After preparing all your documents and get translated your immigration documents into English. When to proceed to mail the documents to the given address for your visa. You always expect a positive response as you know that the immigration process is a quiet time taking process.
However, things might not go well as planned, and getting a request for evidence from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is one of the most disturbing things and even scary.
What is a Request for evidence (RFE)?
An RFE is defined as the document issued by the USCIS when there is a document missing in the application. This doesn’t mean that your application is rejected. It just that you might have missed any of the documents while submitting. So with this notice, USCIS requests you to send the remaining documents to avoid rejection.
The reason due to which you might receive an RFE notice
Missing initial evidence
The primary reason you might get an RFE from the USCIS is that you might not have provided the required document, or you might have failed to provide the necessary documents to show that you meet the eligibility criteria for the marriage-based green card. If you get this, you don’t need to get panic In fact; this is a good sign as your application didn’t get rejected just because of the lack of evidence. Instead, USCIS is giving you the second chance to try again. In this way, you will provide the documents that were missed during the first time.
Moreover, the US immigration departments’ RFE might be an issue only if it detects any inconsistencies or omissions. That is why you should clear all the inconsistencies at the first instance during the time of filing the application.
Sponsoring Spouse may not be financially stable
When you are applying for the marriage green card, you will have to show that you are financially stable to sponsor your spouse through life. Therefore, it is a must for the sponsor to prove that they are financially capable and earn around 125% more than the poverty line. If you are unable to provide the relevant documents to prove that, then are larger chances of receiving an RFE will be issued by your name.
If the person sponsoring you is unemployed or doesn’t meet the minimum salary requirement. Then you might take the help of the co-sponsor which is more likely to be a family member. They may agree to support the couple.
Legal Entry Proof Absence
The spouse or the person you are willing to sponsor a green card is already present in the United States; you need to prove that the person is legally entered into the united states.
In most cases, you will be required to show the copy of the passport; If that’s not possible, you should present the copy of the I-94 history. If you do not have a physical copy, you can view the travel history online.
Based on the way they entered the country, they may either use the passport or the form.
Missing Translations of Documents
Another reason you have received the RFE from the US immigration department is that the documents you submitted were not in the English language. Also, you will require to submit the translated documents by the professional translation agency usa. This means that neither you nor your spouse are liable to submit the translation. If the RFE you receive shows the absence of these documents, you will have to visit the legal office to complete the documentation.
Unusual Cases
If the US immigration authorities detect any strange thing in your case, you will have to provide an extra explanation unless you wish to end up with the RFE in the mail. For example, suppose you applied for the green card sometime in the past for someone else ( e.g., ex-spouse). Still, later on, due to some of the reasons you ended in withdrawing your application, in clarifying this, you wil need to provide a written explanation about why this incident took place. If you do ot rectify any inconsistencies, then there are larger changes that your application for the green card might be rejected.
What you should do if you get an RFE
When you get a Request for Evidence, then the first thing that you should do is properly read the documents. After that, you will receive an RFE with the guidelines. Since RFE will be issued only once which means you will get one chance to correct your mistake. After receiving the RFE, you don’t need to delay responding as you need to respond to all the questions asked by the USCISs as early as possible.
After reading the RFE notice carefully, the other step you should follow is that you need to re-check your original application. After it might happen that the USCISs officer might have made a mistake. In some cases, they might ask for the same documents you already provided with your submitted application. If this happened, then the thing that you need to do is to photocopy the document again and send it in the response package.
Your response package should be containing the mentioned below items:
- Original RFE notice, ensure no to send the photocopy. The paper should have marked the very first page of your response.
- Documents that were requested in the RFE
- Any required explanation for the unusual case
- The photocopied documents from the original application along you should mention that it was available in the initial package in the first place.
Conclusion
Always keep one thing in mind whenever you get an RFE, do not panic. Even after getting the RFE notice, there are many cases people still get a pass to work and live in Singapore. This means that most of the issues get resolved; ensure that you respond to the notice and submit the documents timely.
You can also refer to the green card guide to get complete detail about the criteria and documents.