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09/10/09 interview-CR 1

hopelives

By hopelives,
in Interview Results

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hopelives

hopelives

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Setup:

 

 

 

I hoped that we had some distinct advantages on interview day. Our second banquet planned months in advance fell on 09/09/09, one day before the interview. My family all came to China for the wedding, so we were quickly able to turn around pictures of Yanzi with the family

 

The ninth was quite the day, my ears are still ringing from all the fireworks, and we were even interviewed by local television, much to the delight of Yanzi friends who watched it in the following days. The wedding ceremony basically took all day and we caught a late flight to Guangzhou and stayed our wedding night at the Grand Palace which is a nice hotel, a stones through from the consulate.

 

The morning of the 10th was a blur as Yanzi's slept I finished a photo album with pictures from our wedding day delivered at the last minute by Yanzi's very efficient brother. Yanzi brought the following to the interview:

 

Photo Album

Financial Records including a updated I 864

chat log distilled from 5mb to 1mb but still over a thousand pages

emails between Yanzi and members of my family

hotel and airline reservations for upcoming family trip around china and from a trip Yanzi and I took to Bali since our application

Phone records

My Ace in the hole was MagCloud a web service from HP- I used it to create a magazine that I used as an EOR- It is really cool, and I think Candle members might want to give it a try as multimedia approach to make your case to the VO- I would use it in the beginning of the process then the end-like I did- I actually told Yanzi to produce it only if the VO asked for a EOR- so she kept it in her purse.

 

INTERVIEW DAY

 

The wedding day had wiped Yanzi out so I made sure she got plenty of sleep, so i checked and rechecked everything in the wee hours and let Yanzi sleep as late as possible. We arrived promptly at 7:30 AM and the line was long but moved quickly, by quarter of eight we had to separate and I watched her disappear behind the guard desk as butterflies churned in my stomach. In reading interview posts the earliest I read of someone coming out was 9:30 so I went back to the hotel for a quick nap. I returned at 9:30 and was heading to the coffee shop when I noticed the Chinese stoically standing and I figured if they can do it, so can I. Time passed excruciatingly slow, but it was a chance to see a great human drama. The thrill of whole families as a young student earned the chance to study in the America. The heartbreaking agony of a stroke victim denied a chance, I guessed, to visit relatives in the states. How did I know he did not get a visa, because he was ushered into one of the store fronts by the carnival barkers extolling the guarantees of their visa companies. The intensity of these leeches grew based on the how pained the expression on those who left the interview area. On cue,as I arrived, the first result for a western couple became apparent and it was positive followed closely by another positive result then time seemed to stand still. A steady stream of applicants passed but no Yanzi, a carnival barker remarked "you have been standing there a long time." 11AM arrived and my gut ached as I remembered as this being the time that the 'problem children" are interviewed.11:30 and I contemplated leaving to check out of the hotel while noticing two other Americans waiting they were in the same predicament as me. 11;40 and there she was hunched over by the weight of the binder holding the chat logs, as she desperately looked for a place to dump the binder. She found a table and I caught her eye. She smiled a tired smile and started to walk as I collected her detritus of stuff and followed her. She was playing coy, but I noticed the barkers pouncing and yanzi would utter a reply and I noticed a few leeches replying "gonchi gonchi" I recognized those words form the day before "Congratulations" She had done it.

 

Interview

 

The VO was a "beautiful women" late 30's or early 40's The general consensus is that the decision is 95% made before the interview. I am not disagreeing with that statement but given the direction of our interview, it was important in the final decision. My Yanzi was impressed with her professionalism. She was all business and attentive to Yanzi's answers.

 

First thing she did was wave away my chat log ( I am sure Yanzi was silently mop slapping me)

 

VO examined my passport asked

How did you meet? Friend

No follow up question

how did you get to know each other- Phone

asked for records

When did he first visit you?

How many times did he visit you?

Then she asked for photo album

She looked at each page of the album starting with my first visit

VO asked " Do you love your husband"

Then she asked "why do you love your husband"

She kept looking at the photos

VO asked "do you know his family"

Yanzi answered " We send each other emails- Would you like to see"

VO said yes and examined the emails

She kept looking at photo album

"Is your husband married?"

"Does he have Children?"

She got to the section of the wedding and asked

"How did my family and hers get along"

Interview Over

Pink slip

Yanzi asked her if she needed the financial records?

VO said no she already had them

 

 

Lastly I just just get back from China so I apologize for the delayed posting. Most important, Thank you! Thank you! to the community of this board, it is an invaluable resource for preparing for the interview, and most importantly will be of more importance as I prepare for the arduous task of adjusting Yanzi to American life.

 

{edit} Spelling in Topic description.

Edited by dnoblett (see edit history)
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dnoblett

dnoblett

Posted
Posted

Congrats! You see your fears were unfounded! I am happy for you.

 

PS: I will fix the error Smitty pointed out for you.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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