Yiran

I'm sure it depends on the reason for the blue, but a little under a month in our case (we had financial issues). One thing I might suggest would be to include, along with any explicitly requested documents, some type of evolution of relationship letter including an explanation of your current living arrangement/sources of support/ etc. in addition to the info on how you met and how you communicate now. I sent back both typed and handwritten versions, all notarized. It may be a good idea to get anyone else who is or has attested to your relationship , helped with sponsorship, etc. to write and notarize such a letter as well. Again, this is highly dependent on the nature of the blue slip...

Max finally picked up his pink in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon after getting the call-in letter last week. I sent our overcome documents at the end of last month (a letter with my hiring date, salary, etc., another I-864 from my dad, and handwritten letters from us both explaining our support). Max apparently missed an unknown call on his cell a couple weeks ago and suspected that it might have been the consulate - it turns out the call-in letter was dated on the 14th, the same day he missed that call. Finally I'm vindicated for bitching at him for only keeping his cell on vibrate all the time. He actually called back again after telling me he got the letter in order to apologize for missing that call and thereby keeping us in suspense for an extra week

This is very true. Considering that she seemed to be trying to steer him toward slipping up on bonafide issues before it became clear that wasn't going to happen for her, we consider ourselves pretty lucky that in the end all she got us on was a financial detail. I'm actually pretty proud of how Max handled himself at the interview in light of the fact that she seemed set on giving him a hard time from the beginning. Max spoke to some other ladies who had interviewed with this VO that same day and been denied as well (from what he gathered she was blue-slipping the majority of her interviewees that day) - I'm afraid some of them may have not been as lucky as us...

This is what I was hoping, and we are currently getting my father's financials together. And yes, I am still looking for a job That was the only thing written on the blue slip, aside from the checked public charge box. The VO herself just said to submit proof I had gotten a job "to support him", whatever that may be.

Which is fine; that's their priority and I can understand why. This is the reason I included copies of my transcripts with graduation dates and my most current resume in with the rest of the financial material, to prove that I'm not exactly committed to not earning 125% above the poverty line Perhaps a personal statement saying I am looking for a job was in order? Signed, notarized? Who knows what she wanted...

Well, despite being (what we thought was) fully prepared with a IR-1 DCF case with a seemingly adequate cosponsor, ironclad relationship evidence after three years of a married relationship AND living together, my husband was given a blue slip with the "public charge" box checked and a note at the bottom by the VO stating "Wait until his wife gets a job to support him". Needless to say my husband was not pleased with this assessment in the least. To begin, he told me she spent the first ten minutes or so grilling him with questions about our relationship; he was quite shocked, since we had an overwhelming amount of evidence (affidavits from friends in the initial I-130 petition, TONS of photographs with both of us in wildly varying locations and differing states of weight gain/loss and hair colors, two visits by him to the U.S. with photographic evidence of time spent with my family here in GA, etc.. Finally, when she had exhausted this line of questioning she asked him point blank if he was just doing this for a green card, denied he had the ability to support me, and finally latched onto the fact that I did not have a job. I have been unemployed since the middle of 2007, after holding three jobs in China since I arrived in 2004, when I started school in order to get my MBA through a program with a U.S. school administered in Tianjin. I graduated in December 2008 (although diplomas weren't sent out till sometime in Feb.), and just got back to the U.S. this past January. We anticipated that financials might be our weakness and that, hey, it might take a few months for me to find a decent job (certainly more than three months!), so my brother opted to cosponsor us. Now, he provided all the necessary documents (three years taxes, 2008 W-2, employer letter, etc.) in addition to my own info. Thing was, she refused to look at my brother's cosponsor info when my husband brought it up after she declared I could not support him and told him "it does not matter". Now, what I might understand is if the VO had deemed him not a strong enough cosponsor; he has only had this job for a little under a year and makes about 40K. If that's not strong enough, fine, okay, I understand: we can get my dad to jump on the cosponsor pile, easy. But what confuses me is that this lady specifically stipulated "WAIT TILL WIFE GETS JOB". If this is the case, why is the cosponsorship option even available?? Also, I personally know a friend, and am sure I've read of others on this site, who have recently graduated or have returned after teaching in China who have gotten through this with an adequate cosponsor. So my question is, can my husband and I suddenly be held to different standards than everyone else at the whim of a VO? It's not that I'm trying to put off getting a job; I'm very eager to start my career and have been trying my best for the past three months I've been in the U.S. Things have gotten better recently and hopefully I'll be getting something within the next three or four weeks. But if it had been explicitly stated that I had to have a job immediately, cosponsor be damned, we certainly would have postponed the interview until I had employment secured in order to spare ourselves this confusion and disappointment. The best part is, she apparently tried to advise him to "wait a couple of years" and apply again (TWO YEARS!!!). When he became firmer with her he said her attitude "softened" and she just suggested I should get a job and everything would be fine. When he asked the worker at the query window later if he could contest the VO's decision, she said to just provide a stronger cosponsor and he'd be fine (you can see why we're getting confused) What I want to know is, can she legitimately disregard any of our cosponsor info because she just doesn't feel like it, did she actually review my brother's financials and deem them not strong enough while neglecting to tell my husband this was the reason for god-knows-why, or what? My husband says (and I've heard this said by many on this board before) that he got a weird vibe from her from the beginning and felt she was bound and determined to deny him on whatever basis she could find. She also would not communicate with him in English which I found interesting (his English is great). I would love to get a fantastic job offer tomorrow and send an employer letter off to her but I can't magically make that happen, and I'm sorry but I want my husband to be here with me NOW. We were both really hurt by this, especially him; I think his pride took a really big hit when she wrote that little comment at the bottom of the blue slip (he's not a millionaire but he's fairly well-off and has been great about supporting me while I've been in China and the U.S.- I have no issues at all with supporting him and am thrilled to be able to, but in his mind he's the husband so it still hurts to hear something like that...) Anyway, any thoughts on what we should do or what is really going on here?? Thanks for your advice, and sorry for the ramble-y nature of my post -Lauren

Thanks for the advice! I do in fact have a co-sponsor (my brother). One other thing: I'm in Atlanta now, so could I not simply send the returns and W-7 to the ATL service center?

First of all, just want to say hi: I'm a long-time lurker, first time poster. My husband Max (he's Chinese and the beneficiary, just so we have no pronoun awkwardness) and I will be married 3 years this Sunday, and we filed DCF back in mid-December. I recently graduated from an American MBA program taught in Tianjin and moved back to the States to start my job search and get ready for his move here after living 4+ years in China. Everything has gone very smoothly thus far in the process except for one thing - we got our interview scheduled VERY soon, much sooner than I expected - April 7th! My brother is co-sponsoring Max, and shouldn't have much of a problem with getting his financials and letters in order (he makes well above poverty line, although he has only been working there a year after coming out of undergrad). I, however, still need to backfile my taxes for my years in China. I attempted to efile over 2 years ago while I was in China, but hit a snag with the foreign spouse/no ssn deal. I've been a little lazy on this point, but assumed I'd have at least a month more to get this ready. I realize I need to file as married and he needs a W-7 filled out for a ind. taxpayer ID number, but I'm wondering if I will have enough time to get this done and get the transcripts AND get them mailed to him before the interview. Do I have any other options? Could I backfile as single and make a note w/proof that I intend to amend the returns in the future? I know this may not even come up; we have had great luck with the consulates in the past and Max has been issued two visitors visas to come meet my family and spend Christmas with us in the past. I just don't want to take chances if I don't have to, but I also don't want to delay things too much if I can help it... I miss him VERY much and am super excited to get our life together in the U.S. started ASAP! It's all been a little hectic doing the job search thing and dealing with immigration visas at the same time. On that note, actually - would it also be helpful to provide copies of my resume, degrees, transcripts, etc., or will they even care since they're just looking at the co-sponsor? I've earned 3.97 and 3.92 GPAs respectively if that counts for anything toward the potential income thing, though I doubt it does very much TIA!