from 2-14 days but usually within about a week. Is that what you're seeing as well? Both ways, I'm would be pretty darn happy to receive my NOA2 even if it takes 2 weeks (May 23rd)

[Tamara_29 0]

After 8 days since our RFE response... NOA2, we got it!!!!!!!

We are so happy!!

[Oregon Bound 30]

After 8 days since our RFE response... NOA2, we got it!!!!!!!

We are so happy!!

Yay! Congratulations

[Takeo 6]

I totally agree with you there, that is definitely how it should be I've analyzed a lot of the recent RFE's on Igor's list and it looks like after RFE reply,it typically takes anywhere from 2-14 days but usually within about a week. Is that what you're seeing as well? Both ways, I'm would be pretty darn happy to receive my NOA2 even if it takes 2 weeks (May 23rd)

Yes, that is what I am seeing and I feel the same way as you. I'm happy that we shall see NOA2 soon. Need to save energy for the next step, another 2 months minimum!

After 8 days since our RFE response... NOA2, we got it!!!!!!!

We are so happy!!

Yes!!! Congrats!!

[Ramsey 16]

After 8 days since our RFE response... NOA2, we got it!!!!!!!

We are so happy!!

That's wonderful news !! So happy for you congratulations tamara_29!!

Yes, that is what I am seeing and I feel the same way as you. I'm happy that we shall see NOA2 soon. Need to save energy for the next step, another 2 months minimum!

Takeo, is it really 2 months minimum between NOA2 & visa?!?! I thought that it takes anywhere between 1-2 months depending on your embassy?

[Rayanna27 3]

Congratulations to those who got approved!!!

Glad to hear some rfe we're approved fast.. (finally csc is moving!) My fiance and i are july filers. July 23 to be exact. We received our rfe hard copy (Yey! for knowing that our case is being touched but Boo! coz its been like 9mos) this april 18. They got our response on may 6.

Still waiting for their approval (noa2). Hopefully, it comes soon.