calaf&turandot

I used this system once; I recall it took about 2 wk for the money to become available in the recipient's bank account in China. 2nd time I had my credit union wire transfer directly to the LA branch of BOC providing an instruction where to depoit the money in China (branch of BOC in China, acct no., acct owner, etc.). The money was deposited in the account in China 5 days later. Now, I'm considering sending a large sum ($60-70K) for my in-law's house. Does anyone know if there are any regulations (IRS, US Custom, etc.) for sending this amount of money to China? Calaf&Turandot

Thanks for all your info; especially coming from your experiences, they are all useful for how we decide to handle this process. I feel getting "EAD then SSN" seems to be the more standard way, but I can also see a situation where one needs a (non-employment) SSN for a tax return or other ID purposes in a hurry (SSN->EAD->replacement). Thanx a bunch. Calaf & Turandot

My wife (K-1, married, pre-AOS) is applying for a SSN for school and other purposes. I read some discussions about this and it seems there are a couple of choices as to how to proceed this. Some people have gotten SSN before or without EAD, and other people get EAD first then apply for SSN. I would like to know pros and cons of each approach. Appreciate your inputs. Calaf & Turandot

Jim, I agree with you but I can't put entire blame on the VO. It is a mistake to put so much responsiblity on the VO, "separating the weed from chaff" kind of thing. If my neck on the line I would play safe too. "Separating bad apples from the good" should be done before inviting to the interview. FGS, they had 12 months (18 mos in our case) to check things out; what have they (agencies involved) been doing all this time? VO's got only 15 minutes; VO shouldn't be doing this kind of stuff. VO's job is to check to see if the interviewee matches with the approved documents. I don't have an objection to the VO's authority to weed out obvious bad apples at the interview, but as it is done today, VO is doing much more than that; they are questioning the legitimacy of relationship based on the applicant's English proficiency which, they insist, isn't a requirement for issueing visa. Gi'me a break!

Interesting! GZ may be preselecting "who passes", not "who gets rejected", before the interview?; it's easier to select 2 than 8 out of 10. I bet they are running out of the blue slips pretty soon and need to order more. Video shops near by must be having a wonderful year; this is where I should invest my money into. Here I come, 2nd FL of Shamian Hotel, VHS (NTSC format) is on my itinerary now.

Yes, it is possible for "illegal" permanent residents. I'm an immigrant myself but don't feel much sympathy for this kind of story. I paid my dues coming here legally as a foreign student, then a permanent resident and a citizen. Now, I've been paying my due to be united with my SO by 18 months of loneliness and frustration while watching this government is allowing millions of illegals to live in this country. I want to say to the deported men/women; "you took a short cut while I was paying my due. It's time to pay your due." Somehow, the media tries to conjure up sympathy when children are involved, but nobody is tying them up here. If they feel their family tie is more important than having an easy life here, they can go with their deported mother/father.

Your statement of intent to marry your fiancee. You may have written it before and it may not be needed, but just in case.

I'm leaving for GZ this Saturday via HK. It's really easy at Narita; after getting off the plane, just follow the "Connecting Flights" (in plain English) sign. I believe you go through a security check (they may ask you to take your shoes off, following American trend) and to the International Departure concourse. Have a nice flight.

I have a question for Poartland-Jim. At PDX Immigration, did you go through Non-US passport line with your fiancee or US passport line with her? I'm getting close to bringing mine in a few weeks. My SO has limited English proficiency, so I worry immigration officer might give her difficult time. About the X-ray negative, I understand why you shouldn't put it in the check-in lauggage, but carry-on bags also must go through a x-ray machine (?) at security check unless you hand carry it through a metal detector or visual check by security agent.

I may be an exception. From student visa to green card to citizenship, all went smoothly. In fact, it took me only 3 months from the application of citizenship to the oath. Only time I had to do extra work was when I forgot to renew my student visa out of my ignorance; I had to ask my department head to write a letter to INS stating I'm a genius rocket scientist (which I am not) or something. For K1 petition, INS says it takes 3-6 months somewhere on their website, and I got NOA2 at the end of 6 mos. It was long time but they kept their word. However, GZ process (P3 to P4) exceeded their expected time (4-6mos according to K1 FAQ) by 3-4 months. And they didn't respond to 4 out of 6 emails inquiries I sent, which is not very satisfactory to me. Overall, this is what we can expect from the government.

Dear CFL, My fiancee received P4 which included DS-156. My question may have been discussed somewhere in CFL archive but I can't find it by search. I would appreciate someone can answer. I have a question about how to answer item 26. It asks "how long do you intend to stay in the US?" Since she is comimg to US to marry me and stay here permanently, honest answer would be "permanently", but DS-156 is for a non-immigrant visa, so should she answer "90 days" or the honest answer "permanently"? calaf&turandot

Dear CFL, After 7 and a half mos. of waiting and 2wks of CFL, finally came the good news; P4 is on the way and the interview is on Dec 1. This group is some kind of good luck charm or what? Until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't know what to do. Some of you suggested me to call DOS and to write to GZ, both of which I did. Thank you very much for your helpful suggestions and incredible amount of resources you have. I know a few couples are still waiting longer than us; hang in there, your time will come, hope sooner than later. Among many Chinese words my fiancee tought me in the past 3 yrs, I'll never forget this one, "hao-shi duo-mo". Look at this as a trial of faith in each other. After reading the recent posts about the blue slip at interview, I'm a bit worried for my fiancee. When I was reading a local paper yesterday, I thought an engagement/wedding anouncement in a paper would make a good material evidence for relationship. While I was reading the posts of fast turnaround cases enviously, I wondered, has anyone co-related the locality of fiance/fiancee with the length of wait? People from large cities seem to get faster turnaround? Is it because it's easier to do background ch'k than remote villages? Perhaps large cities have better record keeping? BTW, my fiancee is from Xiagan, Hubei, not a large city. She had a hard time getting her passport there. This is for another thread about reply rate from GZ. I started my inquiry 3 mos. after P3. Since then, my batting average is 2 out of 6; 1st reply (case pending) came after 2nd inquiry, 2nd reply (p4/intvu) came after the last inquiry 5 days ago. Thanks again, good people of CFL. timeline for calaf&turandot NOA1..............06/16/03 NOA2..............11/28/03 NVC to GZ.......12/31/03 P3 rec'vd.........02/11/04 P3 return.........03/07/04 P4 out GZ........10/22/04 Hot seat...........12/01/04 (1yr 6mos)

Check out www.guangzhouhotel.com They have wide range of prices from 1 star to 5 star (White Swan). As you already know they have higher prices during the trade fair. If you don't mind complete spartan, just a place to lay your body for a few days, there is youth hostel right next to the Guangzhou train station. Actually it's a hotel allocating part of it for youth hostel. As I said, it's spartan but clean, even with TV set and cheap, may be $10 or less/night. If you are not a hostel member, you can become one on the spot. www.hiusa.com Good luck

Hello all, I'm a newbie, complete novice of posting in a forum, nor have I time to do this very often. This may well be the first and the last you hear from me. I am overwhelmed, impressed, amazed... at how one can dig out so much stuff about his/her own visa status. I only know our GUZ number. I'm so slow comparing to the folks in this group. I'm sure this has something to do with our slow progress. I've been scanning through various threads in this site for a couple of days and feel this is a fairly safe place to vent my frustration. (I don't feel like my head's bitten off.) In the past few months I've been sleepless in Seattle but knowing there are unfortunate couples like us out there gives me a bit of comfort. Heck, maybe I can sleep. I don't have the detail timeline like most of you do but if our bits of information is useful to you, here it is. We are K-1 applicant, NOA1 6/16/03; NOA2 11/28/03; NVC to GUZ 12/31/03; fiancee received P-3 (Instruction packet?) 2/11/04; sent back P-3 3/07/04; waiting for P4 and interview. I did inquire about our status via GUZ webpage in June and received a form email which some of you are familiar with. I inquired again (twice) in Sept but no response. It seems useless. Now I learned from this group I have to call DOS. BTW, someone was trying to figure out the GUZ number, the middle 3 digits of ours are 839. Best wishes to all who are still waiting, waiting and more waiting. Calaf&Turandot