maxsalvo

Hi Everyone, The airline tickets have been purchased and my fiance will be arriving in America in a few short weeks (July 28, 2009 Newark POE). I have been reading, reading, reading. Many of the posts and guides I have been reading seem to be quite old. Some as much as a couple years. I know that some are updated but I want to be perfectly sure that I make each and every move count with no mistakes and without getting things out of order. I would also like to add the fact that my fiance has a job as soon as she can legally work and this is extremely important to her to start working right away. CFL was a huge help in getting through the visa process and consulate in Guangzhou. I hope someone can help us with this area as well. I am hoping someone can direct me as to the proper steps once my fiance arrives. I know we must marry, get her a SS card and file AOS, EAD and AP but I'm just not sure in which order and how long to wait before before doing each step. Do we marry first or the SS card first. Do we open a joint bank account in the married name or before? How long after that before we file for AOS,EAD and AP? Somewhere I read we should wait 2 weeks before applying for the SS number. Is this necessary? So many questions. If someone can help us out with an up to date and numbered plan it would be very beneficial and helpful to both of us. Thank you very much for your help. Max

Link to all the forms P3 & P4 Forms Here is the GIV-24 GIV-24 You might print these out now and use them as practice sheets but I would try my best to submit the ones that come in your packets from GUZ. I have heard of some people having trouble when not submitting the originals and using copies made from the internet. I'm not saying you WILL have trouble but it is possible. It is ultimately up to you though.

We were there on the 23rd and also got the pink. Congratulations!

I am posting this here because I figure most of the people on this board have already been through their POE at this stage. My fiance informed me that she accidentally left the medical examination Xrays on the train when she went back home from GUZ. For her to return to GUZ to redo the xrays it will cost her 3 days and a full examination fee all over again. I searched through the different forums and found conflicting stories from different places. It seems as if some POE's never ask for the xrays while others do. I am interested to know first hand experiences from those who traveled through Chicago POE during the last 18 months or so. If its an absolute must she will return to get another set of xrays but I don't see the sense if they aren't going to be asked for. Thanks in advance to any one who can contribute.

I wanted to briefly give the details of my experience choosing a hotel in Guangzhou during the pre/post interview time. After researching and reading the posts here and a few other places I decided on the Grand Palace Hotel (details below). This hotel is directly across the street from the embassy. About a 2 minute walk to the front door. It was very clean and almost as nice as many of the much more expensive rooms I have booked in China. The cost was around 500rmb or $75 a night. It included a buffet breakfast but in my opinion it was far from Western. This may be good or bad, it depends on your taste I guess. I opted to eat elsewhere but my fiance had no problem and said it was quite good. I left my laptop out on the desk and never felt that any of my personal items had been touched while I was away. The train station was within walking distance and there was a beautiful park right there as well. Near the train station there was the usual KFC, Starbucks and MacD's for those who cant quite get use to the chopsticks and Chinese food. All in all, if I had to return to Guangzhou or someone asked for a recommendation I would definitely suggest staying here. I cant imagine anything being more convenient or accommodating unless it had better food on site. There were definitely more elaborate looking hotels in the area but I'm sure they have a price tag to match. I booked through www.agoda.com but I'm sure it can be booked through a variety of other companies or direct. Grand Palace Hotel Address 148 Linhe Zhong Road Tianhe District PS-question - On the opposite side of the square/park there was about a 50-60 story building that looked like it had been abandoned at about the halfway point during construction. I asked countless locals why the buildings construction had been halted before completion but only one person offered any kind of explanation. He said the building had begun to lean to one side. If anyone has more information about this building I would be curious to know what happened. You may reply through private messaging if you wish. Thanks

No - the lady I spoke to said the ACS and Visa center were two separate areas and not connected. I found this odd to say the least. The girl seemed to be new or not very experienced. I do believe it helped though.

The interview was on a Monday. I went to the ACS on Friday and got my Evolution of Relationship Letter notarized along with my I-134. There was no fee for the I-134 but they insisted I pay USD$30 for the evolution letter since It wasn't a requirement. At first I was a little skeptical of whether or not going to the ACS was useful or not. I'm still not 100% certain but maybe about 75% sure it helped. Interview - My fiance got up to the 5th floor at about 8AM. When it was her turn to submit all of her papers they made her leave the area to acquire a copy of her passport. She had to take a number and wait again for her turn. She said about 1 more hour. She watched as several older couples were refused and got the blue paper. Out of the 4 American/China couples who we saw together at the steps during the wait in line, she said all 4 got pink slips. I saw one of these women come out looking for her fiance in a frantic mood. I'm assuming she was missing something or needed a copy of her passport. I waited in the coffee shop but her fiance left because the prices were too high. Myself, I think he should have paid the 55rmb for a coffee and secured a seat right next to the exit so he could be found easily if his girl needed him. I would suggest others stay in the area if they can. She came out with the pink slip at around 10:30AM Note about questions: Many of the questions appeared to come from statements made in the Evolution letter. Also, the letter stated that my fiance knew English quite well. The interviewer never asked anything about her English ability and it was as if she had already read the evolution letter before seeing it. This makes me think she had seen a copy of it after I had it notarized a few days earlier. The interview started and ended entirely in English with no Chinese words spoken. My fiance said that almost every question the VO asked was covered the night before when we went over the 95 Q/A's posted on this site Interview Questions (3-5 minutes) Can you speak English - Yes When was the first time you met - Fall 2006 How did you meet - dating website How many times has he visited you - 6 times Has your fiance ever been married - No Does he have any children - No How do you communicate with each other - by phone Show me the phone records please - OK Do you have pictures - Yes Why so few pictures - Dont like my picture taken How many Brothers and Sisters does he have - 1 bother & 1 sister Where do they live - Illinois and Florida (VO made comment about being from FL herself) Is your fiance with you today/where is he - Yes 4th floor waiting Will your Mother worry when you go to America - Yes of course Congratulations! You got the visa The VO was a white woman about 30-40 years old. She always had a smile on her face and made my fiance not as intimidated as some of the other VO's she saw. The VO also told her she was from Florida. Thanks to everyone who posted their experiences to CFL for the benefit of others.

During our recent interview my fiance was directed to leave the pre-interview area and obtain a copy of her passport. I don't remember reading of anyone else needing a copy of their passport before. She had to go to the 4th floor and find someone to make a copy. It wasn't that big of a deal but it might be useful if a copy was made in advance just in case. She also said that a few others near her had their copies made by the person taking the forms. I'm not sure why they made my fiance leave the interview area while others had their copies made on site. Maybe they were just trying to buy time. Who knows. She passed the interview anyway. I just thought this might be useful for others to avoid a delay.

http://www.geocities.com/jbk620/July4th/multifworks2.gif Thanks to everyone here on CFL we got the pink yesterday!http://community-1.webtv.net/sparky255/Thefireworksshow/scrapbookFiles/importD30.gif I will post the details of the interview later.

With the K-1 interview drawing closer (less than 1 month) I was just informed that my fiance applied for a student visa at the age of 16 and was denied. She is now 33. This was in 1992, 17 years ago. She didn't get the visa at that time. She told me the reason was she was too young. She couldn't remember a lot of the details. I looked through all of the forms we have submitted so far (up to P-4) and I didn't see any questions asking about previous attempts at a US visa. The only place I can find questions pertaining to previous attempts at a US visa is on the form GNI-2 question #13 and DS-156 question # 31. We intend on including the correct information in these two places but I'm not sure if I missed this somewhere else. Anyone familiar with other places this question could have been asked on one of the other forms? I have read in another POST that previous visitors/student visa denials have no affect on immigration visas but what about if this info was left out of the application/paperwork by mistake prior to the P-3? Getting nervous as the clock ticks away. Any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated.

I also called the DOS and the number in GUZ that required a paid pin. The number in GUZ returned absolutely no results. They might be helpful once the P-3 has been sent but up until know they have proved useless from my point of view. The DOS (ph# 202-663-1225) knew of the P-3 mailing one day after I received email message reply from GUZ. In my experience so far, this is probably the best way to obtain up to date information. Good Luck! Max

I am just giving an update so that anyone else facing this long wait will have some additional information to go on: Once the wait hit the 4 month mark I used the form at the "U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou" website to contact them about the long wait. It took 5 business days as stated in their instructions/information pages. They replied and told me they just received the file and would be sending the p-3 packet within 2 weeks time. On Saturday, December 20th my fiance finally received the P-3. We had everything ready to be sent back the same day. The amount of time from when the file left the US until my fiance got her P-3 packet was 4 1/2 months. I believe if I would not have contacted GUZ, we may still be waiting. I hope this infomation will be usefull for someone else in the future. Thanks to those who replied with words of encouragement. Next 2 questions - 1) Once GUZ receives the OF-169, DS-230 and EMS label, how long can we expect it to take to get the interview letter? 2) I have read where sometimes the interview date can be as soon as 2 weeks or up to 8 weeks from the receipt of the interview letter. Are these figures accurate and what is the average amount of time someone can expect to wait? This forum has been the most useful tool I have found to help with the typical bureaucratic bs a person must face when dealing with the government and trying to obtain the K visa. A big thank you goes to those who keep this site up and running and those who participate within this forum for the benefit of others. Sincerely, Max

Hello, I have been reading and watching this forum for almost 1 year. I have always found the information I was looking for by doing searches and just reading. I am at a point where I am not sure what to do. I got a letter from NVC stating the K1 visa application was on its way to GUZ on August 8th. I have been patiently waiting. I have called DOS and GUZ making sure the P3 wasnt sent and lost in the mail. DOS keeps saying its still in customs and GUZ says they havent opened it yet. In 6 days it will be 4 months since it was sent from NVC. When I look at the time lines I see that people who got "NVC out" notices after me, have already gotten their P3 and 4's and also have scheduled interviews. GUZ says i must wait until the 4 month mark before they will look into it any further. Any advice or information would be appreciated. Thanks, Max

I have used http://www.passportvisasexpress.com/ for visa services on many occasions. I highly recommend them for fast, professional service.

Sounds like this is pretty popular site. Thanks to everyone who replied to this message. I feel much more confident about IMB now. I just wish I could get the address problem resolved to a point where I feel more comfortable. http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=30017

Question #3) Will all mailings sent to her be done by DHL? I think DHL will knock on the door and make delivery. Question #4) Like I stated in my original post "The post office where she lives does not deliver mail to her house. It is either stolen or not delivered. Everything I send her will only arrive when I send it to the school where she works." So - If I use the address of her school where I usually send her mail, will it be rejected during the application process because it is not a residential address? I know this is really a bad situation but I have been trying for almost 2 years to get the mailbox at her building to accept mail. The mailbox is damaged and the building owner says it is the Post Offices responsibility to fix the box and the Post Office says it is the building owners responsibility. So, no mail delivery. I have been trying to get this problem solved but living in the US it has been next to impossible. It doesn't seem to be much of a problem for the residents there because when I mention it, everyone seems to not care. Therefore all my mailings have gone to the school where she works. If all delivery is done by DHL I think the problem goes away because they will "hand deliver". If I use the school address I am afraid it will raise red flags and cause delays. Any thoughts on how to proceed?

I posted the following on another site and got an opinion but would like to see if anyone has anything different to say. I met my girl on a website called chineselovelinks.com. I sent a message to Chineselovelinks asking if they were an IMB after not being able to find any info on their website. Below is their response. The section quoted above can be seen in the image attachment. It appears to me that they do not fall under the act but I want to be 100% sure when I file my 129F. Any comments, suggestions or direction would be appreciated. Thank you, Max http://oldpyro.com/k1/att.jpg

I am trying to assemble all of the information to submit the I-129 application. I posted the questions below to another forum but received zero replies. I am hoping that someone with experience or insight can shed some light on the two questions below. Thanks for your help. Hello, My girl lives in a house (China) that she is purchasing in her name through a school employee program where she works. She has lived there for 9 years with her parents. Her parents own their own house but they rent it out to others for extra money and they live with her. She tells me that her family registry lists her parents address as her address because she has never been married. Question #1 What address do we use when filing the G325a and I-129f Question #2 The post office where she lives does not deliver mail to her house. It is either stolen or not delivered. Everything I send her will only arrive when I send it to the school where she works. Will this cause a problem when she receives mailings during the K-1 process? I think DHL will deliver to her home. Will all mailing be done through DHL? Any suggestions or thoughts. Thanks, Max