Jump to content

One Blue Slip and One Red

jim_julian

Recommended Posts

jim_julian

jim_julian

Posted
Posted (edited)

Some of you may have noticed that I've been silent on our K1/2 case ever since I posted that our P3 response had been received by GZ. My ex-wife lurks here and she has threatened to try to disrupt the visa process, so I decided to be silent until after we had the visa.

 

The Consulate received our P3 on February 5th and we received the P4 on April 12th with an interview date of May 16th. Due to considerations of Er Mei graduating from high school in 2007 and then following to join I asked, in a letter included in the P3, that the Consulate not assign an interview date prior to May 8th.

 

I got a $536 China Southern flight from LAX to CAN through Rosa Lee, an LA based Chinese travel agent recommended by others on this site. The return tickets could be purchased more cheaply in China. We got Air China CKG-PEK-LAX for $513 each.

 

The 16 hour China Southern flight over was in a 777 with 10 across seating. I managed to get the big exit row with unlimited leg room but the tradeoff is no entertainment screen (since there is no seat in front of you) and hard immovable arm rests between seats. It was tight. The food and service were quite good. It was a pretty turbulent flight and many of the passengers were barfing but the flight attendants did a great job in keeping everything clean and disinfected.

 

The flight landed a bit early in GZ at about 6AM on the 11th. Lao Po and Er Mei had flown down from CKG the night before. We were staying in the Tian Yu apartments in the Consulate complex also referred to as the Garden Hotel complex. As many have reported, Mr. Yang is quite helpful. I had the address in Chinese and Mr. Yang said the taxi fare should be 125RMB. As soon as you exit the arrivals area you are surrounded by touts trying to "help" you with transportation. I changed $100 to have money for taxi fare and was appalled that I had to pay a 40RMB service fee ... not much choice at the airport however.

 

I proceeded outside to the taxi line and showed the lead taxi where I wanted to go. The quote was 400RMB, I laughed and said 125. It took about five minutes, I never budged from 125 and it was finally accepted. (You can do all this more cheaply by taking a bus to the East Train Station but I didn't want the hassle loaded down with luggage after a 16 hour flight) After the taxi was on the way I called Lao Po on my mobile and had her talk to the driver so we were sure he REALLY knew where to go. As it turned out he dropped me at the Tian Lun hotel vice Tian Yu. Tian Yu was only a couple hundred meters away. It's next to a highly recognizable Ikea complex.

 

We stayed in a 2 BR apartment with living room, kitchen, and bath. The AC worked and it was fairly clean. The Internet was not working but there are plenty of unprotected wireless signals in the air and I never had a problem hijacking a connection.

 

Mr Yang took the girls to the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College for the physical. They were back by about noon. That evening the hospital called Lao Po and told her that there was a problem with an item concerning Er Mei. They asked us to come in at 8AM the next day. They explained the problem and coordinated getting some additional tests that morning. These tests normally took a few days to get an appointment but they fit us in realizing it was Friday and the girls had their interview on Tuesday. We and they, thought the test results would be ready on Monday and the packets could be completed Monday afternoon for the Tuesday interview. Lao Po called to check on Monday morning and they said the tests would not be ready until the following Friday. She explained the situation and the hospital said don't worry they will give you the interview without any medical ... RIGHT! We wound up going back to the hospital to plead our case and after an hour of "discussion" they called the hospital lab, in another facility, and asked them to run the test today. We had to go to this other facility to pick up the results, which gave Er Mei a clean bill of health, but got us back to the first facility after closing time. Both the administrative section for the physicals and the department that needed to sign off on the test agreed to stay open however long it took. About an hour after closing we finally completed the medical packages. Lesson learned: we left one extra day, you might consider two.

 

The easy way to get back and forth to the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College is by Metro. From in front of the consulate turn right and walk down toward the train station. Where the road ends you'll see a Metro entrance. It's a very modern system and easy to use with many signs in English. The hospital is at the Hai Zhu Guangchang stop. You have to transfer once but just look at the metro map, it's easy and fast.

 

I had checked the Consulate on Thursday afternoon to verify that there would be a 2:30PM "American Citizens Hour" on Friday. Access to the Consulate is not a problem for American citizens. I found everyone, including guards, to be polite and helpful. I went to the Consulate at 2:15 on Friday and after a few false starts found the right area. It is the general purpose immigrant visa interview facility. I was early but they gave me a number as soon as I arrived and consultations were already in progress at the "bank windows". Be prepared to fill out a form with the GUZ case number, Chinese passport number(s), and birthday(s).

 

The pace was not hurried. A guard told me they cut off entry at 3:30PM but if you're in they work until you have been seen. I waited about an hour and a half. There were also people turning in overcome evidence. I'd say at least a third of the people going to the windows were angry and somewhat abusive to the VOs. From what I heard the VOs were polite and professional but I sure can understand the frustration when you are told that you case has been sent back to USCIS.

 

When I was called to the window I had a number of prepared questions. I started off with a complex one that included a letter we had written with a CFL GUZ Speaks print out attached. I pointed that out to the VO and told him we all appreciated who ever was taking time to post on CFL. He actually blushed ... and said it was him. He said he'd been doing it for the last two months and before that it was someone else. I went through two issues and three questions. I'll treat the issues in other posts as they are quite narrow. The questions I asked were:

 

- Are the 156/157 in Chinese to be filled out in Chinese? (Answer, yes)

- I've seen it stated that you need 2 photos and 4 photos at the interview, how many? (Answer: 4)

- The K1 fee is 830RMB fee, do you pay another 830 for the K2? (Answer, yes, but it turned out to be 810 each)

 

I think we've also solved the eating problem for those who like to go inexpensive and mix with the Chinese working class. The GUZ topic has a few restaurant recommendations and I'm sure they are good but we didn't want to spend a week eating at expensive (by China standards) restaurants. The only place that Mr. Yang could recommend to buy food was the 7-11 ... again, expensive. The restaurants behind the hotel complex were also no bargain.

 

For those who like to go native here's the solution ... In front of the consulate face the street and turn right. Walk down past Ikea about 75 meters and you'll see an old lion gate leading to a neighborhood. Enter the neighborhood and you'll find a huge rectangular fish pond. As you walk along the fish pond you'll find a few hole in the wall restaurants, and on the other side of the pond a medium class noodle restaurant. You'll also find dim sum, dumpling, and noodle shops, which are excellent for inexpensive take out. Be sure to try the Muslim (yes) fat noodle shop. At the end of the fish pond bear right and then turn left on the next street. Here you'll find a great bakery. Continuing down that street there is another dim sum place and then you find yourself in an open square. Look to the left and about 50 meters down you'll see a large covered market. The market has everything ... fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, prepared food, little grocery stores all a rock bottom prices ... particularly if the laowei is not tagging along too closely. Buy food to prepare or heat in the room and/or eat at the local restaurants in this area and two can live high on the hog for $10/day or less.

 

Interview day was full of excitement. Mr. Yang met us in front of the apartment building, walked us to the consulate, and installed us in the correct place in line. We were in line at 7:15 and the two girls were upstairs by 7:30. I walked in the park for an hour and went up to the Chamy coffee shop at 8:30. About 9:30 I got a phone call from Lao Po. She was out of the visa area back on the fourth floor. The Visa Unit had sent her to one of the shops there to fill out DS-230's. The DS-230's had been submitted with the P3 response but the Visa Unit claimed that they couldn't find them. Despite my instructions, Lao Po did not make a copy of her P3 response so they couldn't produce copies. The cost to fill them out at this vendor was 150RMB. By the time they called me they had already begun so was sunk cost. They didn't get back into the visa area until about 10:30. Lessons learned ... have a copy of the P3 response with you (we already knew that one) and there is a procedure for the visa applicants to get a permission slip and come back out to do something. The check boxes on the slip included: get forms, get photos, make copies, pay visa fees, come back at 1:30 for interview, and "other".

 

The processing then went smoothly until they were called up for the interview. We had always practiced that it was a team effort. Lao Po would try to answer everything in English, Er Mei would help and particularly Er Mei would find supporting documents in the two pound "kitchen sink" package we had prepared.

 

The visa officer was a man in his 30's, blond hair, a little on the heavy side and very friendly. Lao Po gave him a hearty good morning in English and he greeted her in Mandarin. He looked at Er Mei and asked her to sit down as he wanted to speak with mama alone. (Now we were off our rehearsed track big time).

 

Questions:

 

1. Why is your daughter not going to America with you? Lao Po explained in English and gave him the letter we had written and submitted with the P3. Basically Er Mei wants to finish high school in China and then come to the US in early May 2007. This drives some tricky timing ... she must be in the US before one year from K1 issuance and the K2, when issued, is only good for six months.

 

2. How long have you been divorced? Lao Po explains in English, 11 years. VO say you can answer in Chinese if you like, your English is OK. In Chinese she then explained that her ex-husband had requested a bribe to agree to Er Mei's emigration which is why the K2 visa must wait until after Er Mei is 18 and does not need father's permission.

 

3. Why did you divorce your husband? Lao Po answered at length in Chinese.

 

4. How did you meet you fiance? Answer in Chinese.

 

5. When was your fiance divorced? Lao Po answered and dug out a copy of my divorce certificate.

 

6. How did you learn English? Boyfriend and daughter help her and she goes to night school.

 

7. How do you communicate with your boyfriend? At that point Lao Po gave him the whole two pound package. The package had custom write ups on the following topics:

 

- How We Communicate (over 80 pages of Skype, web cam, and e-mail)

- Ability to Support (Taxes from 2002 through 2005, employer letter, I-134, recent pay stubs)

- Family Pictures (Ten pages of hi res color printouts including lots of family interaction)

- Trips to China (Tickets, boarding passes, passport scans with visas and entry/exit stamps for six trips)

 

The VO went through the entire package commenting on many things, some of the more notable:

 

8. Tell me about his relationship with your family? Lao Po answered at length in Chinese, cross referencing pictures such as me carrying a big basket of rice for mama and baba and me helping Er Mei with English homework.

 

9. Does your boyfriend have children? Lao Po answered at length switching back to English. She gave names, ages, where they live etc.

 

10. What does he do for a living? Lao Po answered in English having mastered a reasonable English pronunciation of my company name in the last 48 hours.

 

OK, you and your daughter have visas! Lao Po said thank you and started to leave. The VO said no no ... I want to talk with your daughter.

 

He called Er Mei to join Lao Po at the window.

 

11. What is Skype? Er Mei gave a pretty good explanation.

 

He then spent more than ten minutes explaining to Lao Po and Er Mei how the delayed K2 follow to join would work. He wrote out a blue slip for Er Mei, citing 221g, with instructions on contacting the consulate early next year and submitting an new police report and an updated medical.

 

He gave a red slip to Lao Po.

 

He stamped both passports with a round stamp that has the date and says "Immigrant Visa Application ????" . I think the obscured word is approved but it could be something else ending in "...ved". The interview lasted more than 20 minutes.

 

It was about 12:40 when the girls finally came down to meet me in the coffee shop. Of course they tried to tell me that they failed but their looks of joy radiated through. Mr. Yang was waiting for us in front of the consulate and offered everyone his heartfelt congratulations.

 

Thanks Carl (cdrobin) and Haxia for the care package we found in front of our door this morning. Best wishes to some other "stealth" CFL members that we met here. We hope to read of your success shortly.

 

Most of all thanks to all of you on this website for your, help, support, and commiseration ... the journey continues ...

Edited by jim_julian (see edit history)
Link to comment
  • Replies 38
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Guest ShaQuaNew

Guest ShaQuaNew

Posted
Posted

:toot::redblob::clapping:CONGRATULATIONS! :greenblob::clapping::toot:

 

Had noticed that you seemed incredibly silent regarding what many of us considered a delay in you process. What a happy ending to a long process. Wishing you all an eternity of happiness together..... :)

Link to comment

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...