Regarding K-1 RFE

[ddcontrol 1]

Hi!

 

Sorry if this has been asked million times before 🫠

I've received a Request for Evidence letter a couple of days ago, which I attached to this post. I am not sure what information or additional evidence I am expected to present exactly, so I'd like to consult with this forum about it

 

Me and my fiancée have been in a relationship since 2020, most of which has been spend long-distance. Now I finally have a chance and finances to bring her over to the US and arrange a marriage. We both know each other since high school and were born and raised in Uzbekistan. I got a chance to move to USA and have already acquired the citizenship while she is still staying back in Uz. Over the course of 4 years I've been regularly visiting her at least once a year or we would both travel to a place we could visit without restrictions.

 

So, with that bit of our background, I started the process and sent the package back in August last year, which included:

- The completed I-129F form

- 2 Letters of Intent to Marry (from both parties, signed)

- Cover Letter (listing and describing the documents that were attached)

- Multiple flight receipts on my name to show I was visiting

- Airbnb receipts showing that apartments were booked for both of us for the periods of visiting

- Scans of my passport with stamps

- Scans of my fiancée's passport (only first pages) and identification documents

- A couple of our photos together

 

I am a bit surprised to receive the RFE, I am not sure what else I am expected to send, so my main questions are:

- What kind of additional evidence they might be expecting from us? More photos? Chat logs? Any suggestions or insights are appreciated!

- If I am going to include any additional text evidence (like chat logs), do I have to "officially" have them translated and verified by a third party? Our main channel of communication is an instant messaging app (Telegram) and our native language is Russian, I feel like it would be an overkill to send our chat history for translation, especially if it mostly consists of funny pictures, banter and high concentration of emojis 🙃

- The RFE says that our initial Letters of Intent to Marry have been acknowledged and the wording suggests that the additional evidence should come from my fiancée's side. Does it mean any screenshots, chat logs or anything else should come from her point of view?

 

Many thanks to everyone in advance!

[Twililord 5]

Seems like they want more substantial evidence that you actually are engaged and have plans to marry. Here is some stuff I included in my petition of engagement substance:

 

• Pictures of my fiancée and I with each of our families (this one is very helpful in my opinion)
• A scan of my fiancée's engagement ring certification, as well as pictures of us two with the ring (not sure if a ring is really required, but I imagine it's pretty helpful)
• A visa support letter written by my fiancée's mother attesting to our relationship and our plans to marry, signed and dated by both me and fiancée's mother
• Screenshot of a Facebook post showing that we got engaged (probably not very helpful)

Edited 9 hours ago by Twililord

[Edward and Jaycel 482]

5 minutes ago, Twililord said:

A visa support letter written by my fiancée's mother attesting to our relationship and our plans to marry, signed and dated by both me and fiancée's mother

 

We included a letter from Jaycel's Mother and her sister detailing their knowledge and support of our relationship, our excitement to start our lives together as husband and wife and their knowledge of our plans to build a life together in the US as a married couple.

[J.M. 252]

Did your letters of intent include a "marry within 90 days" phrase or something similar?

 

Did you describe your meeting circumstances on the I-129f?  Including at least one meeting within the 2 years prior to filing date?

 

[ddcontrol 1]

57 minutes ago, Twililord said:

Seems like they want more substantial evidence that you actually are engaged and have plans to marry. Here is some stuff I included in my petition of engagement substance:

 

• Pictures of my fiancée and I with each of our families (this one is very helpful in my opinion)
• A scan of my fiancée's engagement ring certification, as well as pictures of us two with the ring (not sure if a ring is really required, but I imagine it's pretty helpful)
• A visa support letter written by my fiancée's mother attesting to our relationship and our plans to marry, signed and dated by both me and fiancée's mother
• Screenshot of a Facebook post showing that we got engaged (probably not very helpful)

 

48 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

We included a letter from Jaycel's Mother and her sister detailing their knowledge and support of our relationship, our excitement to start our lives together as husband and wife and their knowledge of our plans to build a life together in the US as a married couple.

 

I see, I might need to have my fiancée's parents word to strengthen my case... Does it need to be officially translated by an agency or can we do so ourselves? The letter does mention that the person translating must be "competent to translate from that language to English", but having to pay to notarize a simple personal statement sounds a bit too much

 

 

2 minutes ago, J.M. said:

Did your letters of intent include a "marry within 90 days" phrase or something similar?

 

Did you describe your meeting circumstances on the I-129f?  Including at least one meeting within the 2 years prior to filing date?

 

 

We got our templates from these forums and I just confirmed (I have digital copies of all documents still with me) that they both clearly state the "within 90 days after the arrival" intent.

For I-129f, to the question "53. Have you and your fiance(e) met in person during the two years immediately before filing this petition?" we answered "Yes" and added a brief timeline of our meetings. The exact words in the section 54 of the form say: "Me, <my_name>, and my romantic partner, <her_name>, have met 2 times in the span of the last 2 years. Both times we met in Tashkent in August 2023 and May 2024" and this statement was backed with my flight receipts, airbnb reservations and a couple of our photos during the time we met. However, we did not mention that we've known each other for almost 10 years or how our relationship started. Do you think this might have triggered some suspicions about the authenticity of our intent?

 

 

What I forgot to mention in the main post is the fact that we have no grand wedding plans as we won't have a lot of friends/relatives in the US to organize for, so we decided to spend the money on honeymoon and future investments instead and these conversations happened over the phone, not text. I assume we should attach an additional cover letter explaining our decision along with the statement we may obtain from her parents, right?

 

 

Thank you all in advance!

[smilingstone 226]

It looks like you didn't include any communication transcripts (texts, WhatsApp, etc). It's secondary but it helps.

 

For example, in our petition, we included approx. 12 pages of texts (6 from him, 6 from me) just showing our conversations - none of it even pertained to marriage or plans, just clearly showing that we were in regular consistent communication and talked about all manner of things (food, planned trips, going about our days, etc).

 

We also included a 2 page document that explained how we met (online), when we first met in person and how we both wanted to be together in the US.

 

All in all, our file was 50+ pages.

[J.M. 252]

7 minutes ago, ddcontrol said:

this statement was backed with my flight receipts, airbnb reservations and a couple of our photos during the time we met.

And hopefully passport stamps?

[ddcontrol 1]

11 minutes ago, smilingstone said:

It looks like you didn't include any communication transcripts (texts, WhatsApp, etc). It's secondary but it helps.

 

For example, in our petition, we included approx. 12 pages of texts (6 from him, 6 from me) just showing our conversations - none of it even pertained to marriage or plans, just clearly showing that we were in regular consistent communication and talked about all manner of things (food, planned trips, going about our days, etc).

 

We also included a 2 page document that explained how we met (online), when we first met in person and how we both wanted to be together in the US.

 

All in all, our file was 50+ pages.

Oh wow, 50 sounds like an overkill, but better to overdeliver rather than underdeliver, as I figured 🫠 I am thinking about including our call log and chat screenshots, but do you know if they will require translation or can we include them as is? We don't talk to each other in English (though both are proficient)

 

9 minutes ago, J.M. said:

And hopefully passport stamps?

Of course, as I mentioned in the main post I sent copies of all pages of my passports which included the front page and the travel stamps. I don't know if that matters, but I have dual citizenship and sent them copies of both documents

Edited 8 hours ago by ddcontrol

[Edward and Jaycel 482]

1 hour ago, smilingstone said:

For example, in our petition, we included approx. 12 pages of texts (6 from him, 6 from me) just showing our conversations - none of it even pertained to marriage or plans, just clearly showing that we were in regular consistent communication and talked about all manner of things (food, planned trips, going about our days, etc).

 

We did the same but I think ours was like 20 pages (I'm OCD Like that LOL)

 

1 hour ago, smilingstone said:

We also included a 2 page document that explained how we met (online), when we first met in person and how we both wanted to be together in the US.

 

Ours was 2 pages also

 

1 hour ago, smilingstone said:

All in all, our file was 50+ pages.

 

Ours was 109 pages.... Like I said OCD. LOL

[Bunninuts 41]

1 hour ago, ddcontrol said:

We got our templates from these forums and I just confirmed (I have digital copies of all documents still with me) that they both clearly state the "within 90 days after the arrival" intent.

For I-129f, to the question "53. Have you and your fiance(e) met in person during the two years immediately before filing this petition?" we answered "Yes" and added a brief timeline of our meetings. The exact words in the section 54 of the form say: "Me, <my_name>, and my romantic partner, <her_name>, have met 2 times in the span of the last 2 years. Both times we met in Tashkent in August 2023 and May 2024" and this statement was backed with my flight receipts, airbnb reservations and a couple of our photos during the time we met. However, we did not mention that we've known each other for almost 10 years or how our relationship started. Do you think this might have triggered some suspicions about the authenticity of our intent?

@ddcontrol This sounds like your letter of intent was on the shorter side. I was recently approved and both of our letters were 2-3 pages. We explained how we met, activities that led to falling in love, what we did in between like vacations and activities with family, and then closed with statements that said we wanted to spend our lives together and what that entailed.

 

As far as what language for the supporting affidavits from family and friends, it needs to be in English and they need to sign it. My fiance's sister typed hers using translator, signed it, and emailed it to me.

 

With evidence, you give them so much that there is no question that it is legitimate. I also had 4x6 pics developed with 6 pics on each 4x6 and included 5 of those. I didn't include our communication messages because I felt that was a bit private but I did print out our relationship status update on FB and included that. I also kept our engagement post public so it was accessibly for them if they peaked.

 

Reading the list of items that count as evidence they sent you, do you have any social media posts about your engagement? Did your fiance take a picture of her ring and post it? You could include how you proposed. Yes, a letter from her parents or any family and friends would be very helpful too. People that have seen you two together and can honestly say, they look at each other lovingly and truly care for each other, or something similar that shows you two truly want to be together forever. I would recommend gathering as many of their list provided and satisfy them the best you can.

[Edward and Jaycel 482]

1 hour ago, ddcontrol said:

but having to pay to notarize a simple personal statement sounds a bit too much

 

You have one and only one chance to satisfy this RFE - Get it officially translated and notarized. Don't let cost be the determinate factor in how you respond

[ddcontrol 1]

My previous message has triggered the moderation check for some reason and is still not posted 🙃 For those who responded after I tried to send it,

 

34 minutes ago, Bunninuts said:

@ddcontrol This sounds like your letter of intent was on the shorter side. I was recently approved and both of our letters were 2-3 pages. We explained how we met, activities that led to falling in love, what we did in between like vacations and activities with family, and then closed with statements that said we wanted to spend our lives together and what that entailed.

 

As far as what language for the supporting affidavits from family and friends, it needs to be in English and they need to sign it. My fiance's sister typed hers using translator, signed it, and emailed it to me.

 

With evidence, you give them so much that there is no question that it is legitimate. I also had 4x6 pics developed with 6 pics on each 4x6 and included 5 of those. I didn't include our communication messages because I felt that was a bit private but I did print out our relationship status update on FB and included that. I also kept our engagement post public so it was accessibly for them if they peaked.

 

Reading the list of items that count as evidence they sent you, do you have any social media posts about your engagement? Did your fiance take a picture of her ring and post it? You could include how you proposed. Yes, a letter from her parents or any family and friends would be very helpful too. People that have seen you two together and can honestly say, they look at each other lovingly and truly care for each other, or something similar that shows you two truly want to be together forever. I would recommend gathering as many of their list provided and satisfy them the best you can.

 

 

Thank you very much for your insight! I will follow this example and attach additional write up of our history and how we view the life together in the near future. We don't have that much of social media presence, but our friends and relatives are well aware of our plans. The proposal (and almost immediate marriage after) has been planned to be held in the US, so I have nothing to present to them in this regard yet, unfortunately.  I suppose I will have to be very eloquent with my explanation and obtain a couple of written and signed statements from her family along with additional pics from our time together

 

 

32 minutes ago, Edward and Jaycel said:

 

You have one and only one chance to satisfy this RFE - Get it officially translated and notarized. Don't let cost be the determinate factor in how you respond

 

Yessir, I'll keep that in mind. Thankfully, some of her relatives are also proficient in English, so translation may not be necessary, but I'll make sure to confirm the authenticity of anything we come up with

 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by ddcontrol