The RFE Master List

Meandersen · April 28, 2012

Hi everyone,

I applied for a K1 in late October and received my noa1 on October 25. On March 17 I received an RFE stating that I had forgotten to check one box on the i129. ??I sent the request back the next day and the service center received it march 21. it is now April 28, and we have yet to receive a decision even though our reason for RFE seemed quite simple to process. Should I be worried it has taken so long? Has anyone else received an RFE for mistakes on the forms? I am just so tired of waiting and frustrated with the whole process!

Dennis & Jean · April 29, 2012

Jean passed her interview at 1:45 pm on Friday 4/27/2012. She will be passing along some important information in a couple of days.

She will be arriving in the USA in 19 days.

I am not trying to give anyone advise, just sharing what worked for us. What I am about to write will surprise even the most savvy.

Jean and I fell madly in love last May after meeting on a dating site. I went on a Filipina site because my younger brother had met someone on this site and was going through the K-1 process. They are now married and unbelievably in love here in the USA.

I visited Jean in the Philippines in August of 2011.

Turns out, she is much younger than me. I worried about how counselors would view our age difference, so I went on line to discover what Immigration VISA Counselors are trained to evaluate. Through study I learned age is not factor.

Since that time we have Skyped and communicated almost every day.

Government Employee;

On Fridays ties come off and the blue jeans come on in most agencies of the Government. Everyone is contemplating plans for their weekend. Of all the days of the week, Friday is the least serious. Make no mistake, most Government employees are hard workers and are very detailed. However, everyone begins looking at the clock at 1:00 p.m., waiting for 4:00 roll around and to start their weekend plans.

So Jean scheduled her interview for FRIDAY.

Government employees have a protocol that must be followed. As an example, someone cannot be denied a VISA based on a counselor’s bad day or prejudice. In order to deny a VISA they must have reasonable evidence of inconsistencies (normally, most agents for the government are required to produce “a letter of conversation” of any inconsistent findings). They must document the denial evidence. I guess what I am trying to say is that they must follow protocol.

If one is invited to the interview the initial background check is complete.

The counselor is looking for various types of fraud. They are highly trained to pick up on fraud. I prepared most of our documents original and not copies. I also had documents like bank statements notarized.

So before Jean experienced the biggest day of her life, we looked at all documents to ensure there was no appearance of fraud in the eyes of the counselor. We made sure the evidence of our meeting was solid, we kept receipts of all activities while together in the Philippines; when necessary, when we lacked evidence we reconnected with venders to produce receipts. Pictures of our time together turned to be important.

The counselor asked Jean for specific times and dates of when the pictures were taken. If other pictures are taken by family or friends it was important to include them in the package.

Our on-going relationship documents included over 40 pages of telephone calls, Skype conversations, both verbal and written, receipts for flower sent, phone bills and money transfer receipts.

Proof of Support included 3 months of pay check stubs, 3 years of W-2s, last year’s Tax Return, and authentic proof of full time employment. All documents were indexed and tabbed with a table of contents for quick retrieval of information.

In closing we did not give the Embassy Counselor any cause to suggest fraud.

Others waiting to be interviewed with my fiancée were amazed and commented on Jean’s 3 inch binder stuffed with documents. She passed with a quick 10 minute interview.

We felt assured prior to the interview. It was better to be over prepared than underprepared. The reward was Jean’s quick and solid interview.

In fact, we bought the Airline ticket prior to the interview.