RFE ignored all of our bona fide evidence

[sad_owl 0]

I’m at my wit’s end. I and my husband have a joint bank account, joint brokerage account, joint health insurance, one joint tax return, we live together and have a lease under both of our names, and I am an authorized user of all of his credit cards. We literally don’t actively use any separate/individual financial accounts, we do everything together. We have life insurance with each other as beneficiaries. And yet, we got an RFE for bona fide marriage after submitting all of this evidence.

 

What can I even do now? If they’re not satisfied with the fact that we get paid on the same joint checking account, have all of our savings in the same brokerage account, and live together with a lease, what can I even send to prove that our relationship is real?

 

It’s not as if our marriage is very new either. We waited more than one year after marrying to submit the AOS package. And, of course, in addition to the hard evidence, we have pictures of us together going back 3 years, with all of our family members.

 

The RFE letter doesn’t even say what’s wrong with our package. It just says we need to send evidence that we “intended to establish a life together when you married,” and then lists all of the things you see in the USCIS website, like children, evidence that we have lived together, evidence that we have combined financial resources, evidence that we’ve made “estate, health and financial planning arrangements” with each other, and affidavits. So basically things we already submitted, except that we don’t have children and haven’t submitted affidavits.

 

Regarding things they may consider red flags, we’re both young (24 now, 22 when we got married, 20 when we started dating), and I (the immigrant) make much more money than him (250k vs 90k), which is not expected for a woman. But we dated for 2 years before I started making any money (because I was in college). He made only 30k/year (working part-time) while I was in college, so they may see that as suspicious. We both have computer science degrees, his is from a #1 CS school, so he could definitely get a higher-paying job if necessary, but he does what he loves.

 

I don’t know what we could possibly do. Here are a few potential issues that I want to address before responding to the RFE:

• Our utilities are mostly only on his name, because it was easier to set it up that way. Yesterday, I called our electricity company to put my name on the bill too.
• I spend money almost only from his credit cards, not from my authorized user credit cards (because again, it’s easier that way). So yesterday I started using one of my authorized user credit cards, so we can show that I use it in the future.
• I don’t have a state ID, because I can’t drive. So today I applied for a REAL ID to get extra proof of my address.
• His driver’s license has his parents’ house as his address. So I asked him to change it to our current address.
• We didn’t send any family affidavits, since I thought it wouldn’t be necessary given all the evidence we submitted. But we can submit several of those this time.
• We didn’t send any chat logs, but I guess we could do that.
• We can try to do our 2023 taxes early and submit our tax return by the RFE deadline. This would show him working on his 90k/year job for a full year, which wasn’t present in our previous tax return.

 

What else could I possibly do? Do I need to make more drastic changes, such as buying a car (even though we don’t have a parking spot and we live in a dense city) because they maybe don’t understand that our shared brokerage account is “shared property,” and a car would be simpler? What else could possibly be done? And what can I do if I’m denied?

[Lil bear 4,189]

12 minutes ago, sad_owl said:

I’m at my wit’s end. I and my husband have a joint bank account, joint brokerage account, joint health insurance, one joint tax return, we live together and have a lease under both of our names, and I am an authorized user of all of his credit cards. We literally don’t actively use any separate/individual financial accounts, we do everything together. We have life insurance with each other as beneficiaries. And yet, we got an RFE for bona fide marriage after submitting all of this evidence.

 

What can I even do now? If they’re not satisfied with the fact that we get paid on the same joint checking account, have all of our savings in the same brokerage account, and live together with a lease, what can I even send to prove that our relationship is real?

 

It’s not as if our marriage is very new either. We waited more than one year after marrying to submit the AOS package. And, of course, in addition to the hard evidence, we have pictures of us together going back 3 years, with all of our family members.

 

The RFE letter doesn’t even say what’s wrong with our package. It just says we need to send evidence that we “intended to establish a life together when you married,” and then lists all of the things you see in the USCIS website, like children, evidence that we have lived together, evidence that we have combined financial resources, evidence that we’ve made “estate, health and financial planning arrangements” with each other, and affidavits. So basically things we already submitted, except that we don’t have children and haven’t submitted affidavits.

 

Regarding things they may consider red flags, we’re both young (24 now, 22 when we got married, 20 when we started dating), and I (the immigrant) make much more money than him (250k vs 90k), which is not expected for a woman. But we dated for 2 years before I started making any money (because I was in college). He made only 30k/year (working part-time) while I was in college, so they may see that as suspicious. We both have computer science degrees, his is from a #1 CS school, so he could definitely get a higher-paying job if necessary, but he does what he loves.

 

I don’t know what we could possibly do. Here are a few potential issues that I want to address before responding to the RFE:

• Our utilities are mostly only on his name, because it was easier to set it up that way. Yesterday, I called our electricity company to put my name on the bill too.
• I spend money almost only from his credit cards, not from my authorized user credit cards (because again, it’s easier that way). So yesterday I started using one of my authorized user credit cards, so we can show that I use it in the future.
• I don’t have a state ID, because I can’t drive. So today I applied for a REAL ID to get extra proof of my address.
• His driver’s license has his parents’ house as his address. So I asked him to change it to our current address.
• We didn’t send any family affidavits, since I thought it wouldn’t be necessary given all the evidence we submitted. But we can submit several of those this time.
• We didn’t send any chat logs, but I guess we could do that.
• We can try to do our 2023 taxes early and submit our tax return by the RFE deadline. This would show him working on his 90k/year job for a full year, which wasn’t present in our previous tax return.

 

What else could I possibly do? Do I need to make more drastic changes, such as buying a car (even though we don’t have a parking spot and we live in a dense city) because they maybe don’t understand that our shared brokerage account is “shared property,” and a car would be simpler? What else could possibly be done? And what can I do if I’m denied?

Can you post a photo of the rfe with your personal details removed. That may help us respond. One red flag is the drivers licence not showing the correct address. That is an issue and should need corrected.  All the things you have listed are good things to do. Sometimes these generic RFE letters are sent when is not really necessary. But you  must reply within the given time frame, so get things done and send new back statements, your ID, etc and make sure you keep copies of everything. If mailing the RFE response use a signature required service so you have v evidence of it being received. 

[sad_owl 0]

24 minutes ago, Lil bear said:

Can you post a photo of the rfe with your personal details removed. That may help us respond. One red flag is the drivers licence not showing the correct address. That is an issue and should need corrected.  All the things you have listed are good things to do. Sometimes these generic RFE letters are sent when is not really necessary. But you  must reply within the given time frame, so get things done and send new back statements, your ID, etc and make sure you keep copies of everything. If mailing the RFE response use a signature required service so you have v evidence of it being received. 

[Lil bear 4,189]

@sad_owl

thx. Do the things you have identified and send the response .  

[Lemonslice 4,836]

Wills and living wills are important documents to have, not just for immigration, but in life.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Lemonslice

[OldUser 6,635]

For bank statements etc, did you submit all pages of each statement? Did you submit all the statements for a given period of time or just a few random ones? Consistency is important.

Edited November 11, 2023 by OldUser

[Thunderbolt 172]

20 hours ago, sad_owl said:

 

 

 I (the immigrant) make much more money than him (250k vs 90k), which is not expected for a woman.

 

That's why. You can remove word woman and replace it with word immigrant. 

 

This is red flag for them. They think you are paying your husband to sponsor you for GC. 

 

[D-R-J 192]

31 minutes ago, Thunderbolt said:

 

That's why. You can remove word woman and replace it with word immigrant. 

 

This is red flag for them. They think you are paying your husband to sponsor you for GC. 

 

If I had to bet it would be the address issue. Any hint that two people are not living together is a bigger red flag. 

[Thunderbolt 172]

1 hour ago, D-R-J said:

If I had to bet it would be the address issue. Any hint that two people are not living together is a bigger red flag. 

Where did you get the idea that they are not living together? OP clearly states that they have lease on the apartment and everything else as joint asset.

[OldUser 6,635]

18 minutes ago, Thunderbolt said:

Where did you get the idea that they are not living together? 

 

23 hours ago, sad_owl said:

 

• His driver’s license has his parents’ house as his address. So I asked him to change it to our current address.

 

[Lil bear 4,189]

34 minutes ago, Thunderbolt said:

Where did you get the idea that they are not living together? OP clearly states that they have lease on the apartment and everything else as joint asset.

The drivers licence address is not the same as the spouse address.   There needs to be consistency across documentation 

[Thunderbolt 172]

I don't see that as a red flag. If the lease is in both names and all the financial stuff are joint. 

 

[Ellie_7 103]

Another "vote", so to speak, for the parents' address on the husband's ID being a red flag. I would even go as far to suggest getting your own Real ID may be not worth it if the parents' address is still on the husband's ID.

[OldUser 6,635]

3 hours ago, Thunderbolt said:

I don't see that as a red flag. If the lease is in both names and all the financial stuff are joint. 

 

It contradicts the other evidence, and thus weakens it.

[Lil bear 4,189]

1 minute ago, OldUser said:

It contradicts the other evidence, and thus weakens it.

Exactly