Received RFE for joint I-751 , but also in divorce proceedings, what do?

[wololo 28]

I received yesterday a letter from USCIS saying I need more evidence for my marriage, I've been married for 4 1/2 years, but recently I filed for divorce and the final day to get my divorce decree will be in a month, so I'm still technically married.

 

The RFE says I need more evidence of joint responsibilities, but we always had separate checking accounts, no credit cards together. The only documents we had together was our tax returns and car insurance (I sent those) and a loan for a new car (I will send that in my RFE response). What other non-financial documents can I send to prove my marriage? Photos were sent too.

 

How should I reply to this RFE? Should I tell USCIS I'm in divorce proceedings or reply with other evidence of our marriage? What happens if I send more evidence and they're not satisfied? Will they call us for an interview even though by then I will be already divorced?

 

Thanks.

Edited September 22, 2018 by wololo

[JFH 12,190]

Did you actually live together? Weren’t you on the same lease or did you have a mortgage together? Your driver licenses would also show the same address. 

 

It it doesn’t look good. Why didn’t you have a joint account? I can understand separate checking accounts - not all married couples share a checking account but what about a joint savings account for things for the home? Or for vacations? Did you go on vacation together? 

[wololo 28]

40 minutes ago, JFH said:

Did you actually live together? Weren’t you on the same lease or did you have a mortgage together? Your driver licenses would also show the same address. 

 

It it doesn’t look good. Why didn’t you have a joint account? I can understand separate checking accounts - not all married couples share a checking account but what about a joint savings account for things for the home? Or for vacations? Did you go on vacation together? 

Yes, we indeed lived together for about 2 1/2 years. We don't have mortgage, he owned the house. Our drivers licences indeed have the same address, but I moved out his house a few months back so I don't have the same address now.

 

We never had joint accounts because at first when I started working I decided to have my own checkings/savings. 

 

For savings and things we needed in the house we always split everything and we would pay it separately. We made dozens of trips together, and I have hundreds of photos to prove that and some tickets/itineraries too. Also I have books of chat logs and what not.

 

I know it wasn't optimal to be that way, but I never thought of proving anything before removing conditions. The new evidence I have that USCIS is requesting from me could be the car loan he got (both our names) and an updated 2017 tax return.

[JFH 12,190]

1 hour ago, wololo said:

Yes, we indeed lived together for about 2 1/2 years. We don't have mortgage, he owned the house. Our drivers licences indeed have the same address, but I moved out his house a few months back so I don't have the same address now.

 

We never had joint accounts because at first when I started working I decided to have my own checkings/savings. 

 

For savings and things we needed in the house we always split everything and we would pay it separately. We made dozens of trips together, and I have hundreds of photos to prove that and some tickets/itineraries too. Also I have books of chat logs and what not.

 

I know it wasn't optimal to be that way, but I never thought of proving anything before removing conditions. The new evidence I have that USCIS is requesting from me could be the car loan he got (both our names) and an updated 2017 tax return.

So was your name on any of the utility bills? 

 

Chat logs? Why did you chat online if you were living together? 

[wololo 28]

4 minutes ago, JFH said:

So was your name on any of the utility bills? 

 

Chat logs? Why did you chat online if you were living together? 

No utilities names under my name, only his. I was responsible for car insurance, which covered a bunch of vehicles (and has both our names) hence I only paid that, he paid the rest of the bills.

 

By chat logs I mean Facebook chats and SMS of our day to day lives, when we were working, asking what you want for dinner, or when I'm coming home, or grab something on the way back, things like that.

Edited September 23, 2018 by wololo

[xillini 71]

So my understanding is that you filed joint I 751, but USCIS just issued RFE, when you and your spouse is in divorce proceeding. 

 

I recommend to seek professional legal advice (After you do careful reviews on immigration attorney or lawyers), 

but generally, I would suggest that you can wait until the divorce decree is finalized and then responded RFE with changing joint I 751 to I 751 with good faith marriage waiver option. 

 

When you send RFE, it is highly recommended to send all evidences that can show the bona fide marriage, including all you mentioned in a organized structure with a letter explaining your marriage and why it fell into separation and dissolution. Of course, you must include the evidences that they specifically were looking from you. 

 

I mean, some of the out-of-box items include 

1) do you guys have the joint health insurance? By any chance do you meet the same primary care physician or nurse practitioner whom you visited together to discuss health-related issues??? If that is the case, then the healthcare provider can write a testimony that you and your spouse were there to discuss the specific matter with receipt date to show they are there to discuss family matter (it would be even better if discussion topic was pregnancy, but even general discussion to health condition is a great evidence to suggest that the marriage is bona-fide). 

2) Did you guys have couple therapies before separation? If so, then you can include the letter from the therapist, who can testimony the totality and circumstances of your marriage? (Of course, if I were you, I would talk to the therapist and ask a favorable opinion that will strengthen your case for approval)

3) Do you guys have wholesale club membership like amazon prime, COSTCO, or Sam's? that often give your secondary member and you can use the membership as your bona fide marriage? This can even include fitness center like YMCA. 

4) If you are still in amicable term with your soon-to-be ex, you can ask the emergency contact in your spouse's workplace, which would list your name as emergency contact list. Likewise, you can include your workplace emergency contact list specifically pointing your soon-to-be ex, if it is present. 

5) Pet, if you have any, can be included to suggest bona-fide marriage, you guys take care of pets together. 

 

I know there are so many ifs.... but everything is ifs if you pay attention to what we are dealing in a daily life.

Hope this helps. 

 

 

[wololo 28]

33 minutes ago, xillini said:

So my understanding is that you filed joint I 751, but USCIS just issued RFE, when you and your spouse is in divorce proceeding. 

 

I recommend to seek professional legal advice (After you do careful reviews on immigration attorney or lawyers), 

but generally, I would suggest that you can wait until the divorce decree is finalized and then responded RFE with changing joint I 751 to I 751 with good faith marriage waiver option. 

 

When you send RFE, it is highly recommended to send all evidences that can show the bona fide marriage, including all you mentioned in a organized structure with a letter explaining your marriage and why it fell into separation and dissolution. Of course, you must include the evidences that they specifically were looking from you. 

 

I mean, some of the out-of-box items include 

1) do you guys have the joint health insurance? By any chance do you meet the same primary care physician or nurse practitioner whom you visited together to discuss health-related issues??? If that is the case, then the healthcare provider can write a testimony that you and your spouse were there to discuss the specific matter with receipt date to show they are there to discuss family matter (it would be even better if discussion topic was pregnancy, but even general discussion to health condition is a great evidence to suggest that the marriage is bona-fide). 

2) Did you guys have couple therapies before separation? If so, then you can include the letter from the therapist, who can testimony the totality and circumstances of your marriage? (Of course, if I were you, I would talk to the therapist and ask a favorable opinion that will strengthen your case for approval)

3) Do you guys have wholesale club membership like amazon prime, COSTCO, or Sam's? that often give your secondary member and you can use the membership as your bona fide marriage? This can even include fitness center like YMCA. 

4) If you are still in amicable term with your soon-to-be ex, you can ask the emergency contact in your spouse's workplace, which would list your name as emergency contact list. Likewise, you can include your workplace emergency contact list specifically pointing your soon-to-be ex, if it is present. 

5) Pet, if you have any, can be included to suggest bona-fide marriage, you guys take care of pets together. 

 

I know there are so many ifs.... but everything is ifs if you pay attention to what we are dealing in a daily life.

Hope this helps. 

 

 

1. We didn't have health insurance, we even got a penalty two years in a row in our tax returns for not having it.

2. Never did therapies.

3. We do our shopping in regular stores like walmart and such, so no memberships of any kind.

4. If I add them to the emergency contact, what document here proves that? Just a print out of our internal HR system that says he's my emergency contact?

5. We don't have pets.

 

I know it sounds unusual for a couple not to have much of their responsibilities together, but it's possible, and this is what's happening in my case, just a few things that we legally did together, like our car insurance, car loan and tax returns, other than that, we always managed everything separately.

[geowrian 22,337]

Personally I would request switching to a divorce waiver with the RFE response. Then bring the final divorce decree to the interview. One can also switch and do so at the interview itself, but generally I don't err on the side of surprises to IOs.

This is in addition to the evidence being provided with the response.

[wololo 28]

3 minutes ago, geowrian said:

Personally I would request switching to a divorce waiver with the RFE response. Then bring the final divorce decree to the interview. One can also switch and do so at the interview itself, but generally I don't err on the side of surprises to IOs.

This is in addition to the evidence being provided with the response.

I might have to do this. I was just wondering if I had a shot at finishing this before my divorce was final, I thought that maybe replying to my RFE would get me approved and I would avoid an interview by switching to a waiver.

[xillini 71]

3 minutes ago, wololo said:

 

I know it sounds unusual for a couple not to have much of their responsibilities together, but it's possible, and this is what's happening in my case, just a few things that we legally did together, like our car insurance, car loan and tax returns, other than that, we always managed everything separately.

First of all, dont freak out. The worst thing is they will request interview and you can go from there. But I would really recommend to write a letter explaining course of the marriage (i.e: when met at first, how the relationship evolved, where you guys visited together, and what attracted them, but why broke up in a clear timeline), including why you guys managed the finance separately. I mean it happens in today's world even though couples are married. So a good explanation is really necessary, and hiring an experienced lawyer is always good ideas when the lawyer can add legal basis to explain that it does not violate anything while you are presenting your case to reviewing IO. 

 

[geowrian 22,337]

1 minute ago, wololo said:

I might have to do this. I was just wondering if I had a shot at finishing this before my divorce was final, I thought that maybe replying to my RFE would get me approved and I would avoid an interview by switching to a waiver.

That is possible.

At the same time, if the divorce is finalized and then you get approved, expect scrutiny if you ever apply for naturalization.

[xillini 71]

7 minutes ago, wololo said:

I might have to do this. I was just wondering if I had a shot at finishing this before my divorce was final, I thought that maybe replying to my RFE would get me approved and I would avoid an interview by switching to a waiver.

The thing is if you don't switch to I 751 waiver option and luckily approved after you respond to RFE this time, and when later you apply to N400, and then USCIS will review the timeline for your case,by which your divorce is finalized and you are forced to mark "Divorced" and therefore you are required to provide divorce decree that clearly shows all the timeline. Then after reviewing all those information, USCIS may deny your N400 due to the fact that you did not disclose fully before I 751 is finally adjucated, and therefore charge you as a misrepresentation. So I would highly recommend to switch to I 751 waiver to avoid future denials when you respond to RFE. Additionally, that is only when it is lucky for you this time, and if it is not lucky, meaning that you would be scheduled for interview, it would be even creating more suspicision. 

 

When does RFE need to respond? I am assuming it gives you standard 90 days? 

Edited September 23, 2018 by xillini

[indianshah 4]

Here’s my situation. I’ll appreciate if someone would be able to help me ?

 

my USC wife and I got married in February 2015 in US and had another wedding in India in June 2015. I filed a joint i751 petition in Nov 2017. We were living together until August 2018, but she moved to her home state end of August. At the time of filing, we didn’t think we wanted to get separated though we had minor issues. We attended counseling sessions together before she moved out, but that didn’t help resolve our issues. Eventually we decided to get separated and she filed divorce on mutual consent last week. I’m yet to receive the papers and respond back. The question is should I let USCIS know about the situation or wait for the divorce to get finalized? The state law requires us to wait for 60 days to issue the divorce decree after I respond back. If they approve me (chances are rare) before the divorce gets finalized would there be an issue ?

 

in terms of proofs I have the following. Any more recommendations?

 

1) joint tax forms for 2015, 2016 and 2017

2) joint savings account statements from 2015 till 2018

3) joint credit card statements - 2016, 2017, 2018

4) joint phone bills - 2015 till 2018

5) photos from 23 trips, birthday, wedding anniversary and the wedding ; trips and get together with family members and extended family on both sides

6) affidavit from my spouse and my friends/relatives 

7) letter from the counselor 

8 ) emails, texts, FB logs etc. 

9) family group conversations on WhatsApp 

10) joint lease documents for 2016, 2017,2018

11) documents that show her as my emergency contact 

 

Thanks in advance! 

 

[Docguy 0]

Hello wololo

 

I am in exactly same situation. Just wsnted to follow up finally what you did and what happened to your I-751. 

 

Did they approve it or interview you ?? Please guide and help. I m in california. Let me know if we cud talk over phone and hav your opinion directly in more efficient way.

 

Thanks in advance

[Docguy 0]

On 9/22/2018 at 4:00 PM, wololo said:

I received yesterday a letter from USCIS saying I need more evidence for my marriage, I've been married for 4 1/2 years, but recently I filed for divorce and the final day to get my divorce decree will be in a month, so I'm still technically married.

 

The RFE says I need more evidence of joint responsibilities, but we always had separate checking accounts, no credit cards together. The only documents we had together was our tax returns and car insurance (I sent those) and a loan for a new car (I will send that in my RFE response). What other non-financial documents can I send to prove my marriage? Photos were sent too.

 

How should I reply to this RFE? Should I tell USCIS I'm in divorce proceedings or reply with other evidence of our marriage? What happens if I send more evidence and they're not satisfied? Will they call us for an interview even though by then I will be already divorced?

 

Thanks.

Hello wololo

 

I am in exactly same situation. Just wsnted to follow up finally what you did and what happened to your I-751. 

 

Did they approve it or interview you ?? Please guide and help. I m in california. Let me know if we cud talk over phone and hav your opinion directly in more efficient way.

 

Thanks in advance