Frankfurt RFE :(

[Stressed Out 81]

I'm happy nonetheless that we at least heard back from Frankfurt USCIS, but we got the RFE I was fearing...regarding evidence of a bona fide marital union. Sooo, pay attention.

So far I've got:

- our rental contract with both our signatures

- bills in both our names
- joint bank account

- Familienversicherung (family health insurance) under Barmer GEK from my husband's work
- asking my mom and dad to send a formal company letter from their HVAC business that we'll be employed together by them upon our arrival in the US
- probably stick a few photos in with it all, from vacations
- thinking of requesting affidavit letters from family and friends in the US/Germany??? (should I even bother?)


Unfortunately that's about it. Our car is in my father-in-law's name and he told me yesterday there's no way of proving that both of us our insured (with names on paper) because "it's the car that's insured in Germany, not the drivers". That statement made negative sense to me, so I don't know if he's being lazy requesting evidence for me or not. It'd be cool if someone here from Germany could clarify that for me.

Also no life insurance as it's expensive here and I sold my individual US plan last year to help pay off some debt.

Well, thanks for the help any of you can offer. Hoping to have this away within a couple of weeks, or days if the letters from family aren't really necessary.

[MichelleNGeorge 10]

Hey!

Did you not include pictures in first place? When we sent off our package, we included pictures and facebook statuses etc. plenty but not too much Then i went to the interview in Frankfurt and everything was as smooth as it gets. Standard questions about my wife and a few looks at our pictures and i was through. Of course you can send in everything.. the more the better... but don't drive yourself crazy about it...

[Soup Dragon 104]

Hello

I didn't see it on your list but I presume you submitted a copy of your marriage ceritificate?

Good luck!

[Stressed Out 81]

The marriage certificate was required while the marriage evidence was written down as optional (phrase was "you may wish to include...") and a couple other VJ users who also did DCF didn't include one scrap of evidence, received no such RFE's and were approved pretty quickly. From what I've mostly read on here the evidence isn't judged too harshly, so I guess I shouldn't worry about it too much.

[denali54 0]

Your timeline shows you were married in 2011. Can you provide any documentation that shows history together, from before you were married to present? Not just current status. Trips to visit each other, trips together, records of moving together, photos, etc. Affadavits can't hurt, so may as well include that as well. One way to think of it is that you're not just proving bona-fide marriage to the consulate officer, as a one-off affair. You're giving them the proof they can then use to validate their decision to a superior any time in the future. So overwhelming evidence would help.

[JRF 117]

I'm happy nonetheless that we at least heard back from Frankfurt USCIS, but we got the RFE I was fearing...regarding evidence of a bona fide marital union. Sooo, pay attention.

So far I've got:

- our rental contract with both our signatures

- bills in both our names

- joint bank account

- Familienversicherung (family health insurance) under Barmer GEK from my husband's work

- asking my mom and dad to send a formal company letter from their HVAC business that we'll be employed together by them upon our arrival in the US

- probably stick a few photos in with it all, from vacations

- thinking of requesting affidavit letters from family and friends in the US/Germany??? (should I even bother?)

Unfortunately that's about it. Our car is in my father-in-law's name and he told me yesterday there's no way of proving that both of us our insured (with names on paper) because "it's the car that's insured in Germany, not the drivers". That statement made negative sense to me, so I don't know if he's being lazy requesting evidence for me or not. It'd be cool if someone here from Germany could clarify that for me.

Also no life insurance as it's expensive here and I sold my individual US plan last year to help pay off some debt.

Well, thanks for the help any of you can offer. Hoping to have this away within a couple of weeks, or days if the letters from family aren't really necessary.

Correct - insurance covers the car in Germany.

[Stressed Out 81]

Your timeline shows you were married in 2011. Can you provide any documentation that shows history together, from before you were married to present? Not just current status. Trips to visit each other, trips together, records of moving together, photos, etc. Affadavits can't hurt, so may as well include that as well. One way to think of it is that you're not just proving bona-fide marriage to the consulate officer, as a one-off affair. You're giving them the proof they can then use to validate their decision to a superior any time in the future. So overwhelming evidence would help.

Yeah I forgot to add that I have my address registrations from our local town hall when I moved to his parents house to live with him and his/my registration when we both moved at the same time to our apartment in 2011.

[Stressed Out 81]

And I'm assuming also this evidence should be only photocopies, including the affidavit letters.

Here's what I just wrote up on Open Office:

Please find in this packet the original “Requested Evidence” notice sent to me by your field office along with photocopies of the following documentation:

• Brief explanation of the history of our relationship (i.e. How we met, why I moved to Europe...)

• Brief explanation as to why certain scraps of evidence are unattainable for us

• Last page of apartment rental contract (“Mietvertrag”) signed by both my husband and myself

• Official address changes proving I lived with my husband before our marital union and showing we moved together to our own apartment (“An-/Ummeldung”)

• Up-to-date gas and electric bills addressed to both my husband and myself

• Proof of a joint German bank account shared between my husband and myself

• Proof of family health insurance (“Familienversicherung”) which insures us under my husband's work contract

• Photos from vacations my husband and I went on together between 2009-2014

• Sworn affidavits from family and friends in the US and Germany

• Formal company letter from my parents' HVAC company in Oklahoma which states that they desire to hire both my husband and myself once his green card is in hand

I apologize for troubling you with having to request these documents, and I appreciate the swift reply I received regarding my petition. If I can be of further assistance to you then, once again, please don't hesitate to contact me in any way.

We hope that this packet of evidence clears things up so that our case may be forwarded to the Frankfurt Immigrant Visa Unit as soon as possible.

Edited September 15, 2014 by Stressed Out

[Confusedtinybird 41]

For the pictures I put dates on the back and the location of where the picture was taken.

I also had bills in both our names that showed our address.

I think you have a lot of good evidence. It should be approved quickly.

[Stressed Out 81]

Cool, thanks! You tend to freak out a bit when those daunting words "if you submit insufficient evidence, your petition may be denied" stand in front of you, but in reality it's certainly not as bad for low fraud DCF countries like ours. Better too much than too little though I guess. Now just to gather, copy and translate this junk, haha.

[StrawberryKiss 170]

Aww, sorry to hear you got an RFE!

We included affidavits from US relatives stating that they attended our wedding (date, location) and explaining how/when we started dating, when they met me for the first time... etc. Make sure you also include pictures of your wedding, maybe a purchase receipt of your rings. Maybe you also have additional proof of flight itineraries, hotel rooms booked under both of your names, copies of passport stamps that show you visited each other during your long distance relationship, old email/facebook conversations, gift receipts, cards/letters... But even if you only included all the things you mentioned above, I'm sure you'd be fine

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

Geez, you have a lot of stuff! We had a lost I-130 that was approved with just a couple of family photos, letters addressed to us both, mail at the same address, and our official names on the door. Errmm, well for our second I-130 that was a very rare DCF through Denmark/Sweden and USCIS London we were instructed to not provide any photos or evidence! We definitely did not even have a fraction of what you do even if they had asked. I think you'll be fine even if it is Germany.