USCIS may have misinterpreted our letter as a formal response to RFE

[Mayday 0]

I’ll give you the short version of a complicated situation.

1. Didn’t include immigrant’s birth certificate with our 130 application.

2. After talking to someone at infopass, we mailed it in on our own, with a letter, explaining that we didn’t include it. We wanted this process to move fast. (Green card is needed for job/financial reasons.) Info pass woman said there was “no harm” in sending in the birth certificate on our own prior to receiving the RFE.

3. After sending in the birth certificate, we get our RFE. They want the birth certificate BUT ALSO some tax records.

4. Today we get an email saying they have “received our response to the RFE.” Also our online status has been changed to “reviewing response to evidence.”

It looks like they interpreted our birth certificate mailing as our Formal Response To The RFE (even though it didn’t include the RFE form). And you only get one Formal Response To The RFE. If they don’t like your Formal Response To The RFE then your application is rejected. Game over.

It was probably a mistake to send in the birth certificate on its own.

I’m planning on mailing in our actual Formal Response To The RFE on Monday. It will include the RFE form itself, the birth certificate, the tax forms and a cover letter, explaining all this.

What might happen to us?

[canadian_wife 1,822]

There was no guarentee that they were able to match up the Birth Certificate with the case file when you sent it in the first time.

I suggest you send, if you have time, the whole thing, tax and BC, asap with overnight delivery

good luck

[Hypnos 6,576]

This is one of the reasons it's a bad idea to send unsolicited documents to USCIS; it's almost always better to wait for an RFE if you think you've made a mistake.

You can try sending a real response to the RFE - complete with everything they asked for - but yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath hoping that a denial won't happen. Worst case scenario you can just re-file.