RFE received for meeting

[GazLisa 1,168]

After reading this thread I'm freaking out 😨😨😨😨😨 we sent in my boarding passes and airline tickets from my 3 trips to USA to see my fiancé plus 7 random photos of us together and one pic of me with my fiancé s family,plus bank account details of some of my purchases in the states plus engagement ring receipt and a Facebook post of my fiancé wearing ring on finger.

signed letter of intent from us both and a detailed 2 page letter of how we met online.Her plane ticket confirmation for flying to Uk in May as well.

also sent in both our phone records and text records,every single post between us on Facebook and a few select screenshots of our convo's on messenger and Skype records.

i hope we don't receive RFE 😢😢😢😢

Edited April 27, 2017 by Gary JT

[NDB052714 122]

16 hours ago, Peot said:

One word - Scary!

 

It's crazy to think that when you enter a relationship with someone, you're expected to keep documented evidence of being together for the prior 2 years. Things like receipts and statements and boarding passes all tossed away casually without a second thought, but oh the regret!

 

Anyway, we petitioned for our K-1 in December 19, 2016 and at that time provided an overkill amount of evidence that we had met.

We provided:

- Photograhs of us meeting (around 6 or so, all dated)

- Copy of plane ticket purchases travelling together (3 flights each)

- Signed letters of intent to marry from both of us

- A statement detailing how we met when, etc..

 

After waiting 5 months, we received a notice of Request For Evidence (RFE) that we did not submit enough to prove that we had met in the prior 2 years since filing, and that we did not prove the circumstances of us meeting.

 

We have now supplied:

- Blue "notice of action" document

- Table of contents

- A new statement detailing the circumstances of us meeting

- New statements of intent to marry, reworded, and signed again

- Passport info pages and admission stamps for BOTH of us

- Boarding passes + Itinerary of a couple trips to visit my fiance

- An additional 4 photos (dated, locations, and names)

- Engagement ring receipt (purchased while IN THE UNITED STATES, with my full name on the receipt)

- Photograph of the engagement ring, dated

 

Do you think this is overkill? Is this not enough? Should we have done anything differently? Where did we go wrong the first time?

 

All I have to say is that this forum has been EXTREMELY helpful in easing my worry about this. I think my biggest worry is that we thought we were crossing our T's and dotting our I's the first time with the photographs and plane tickets together, but those became secondary evidence somehow? The letters of intent weren't valid somehow? I have so many questions about what I could have done differently, and perhaps your feedback will help others avoid the same obvious mistakes.

 

It seems like they're just asking for information that we already gave them.... and I'm not sure how we could really improve on what we've now sent them. 

 

Hopefully it's good enough..... crossing my fingers.

When you were traveling to visit your fiance, did you ever use a credit card or debit card while you were in the country? Hotel? Dinner? ATM transactions? Gifts? If so, get your credit card statements that show those transactions and send. That helps substantiate the claim that you were in the country when you said you were. Statements are really not enough. Are your photos date stamped? Or are you writing the dates on the back? Try date stamps. 

 

It is such a frustrating process...and I completely understand the frustration that comes with realizing all that great proof was just casually tossed away, never knowing you'd need it! 

[Randyandyuni 2,682]

16 hours ago, Peot said:

 

 

My other concern (and it's probably foolish) is that originally I sent in a "wet" or "inked" intent letter. The new one I sent in only has a printed signature that I had emailed to my fiance. I hope they don't see the NEW intent letter and deny us because it doesn't meet their criteria. It wasn't something I remembered needed to be done when I submitted it..... but considering sending in a new intent letter is overkill anyway, I'm hoping it's not an issue now.

we sent a copied from the internet letter of intent printed on my home computer, we had no issues

[Estibaliz 3,037]

The good thing about the i94 travel history is that it shows the date of your departure, also proving you didn't overstay, which is something passport stamps don't show. Although when my fiance visited me here, in Spain, he got stamps for both things, entry and exit of the country.

[BahamaIslander242 244]

To help lend more credibility to the photos, we screenshotted photos of us together from our iPhones. This is just a random photo screenshot but you'll see it has built in date stamps and geotagging (location), all to help prove accurate dates and times and places taken. 

[geowrian 22,337]

14 minutes ago, BahamaIslander242 said:

To help lend more credibility to the photos, we screenshotted photos of us together from our iPhones. This is just a random photo screenshot but you'll see it has built in date stamps and geotagging (location), all to help prove accurate dates and times and places taken.

As somebody who works in IT, I'm doubtful they would treat it much differently from a normally-printed photo. Geotagging and date stamps are very easily and quickly modifiable without a trace. You can change the date taken in Windows right from the right-click -> Properties menu. Changing the GPS attributes need other (easily obtainable) software, but somebody actually committing fraud would have no trouble doing it. Somebody committing fraud could do a lot with photos (part of the reason why they are secondary evidence only), but changing EXIF data would be probably the easiest to do and hardest to detect.

Edited April 27, 2017 by geowrian

[Ana&Matt 213]

We also sent screenshot of Instagram and Facebook posts.
And also, not sure if this will help at all, still in our NOA1, we sent statements of friends and family explaning when and where they spent time with us, with a wet signatura. E.g: My dad telling we spend Christmas Dinner at their house, a collgue of my bf work telling we went together to his b-day party...

 

[pajobra 1,395]

5 hours ago, Redheadguy03 said:

The passport stamps is the big one. I sent that and the airline receipts that's all I sent in regards to that besides photos. Passport stamps is by far the big one it should always be included. 

The problem for us Canadians is that they do not stamp passports when we enter the USA. Mind you I don't even have a passport. Well I should I applied for one 3 weeks ago. I have always crossed using my enhanced drivers license since I live a 5 minute drive from the USA border. Was just much cheaper to fly out from North Dakota than from here in Manitoba. lol We mailed hotel receipts though because our first in person meeting was in Rapid City, SD. I drove 8.5 hours to meet him there and he drove 7.5 hours to meet me. My Mum thought I was crazy and said I hope you have your own hotel room. I said sure do. Oh the little while lies you tell your parents even when you are 38 years old. LMAO

[Peot 161]

4 hours ago, Randyandyuni said:

we sent a copied from the internet letter of intent printed on my home computer, we had no issues

The reason I mentioned it at all is that when you look at the RFE master list here, a lot of the RFEs were sent to people in the first place due to a non-inked signature appearing.

[Peot 161]

4 hours ago, Estibaliz said:

The good thing about the i94 travel history is that it shows the date of your departure, also proving you didn't overstay, which is something passport stamps don't show. Although when my fiance visited me here, in Spain, he got stamps for both things, entry and exit of the country.

It's a really good tip to suggest using an i94 record! I never even knew there was a way to look up this history. However, I couldn't see beyond the most recent entry...... and if you don't have supporting evidence of where you went on that date, it's probably no better than a plane ticket or boarding pass. You can look up the entire travel history going back several years, but they just show arrival and departure dates.

 

Still, any additional evidence is good evidence - and the fact that the recent entry comes with an "Admission (I-94) Record Number" makes it sound like something they could verify if they had to.

It also states on their website: "A record of admission printed from the CBP website constitutes a lawful record of admission". Sounds good!

 

I also want to point out that with your passport info page, a USCIS agent could just as easily look up your most recent i-94 records too...... If they were proactive in doing that, it would probably save them from sending a lot of RFEs to people.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Peot

[Limey 551]

22 hours ago, Peot said:

Do you think this is overkill? Is this not enough? Should we have done anything differently? Where did we go wrong the first time?

 

I don't think there is any such thing as overkill.

 

With what you sent, and the fact that you are Canadian (low fraud risk, relatively easy to travel to USA due to being next door!) I'm very surprised you got an RFE.

 

I think the passport stamps are a good addition.

 

During my first trip to visit my then girlfriend (now wife) in the USA we visited a tourist attraction and had one of their official pictures taken. My wife liked it and paid the exorbitant amount for it. It shows us together, the location and the date. Useful when we did the k1 application. We also documented several trips I'd made (boarding passes, passport stamps etc) as well as a trip she made to the UK and Portugal with me. In total we documented about 5 or 6 meetings. Like I say, no such thing as overkill... they don't have to look through them all.

 

As others have said, I think passport stamps and/or i94 record is very good evidence, not least because I assume USCIS have access to systems to be able to verify what is provided. You could fake a plane ticket, or buy one and not travel (or cancel). But if you provide a fake i94 or passport stamp, they should be able to verify that.

Edited April 27, 2017 by Limey

[Estibaliz 3,037]

7 minutes ago, Limey said:

As others have said, I think passport stamps and/or i94 record is very good evidence, not least because I assume USCIS have access to systems to be able to verify what is provided. You could fake a plane ticket, or buy one and not travel (or cancel). But if you provide a fake i94 or passport stamp, they should be able to verify that.

Exactly my point. We were like "Oh, well, if they are paranoid they can think you photoshopped your passport stamps... but there's no way you can tamper with their own records on the i94"  

[Peot 161]

Just now, Estibaliz said:

Exactly my point. We were like "Oh, well, if they are paranoid they can think you photoshopped your passport stamps... but there's no way you can tamper with their own records on the i94"  

What they should do is make both petitioner and beneficiary provide passport info pages mandatory, then train their staff on how to look up i94 histories for that individual's passport info. It would be a major time saver, and would avoid them having to send RFEs for someone's failure to provide enough travel info.

 

CBP even issued an i94 a few years ago when I drove across the border that I DO NOT HAVE A STAMP FOR in my passport..... so it looks superior to me!

This info should definitely be on all of the recommended pages and guides here! Good job suggesting it Estibaliz! It can't help me, but it might help someone else