A few questions before submitting my i-751 RFE response

[mr.j.j.s. 1]

 

Hello again VJers,

 

My RFE response for the ROC is approaching its final stages, and I was hoping to get some feedback on any additional evidence you might suggest.

 

Here's what we included in our original I-751 application:

• Copies of the passports and green cards of (wife)
• Certificate of group health insurance plan coverage for myself and my wife
• Reference letter from Citibank and one recent monthly statement of our joint accounts
• A copy of our 2014 joint US tax return
• A sworn affidavit from my father, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• A sworn affidavit from our landlord, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• Copies of checks made out to our landlord, (name), for monthly rent payments
• 3 Photos of (wife) with myself and my family

 

Here's what we're sending with the RFE response:

1.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

1.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

1.2.    Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March through July of 2017

 

2.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

2.1.   Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

2.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

2.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

2.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

2.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

3.     Additional Evidence of a continued life together and bona fide marriage

3.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

3.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

3.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in Summer of 2016

3.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

 

Does this additional evidence appear to cover all our bases? I'm also including a brief explanation of the evidence, to tell "our story" to the USCIS examiner. I've included the explanation at the bottom of this post.

 

I also had some other questions I was hoping to get some clarification on:

• We originally submitted evidence of a joint health insurance plan. Since submitting our original application, we have changed our insurance plan. Should I include copies of our new health insurance cards? I'm afraid I won't have time to request a new certification of coverage - would the cards be sufficient? Should I just leave it out, since I already provided evidence of joint health insurance?
• For the certified translation of the Japanese family registry, is it OK if my wife translated the document herself as long as we include the USCIS certifying statement? Does it need to be notarized? They accepted her birth certificate translation for the K-1, but I'm thinking this might be different?
• Should we include photos from our trip together back to Japan? Unfortunately we don't have any photos of us with her family, and precious few of us together.
• Should the cover letter be placed on top of or underneath the RFE notice?
• The USCIS form filing tips suggest the use of sticky tabs to assist in locating items listed as attachments. Do they mean post-it notes? So I'll just stick them onto the bottom of the different sections? I'm worried about them falling off or getting folded while in transport.
• Should I label each piece of evidence with petitioner name and A#?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback, advice and other pointers!  For added information for anyone willing to read more, I've pasted the brief explanation of evidence below. Thanks again!

----------------------------------------------------

Brief Explanation of Evidence Provided

2.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

2.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

I started renting the apartment at our current address in August of 2012 by myself, while (wife) was in Japan waiting for her K-1 fiancé visa to be approved. Following her entry to the U.S. and the end of the first one-year lease, we continued renting the apartment on a month-to-month basis, without a formal lease. We re-signed a one-year lease in March of 2017 following the landlord's request to increase the monthly rent from $XXXX to $XXXX. These respective rent amounts are reflected in the check carbon copies I provided in my original I-751 application, and in the more recent carbon copies provided in the present response.

 

2.2.   Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March, April, May, June, and July of 2017

 

3.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

3.1.    Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

Our joint checking and savings accounts constitute our sole bank accounts. Neither of us maintain separate or individual accounts. The statements included in this response reflect deposits made on behalf of both of our employers, withdrawals made from various ATMs, as well as purchases made on our shared debit card, for the period of our marriage (May, 2013) until now. Payments for our shared utilities (electric, gas, and cell phone) have also been made solely from our shared checking account.

 

3.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

 

3.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

 

3.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

We chose to apply specifically for this JAL credit card in order to accumulate mileage points towards regular trips to Sapporo, Japan, my wife's home town. I have included all monthly statements to which I had access on our credit card's online account site.

 

3.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

4.     Evidence of a continued life together, and relationships with spouse’s family

4.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

 

4.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

 

4.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in the summer of 2016

We booked separate flights for our trip. My wife's flight was booked through JAL, and was paid for using our accumulated credit card mileage points. We did not have enough points for two round trip tickets, so I booked my flight with a separate, less expensive airline. I also came back to the U.S. one month before my wife since I had to return to work.

 

4.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

We spent one week in Tokyo, spending several of those days staying with my wife's sister, (name). We then took a trip to Nikki, outside of Tokyo, for two nights before heading to Sapporo. In Sapporo, we stayed with my wife's mother and father, (names). This is the reason for not having included a hotel itinerary for the duration of our stay in Sapporo.

 

[Davejj 31]

I think your rfe response looks good. When did you file for the I751 and What service center?

[mr.j.j.s. 1]

1 minute ago, Davejj said:

When did you file for the I751 and What service center?

I originally applied in March 2016 at the Vermont Service Center. I had to reapply because I forgot to include the $85 biometrics fee (thought I would pay that at the time of the appointment), which ended up putting me 10 days behind the original deadline. So I'm a little worried about that, and included the cause in my RFE. But it didn't stop us from getting our one year extension.

[Kris-Sy 6]

1 hour ago, mr.j.j.s. said:

 

Hello again VJers,

 

My RFE response for the ROC is approaching its final stages, and I was hoping to get some feedback on any additional evidence you might suggest.

 

Here's what we included in our original I-751 application:

• Copies of the passports and green cards of (wife)
• Certificate of group health insurance plan coverage for myself and my wife
• Reference letter from Citibank and one recent monthly statement of our joint accounts
• A copy of our 2014 joint US tax return
• A sworn affidavit from my father, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• A sworn affidavit from our landlord, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• Copies of checks made out to our landlord, (name), for monthly rent payments
• 3 Photos of (wife) with myself and my family

 

Here's what we're sending with the RFE response:

1.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

1.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

1.2.    Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March through July of 2017

 

2.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

2.1.   Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

2.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

2.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

2.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

2.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

3.     Additional Evidence of a continued life together and bona fide marriage

3.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

3.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

3.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in Summer of 2016

3.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

 

Does this additional evidence appear to cover all our bases? I'm also including a brief explanation of the evidence, to tell "our story" to the USCIS examiner. I've included the explanation at the bottom of this post.

 

I also had some other questions I was hoping to get some clarification on:

• We originally submitted evidence of a joint health insurance plan. Since submitting our original application, we have changed our insurance plan. Should I include copies of our new health insurance cards? I'm afraid I won't have time to request a new certification of coverage - would the cards be sufficient? Should I just leave it out, since I already provided evidence of joint health insurance?
• For the certified translation of the Japanese family registry, is it OK if my wife translated the document herself as long as we include the USCIS certifying statement? Does it need to be notarized? They accepted her birth certificate translation for the K-1, but I'm thinking this might be different?
• Should we include photos from our trip together back to Japan? Unfortunately we don't have any photos of us with her family, and precious few of us together.
• Should the cover letter be placed on top of or underneath the RFE notice?
• The USCIS form filing tips suggest the use of sticky tabs to assist in locating items listed as attachments. Do they mean post-it notes? So I'll just stick them onto the bottom of the different sections? I'm worried about them falling off or getting folded while in transport.
• Should I label each piece of evidence with petitioner name and A#?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback, advice and other pointers!  For added information for anyone willing to read more, I've pasted the brief explanation of evidence below. Thanks again!

----------------------------------------------------

Brief Explanation of Evidence Provided

2.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

2.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

I started renting the apartment at our current address in August of 2012 by myself, while (wife) was in Japan waiting for her K-1 fiancé visa to be approved. Following her entry to the U.S. and the end of the first one-year lease, we continued renting the apartment on a month-to-month basis, without a formal lease. We re-signed a one-year lease in March of 2017 following the landlord's request to increase the monthly rent from $XXXX to $XXXX. These respective rent amounts are reflected in the check carbon copies I provided in my original I-751 application, and in the more recent carbon copies provided in the present response.

 

2.2.   Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March, April, May, June, and July of 2017

 

3.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

3.1.    Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

Our joint checking and savings accounts constitute our sole bank accounts. Neither of us maintain separate or individual accounts. The statements included in this response reflect deposits made on behalf of both of our employers, withdrawals made from various ATMs, as well as purchases made on our shared debit card, for the period of our marriage (May, 2013) until now. Payments for our shared utilities (electric, gas, and cell phone) have also been made solely from our shared checking account.

 

3.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

 

3.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

 

3.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

We chose to apply specifically for this JAL credit card in order to accumulate mileage points towards regular trips to Sapporo, Japan, my wife's home town. I have included all monthly statements to which I had access on our credit card's online account site.

 

3.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

4.     Evidence of a continued life together, and relationships with spouse’s family

4.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

 

4.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

 

4.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in the summer of 2016

We booked separate flights for our trip. My wife's flight was booked through JAL, and was paid for using our accumulated credit card mileage points. We did not have enough points for two round trip tickets, so I booked my flight with a separate, less expensive airline. I also came back to the U.S. one month before my wife since I had to return to work.

 

4.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

We spent one week in Tokyo, spending several of those days staying with my wife's sister, (name). We then took a trip to Nikki, outside of Tokyo, for two nights before heading to Sapporo. In Sapporo, we stayed with my wife's mother and father, (names). This is the reason for not having included a hotel itinerary for the duration of our stay in Sapporo.

 

RFE  docs look good. You will get a response very fast. Good Luck !

[Lavazza_K 9]

11 hours ago, mr.j.j.s. said:

 

I also had some other questions I was hoping to get some clarification on:

• We originally submitted evidence of a joint health insurance plan. Since submitting our original application, we have changed our insurance plan. Should I include copies of our new health insurance cards? I'm afraid I won't have time to request a new certification of coverage - would the cards be sufficient? Should I just leave it out, since I already provided evidence of joint health insurance? If you can access your insurance page, there should be pages where shows your coverage details. you can just print that and a temporary ID.
• For the certified translation of the Japanese family registry, is it OK if my wife translated the document herself as long as we include the USCIS certifying statement? Does it need to be notarized? They accepted her birth certificate translation for the K-1, but I'm thinking this might be different? No problem, no need to notarize
• Should we include photos from our trip together back to Japan? Unfortunately we don't have any photos of us with her family, and precious few of us together. I'd say yes, although these are secondary evidence. 
• Should the cover letter be placed on top of or underneath the RFE notice? I'd say on top, i assume your cover letter says something like "this is a response to your RFE letter etc." Plus it gives them a quick overview of what's included.
• The USCIS form filing tips suggest the use of sticky tabs to assist in locating items listed as attachments. Do they mean post-it notes? So I'll just stick them onto the bottom of the different sections? I'm worried about them falling off or getting folded while in transport. I think they meant the post-it flags. I used clippers, now that I think of it, post-it flags are actually better...anything that could help them pick out your docs easily would do I think/
• Should I label each piece of evidence with petitioner name and A#? No need. I did highlight any docs that contain our names.

 

 

 

Please see my response in red

[Hannah_NYC 14]

On 7/6/2017 at 10:00 PM, mr.j.j.s. said:

 

Hello again VJers,

 

My RFE response for the ROC is approaching its final stages, and I was hoping to get some feedback on any additional evidence you might suggest.

 

Here's what we included in our original I-751 application:

• Copies of the passports and green cards of (wife)
• Certificate of group health insurance plan coverage for myself and my wife
• Reference letter from Citibank and one recent monthly statement of our joint accounts
• A copy of our 2014 joint US tax return
• A sworn affidavit from my father, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• A sworn affidavit from our landlord, (name), attesting to our relationship and marriage
• Copies of checks made out to our landlord, (name), for monthly rent payments
• 3 Photos of (wife) with myself and my family

 

Here's what we're sending with the RFE response:

1.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

1.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

1.2.    Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March through July of 2017

 

2.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

2.1.   Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

2.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

2.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

2.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

2.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

3.     Additional Evidence of a continued life together and bona fide marriage

3.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

3.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

3.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in Summer of 2016

3.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

 

Does this additional evidence appear to cover all our bases? I'm also including a brief explanation of the evidence, to tell "our story" to the USCIS examiner. I've included the explanation at the bottom of this post.

 

I also had some other questions I was hoping to get some clarification on:

• We originally submitted evidence of a joint health insurance plan. Since submitting our original application, we have changed our insurance plan. Should I include copies of our new health insurance cards? I'm afraid I won't have time to request a new certification of coverage - would the cards be sufficient? Should I just leave it out, since I already provided evidence of joint health insurance?
• For the certified translation of the Japanese family registry, is it OK if my wife translated the document herself as long as we include the USCIS certifying statement? Does it need to be notarized? They accepted her birth certificate translation for the K-1, but I'm thinking this might be different?
• Should we include photos from our trip together back to Japan? Unfortunately we don't have any photos of us with her family, and precious few of us together.
• Should the cover letter be placed on top of or underneath the RFE notice?
• The USCIS form filing tips suggest the use of sticky tabs to assist in locating items listed as attachments. Do they mean post-it notes? So I'll just stick them onto the bottom of the different sections? I'm worried about them falling off or getting folded while in transport.
• Should I label each piece of evidence with petitioner name and A#?

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback, advice and other pointers!  For added information for anyone willing to read more, I've pasted the brief explanation of evidence below. Thanks again!

----------------------------------------------------

Brief Explanation of Evidence Provided

2.     Evidence of shared residency and shared responsibility for a common residence

2.1.    One-year rental leases dated 8/20/2012 and 3/11/2017

I started renting the apartment at our current address in August of 2012 by myself, while (wife) was in Japan waiting for her K-1 fiancé visa to be approved. Following her entry to the U.S. and the end of the first one-year lease, we continued renting the apartment on a month-to-month basis, without a formal lease. We re-signed a one-year lease in March of 2017 following the landlord's request to increase the monthly rent from $XXXX to $XXXX. These respective rent amounts are reflected in the check carbon copies I provided in my original I-751 application, and in the more recent carbon copies provided in the present response.

 

2.2.   Carbon copies of rent checks for the months of March, April, May, June, and July of 2017

 

3.     Evidence of combined financial resources, including joint ownership of assets

3.1.    Joint checking and savings account statements showing deposits and withdrawals for the period of our marriage

Our joint checking and savings accounts constitute our sole bank accounts. Neither of us maintain separate or individual accounts. The statements included in this response reflect deposits made on behalf of both of our employers, withdrawals made from various ATMs, as well as purchases made on our shared debit card, for the period of our marriage (May, 2013) until now. Payments for our shared utilities (electric, gas, and cell phone) have also been made solely from our shared checking account.

 

3.2.   Life insurance policy of the U.S. citizen spouse showing my wife, (name), as the sole beneficiary

 

3.3.   Joint federal tax returns for tax years 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016, with relevant W2 forms

 

3.4.   Joint credit card account summary stating U.S. citizen spouse and petitioner as primary cardholder and authorized cardholder, respectively, along with summary of mileage awards accumulated through use of shared credit card

We chose to apply specifically for this JAL credit card in order to accumulate mileage points towards regular trips to Sapporo, Japan, my wife's home town. I have included all monthly statements to which I had access on our credit card's online account site.

 

3.5.   Joint credit card statements showing purchases for the past 15 months

 

4.     Evidence of a continued life together, and relationships with spouse’s family

4.1.   Copy of our Japanese family registry filed with the Sapporo, Japan city office, with certified English translation

 

4.2.   Copies of passport photo pages, and visa stamp evidence of our trip to Japan in 2016

 

4.3.   Flight itineraries for our trip to Japan in the summer of 2016

We booked separate flights for our trip. My wife's flight was booked through JAL, and was paid for using our accumulated credit card mileage points. We did not have enough points for two round trip tickets, so I booked my flight with a separate, less expensive airline. I also came back to the U.S. one month before my wife since I had to return to work.

 

4.4.   Hotel itinerary for our stay together in the town of Nikko, outside of Tokyo

We spent one week in Tokyo, spending several of those days staying with my wife's sister, (name). We then took a trip to Nikki, outside of Tokyo, for two nights before heading to Sapporo. In Sapporo, we stayed with my wife's mother and father, (names). This is the reason for not having included a hotel itinerary for the duration of our stay in Sapporo.

 

How did it go? How long did you wait for an answer? THANK YOU! 

[mr.j.j.s. 1]

On 5/2/2020 at 3:57 AM, Hannah_NYC said:

How did it go? How long did you wait for an answer? THANK YOU! 

It went surprisingly well, actually.  Our application was approved about a month later, without requiring an interview.