soblue3 said:
Thanks so much again...was that the only reason they refused? and did you have your appeal hearing already? we have most of our chats i think...are they going now to send me the file back? i have send them close to 400 pages of evidence and the vo said she had enough proof and did not even want to look at the extra evidence he brought for her to see.
I haven't had my hearing yet. I got selected for an ADR hearing coming up in November. So I am preparing all my evidence and documents... Doing it without a lawyer so I hope all my research and preparations will help me... They will send you a copy of your sponsorship record called "the blue book" with your application, refusal letter, notes from the VO, the interview transcript, stuff like that.
The VO said that they did not think that our relationship was genuine. For us there was three main reasons.
1) We decided to get married in 15 days of meeting.
2) No common language.
3) My husband has not worked since we were married.
It was as if they were just trying to find reasons to deny him as we sent in a LOT of evidence of our relationship. We knew each other for 1.5 years before we got engaged (2010) and then got married in December 2011. So there is no way that they can even justify that we decided to marry in 15 days of meeting. We spent 2 weeks together at the time of the proposal but not in total of knowing each other.
My husband did not speak English, only Spanish when we met. My family is from Chile so I grew up speaking Spanish. That's how we communicated in person. Texting or email I would write to him using a translator or dictionary. So to them that meant we did not have a common language... My husband now speaks very good English. We only communicate when speaking in person or over the phone in English and have been for the total of 4 years we've been together...
And thirdly my husband was a teacher. I go to Cuba every 3 months so they told him that he had to quit because they would not give him the time off. And because it was illegal to be married to a foreigner and work in a government job. So he hasn't been able to work since we've been married.
My husband brought a suitcase of proofs (pictures, emails, letters) and the VO too didn't even ask him to see it. Its like they made the decision before he got there.
Sorry for the long reply! ;D