DocMartin817

I just mailed my wife's request for extension in to San Francisco too. So we will have to wait and see what happens -- I think we are in time before they change their policy about mail ins but we will have to wait and see.

we were transferred to California at the beginning of the summer. Liwen needed to get her shots so we did not get that in until mid-August. The turnaround time was very fast after that. There was no name check. We did not have an interview.

My wife's (Liwen's) passport expires in July of next year and we had planned to mail it into the San Francisco office in late January to extend it. Now Liwen tells me that at the embassy website they are saying after January 1st they will no longer accept extensions by mail. I said lets mail in now for the extension, but she tells me it must be within 6 months of the expiration date. I went to the San Francisco embassy website (English version) but could find no information. She also says that there is an office in Seattle that we can go to in person to renew. I have no info on this. Has anyone else seen this change in procedures? Does this mean we must go in person to SanFrancisco or is Seattle really an option? Every day I call the embassy but so far have been unable to talk to a live person. Any help on this would be appreciated.

This is exactly what happened to us. It was sent to California -- no interview. Both the letter of welcome and green card arrived the same day. The turnaround time was very fast once we got our vaccination info sent in to them.

Yesterday in the mail was a welcome letter from the California Service Center saying Liwen's application was approved. It said the green card would arrive within 3 weeks. But in the same stack of mail was another letter with the green card enclosed. Talk about fast service! Our case was transferred from the Portland office to the Laguna Niguel, California Service Center a few months ago. We needed to get her vaccinations up to date and mailed them off to arrive at the service center on Sept 1st. The only little problems we had was with the nurse at the Civil Surgeon's office who would not believe all we needed was for the surgeon to sign the supplement since I had our family doctor already do the shots (covered by insurance this way). But I was firm and the doctor looked at the request form and said I was right -- and he signed and sealed the documents. Liwen did the Certified Nursing Assistant program shortly after she arrived and easily found a job at a local rehabilitation center here. Her long term goal is to improve her English more and then start the RN program. But for now she works day shift three or four days a week. So it is working out well. It is great to have this hurdle out of the way without an interview.

thanks for the update, info, and congrats.

Once again David you did an excellent and thorough job of reporting the scenario. I did not imagine the interview would be this intensive but to my thinking that is the one to prepare for and if it goes easy then great. I overprepared for Guangzhou and will do the same for this next one too. Once again, thanks for all your work and the fine report.

I am in the process of filling out the I-485 forms too and was planning on using the last three years of tax returns and not this year. But it sounds like the safest thing is to do this year's return and use them too. I am just waiting for the insurance coverage from work to start for Liwen because that will cover the cost of the vaccinations that she needs to get. I will file the EAD at the same time.

Liwen's main worry was that she only had $200 on her and could not afford the flight back. But the airlines were very gracious and gave her flights back -- after all they made the mistake of letting her on the wrong plane and not checking her ticket.

I now move to this board as Liwen has finally arrived. That in itself is a story. I was to meet her in Portland,OR. She flew in to San Francisco on Dec 10th and I wanted to fly there to meet her, but she was so confident there would be no problem and wanted to not have me spend the money for a flight that she insisted I meet her at the Portland airport. She called me at 6PM to say she was in the USA and would see me later that night. Her flight was to arrive at midnight and I was there early waiting. The flight was late of course and I waited and waited but she was not on it. That seemed so strange, my thinking was that if she had missed her plane she would have called. Of course all types of thoughts were going through my mind, like she was held up in customs or something. At 4:30 in the morning she called me from Boston. Somehow she had gotten on the wrong plane -- both planes were boarding at the same time right next to each other. She then flew back to Chicago and on to Portland where I met her at 3PM on Sunday. She had a long trip and a story to tell her family when she called them -- with lots of laughter about her travels across the USA. We were married on the next Saturday at our house -- some friends and some family. Very nice and relaxed. So yesterday I started to do some pre-AOS work. After Christmas I will start to fill in all the forms and mail them off. First stop was my bank where they told me they need her social security number for us to set up joint accounts. Then we went to the local Social Security office where the nice girl who helped us had never done a K-1 before. So I told her Liwen was work eligible on the K-1 and she read some info on the computer and then processed the application -- Liwen was in the system already which suprised the worker and so it looks like she will have her ss# in two weeks. Then we went to the DMV and got her Oregon ID. I had two pieces of paper with her address -- the wedding license and the letter from the Social Security office. So no problem getting her ID. Then we went to the Post Office to add her name to the address at our house. The lady at the Social Security office said to do that, because it was needed for the card to be delivered to Liwen. I have not worked this week to give Liwen time to adjust and to get ready for Christmas. We will drive to the coast tomorrow so I can show her some of the beautiful Oregon coastline and to do some bird watching. We have two Asian markets in town the Liwen loves to shop at and also the big chain grocery stores. She keeps saying how much candy there is in the stores and how cheap it is. She also says that no wonder Americans are so fat with so much cheap junk food available. One final note: Liwen said to me that her biggest fear coming here was how Americans would treat her. Her cross country trip by accident in many ways was a blessing. She said all the people were so nice and so helpful. Her English is okay so she could communicate. But her first experience with Americans all across the country was very positive. And we have a story to share about how she has been to Boston and I still have not been there.

Just an update to let you all know that my wait is just about over. I went to China for the interview with Liwen in late June and all went well. But Liwen's company that she works for landed a big construction job and off she went to work on that for awhile. Well the wait is over on Saturday when she arrives at midnight at the Portland Airport. Luckily my brother lives across the river in Vancover Washington so we will spend the night there before our drive down I-5 to the beautiful city of Eugene. The wedding is set for next Saturday the 17th --- a small one -- some family and few friends at our house. Tomorrow I clean and clean some more

Good Luck David I hope it is a piece of cake

Congrats and I agree with you -- I think they have made up their minds already for a number of the applicants and the questions are more a formality. Liwen said her VO was a young American and nice.

we got the visa today and now head off on a short vacation and then to Wuhan. This is my third visit to her -- one time each year and always in the summer -- Liwen keeps saying -- we need to go back in winter or fall when the weather is not sooo hot.

Liwen had the interview yesterday and passed it with flying colors. I think the preparation was the key because she said lots of people were asked many questions but her interview lasted about 90 seconds. It convinces me more that they have pretty much made up their minds on a certain number of applicants that meet some subjective bar that they have raised. Here is the jist of the ninety second interview 1. Where are you from? 2. Who is your sponsor? 3. Where was he born? (She said Oregon and told me she was nervous and knew the correct answer was Chicago.) 4. Where does he live now? (Eugene, Oregon) 5. When did he divorce? 6. Why did he divorce? (she gave her own answer based on our conversations -- because she was selfish and did not love him.) 7. What is his job? 8.) May I see his employment letter? She handed him that whicch included all my financials. He only looked at my letter from my employer and then said -- you pass. That was it - nothing else looked at -- and we had the kitchen skink in clear plastic envelopes that were all labeled. It rained like cats and dogs as I waited outside. Thunderstorm and close lightening bolts. Her interview time was set at 1pm. In the morning they only asked her two questions - where is she from and the sponsor's name. The 1pm group was about 50 people and i guess over 100 people were in the 2pm group. Most everyone came out from the 1PM group except Liwen. So I was starting to get worried. The heavy rain had scattered the guards to shelter so i walked up to the consulate and tried to look in to see if i could see her waiting for me. Well the chinese guards inside came out and told me to come inside. So I did and the first thing they ask for is my passpot -- several times. I tell then that I do not have my pasport but Liwen has it. They finally understood and I asked them if all the 1pm interviews were done and they said no. So I thanked them and went back outside into the rainstorm. Liwen finally came out with another woman who she met in line and waited for inside. She needed help getting to the China Post to pay for the visa and of course thanks to all the reports from candle, I had already scoped it out and took them both there. There was an elderly man with a chinese wife and daughter and i helped them with their questions about vaccinations and where to pick up the visa -- again knowledge I had thanks to candle eand especially David for his complete packet of info. Observations made by liwen: Most people passed the interview in her group, but many were asked lots of questions -- most centered primarilly on the financials. But most were able to answer satisfactorily. One lady from Beijinmg was rejected, but Liwen did not know the reason. My observations: I do not know if they even knew I was there, but the emotional support I provided was very important. Liwen was very quiet the first few days until last night. Now she is laughing more and we are both sleeping better. Even though she was only asked for one supporting document, I highly recommed the kitchen sink approach -- not too many photos, not too many letters, emails or phone bills -- just a sample over time to show the ongoing nature of the relationship. She said everyone there inside the consulate was very nice. And finally, The group at candle was indispensible to our preparations. Knowledge is power -- and thanks to candle and again especially to David for his compilation of info. Now we are off to some island off the south coast to bird watch, hike and relax -- I guess it is Hainan Island or something like that.Then train back to Wuhan to see her family and friends. I wll fly back on JUly 10th and she will take care of a myriad of details and be here at the beginning of September. It is a great feeling to have this done and I wish all the people waiting the best of luck and again to emphasize that I believe preparation is the key.

thanks, I feel better to hear that

Does anyone have any updates on weather and travel into GZ? Liwen is on a train now going there. I just read in the China Daily that the train line is down from mudslides and the airport has lots of stranded travelers. She was going there first before we meet to get the medical exam done tomorrow. Then she will meet me in Shenzhen on Saturday night. The interview is next Tuesday. I am worried that she may have a difficult time getting to GZ, so any late breaking news about travel to there would be appreciated.

great info again, Thanks

This is great info for me. Thank you very much. I will be meeting Liwen after I cross the border and she already has a hotel reserved for us. So I will explain the two choices to her and let her pick the one most convenient for her.

Thanks so much. That was exactly the information I needed

At the end of the week I will be flying into Honk Kong on my way to GZ. Liwen will go there on Wednesday for her medical. Her interview is scheduled for next Tuesday the 28th. I will be arriving in Hong Kong on Saturday evening at 6. The plan is for Liwen to meet me at the border crossing and we will spend one day in Shenzen before we go to GZ. I have been trying to find the best way to get from the airport to the border at Lu Wu. Liwen suggested I take the KCR East Rail. But to do that it looks like i need to catch the Mass Transit to Kowloon and then take a taxi to the railway station. Is there a better way to get to the border crossing -- not taxi but are there good buses I could take? Also do I need to convert some money into Hong Kong currency? I was reading online that the best way to pay is to buy an Octupus card. Has anyone done that before? Any ideas on how much I should put on the Octupus card,? I will be going back home the same way. Also how long does it take to get through the border crossing? Any info would be appreciated.

We are filling out the P4 forms in prepartion for the interview. One is called Certification of legal capicity and intent to marry. At the bottom of the page is a section that says subsbed and sworn before me this day...and then a place for conul of United Stated of American to sign. Now does she just put in my name and sign it -- or does she get it notarized or does she wait and let the conul sign it?

Since I am flying off to GZ in two weeks, I find your analysis invaluable. One in that for us CFLrs it is very positive -- the odds are in our favor if we prepare adequately. Second I will use this data to encourage Liwen and try and reduce her anxiety level. Thanks alot

While we are looking at variables that seem important in showing a legitimate relationship, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about this (the interview date is getting close, so this is not an unusual occurance now). We are all emphasizing multiple visits, photos, e-mails, phone logs, etc. And of course it seems to help if you are there at the interview time. But what about having your paperwork done by a lawyer? I know there are lots of opinions on the usefulness of paying for a lawyer to do what is essentially pretty simple paperwork, especially with the expertise that is available here. But I am not talking about that as the reason for having lawyer do it. It seems to me that someone who goes to the trouble of hiring a lawyer is showing how serious they are about the relationship. I just wondered if the VO seeing this is positively influenced by it. It seems to me that they would be. Anyone ever collect any data on this?

Congratulations and thanks for the very detailed info on the interview