john90

You might want to sign up for google voice. Request an Invite at google voice and you should receive one soon. Best thing you don't need to carry around a phone card. My wife is using google voice to call china and its working pretty well. Google Voice BTW, google voice has much more features than just a phone card.

Thanks!. No more paperwork to deal with for a while.

Hi , Its finally over for us :-) My wife was sworn in along with almost 200 other US Citizen applicants in US District court in Brooklyn NY. Even though we live in New York city, the N - 400 process went by extremely smoothly for us; it took just about 7 months from sending in the application(N-400) to getting her becoming sworn. I thought it would take over a year, but guess they are really speeding things up in NYC now. Thanks for all the good information on this website!

My wife just got her 10 year card this week. It took almost 11 months, but finally got through it. She went to trip back to China in November, but got the passport stamp before she left and she brought her NOA1 She didn't have any problems with immigration when returning to US. We went through Vermont Service center, hopefully the Citizenship paper work will be much shorter.

if you have an open physical port on the back of your router, take a network cable and phsically connect your wifes computer to the router. You should try to assign a static ip address to your wifes computer and see if it connects. Also, the DNS in the network settings. pretty straight forward , even in Chinese XP.

You should run a virus / spwware scan on your computer with latest antivirus DB, there maybe a trojan virus on your computer using your Internet bandwidth. Most routers should have some type of logging that show which computer is accessing the router. This should help figure out if someone is connecting to your wireless router. Also, On your wireless router, you should turn off your broadcasting of your SSID (your wireless network name). This way, the name of your wireless network will not show up automatically when people browse for wireless networks in Windows XP or Vista. Makes it a little bit more difficult for people to hack into your wireless network Also try to use WPA2 + AES for wirless security + data encryption) if your wireless router and your laptop supports it. I

I didn't have any issues with running Tor, pretty straight forward. Their latest download includes Vidalia which makes the install process easier. http://www.torproject.org/docs/tor-doc-windows.html.en Read the FAQ section as well, you may have some software conflicts with other plugins.

You could try using Tor Project which is better than just plain proxy servers. Many proxy servers are unsecure and many are blocked by Chinese government. http://www.torproject.org/index.html.en If you install this program and use firefox, it will also install the firefox plug in, so no configuration needed.

Brooklyn Public Libary has free ESL program: http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/esol.jsp Or you could try the public libraries in Manhattan or City University of NY (Hunter college)

NYTimes, Have you tried the Workforce center in Queens? NYC Workforce They are a city agency. They have offer job search and job training programs and I think they offer free ESL classes as well. They offer also offer free computer training classes as well. Your wife needs to register and she can use the computer lab when she needs to. My wife signed up there and she was allowed to enroll in a month long customer service training program with a traning provider in Manhatan. My wife works as a translator now (part time). Depdening how good your wife's English is, she may be able to get a job as translator with some companies in Manhattan.

I would make sure you read whats on the list very carefully because many of the workers at NYS DMV are about as bad (or worse) as INS employees. My wife tried to get a NON driver id 2 months after she came here, and they said no because her k1 visa was not at least a 1 year visa. She was finally able to obtain the NYS non driver ID after her EAD card came. The problem you will have is that they will look at Lins passport and say his k1 visa is not valid for 1 year (only 90 days). They may accept the NOA that you filed for the AOS (and AOS appeal) for Lin as a substitute , but this is a total guess on my part. You should check with DMV because they are extremely STRICT regarding original documents and following whats stated on the link mentioned by lostinblue.

You know what is really bothering me ..I thought that mail from USCIS was not supposed to be forwarded to another address. Thank CA postal service it is or I would have no idea that I even had a problem being as the request for the interview, the cancellation of the interview and the denial letter were all sent the old address. That would have been messed up if I woke up one day and Immigration was here to deport Lin .. Another question. IF I file the request to reopen, what is the worst that can happen? Is it only that it might take 18 months and Lin cannot work or return to China during that time? What is the worst that can happen if I wait until 1/9 and go to the info pass meeting without responding to the denial that I haven't offiicially gotten anyway? BTW: I know I am being a pain and I am TRIPPINNNNNNNNNnn .. but this really made me hai pa !!!!! You're not being a pain, this is a real problem and you are doing everything you can to solve it. The link I posted above said you have either 30 or 33 days to file depending on how you received the notice. Also, just because the earliest they would schedule an InfoPass appointment was 1/9 doesn't mean you can't just walk in without an appointment. It takes a bit more time waiting, but you can see someone much earlier, just don't try for Fridays because the windows are closed. Thank you Lee!!!! I really apprieciate your advice. I decided to take tomorrow off from work and go to NY to immigration to see what they advise. I don't mind sitting there all day. I realized that I wouldn't be able to focus on anything else until I fully understand what the best course of action is. Toni, Are you are going into New York City to talk to Immigration officials? The only place INS office I know of in New York City is downtown at 26 Federal Plaza(aka jacob javits building), near Chinatown. That is where they process the AOS and other immigration issues. Unfortunately, no one can get into that building without an appointment letter. My wife and I went there for her AOS interview several months ago. Maybe things have changed, so you should call before if you are going to that office. Good luck,

I agree with Don to heed Lee's advice. Also you should look at Bruce&Ying's thread. I think they were denied due to USCIS screw as well, and read the post from Marty at the end of that thread. Bruce's wife finally got the greencard. Bruce and Yings AOS denial

Not really. From what I have read, sometimes the VO's hardly look at anything at all. I am sure you would have thought my mother in law would have had no chance of getting a tourist visa. She received a tourist visa on her first attempt. My mother in law is divorced, retired, has little money, has only one child (my wife). What she brought were pictures of her, me and my wife , the listed required documents which included property deed for her apartment. We sent the vo a letter that we would be responsible for her returning to China. Also , we sent a letter from a Priest saying stating the purpose was to attend our marriage cermony in the US. I am not sure how if this letter had much influence in the VO's decision to grant a visa. My mother in law stated the the vo focused a lot on the pictures of her and her daughter. He kept saying that she looked too young to have a daughter that old. \ Just remind your in laws not to be nervous at the interview because they can still reapply for the visa and bring additional documents if necessary.

My wife found a job in a department store about a month ago. She works in sales. You might want to look on www.craigslist.com job listing section. Its broken down by cities on the right hand side. I read a news article recently that said the job market in the US is the strongest its been in several years, so you should be able to find something. I would try to find a job before June because in general, the summer months are not good months for find a job.

Congratulations Feathers and Jen! Hope my wife receives her card soon also...

Hey Thanks Don and for help. It I thought it would months...now we don't don't have to worry for another 2 years...

Suprisingly the government can sometimes work faster than they say they can, so just keep checking After being told by the immigration officer who conducted our AOS interview it would take 3 months to get a decision about the GC because my wifes fingerprints were not in, we received the Welcome letter this week! Finally! I was worried about it because he didn't even give us a hint if it would be approved or not. I didn't have my 2005 tax return, so I was worried about that We brought in lot of pictures from our wedding. The interviewer asked if we had any other pictures besides the wedding pix, but we forgoit to bring it in. Then the interviewer asked the hard questions, He was decent about it because he apologized to us for having to ask them. He asked if my wife was a spy or engaged in other illegal activities in the US and some other really uncomfortable questions. We gave him a copy of my wifes clean police record, so even though its not required document, it may help to bring a copy along. Thanks the help and support...

ok, Thanks for the help. The interview said we should hear from them in around 2-3 months.

today we went for the AOS interview, and it didn't go as I hoped it would. My wife had to go get another set of finger prints because it wasn't in the system. I can't belieive those people. The interview said we had to wait for the finger prints to go through and for what ever checks. He said it would take about 3 months. ugh. The only thing `i didn't bring in is the 2005 tax return, but `i had a employer letter, pay stubs. We also brought in photos, and bank joint account state. He mentioned initially the lack of 2005 tax return may cause a dely, but at the end of the interview he said don't worry about it after he saw most of our other documents. Since my wife had to get another finger print done, does that also involve going through another name check? The interviewer said a decision should be mailed to us in about 3 months. Is this realistic? Thanks for any help.

Paula, We had a hard time during our k1 visa process also. I emailed Guz, and called the federal government many times during the long wait times. We too just got a canned response. My wife had a really hard time during the months of waiting for her interview. She sometimes called me on the phone really depressed and complaining why its taking so long, and whats wrong with the US government and GUZ. We even discussed about ending the process and just remaining good friends. We went through long months of hearing nothing but just canned responses..., but one day the good niews did finally come. so just hang in there, and prepare all your paperwork well, prepare yourself well for the interview, and things will work out fine.

NY Viking, We just received the AOS interview date letter yesterday. Our interview is April 5, 2005. From the letter which we received, it just tells us to bring pretty much every thing we sent in with the initial AOS I485 application. Also, it states that the petioner should bring their birth certificate.

Some might argue this point, but if you read the paperwork carefully it will state in the "What to bring section: All I-797C's you have received pertaining to this application". We never made an appointment for her EAD biometrics. I had made a mistake on the EAD application and received an RFE. The I-797C for it was received just a week before her AOS biometric appointment. The letter instructed to make an appointment, but had the same bring all instructions. Took them all on the day of her appointment and they processed all without question. 177741[/snapback] We filed our AOS and EAD paper application together. I thought about efiliing for the EAD, but in the end just mailed out paper applications for both. Anyway, my wife's EAD was approved on 12/6/05, and she received her EAD card (valid for 1 year) a couple weeks ago. It took about 7-8 weeks for her EAD to be approved which is too bad since we are in NYC area.

You're welcome. Good luck. Just another point to consider regards efling the EAD. I sent in paper applications for both the EAD and AOS, and I received the NOAs for both at almost the same time. My wife received the biometrics appointment sheets also almost at the same time, so I don't know if efiling the initial EAD application will make the approval go any faster. In our case, we filed both EAD and AOS paperwork in same package and sent it to Chicago. My wifes biometrics appointment for EAD was 1 day after the biometrics appointment for her AOS. But we just brought both appointment sheets, and they fingerprinted her for both the EAD and AOS the same day.

Amber , Its the 3rd floor. I am not sure if you can deliver it yourself. Also, you when your husband receives the sheet for the Biometrics appointment, try to get to the biometrics at least 30 minutes before what it actually states on the appointment letter. It seems to be first come first served basis for the fingerprinting. We arrived for the appointment 30 minutes before the actual appointment time and within 20 minutes there were 20 people waiting behind us for finger printing. website: http://uscis.gov/graphics/formsfee/forms/i-485.htm Address for couriers such as UPS or FEDEXOr, for non-United States Postal Service (USPS) deliveries (e.g. private couriers) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Attn: FBASI 427 S. LaSalle – 3rd Floor Chicago, IL 60605-1098