Unsolicited Evidence? Did someone ever use it? USCIS Portal

[tomscan 0]

So, is there a consensus here as to whether uploading a one page document of "unsolicited evidence" - particularly the ITIN letter that we received from the IRS - would be a help or a hindrance to the approval process?   I married a foreign national, who is applying for permanent residence, etc, along with our 10 year stepdaughter (also foreign national, current visa holder)

 

ITINs are super easy to obtain, and my gut feeling is that USCIS couldnt give a sh*t, but I hope I'm wrong.  Were I an USCIS case reviewer, I would be like, "ok, this proves they're filing tax returns as a "married" and with a dependent, and thus are a legit relationship/case." 

 

But my worry is that they slow down our review, despite the fact this is a simple one-page letter from the IRS

 

Thanks for any feedback

[Bavarian91 59]

7 minutes ago, tomscan said:

So, is there a consensus here as to whether uploading a one page document of "unsolicited evidence" - particularly the ITIN letter that we received from the IRS - would be a help or a hindrance to the approval process?   I married a foreign national, who is applying for permanent residence, etc, along with our 10 year stepdaughter (also foreign national, current visa holder)

 

ITINs are super easy to obtain, and my gut feeling is that USCIS couldnt give a sh*t, but I hope I'm wrong.  Were I an USCIS case reviewer, I would be like, "ok, this proves they're filing tax returns as a "married" and with a dependent, and thus are a legit relationship/case." 

 

But my worry is that they slow down our review, despite the fact this is a simple one-page letter from the IRS

 

Thanks for any feedback

 

I summitted 3 years of tax transcripts (the multiple page long ones - which all say 'filing status' married on the first page).... Lets see how much longer it takes.  8 months and waiting as of now 

[OldUser 7,011]

1 hour ago, tomscan said:

So, is there a consensus here as to whether uploading a one page document of "unsolicited evidence" - particularly the ITIN letter that we received from the IRS - would be a help or a hindrance to the approval process?   I married a foreign national, who is applying for permanent residence, etc, along with our 10 year stepdaughter (also foreign national, current visa holder)

 

ITINs are super easy to obtain, and my gut feeling is that USCIS couldnt give a sh*t, but I hope I'm wrong.  Were I an USCIS case reviewer, I would be like, "ok, this proves they're filing tax returns as a "married" and with a dependent, and thus are a legit relationship/case." 

 

But my worry is that they slow down our review, despite the fact this is a simple one-page letter from the IRS

 

Thanks for any feedback

When did you submit the packet? It might be that nobody even looked at it yet (biometrics is nothing), so uploading additional evidence can not hinder the process. I'd upload it.

[OldUser 7,011]

1 hour ago, Bavarian91 said:

 

I summitted 3 years of tax transcripts (the multiple page long ones - which all say 'filing status' married on the first page).... Lets see how much longer it takes.  8 months and waiting as of now 

I doubt it hinders anything. 8 months is nothing for ROC, nobody even looked at the file yet.

[tomscan 0]

2 hours ago, OldUser said:

When did you submit the packet? It might be that nobody even looked at it yet (biometrics is nothing), so uploading additional evidence can not hinder the process. I'd upload it.

Oh, they have looked at it, and already requested additional info that we sent.  we're at the Biometrics appointment (if necessary) stage.  It's the waiting game. Im just wondering if producing something that isn't required -- such as an ITIN -- could be benefiical -- or if slows it down. I've just heard from an expert who said "don't send anything they don't ask for." -- so we might just hold that doc for now. 

[OldUser 7,011]

19 minutes ago, tomscan said:

Oh, they have looked at it, and already requested additional info that we sent.  

Did you receive an RFE?

[TeddyFazBear 69]

2 hours ago, tomscan said:

Oh, they have looked at it, and already requested additional info that we sent.  we're at the Biometrics appointment (if necessary) stage.  It's the waiting game. Im just wondering if producing something that isn't required -- such as an ITIN -- could be benefiical -- or if slows it down. I've just heard from an expert who said "don't send anything they don't ask for." -- so we might just hold that doc for now. 

 

I have heard that as well, but I am yet to understand why sending more evidence is a bad thing for the purpose of the 751. I uploaded new tax return, bank statements, insurance etc...the more you send the less likely you are to get RFEs in my opinion.

 

I've also noticed this idea lately that you should only send a few months worth of each type of evidence (eg 1 bank statement per quarter)...absolutely no clue how this crazy idea became so popular. I stand by the "send absolutely everything you can get your hands on with both names" tactic. Worked for my initial 130/485 which was approved without interview in 5 months at the height of the COVID slowdown. Your mileage may vary though. 

[OldUser 7,011]

36 minutes ago, TeddyFazBear said:

 

I have heard that as well, but I am yet to understand why sending more evidence is a bad thing for the purpose of the 751. I uploaded new tax return, bank statements, insurance etc...the more you send the less likely you are to get RFEs in my opinion.

 

I've also noticed this idea lately that you should only send a few months worth of each type of evidence (eg 1 bank statement per quarter)...absolutely no clue how this crazy idea became so popular. I stand by the "send absolutely everything you can get your hands on with both names" tactic. Worked for my initial 130/485 which was approved without interview in 5 months at the height of the COVID slowdown. Your mileage may vary though. 

Couldn't agree more, especially since I-751 instructions direct to send as much evidence as possible.

[Bavarian91 59]

On 12/1/2023 at 7:12 PM, OldUser said:

Couldn't agree more, especially since I-751 instructions direct to send as much evidence as possible.

 

We just found out that we will expect our first Child by the mid of 2024. Clearly more evidence I should have coming up in the next months. 

Dont think that I'm gonna upload ultrasound pictures tho 

 

 

 

[JKLSemicolon 414]

Just finished uploading some unsolicited evidence covering the time from our initial filing until the end of 2023. This was roughly 4 months of new evidence since we filed in September. Going forward, I think every 6 months could make sense, but I'm still on the fence about maybe just continuing with 4 months at a time.

 

The upload was split into separate files covering different types of evidence during the period. Each file had footers with the petitioner's (i.e. conditional PR's) name, period of evidence, type of evidence, and page numbers (1 of n, etc.). The 12mb limit per file is pretty reasonable, but I did spend some time fine tuning the Optimize a PDF settings in Acrobat to make sure the quality wasn't degraded.

 

My only piece of advice to those submitting multiple files would be to upload them one at a time. That way, you can make sure they appear on the list in the order you want. The most recently uploaded files appear at the top. I didn't heed my own advice and tried uploading 5 files at once; this made them appear on the list in the random order they finished uploading, which is slightly annoying after trying to be thoughtful about how to name/number everything.

 

After having gone through the experience of putting together the first batch of additional evidence, I think it will be smoother the next time around.

Edited April 13 by JKLSemicolon

[Bavarian91 59]

On 4/13/2024 at 2:19 PM, JKLSemicolon said:

Just finished uploading some unsolicited evidence covering the time from our initial filing until the end of 2023. This was roughly 4 months of new evidence since we filed in September. Going forward, I think every 6 months could make sense, but I'm still on the fence about maybe just continuing with 4 months at a time.

 

The upload was split into separate files covering different types of evidence during the period. Each file had footers with the petitioner's (i.e. conditional PR's) name, period of evidence, type of evidence, and page numbers (1 of n, etc.). The 12mb limit per file is pretty reasonable, but I did spend some time fine tuning the Optimize a PDF settings in Acrobat to make sure the quality wasn't degraded.

 

My only piece of advice to those submitting multiple files would be to upload them one at a time. That way, you can make sure they appear on the list in the order you want. The most recently uploaded files appear at the top. I didn't heed my own advice and tried uploading 5 files at once; this made them appear on the list in the random order they finished uploading, which is slightly annoying after trying to be thoughtful about how to name/number everything.

 

After having gone through the experience of putting together the first batch of additional evidence, I think it will be smoother the next time around.

We are expecting our first child in August of this year - so once he's born we will upload more unsolicited evidence 

[HoratioHiccup 0]

On 12/1/2023 at 12:38 PM, tomscan said:

So, is there a consensus here as to whether uploading a one page document of "unsolicited evidence" - particularly the ITIN letter that we received from the IRS - would be a help or a hindrance to the approval process?   I married a foreign national, who is applying for permanent residence, etc, along with our 10 year stepdaughter (also foreign national, current visa holder)

 

ITINs are super easy to obtain, and my gut feeling is that USCIS couldnt give a sh*t, but I hope I'm wrong.  Were I an USCIS case reviewer, I would be like, "ok, this proves they're filing tax returns as a "married" and with a dependent, and thus are a legit relationship/case." 

 

But my worry is that they slow down our review, despite the fact this is a simple one-page letter from the IRS

I doubt an ITIN letter proves anything relevant. If you have filed a joint tax return, then the tax return (or return transcript) would be useful evidence. But the fact that you have requested or been issued an ITIN doesn’t—you would also have an ITIN if you were filing separately. The only evidentiary value of the ITIN letter that I can think of is that it places you at the address on the letter, but presumably you have lots of other evidence that does that.

 

As for delays, I think it generally depends on what stage the case is at. If an officer is just about to make a decision and sees that there is unsolicited evidence, they have to delay any decision to review the evidence—and may decide to put it off and look at a different case instead. But if believe that you are many months from a decision, based on processing times, there’s probably not much of a delay.

[stag 51]

I uploaded our latest joint tax filing Tax Transcript from IRS. Will upload any such key evidence docs that come up in the following months. Given the case is marked as electronic, it should be totally good to upload any key evidence as time goes by and you are waiting for case to be processed. 

[ghostinthemachine 76]

1 hour ago, stag said:

I uploaded our latest joint tax filing Tax Transcript from IRS. Will upload any such key evidence docs that come up in the following months. Given the case is marked as electronic, it should be totally good to upload any key evidence as time goes by and you are waiting for case to be processed. 

I've just done the same the other day - same with a bunch of updated lease/insurance/bills from our recent move. I don't see how any of this could cause a delay quite frankly, especially since most recent cases are handled electronically.

[Bavarian91 59]

On 4/19/2024 at 2:30 PM, ghostinthemachine said:

I've just done the same the other day - same with a bunch of updated lease/insurance/bills from our recent move. I don't see how any of this could cause a delay quite frankly, especially since most recent cases are handled electronically.

Just did the same thing... lets hope the IOE means 'faster processing' ...