Success in responding to an I-129F RFE

We assisted our client in filing an I-129F petition to bring his fiancee to the U.S. in anticipation of their upcoming marriage in the U.S. On Form I-129F the petitioner answered “yes” to the question: “Have you ever been arrested, cited, charged, indicted, convicted, fined, or imprisoned for breaking or violating any law or ordinance in any country, excluding traffic violations (unless a traffic violation was alcohol-or drug-related or involved a fine of $500 or more)?”. We included reference to that issue in the filing. An RFE was subsequently received in which USCIS requested additional information regarding the case noted in the I-129F filing and regarding an additional misdemeanor charge.  We explained that the misdemeanor charge was mistakenly not disclosed by the applicant in the initial filing because it resulted in a fine of less than $500. He was unaware that the exclusion to the question only applies to traffic violations. In addition, we provided additional context to the violations and emphasized that the offenses occurred while the applicant was in undergraduate college, and all were ultimately dismissed. We provided all available documentation requested by USCIS including any available court records, and our client provided sworn statements in which he detailed the offenses at issue. We argued that a favorable exercise of discretion was warranted, in considering that the client has incurred no offenses since 2014 and has been an active positive contributor to society and his local community since then. The petition was subsequently approved.