bamspeedy

If you call in the order then you should already have checked out when the cheapest days are. I gave him a range of dates of when I was willing to leave and a range of dates of when I was willing to come back, thinking he could search all those dates and find the cheapest rate. But instead he just tried the first date for each and asked if I was ok with that price. Since the round trip ticket he entered in first was already $300 more than what I had seen for another combination of dates I knew it would get even higher when I added the one-ways, so I just told him to try the dates that I knew was the lowest (another reason I say now it would have been better to do it myself).

I just booked flights for China-US (Wisconsin, too!) My flight is Guangzhou-Shanghai-Chicago-La Crosse, WI through American Airlines/China Eastern Airlines which was the cheapest flight this year when I checked, but usually my flight was stopping in Tokyo and Minneapolis (Northwest/Japan airline-can't remember name), rather than Shanghai and Chicago. If I had noticed the 8 hour layover in Shanghai on the flight back I would have spent the extra $1-200 and got my usual Tokyo/Minneapolis flight instead. I live like 4 miles from the La Crosse airport so I just need a taxi and have no parking fees. I had checked the prices by going to an airline directly, but what they do then is for your flight they will use only their planes for the entire trip. So rather than for example going Delta-Delta-China airlines, they would go Delta-Delta-Delta. If I had done Delta the entire way I would have had a stop in Amsterdam before China and paid more than double than what I did spend ($2200+ per person vs. less than $1000 per person). Cheapest flights I found are typically leaving on a Tuesday and returning on a Monday. Now for a little story which has an important message......check the date very carefully! I usually order my tickets off the internet through places such as orbitz, travelocity, sidestep, etc. and that was all fine when it was just myself. But this time since I was bringing two people back with me (my SO and her daughter), I was paranoid when I went to buy my round trip ticket that I would be buying the last ticket on the plane for the trip back so there would be none left for the two one-way tickets I needed to buy. (and 4 one-ways would have been $6-800+ more expensive than 1 round trip, 2 one way). So I called a 1-800 number for the website and they had someone I could speak to that would do the reservations for me (charging a small fee), which I thought would be better since he would be able to see how many tickets were left so he would make sure we were all on the same planes. He understood what I wanted, got us seats next to each other, and repeated the flight details a dozen times ("returning on the 7th", the flight numbers, departure times, etc.), and the call took 48 minutes...annoying!. I confirmed the order. Got home and checked my emails and looked over the flights. Couple days later I checked them again to confirm the times so I could tell my SO the correct times and that's when I noticed it..... Flight numbers, departure times, etc. were identical except.....the MONTH! Though I was returning on December 7th, they had the two one-way tickets coming to the US on November 7th! So I called the internet company and they said they would first have to check if the airline would allow changes (they did, thank god). So they could change it...if I paid a $175 fee per ticket ($350). The lady said since I had 'confirmed' the order I had to pay the fee, and it is the airline who charges the fee so that is why the internet company was charging me. Obviously I was most worried about it getting changed soon (this was a week before November 7th), so I paid the fee but I made it obvious I wasn't happy with it since their guy knew I wanted December 7th since he got us seats next to each other. I wrote an angry email to the website and a two weeks later I got a call informing me they will reverse the charges so I didn't have to pay. If I had to do it all over again I would simply order them myself off the internet, just avoid grabbing those 'special deals'/'only 4 tickets left!' tickets for fear that their isn't any tickets left for the one-ways I will need to buy after booking the round trip.

Some people insist the reason they got pink (approval) is because they were there, and some believe that because they were not there is why they got white (rejection). But there are several cases where the petitioner wasn't there and still got pink, and where the petitioner was there and still got white. It might improve your odds, but there are no guarantees. If you are not there, just make sure she knows why so she can explain it if asked (and her knowing when (March) you are able/hoping to come see her is a plus).

http://www.candleforlove.com/FAQ/Timelines/Ne...L_Timeline2.htm It's pretty consistent that it's about 30 days from when she returns the P3 to the P4, and P4-Interview is 30 days....but not something I would bet on by buying plane tickets (look at my case where it was an extra 200+ days!) NOA2 to interview is a bit harder to guess within a 21 days period (and adding a few more days after the interview for visa pick up). I would only use the estimates for trying to figure out if you should take a trip to see her again before the interview, but you seem to be fine in that area as your trips were pretty recent, so you should be fine unless you get a long processing case like mine (rare).

According to the timelines of the posters here who have participated in it, 180-195 days from NOA1 to interview would be one of the quickest ones. Mid August to Mid-March is approx. 210 days (7 months) and a bit more reasonable, but I wouldn't bet any money on it, (because mine took 453 days...) While it is possible (there was one that completed it in 149 days-5 months), the norm seems to be in the 250-300 days range (over 8 months to 10 months). http://www.candleforlove.com/FAQ/Timelines/Ne...L_Timeline2.htm

My experience was that the DOS was not in synch with the consulate. From February to August the hotline in China told my fiancee that they did receive her P3 and were doing background checks, while the DOS/hotline in the US said she had not returned the P3! Once it starts looking like your case is taking longer than usual (but not 6 months like my case), use this form to contact the consulate directly to get a clear answer (Subject: "When will I receive my appointment letter"): http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/iv/email.html Though the form asks you to type in pinyin, english was fine for me when I used it (just make sure the case number is correct). They answer you very quickly (12 hours-2 days), and I tried to be polite about it despite the long wait time I had of having this confusion about what was going on. I like to think that we get quick responses using this method of contacting them because I'm hoping people aren't bothering them by emailing them everyday like they do when calling the hotlines everyday.

More details posted in this thread: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=39076

The K-1 process took us 15 months from when we started it until the interview. My fiance is training her replacement at work (office job) so she doesn't have access to a computer as much as she did before since the trainee is also using the computer. So the details I have here is what I could gather from speaking to her on the phone. Her interview time was 7:15, but I told her that getting in line by 6:40 won't do any good because many people arrive before then so the interview still would not be until probably 10:30-11:00. So she decided to go even earlier at 6. She got in line at around 6 AM and was the 7th person in line. She said the people behind her were 'crazy', which sounds like people were trying to push their way up the line or to a better position in line. And all the paperwork she had to bring with her was getting heavy to carry. Got inside at 9:30, interview started at 11:40 and lasted over 20 minutes. She said most people seemed to be getting Pink, and most interviews were much shorter than hers was. Her 5-year old daughter was with, so the 'little one' was always causing 'trouble', especially during the interview when she was chattering while the mother was trying to think of the answers for what the VO was asking her. Some of the many questions: -How many times has he visited you? -How long did he stay when he visited you? -What city does he live in? It must be the way he was wording this, but she did not understand what he was asking so he had to ask it several times. I don't know if she eventually got what he was asking or if they just moved on, but she knew the answer. -What state does he live in? She forgot. I know I have told her, but it was when we first started communicating over two years ago so she simply forgot, or was getting confused remembering it with the all the other states I have mentioned since then when talking about where my sister lives (and recently moved to another state), and where my other relatives live, and my parent's cross-country tripS this summer. -How can you prove the daughter is yours? She then provided the birth certificate and/or said the immigration has the birth certificate. -Are you planning on having any more children? She told them how many she wanted then pointed to a letter where I stated how many children I was hoping to eventually have. At this point he asked her to read some of the letters out loud (in English). He then asked her to translate the letters into Chinese. I'm guessing this was testing how well she can read english, and if she can comprehend what she is reading (so she is able to translate). He also asked her several other questions about the letters, and what was written in them. I would guess he was making sure that it really was us that were writing the letters to each other. Looked at the photos. He saw her ring (wearing it at the interview) and asked if it was from me and if it was from my proposal (it was), so he looked at that. -Why did you get divorced? Her ex's gambling. His drinking also caused other problems. -How much did he gamble? They lost most of their assets and money because of his gambling. -Why have you not re-married yet? "Because I love my fiance, Bryan and want to marry him." -They asked the daughter if the father knows that she is coming to the US. The daughter did not understand the question so the mother answered for her, and told the VO that she did not tell the father for fear that the father might do something bad. -At the end he asked her in English what time it was (noon) and she did not understand what he was asking until he asked her in Cantonese. It sounds like she did not know he could speak Cantonese until then. Then he brought out the Pink slip!

We got PINK! I don't have all the details yet. I told her to turn her phone off when the interview starts so when I tried calling her I wouldn't interrupt the interview if it happened to be going on. I called at noon thinking the interview should be over, but the phone was off. At 12:15 I was able to reach her and she said she just got done with the interview and was going back to the hotel to check out. She said she was asked 'too many questions', and hopefully when she e-mails me tomorrow I can provide a list of some of the questions she was asked. She did say she needed to have our letters translated. I had given her some samples of our letters in English, but either they wanted them also translated into Chinese, or else she had also provided her own sample letters so she needs those translated from Chinese to English.

My fiancee's interview is at 7:15 AM, October 20th. I read about the long lines and about people who show up at the consulate at say 6:40 and don't actually have their interview until 10 or 11. I know she should get to the consulate early anyways, but how much earlier is advised? I don't want her to think she missed the interview if she got into the line before her appointment time, and because of the long lines, they don't call her name for a couple/few hours.

My fiancee asked me how she is supposed to answer this: - I claim to be exempt from ineligibility to receive a visa and exclusion under item____in_____part_____for the following reasons: - From my understanding of that, is that this would be for someone, who would normally be disqualified from receiving a visa, would use this to say why they should not be disqualified. Or in other words, there are some rules that say certain people can't get a visa, and this would be for trying to say why they should make an exception in their case. I told her to leave it blank, because as far as I know there is not anything that would automatically disqualify her from obtaining a visa (no criminal record, etc.). I am not having much luck finding this form on google (to see if there is a 'not applicable' option or something similar), or to find out for certain what would make someone ineligible (so she can be more comfortable knowing there is nothing that would disqualify her automatically, and so she knows she is answering the question/leaving it blank honestly).

Looking at the results of people from this forum who participated in the timeline postings in this thread: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36668 For K-1 the white seems to be pretty spread out nice and evenly, with an average of about 1 per month (actually less since our data includes at least 1.5 years instead of 1 year-the one case in 2007 was included, but doesn't affect the results much). The pink is heavily concentrated in the middle months, which could merely be affected by when most people are filing, or perhaps affected by whatever time the link to this website was spread around the most. Blue and Blue/Pink I did not list, but scanning them briefly tells me that all of them except one in October were in the first 7 months of a year. For a K-3 visa, 2 of the 3 whites were in the last 3 days of the year, so either there is something to the 'quota' rumors, or it could have just been a coincidence. There was another white in October, but he re-applied and got a pink in June. DCF were all pink. CR-1 were all pink (or still in progress) except one blue in April last year. IR-1 only has two cases, so not a very good sample size at all (one unknown result and one blue/pink). K-1 Total 'White' results: Month-Number 1-1 2- 3-2 4-1 5-1 6-2 7-1 8-1 9- 10-1 11- 12-1 2007 7-1 2008 3-2 4-1 6-2 8-1 10-1 12-1 2009 1-1 5-1 K-1 Pink results (no blue): Total 1-4 2-2 3-5 4-1 5-7 6-16 7-14 8-7 9-4 10-3 11-3 12-3 2009 1-4 2-2 3-2 4-1 5-2 6-5 7-5 8- 9- 2008 1- 2- 3-3 4- 5-5 6-11 7-9 8-7 9-4 10-3 11-3 12-3

Yep, start in the 'General Visa discussion and first steps' forum, which I see you've found now. Basically, you start by sending the I-129f, G325s and other documents and the fee to the Service Center for your area (in the US, which will be either California or Vermont). They will send you a receipt (NOA1) and then about 5 months or so later after doing background checks on you they will send you an approval notice (NOA2) and inform you that they are forwarding the paperwork to the consulate in the country where your fiancee lives. When it is sent to the consulate is when you can move to checking out the 'Consulate Process: P-3 ~ Interview' forum. Shortly after the consulate receives it (a week to a month?) they will send your fiancee some paperwork (P-3/Packet 3) for her to fill out and send back to the consulate. After that there is a long wait as they do background checks on your fiancee (could be a month, for me it was 7 months) and then send her a notice of when the interview will be (P-4/Packet 4). The notice of when the interview will be is usually received 3-6 weeks before the interview. How long the whole process takes (from I-129 filing to interview) varies. Check here: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=36668 (link in first post) to see what kind of wait times other people from this site have experienced. If mine gets added it would be the longest time on the list for K-1 visas (I started the process in July 2008, consulate received it in January 2009, and interview is in October).

Interview set for October 20th The consulate received our package way back in January, they sent her the P3 and she returned it. Unfortunately, she didn't fill out a form for her daughter so it got sent back to her. She filled out the form for her daughter and sent it back to the consulate within a week (by now it was February), and that is where we were stuck. She would call the immigration hotline in China and was told that they received her returned documents and were still conducting background checks. I would call the immigration hotline in the US and their files didn't even show that she had answered the P3! So we didn't know what was going on. Finally I e-mailed the consulate using some electronic form I found, and was told to expect an answer in 3-5 business days. Got an answer in like 12 HOURS and was told "will schedule her and her child for a visa interview within 1-2 months.". Wasn't sure if that meant in October they would decide when the interview will be (3-6 weeks later), or that the interview would be in October. This week she got the letter telling her the interview is October 20th!

Thanks! Yes, I did give her the I-134. And I did have my 2008 taxes done by then so she has that (and 2007, 2006), so I'm thinking I just need to send her some more recent pay stubs, bank statement, letters/phone bills and possibly a letter of intent. I think this is the full list of what I gave her: 1. I-134 2. letter from bank about when account was opened, current balance and total of account deposits during 2008 3. letter from employer (with company letterhead) about when I was hired, position and pay 4. Tax returns from 2008, 2007, 2006 5. Pay stubs 6. Proof of assets 7. Recent bank statement 8. Copy of the the entire I-129 packet originally submitted 9. I-797 (receipt) and (approval-notice it was submitted to consulate) 10. Proof of visits to see her (pictures, plane ticket stubs and travel documents, etc.) 11. Letters, phone records, etc. 12. Letter of intent to marry (one I signed, one she signed) Also: What is recommended for shipping to China? In the past when I sent stuff to her through USPS express mail it would take forever to get there (month and a half-2 months), yet when she sends me things it gets here in about a week.