K1 RFE - Asking for Marriage Termination Evidence; never been previously married

[KBCN 53]

49 minutes ago, Jorgedig said:

Did he claim to be married on his tourist visa application, in order to try to show "ties" to his country?  We have seen this before here on VJ.

No, he marked "Single" for Marital Status on the DS-160 form. I followed the directions to pull up the form via the US Embassy website (for retrieve/recover the DS-160 form, which provides all original answers: https://jp.usembassy.gov/visas/nonimmigrant-visas/ds160/retrieve-recover-form/). 

 

 

[payxibka 10,045]

Going out on a limb here.  Are you 100% positive he has never been the beneficiary of another petition?  This would also be a part of prior USCIS records

[KBCN 53]

1 hour ago, NigeriaorBust said:

Has he applied before and not gotten a visa ?  Or maybe someone claimed to be his spouse on their application. 

He only applied for one other Visa in his life, which is his B2 Tourist visa. That visa is still valid and he received in 2016.

 

I don't know how anyone would be able to find out the information of someone else making an application claim. He's my beneficiary/Argentinian citizen, so I don't know who or why someone would be claiming him as a spouse on an application somewhere trying to get a Visa to the U.S.  

[KBCN 53]

Hey everyone,

 

First, I'm just going to say thank you all for the helpful guidance and advice that you have been able to provide. I understand that many of you are veterans on this site and my gratitude extends to anyone that is willing to respond and be helpful to me, as well to anyone on this site. 

 

At this point, I'm just going to respond to any questions or comments that may help provide any additional guidance or insights of proof to respond to this RFE. 

 

I did contact USCIS and the kind representative informed me that the two documents we are intending to respond with seem reasonable in this situation. I mentioned my own divorce decree in the original petition and she said it could have been a simple clerical error that they marked him to have a divorce decree because they just got confused and now it shows he needs one (in which case I should notate this in the response back to them). She also recommended reaching out to community forums for advice (hey, that's you amazing people!) and sent me a website for pro bono legal advice (which I plan on contacting an office to see if there is anything else recommended). From our response, USCIS will either make a decision on the case or send us another RFE. She did not have any details on the records indicated for them to come to the conclusion.

 

We plan to send our response as soon as possible. Thank you all again! 

[SalishSea 17,828]

6 minutes ago, KBCN said:

She did not have any details on the records indicated for them to come to the conclusion.

 

This makes sense.  The phone reps are not the same ones adjudicating petitions, so they have access to very little information on specific petitions.

[Crazy Cat 41,845]

14 minutes ago, KBCN said:

I mentioned my own divorce decree in the original petition and she said it could have been a simple clerical error that they marked him to have a divorce decree because they just got confused and now it shows he needs one (in which case I should notate this in the response back to them)

For your divorce decree, did you include the entire document......sometimes, USCIS sends RFEs for partial decrees.....

[KBCN 53]

4 minutes ago, missileman said:

For your divorce decree, did you include the entire document......sometimes, USCIS sends RFEs for partial decrees.....

Yes - I actually submitted a full Certified Copy (obtained from the courthouse) with the petition. The RFE does not reference this at all though. It is specific to providing evidence of terminated previous marriage(s) of my fiancé (beneficiary) - that of which he does not have since he was never married (or even engaged before me) in his life. 

[Villanelle 4,122]

Just to be 100% sure- and I know people keep asking you this so Im sorry to sound like a broken record- but on the 129f you filled out divorced for you on part 1 q23 and Single for him on part 2 q6?

 

If so its probably just a technical error by someone and the only thing you can do is respond with all the info already in this thread. Hopefully it gets resolved quickly. Please keep us updated after they respond to your response!

[Amadia 711]

5 hours ago, KBCN said:

My fiancé was able to confirm an appointment to go to the county office and potentially receive a certificate indicating he has never had a previous marriage. 

This is a great step. Your fiance getting a single status affidavit from the court should work in both your favor  

[geowrian 22,337]

Sounds like a clerical error, assuming everything stated previously ITT is correct. Mistakes happen.

 

A single status affidavit or attestation would only be beneficial if it was issued by the organization by which their records indicated he was previously married. Otherwise, it's just a document saying they don't know of a marriage recorded there. I could obtain the same type of document with a 30 minute drive and I'm married (marriage certificates are registered by county in my state).

[Carpe Vinum 2,327]

19 hours ago, payxibka said:

Something tipped the USCIS to believe a previous marriage had occurred,  either an erroneous indication in the evidence provided or just a plain error by the adjudicator 

They probably got the same adjudicator I had)))  Bogus RFEs happen....

[payxibka 10,045]

35 minutes ago, boris64 said:

They probably got the same adjudicator I had)))  Bogus RFEs happen....

Actually was thinking about you when I wrote it 

[Limey 551]

Sounds like a clerical error to me. These seem to happen from time to time (eg someone asked for a document they've already provided, etc).

 

What age is he? I got through the I129F fine, but at my interview the interviewer asked whether she had divorce decrees in our files for both of us. I showed her the one for my fiancee, and told her that I was single (i'd been in a very long relationship, but we never married). I was early 40s at the time of my interview, and I guess most people going through the process at that age have been married before.

 

Either way, its hard to prove you're NOT married, as others have said, even a certificate or statement from your home country doesn't prove you didn't marry somewhere else - so its not really possible to provide evidence for it in most cases (we didn't). I'd imagine a signed statement that you're not married should be enough, but anything else you can get helps. If they believe he is already married, I'd expect them to provide their reasoning.

Edited June 20, 2019 by Limey

[KBCN 53]

Hey everyone!

 

I know it has been a bit as it took us some time to get everything sent back over on the RFE and then waiting patiently on hearing anything back. JUST GOT THE APPROVAL IN THE MAIL TODAY!!!

 

Ended up sending a cover letter/longer narrative regarding the situation, a signed (and notarized) statement from my fiancé indicating he was never previously married, and the certificate we received from the National Registry of Persons (plus a translation since Argentina/Spanish and a short note (signed/notarized) from the person that translated). 

 

I want to say thank you all again for your help and we are very excited to have our NOA2 in hand, ready for the next step in this process. Best wishes to everyone!