Mychal

Its still a looooong list but hey, it is what it is. We have a lot to prove. I'll use an imgur link. VJ isn't letting me upload the images. https://imgur.com/a/9oFhvc7

Dang, you're good at summarizing, haha. I added a couple other things to our evidence list such as our kid's student data print out that shows our address, myself and extended family members as emergency contacts, as well as new patient forms from February from our dentist office that shows our relationship and address. I'll be posting a draft v.2 shortly.

No, our I-864 was fine to our knowledge. My income alone is very comfortably above the minimum requirements. I might have gone a little too crazy with the details and explanation. I'm at 3 pages, but half of the first page is just addresses and titles. Page 3. Couldn't get all three to post at once.

Thank you, it most certainly was terrifying, but thanks to the great people here we are working through it and will hopefully prevail. I always pay these fees via cashier's checks. Near the beginning you said to base the evidence on their own RFE. My stepson's RFE only requested a correction on the I-485 itself. In his I-290B should I only include that form again, or just make a copy of what I am including in my wife's and specify that he is merely a dependent under her application? I hope you don't mind taking a brief look over the cover letter/summary I'm putting together. I would absolutely be open to any redlines and suggested changes to it.

If there are two things I'm an expert in its overthinking things even after getting my answer, and wanting to optimize spending, haha. If there was one thing the USCIS has done for us, it was returning payments we sent that it turned out were unnecessary. If they don't need our $1,600 for the two I-290B submissions, I actually trust that they would probably return them. I really do appreciate all your help with this whole process. I can't thank you enough.

Alright, one thing I'm still concerned about that I briefly mentioned previously is that our joint account has only been a joint account for just about a month and a half. We didn't add my wife to the account until after she started working, so the evidence of comingling finances is very limited. The denial appears to put a lot of weight on the lack of comingled finances, but due to my wife not working until recently, then of course our finances were solely handled by me. I can obviously provide what I can, but I'm worried it just won't be enough for them. I can explain this in the cover letter/briefing I include, but I still am not sure it would be enough for them. @Family and @OldUser do you see any issues or different ways I can address this? I also see there are several waivers of the $800 filing fee for an I-290B in regards to an I-485. Reading through all of them its still difficult to understand if any of the waivers apply to our case. I don't think they do, unfortunately, but am I wrong in that?

It looks like you did one for SnowFairy...? Back in July. At least thats the only one I can find. In that case an I-290B was not used but the same principle applies in the cover sheet. You're just everyone's MVP here, aren't you. 😆 Not to diminish everyone else here who has been more than helpful. I am indebted to everyone here. @OldUser I will probably have a couple more questions tomorrow but I'm just trying to let all this information settle in my head tonight and tomorrow, and then get a game plan going and start putting everything together Monday. Time is limited for sure, but not too limited to where we are in a panic.

I did but I think I buried it in another response. Sorry about that. I'm assuming it came from a field office, as our denial letter was signed by a Field Office Director and addressed from USCIS in a nearby city about 15 miles away.

I know better than to overbuild my expectations, haha. But we would prefer to wait 80 weeks if it meant my wife was not at risk of deportation during that processing time. And that news on the I-693 not expiring is great to know. I was about to start researching into that when I saw your post. We got ours done not a couple months after that went into effect, so thats very fortunate for us! You referring to Hacking Immigration Law? Haha, I watched a couple of his videos and what said about the I-290B in a couple videos contributed to my concern about filing it. But I did see a lot of people in his comments sections expressing how they got their denials reversed using it anyway. I think my only question/concern left with the I-290B is how to present the evidence and reasons for the request a motion to reopen and reconsider? Motion to reopen looks pretty straight forward, but from what I've read, to reconsider involves proving the USCIS used an incorrect application of law. All I know is that when I researched what evidence to provide during our RFE filing I read posts where people claimed they were approved by ONLY providing a joint bank account summary and wedding photos, or ONLY providing utility bills with a lease proving cohabitation. But that just sounds like a "he said-she said" scenario and not hard evidence of anything. After all, I can't just pull those people's cases to see if they were telling the truth or not. @Family Can I pick your brain a little more for what your thoughts are regarding this?

Yes, I know. 😔 Just needed to get the frustration off my chest, but I understand that we just need to provide even more next time. Would you be able to expound a little on the refiling of a I-485? I still am trying to understand how that works after being denied once. There are questions in the I-485 asking for I-94 numbers and expirations dates, which have long since passed since they are only valid for 4 months after arrival. Wouldn't that disqualify the validity of a new I-485? Other questions in Part 8, #14-23 have me concerned after the denied letter as well. An I-290B seems like the more coherent route to take but I'm also reading a lot of problems with that route. We would need to refile a new I-693 medical exam form as well? Something just seems odd about refiling the same application that was just denied and the USCIS being fine with it.

I am re-reading and comparing the RFE and Denial letter they sent and I'm finding things that are definitely frustrating. How would someone know that they need all this information they aren't requesting? Can this be argued in a I-290B form, if we take that route? Per the RFE: Provide "Lease showing the same residence". We provided it. Per Denial Letter: "This alone is insufficient to demonstrate a bona fide marriage." (Then why ask for it?) Per the RFE: Provide "Documents showing shared finances and obligation (such as joint bank account... gas bills)." We provided both proof of joint bank account and gas bill with our names on it. Per the Denial Letter: "The bank letters ... and gas bill demonstrates joint accounts but no evidence was provided on how the bill was paid." (They didn't ask for evidence on how a bill is paid, just for proof of the accounts) Per the RFE: Provide "Pictures of wedding and other events." We provided many family photos spanning the whole year with my wife and stepson interacting and posing with my family members. Per the Denial Letter: "The photos you provided do not have details of when, where, and with whom the photos were taken." (Again, they didn't ask for that information but a reasonable person would know that the photos are with family and friends.) All of this "hidden information" they want just makes me think that anything we send will be insufficient because they'll find a reason to make it insufficient.

Yes, every bill and all financial transactions are paid out of our joint account. I did fail to mention before that she did open an account with a local credit union a few months back just to have something else with her name on it that shows our address. Once she started working she gave her employer the credit union account for direct deposit. Every paycheck she wires a few hundred dollars to our joint savings account, and has paid our gas utility bill once out of her credit union account. So I suppose I should say "every bill and financial transaction are paid out of our joint account [except that one]." Now that I type that out it sounds convoluted and strange, but the reasoning behind it we wanted to have something else with her name and our address on it, and for her to just have a small side account where she can keep some of her own money by itself for whatever she wants.

I received my 2023 tax year W-2 around January 11. Contacted the controller at the company I work for and she provided me my 1040 not long after. Guess my company is just on top of getting everyone their tax documents.

Yes, we were married less than 2 weeks after she and her son arrived in November 2023. Well within the 90 day time frame. Do you mean the I-129F receipt? Google brings up the I-129F when I search "I-295F." If so then yes, we included a copy of the I-129F receipt with our initial filing of the I-485 back in January of this year. You putting that in quotes makes me think you have actually told them that before, haha. Also, to address a comment you made previously, our denial was made by a Field Office Director from a city nearby. I don't know if that makes a difference but I thought I'd let you know. One of the issues I'm still trying to wrap my head around in how to resolve the issue of our joint accounts being insufficient. We didn't add my wife as a joint bank account holder until a couple months ago is because she didn't even start working until a couple months ago, and we didn't see the point in adding her until she was actually going to start providing an income, since it was just me taking care of everything because I was the only one working. The USCIS obviously had a problem with this because they said that the dates of our joint accounts occurred after the RFE, which made our case look illegitimate (to them). Is providing this last years bank statements, all 50 pages, supposed to resolve this even though there is nothing in there connecting my wife to the transactions? Or is it more about just showing that the account is linked to the address that we are living at as a couple?

Thank you to everyone who has offered their suggestions. They are greatly appreciated. One thing I'm concerned with however is that, like on other posts I've read up on, there is conflicting direction on what to do. Some say to simply re-file the I485 and all accompanying forms and evidence, but others say to NOT do that (often in all caps) and to follow the path of the I-290B. I'm conflicted on which path my wife and I should pursue. In 2023 I filed joint with my current wife. She was not working, obviously, as she had just arrived mid November of 2023, so I only included my income. But I did file joint with her. Your list of directions and suggestions are more appreciated than you know. But would you be able to briefly explain why you suggest the I-290B instead of refiling another I-485?

Good Evening Everyone, Received the dreaded Denied letter from the USCIS today. After doing a bit of research the next steps depend on the reasons for the denial. I want to provide as much info about our case as possible to hopefully get a more certain response from anyone here. - According to the letter, denial was declared because of "lack of bona fide marriage evidence." Redacted denial letter is attached to this post. - I am a US citizen - Wife and her son entered with K1 and K2 visas, respectively - No interview for our I485 was requested or scheduled by the USCIS - We received an RFE and responded within the time frame provided us Some thoughts I had, that may not be important at all but I'm frustrated and just need to get it off my chest, is that in the research I've done people have provided less evidence than we did but still got approved, and all the evidence of a bona fide marriage I provided in our RFE I included because I saw other people say they included it in their own cases that got approved. It seems like a lot of it just boils down to the person in charge of your case. But maybe not. In the letter it comes off like most of the weight in evidence of marriage is the "co-mingling of finances." That seems very strange to me. Anyways, my wife of nearly 1 year and stepson have less than 30 days (29 to be exact) now to leave the country. Any help of what our next steps should be to keep them here is appreciated, and any bits of reassurance would be extremely helpful. As anyone who sees this and has experienced it knows, its absolutely heart wrenching. Thank you.

I've emailed an address similar to that asking for similar information. VisaNassau@state.gov Why it's so similar to the one you have, I have no idea. Best to give it a try though, thanks!

Thanks Sarah. We completed the DS-160 right when the CEAC said our case was ready. I just hit nothing but dead ends and get caught in endless loops of links. "Click here to learn more" and "There is no information here regarding Nassau. For more information go to the consulate website" but the consulate website requires an interview date to create and account or register anything. The websites are so convoluted and are constantly saying to go somewhere else for information and before you know it you've arrived back at the same webpage you initially started on. But the embassy also won't take visa related questions.... So it's like a perfect dead end. There's no one to call, no one to write, nowhere to register or create an account because to do so it requires information they are supposed to provide us, and they aren't providing it. The person from Nassau I'm in discussions with received a phone call for their interview. The embassy reached out to them. Which I'm happy for them, but what about us?

Hi Sarah, We have our NVC number. I did receive the K1-KTP. Status of CEAC is "Ready" (see below). Basically we are 1 month behind the timeline for number 7 and/or 8 provided on Visa Journey HERE. It has been a month since the CEAC has updated our case status to "Ready." From what I can tell, the Embassy in Nassau schedules the interview but I really don't know. More on that below. Number 7 in the Visa Journey timeline says we can contact the embassy for updates but we do not get any responses from the email or any answers from the phone number. My fiance has received nothing regarding what the timeline says. *** Quick side note, I read that the K1 visa is a Non Immigrant Visa, but the CEAC will only accept our case number if we call it an Immigrant visa. Otherwise we get an error saying our case doesn't exist. The CEAC notification says the following, and this is the last update we received: "Your case is ready for your interview when scheduled at the U.S. Consular section. If you have already scheduled an appointment for an interview, please prepare your documents as directed in your appointment letter and appear at the consulate on the appointed date and time. Otherwise, please wait until you have been notified of your interview appointment. Additional information about how Immigrant Visa interview appointments are scheduled can be found at: http://nvc.state.gov/interview" Purple Text: We haven't scheduled anything. The Nassau Embassy website says either the consulate or NVC does it... Blue Text: Haven't heard anything and its been a month since the embassy has received our application when the timeline says it should take a week. In addition, I am in contact with another fellow applicant from Nassau who has long since had their interview scheduled by someone in Nassau I think, and my fiance and I were ahead of them in the timeline processes up to this point. That makes me worried that our case is lost or something. Red Text: The link takes me to a place where I have to register my appointment online that I get from the embassy. An appointment we aren't receiving and can't get any updates on because all the contact information is broken or something. TLDR: Just looking for a reliable place to contact the embassy to get an update. We are stuck with not receiving an interview appointment, which is required to do any kind of tracking or registration for the US Embassy Nassau.

Has everyone else in this group got there interview dates? Or are we the only ones to have heard nothing? What has happened so far in how we have been notified and the manner in which information is sent from the USCIS, NVC, and US embassy in my finances country hasn't followed the processes listed here on this website at all, and now we are completely in the dark, months after a weird notice of the NVC sending our information off, which itself is weird because we never submitted anything to the NVC before they told us they sent our case to the embassy, with no agency responding to any request we send for or try and call about. Nothing is playing out as we have researched and been informed, and now we feel like sitting ducks with no agency to answer us.

Yep! I was able to make the correct changes. Thank you!

There was no indication of received date until later activity occured. I'm not sure what was going on between the USCIS and the NVC. In my actual NOA2 approval letter (which I received March 23 or so) they said they had sent my petition to the NVC, but for about 100 days the NVC always responded to me saying they hadn't received it from the USCIS yet. It's as if it was in transit for the entirety of that time. Then suddenly all at once on July 3 they notified me that they received my petition, processed it, gave me a case number, and then sent it off again to the embassy in the Bahamas.

Just seconding Sarah's post. It is the "Date Package Received By NVC" box. Thank you Capt!!!!!

Yes, apparently we are the only ones. I have looked into this a little more but found no information. 😑

I messed around with the dates. It appears that it will not let you set an NVC Package Received date if it is 2 months or more after the NOA2 approved date. I set it for 1 day before the 2 month anniversary of my NOA2 date and it let me save my timeline. I have no idea why the system would not allow this to be a free-to-set date. Seems weird. If it took 14 weeks then it took 14 weeks. I shouldn't have to lie and say it only took 8 weeks just to update my timeline. 😅😐