Verbal "RFE" at interview today

[Keeto 12]

Hi all fellow VJ'ers.

Bad news. Did not get approved today. Basically got a verbal "RFE". Everything went fine till the lady asked me for more "proof that you are actually leaving the UK".....

I guess the rental agreement, bank statements, drivers license etc didn't count for a lot. She was adamant that she needs to see airline tickets booked, rental agreement notice to landlord and our notices to our employers - guess somewhere on the forum I missed that little nugget of information. Anyway, can't say I walked out there with a smile on my face but at least I have not been denied.

Need to contact the couriers via telephone when I have all these additional documentation available and they will collect my passports and the documents.

I feel like I have let my wife down a bit because I really thought I had enough "evidence of leaving the UK"....

I have learned a few things today:

1 - If your US partner/spouse is coming along with you, you NEED to make an APPOINTMENT via the extortion line for him/her - emails and letters didn't help us at all. They are NOT allowed into the US Embassy without one even if they have their US passport with them. Luckily there was lots to see in London because of the Olympics - so the wifey went site seeing while I sat around in the embassy.

2 - If you have another US visa (I had a B1/B2 in my South African passport) you need to take that along so that they can cancel that visa, you are only allowed one visa at a time.

3 - The only photocopied documents they wanted were my birth and marriage certificate - they were not interested in any other "forms" or "document" copies.

4 - Kiss your your original Police certificates goodbye. They keep the originals.

5 - I have seen this before on the forum, but I can confirm that your visa is only valid for as long as your medical is. Mine will expire on the 21st of December. Both the agents I spoke to today made that VERY clear to me.

As I'm typing this, my wife is booking our tickets and typing her notice letter.

Anyway, thought I will share this, just in case someone else is as asleep as I seem to be.

[Vicomi 31]

Hi all fellow VJ'ers.

Bad news. Did not get approved today. Basically got a verbal "RFE". Everything went fine till the lady asked me for more "proof that you are actually leaving the UK".....

I guess the rental agreement, bank statements, drivers license etc didn't count for a lot. She was adamant that she needs to see airline tickets booked, rental agreement notice to landlord and our notices to our employers - guess somewhere on the forum I missed that little nugget of information. Anyway, can't say I walked out there with a smile on my face but at least I have not been denied.

Need to contact the couriers via telephone when I have all these additional documentation available and they will collect my passports and the documents.

I feel like I have let my wife down a bit because I really thought I had enough "evidence of leaving the UK"....

I have learned a few things today:

2 - If you have another US visa (I had a B1/B2 in my South African passport) you need to take that along so that they can cancel that visa, you are only allowed one visa at a time.

3 - The only photocopied documents they wanted were my birth and marriage certificate - they were not interested in any other "forms" or "document" copies.

4 - Kiss your your original Police certificates goodbye. They keep the originals.

5 - I have seen this before on the forum, but I can confirm that your visa is only valid for as long as your medical is. Mine will expire on the 21st of December. Both the agents I spoke to today made that VERY clear to me.

Hi Keeto. Sorry for the frustration. I started my visa journey a few months ago and just wondered a few things... why do they need proof that you are leaving the UK??? I am especially interested to know as I have no plans to given notice at work or give up lease until I get the green light!! Also I would be very grateful if you could tell me where did u send your fingerprints in SA and how long did it take to get the certficate. i hope this is not intrusive but this info would be helpful to me in the near future. Thanks in advance.

[Keeto 12]

It's the "complicated but treated on an individual basis" domicile c***.

They seem to be quite inconsistent with what is allowed and what is not allowed from day to day.

I had a formal rental agreement for a set time in the US. Today, that was not good enough. She wanted to see more than just that. My approach to buying airline tickets etc is also like yours - I wanted the green light on the visa before we go and spend another heap of money....anyway seems it does not work that way.

This lady actually, half way through the interview decided to decline me, because she was already filling out the blue Section 221(g) form - After asking me if we rent, I said yes, she asked have you given notice, I said no, not yet our agency wants 2 months notice, and yeeeep she started filling out the 221 (g) right there and then while still asking me other questions. Very cunning.

Some days I wish I could lie as easily as other people do....

I sent my SA stuff to the address stated on this SAPS website. You also need the SAPS police certificate "Authenticated" by the department of Home Affairs in Soutpansberg Road, Pretoria - it's the only place in SA that will do it. Don't bother to email them, they NEVER responded to ANY of my emails, the SAPS CRC lot, that is....

Make sure you send it via DHL or UPS etc because the UK Post Office service nearly took a MONTH to deliver it to SAPS. It sat at Jo'burg International for freekin 3 weeks!

Edited August 2, 2012 by Keeto

[Holly2234 66]

Im sorry to hear they did that! Are they for real at the moment?! There seems to be loads of crazy "RFE" type things going on.

This will be a quick fix for you. I dont know of many people who book flights before they have the visas issued though so thats a strange thing for them to want you to do... Was it the same woman who has been giving people grief last week?

[Keeto 12]

I dunno Holly, but she wears glasses and wasn't very friendly. Not impolite or something but not very friendly. She didn't laugh at my story about how my wife and I met, and I know it's funny the way we met because people always laugh about it...bit she didn't look amused at all with the story.

I was very laid back, and calm because I thought I was well prepared and she couldn't "phase" me.....maybe it was just a bit of a "power trip" thing.....anyway. Not much we can do now but gather the "proof".

[Vicomi 31]

Thanks for the advice. Best wishes with resolving the RFE! Cheers

Edited August 2, 2012 by Vicomi

[kittylondon 47]

Sorry to hear that, something is definitely a little bit amiss at London... i haven't read many occasions of denials/rfe's and then this week there have 2... at least you know what you have to do (even if it does go against everything they tell us in terms of not booking tickets, making firm plans.. ridiculous).

Good luck! Did you happen to see Emma (K1 - sunshine25)? I hope she managed to get her fiance in, he flew all the way from the states at 2 days notice to be there!

The lack of consistency and errr, LOGIC, is baffling - i understand it must be different for DCF than K1 but either way, why would you go through all this if you weren't planning on leaving

Hope you get the approval soon!

P.S I have to ask now.. how did you meet?!

Edited August 2, 2012 by kittylondon

[Holly2234 66]

I dunno Holly, but she wears glasses and wasn't very friendly. Not impolite or something but not very friendly. She didn't laugh at my story about how my wife and I met, and I know it's funny the way we met because people always laugh about it...bit she didn't look amused at all with the story.

I was very laid back, and calm because I thought I was well prepared and she couldn't "phase" me.....maybe it was just a bit of a "power trip" thing.....anyway. Not much we can do now but gather the "proof".

Sounds like her. Brown hair and glasses i believe the last person said. Just thought of another thing to do (was looking for ways to prove all of this myself! Theres no way im booking flights in advance) is mail redirection. They can do it overseas too https://www.royalmail.com/delivery/inbound-mail/redirections/details Just a little bit of extra proof. £35 for 1 month. Could be worth it if theyre going to be picky!

Edited August 2, 2012 by Holly2234

[Keeto 12]

Hi Kitty,

I think I saw Emma and her fiance they were probably I-903 if I'm not mistaken. He looked a bit tired, poor guy. I was I-905.

LOL! We met because of bedbugs! Of all things! I still laugh about it today!

My wife had moved into our shared house from the hostel they lived in for a couple of days after arriving in the UK. Unbeknownst to the poor woman she brought a few of the critters along from the hostel....and all hell broke loose in our house! The French housemate wanted to leave, the English guy decided to stay in a hotel for a couple of days and the 2 remaining South African guys?

We made a plan to help this poor US gal that wanted to leave as well now - back to the US!! LOL! We bombed the house with bedbug smoke and sprayed it down with specialist bedbug repellent. But to no avail. These things were tough to get rid of! At the end of the day we had to throw out her bed, smoke the place again and buy her a new bed.....I helped her to get the new bed and arrange a van.....and as they say, the rest is history. The cherry on the cake was - we put the bed out in the street with a note on it about the bedbugs - because the council was going to collect it the next day, but some numpty decided to "score" the bed during the night....he got a bit "more" than he bargained for!

Edited August 2, 2012 by Keeto

[Keeto 12]

Sounds like her. Brown hair and glasses i believe the last person said. Just thought of another thing to do (was looking for ways to prove all of this myself! Theres no way im booking flights in advance) is mail redirection. They can do it overseas too https://www.royalmail.com/delivery/inbound-mail/redirections/details Just a little bit of extra proof. £35 for 1 month. Could be worth it if theyre going to be picky!

Yeah the best of all was, the rental agreement started on the 1st of December. Because of the way the timing works out in the past few months for DCF that is when we were expecting to arrive. But now that the embassy is on this 4 day notice thing of theirs - instead of the regular 1 month between packet 3 and 4 - we plan to move a bit earlier. So when she asked me when do we plan to move I said in the middle of November, me being my honest self. She was like: "But this says December?" I explained to her that the embassy usually takes a month between P3 and P4.....her response was: "So it's a bit too quick?" I said "No, I don't have a problem with that, but we you have to take that into consideration....." I got: "Well, this isn't bad, but it's not good enough...." Then, at the end when she was explaining to me what to do courier wise she adds: " Just change the date on the rental agreement and it will be fine....." Huh? Does she realize it needs to go back to the US? I just said: "I'll get you the notices and the airline bookings, don't worry....bye."

[TigerFlower 61]

Thank you for sharing this helpful information. Hope it goes much smoother for you!

[Elora & Rob 15]

is this just a CR1 thing or do you think K1 can be affected by this to?

Seems stupid they would stop you as you have no proof of going to the US. You would be stupid to have flights booked before you get your visa.

Edited August 2, 2012 by Elora&Robert

[Keeto 12]

is this just a CR1 thing or do you think K1 can be affected by this to?

Seems stupid they would stop you as you have no proof of going to the US. You would be stupid to have flights booked before you get your visa.

As far as I know, the K1's get interviewed in the same manner as IR1/CR1's.....

I agree.

The only losers in this complete equation is us.....WE loose all our money, time and effort if we decide NOT to go the US.....so I'm finding it hard to see what all this "proof" will proof at the end of the day. Maybe someone can enlighten us?

[Holly2234 66]

Yeah the best of all was, the rental agreement started on the 1st of December. Because of the way the timing works out in the past few months for DCF that is when we were expecting to arrive. But now that the embassy is on this 4 day notice thing of theirs - instead of the regular 1 month between packet 3 and 4 - we plan to move a bit earlier. So when she asked me when do we plan to move I said in the middle of November, me being my honest self. She was like: "But this says December?" I explained to her that the embassy usually takes a month between P3 and P4.....her response was: "So it's a bit too quick?" I said "No, I don't have a problem with that, but we you have to take that into consideration....." I got: "Well, this isn't bad, but it's not good enough...." Then, at the end when she was explaining to me what to do courier wise she adds: " Just change the date on the rental agreement and it will be fine....." Huh? Does she realize it needs to go back to the US? I just said: "I'll get you the notices and the airline bookings, don't worry....bye."

Now thats just madness.. Theres only so many loose ends you can tie up without knowing interview dates. And when theres only a few days, you cant get that stuff done. Sounds like she just didnt want you to win and was going to come up with something stupid whatever you said to her.

Thankfully my husbands letter of employment says that it is an open offer. So when we get the interview date we will just type up a quick reply with a date on it that reflects when the interview ends up being.

[Elora & Rob 15]

Have decided for the interview I am going to put together;

a) Photos from Elora's trip to London in April (including ones with my Mother) and from trips to US in May, June & coming up in August. 3 photos from each trip.

b)Skype call history

c) Engagment ring receipt

d) Boarding passes

e) Phone Bills

f) Call Cards

g) Letter from employer stating I have handed in my notice

This will literally take an hour to put together.