RFE | Bonafide marriage

[Quarknase 1,072]

Hello all,

 

We received a rather long RFE for the I-130, which states that the bona fide nature our marriage has not been established.

I did not worry about chat logs or similar during initial filing, because my husband and I have spent over 3 months together in 2019 (3 visits, we got married on the third), which I considered much stronger evidence (backed up with photos of us and with friends, boarding passes, receipts of places we visited...). My husband is from Middle East (not a banned country) so maybe I was a bit naiv.

The response to the RFE now must be much stronger - a denial and re-filing is not really what we're looking for

 

I copied the entire section from the RFE concerning this matter below (we have 3 more requests. 5 pages total :().

 

My first question is: Is the below the "standard" that gets mailed with every RFE for bonafide? Or did we receive an extensively long request?

 

In response we are planning to provide:

- Personal affidavit from me (Petitioner) with details how we met, how we maintain contact while apart from each other, describe when we started talking about getting married and plans for the future, explain why we only had civil marriage (the situation in his country started being pretty bad and his friends/family are affected by protests, so we found it inappropriate to throw a wedding party).

- Explanation for "rapid sequence of events" of my divorce in early 2017 and re-marriage in 2019 (I got separated in 2015, which makes it a lot less rapid).

- Again all documentation from visits (boarding passes, passport stamps, photos of us and with family and friends, receipts where available). I just came back from the fourth visit (again for a month) so we'll add that. We also went on vacation together this time for 2 weeks.

- Statement that we're both fluent in English, and started learning each others native language (which I need to admit is progressing slow, since it's so much easier to just stick to English. But we try).

- Explain that in his country cash payments are more common than card, so we don't have receipts for some places, plus we stay at his family's house so there's no hotel cost.

- Explain why we don't have photos from our civil wedding (no cameras and handys allowed in Iraqi courts).

- Minimal co-mingling finances (only two flights I booked for him, with authorization letter that he can fly on a ticket purchased by me). Card payments and online banking etc. are not very common in his home country. He pays for most things we do, but it's always cash.

- Affidavits from his parents and siblings that they (parents) approved of our marriage (my ring is a family jewelry piece), I am like daughter to them, I stay at their home and we live together like a normal family while I'm there.

- Text logs: We have hundreds of pages of whatsapp and facebook communication - I was planning to extract 1-2 snippets for each week that we spent apart. Will that be enough? It will still be approx. 120 pages in font size 10  

- Calls: We usually sleep together at night on facetime (cheezy, I know) after speaking about our days at night when I come home from work. How can we proof this? Facetime logs are not available it seems. And we just spent a month together in person so the "last calls" in my phone don't reflect this.

- some screenshots of social media posts of us together, and posted by friends with us in the picture.

 

Does this seem to be appropriate considering we might have to overcome some scrunity?

 

Here's the relevant part from the RFE:

 

 

BONA FIDE MARITAL RELATIONSHIP

You have filed this petition on behalf of your spouse. The bona fide nature of the claimed spousal relationship

has not yet been established. Therefore, you should submit evidence to establish that your marriage to the

beneficiary is bona fide and not one entered into to circumvent immigration laws. You are requested to submit

evidence or otherwise address each of the items below. If you have no documents or statement to submit, you

must explain why. Evidence to establish the existence of a bona fide marriage could include the following:

Meeting

Provide a detailed explanation of how you and the beneficiary met.

Courtship

Provide copies of correspondence (letters, cards, email, telephone bills, etc.) to establish that you and the

beneficiary were in contact before your trip abroad when you married. Phone cards are not verifiable.

However, if you used an online long distance company, then you should submit verification of the account

ownership, as well as printouts of all the calls placed.

Relationship

Provide copies of correspondence (letters, cards, email, telephone bills, etc.) to establish that you and the

beneficiary have maintained a relationship since your meeting. As mentioned above, phone cards are not

verifiable. However, if you used an online long distance company, then you should submit verification of the

account ownership, as well as printouts of all the calls placed.

If you are not from the same country as the beneficiary, do you speak the beneficiary’s native language? If so,

how did you learn it? Does the beneficiary speak English? If so, where did he/she learn it?

Travel

Provide your passport pages reflecting all trips to the beneficiary’s country, including the travel for the

wedding celebration.

Submit receipts from the hotels where you stayed while overseas.

Provide the names, addresses and current phone numbers of the individual(s) who accompanied you on the

flights abroad. If you traveled alone, please indicate such.

Photos

Submit photos of you and the beneficiary taken during your visits to the beneficiary’s country.

Submit photos of your wedding celebration.

Wedding

Submit a copy of the wedding announcement that was sent to the friends and relative if one was sent.

If the beneficiary’s parents did not attend the celebration, please explain why they did not attend, and if

possible submit notarized statements from them indicating why they couldn’t attend. If the beneficiary’s

siblings did not attend the celebration, please explain why they did not attend and if possible submit notarized

statements from them indicating why they couldn’t attend the wedding.

If there was no wedding celebration, explain why this event was not celebrated.

Marriage After Divorce

If your marriage to the beneficiary occurred shortly after your or the beneficiary’s prior marriage was legally

terminated, please describe the circumstances that led up to this rapid sequence of events.

Children Born to Marriage

Submit copies of the civilly registered birth certificates for all children born to your marriage with the

beneficiary.

Other Children

Submit copies of the civilly registered birth certificates for all of your biological children and all of the

beneficiary’s biological children (the ones who weren’t born to your marriage with the beneficiary).

Other Evidence

Examples of other evidence that can be submitted may include, but is not limited to the following:

Property deeds showing both names as co-owners;

Remittances, such as money and wire transfers (the originator of the monies deposited or wired must be

clearly shown and verifiable by name with full address and phone/fax number);

Documents from government entitlement programs showing both names;

Insurance plans showing each other as co-beneficiaries;

Statements from financial accounts in both names;

Evidence of communication; and/or

An assortment of photographs of you with the beneficiary spanning your entire relationship (courtship

and post-marital).

Please submit any other evidence that will help USCIS determine whether you and the beneficiary have a bona

fide marital relationship. If possible, the evidence should include documents showing communication, the

co-mingling of assets, as well as documentary evidence of a shared life together since the time of your

marriage. Please note the evidence submitted should span the entire course of the relationship (courtship and

post-marital).

 

If you made it until here, I thank you very, very much for your time spent helping us ❤️

 

 

[Bill Hamze 89]

Bumping this up. I'm wondering why no one who is experienced with RFEs attempted to help him ^^

[debbiedoo 2,339]

You can only send what you have. For anything they want that you do not have, provide a written explanation of why you do not have it/the explanation. 

 

 

[Xyrstine 224]

I have read that RFE notice before from people. It is the standard letter sent out to anyone they question having a bona fide relationship.

 

I would be more thorough in sending what they ask for with what you have including more "concrete" proof like mingling finances. Doesn't seem to be lacking a whole lot though from what you said you sent initially though. Good luck!

[Quarknase 1,072]

14 hours ago, debbiedoo said:

You can only send what you have. For anything they want that you do not have, provide a written explanation of why you do not have it/the explanation. 

 

 

Yes, that’s what we’ll have to do. Thank you!

[Quarknase 1,072]

2 hours ago, Xyrstine said:

I have read that RFE notice before from people. It is the standard letter sent out to anyone they question having a bona fide relationship.

 

I would be more thorough in sending what they ask for with what you have including more "concrete" proof like mingling finances. Doesn't seem to be lacking a whole lot though from what you said you sent initially though. Good luck!

Thank you. I’m glad to hear that this is the standard letter. It’s hard to have lots of commingling finances when you’re not living together. But we’ll pull together what we have

[Potooo 9]

Hi I'm sorry this happened to you. When we sent proof of a bonafide marriage, we had several affidavits written by our family and friends. He had 2 of his friends/family write letters in their native language that was then officially translated to English. In addition we sent several pictures with friends and family, and a lot of just us together in front of well known monuments. We vacationed in Egypt together where he proposed, so we had lovely pictures in front of the pyramids. I was told by another I-130 applicant that pictures are the most important proof of a bonafide marriage. Of course I sent copies of receipts of flights and hotels, boarding passes, etc. I hope this helps and wish you two luck. 

[Quarknase 1,072]

4 minutes ago, Potooo said:

Hi I'm sorry this happened to you. When we sent proof of a bonafide marriage, we had several affidavits written by our family and friends. He had 2 of his friends/family write letters in their native language that was then officially translated to English. In addition we sent several pictures with friends and family, and a lot of just us together in front of well known monuments. We vacationed in Egypt together where he proposed, so we had lovely pictures in front of the pyramids. I was told by another I-130 applicant that pictures are the most important proof of a bonafide marriage. Of course I sent copies of receipts of flights and hotels, boarding passes, etc. I hope this helps and wish you two luck. 

Thank you for your response! I'm not so sure if photos are considered strong proof, since we submitted plenty with the initial application.

Our response was received by USCIS (PO Box) yesterday, so the waiting game begins again

 

We ended up sending

 

Personal affidavit of myself, with detailed explanation of how we met, and our relationship and marriage

Personal affidavit of my husband

Affidavits of my husband’s family (parents, brothers, sister-in-laws) with translation

Affidavit of my friend whom has met my husband prior to, and after our wedding 

Chat log snippets to show that we have maintained a relationship since our first meeting (average 2 conversation excerpts for each week)

Screenshots of call history since I returned from last visit

Passport pages with entry- and exit stamps reflecting all my trips to my husband’s country, and travel together

Passport pages of my husband’s passport with entry- and exit stamps reflecting travel together 

Boarding passes of my trips, and of our trips taken together

Hotel receipt from last trip

Photos of traveling together, and with family and friends

Personal statement why we didn't have big wedding celebration

Travel itineraries booked by me for my husband

Statement showing my husband as beneficiary of my employer-based life insurance

Letter showing my husband as authorized user for my credit card account

Printout of 401(k) showing my husband as beneficiary

Social Media screenshots

2019 Form 1040 filing tax jointly 

 

I hope that'll do (I think it's plenty), and while we wait we'll just spend as much time together a possible.

 

I saw you just got approval, congrats! Where in Iraq does your spouse live? I'm curious what Consulate we'll get assigned to with Baghdad Embassy being closed...

 

[Potooo 9]

8 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

 

 

I hope that'll do (I think it's plenty), and while we wait we'll just spend as much time together a possible.

 

I saw you just got approval, congrats! Where in Iraq does your spouse live? I'm curious what Consulate we'll get assigned to with Baghdad Embassy being closed...

 

That should be more then enough! Crossing my fingers for you! 

 

Thank you so much! My husband is Kurdish so he resides in the Kurdistan region near Erbil. He will most likely go to the embassy in Ankara, Turkey. But that's just my guess. 

[Quarknase 1,072]

1 minute ago, Potooo said:

That should be more then enough! Crossing my fingers for you! 

 

Thank you so much! My husband is Kurdish so he resides in the Kurdistan region near Erbil. He will most likely go to the embassy in Ankara, Turkey. But that's just my guess. 

Thank you 🌹

 

Erbil and the region around it is beautiful! We were just there in October/November.

I'm hoping for Turkey too. I was told they are reassigning all Iraq immigrant visa interviews to either Qatar, UAE or Turkey and since I'm planning to be there for the interview I selfishly wish for Turkey which is on my travel bucket list hehe.

Good luck that NVC reaches out fast! Let's keep each other posted!

[Potooo 9]

2 minutes ago, Quarknase said:

Thank you 

 

Erbil and the region around it is beautiful! We were just there in October/November.

I'm hoping for Turkey too. I was told they are reassigning all Iraq immigrant visa interviews to either Qatar, UAE or Turkey and since I'm planning to be there for the interview I selfishly wish for Turkey which is on my travel bucket list hehe.

Good luck that NVC reaches out fast! Let's keep each other posted!

Yes, I was just there in December/January to the celebrate the New Year with him! Turkey is definitely on my bucket list too! I was just telling him that we should go to Turkey for vacation this summer if the NOA-2 was still pending. I was really surprised to see that approval notice in the mail this week. 

Yes I agree we should keep each other posted!