shushuweiwei

My recent experience was very good with notarizing at ACS. The I-134 was done already but I took an evolution letter, which they charged for. However, after speaking with the officer for a few minutes he took a look at the letter and actually asked questions about it pointing out areas that sometimes give them concern. He asked me about those areas and I was able to respond and he typed my answers into her file. If nothing else, it made weiwei very happy and more confidant going into the interview. Be sure to make an appt online. Without an appt you just take a number and wait your turn. With an appt you go directly to the first window and tell her what you need. You still have to wait for the documents to be notarized.

Not quite yet...had the pleasant 5 week interruption of a CABG X 4. Hopefully head over in March or April for a month to get married in Shenyang then back to the states to finish up this stuff with the VA.. I'm really happy you guys made it. I enjoy reading others success stories. tsap seui And I always enjoy a successful CABG story. Keep those grafts clear now! I hope that you're under the care of your lil' rabbit physician soon. I'm finding out today that many things that were suggestions before pink are clear commands after pink! Resistance is futile. Thanks to all who've offerred good wishes.

Looks like the EMS # is printed at the top of the white delivery sheet she was given for pickup. Any ideas on how I might push for a direct pickup? Just show up to ACS tomorrow and plead my case? Any ideas on how the process of having someone else pickup and EMS it to us would work?

Thank you tsap for your kindness and generosity of spirit. Are you in Shenyang? Thank you everyone else, as well. As we've debriefed further her interview experience was very interesting but I want to wait until visa is in hand to detail it all. I'll put it up when we've got it, hopefully in a few days.

thanks everyone. Finishing up the post pink adrenalin withdrawal nap. NOW FOR THAT CELEBRATING!

We have been celebrating a bit, but weiwei was out at 9:50 with pink. Oh happy day! She is still decompressing and trying to remember all the questions and I'll give more details later. It seems like there were about 20 questions. It's lot of questions but things went pretty smoothly. Since there was no ACH this week, I made an appt and went to ACS yesterday to get an evolution letter notarized. The people there were very helpful. We made some conversation and connected and he read the letter and asked me some questions then opened her file and made some notes. He said "This looks good.", when I left but knowing that has been said and not come to fruition, I tried not to feel attached to that. Today weiwei said that when her time came she bounded up to the window and said "Hello!" loudly to the Asian woman with short hair and the woman looked a little surprised but quickly responded with the same enthusiasm as Weiwei had shown. Weiwei then felt suddenly very strong and after a few questions she thought, "Oh, my English is so good today! I think best I ever speak." After some questions in English, she switched to asking in Chinese and they completed the interview that way. Even as she tries to tell me how she answered now she struggles a bit and says that this morning she say this answer perfect, and wonders why she has to think about it so much now. When Weiwei came around the corner I couldn't see the paper yet but the fact that she was skipping, I felt, was a clue that the outcome was positive. Then she held up the paper to show me. In her excitement, she forgot to arrange the delivery so I sent her back in to do that. Then she felt unsure that the paper had the correct stamp on it, so she went back again. Earlier, despite my best efforts at organization, she couldn't find her passport copy and they let her come out and copy it and go back in. By the last time, the guy at the 4th floor barricade said, "You again?" in Chinese and rolled his eyes. Thank you all for your support in the other thread. I appreciate all your kind words. Lee, my back went out last night. I might have to ask Ping for a good doctor here! Weiwei asked me to especially thank Jian (Amanda) for her support and kind words. We are both rooting for you and Richard with all our hearts. And Dylan and all the rest who are waiting their turn, we hope that your experience can be filled with pink. Enjoy the fine "American Coffee" in the coffee shop. Lee, Bob and all who've gone before we are indebted to the information and support available from kind souls such as you. Now we pray that the post office experience goes well and we get the visa printed before the holiday closure ensues. We'll be in Guangzhou until the 25th then we'll go to Yingkou to celebrate our success and the holiday with the family. We hope to be coming back to the US together around the first of February. Thanks again to all. Joe

On our way out the door for our interview. Got the red shirt, the pink tie, and the red shoe inserts my weiwei brought. Wrote some prayers on our prayer flag and hung it in our room. I had a good meeting at ACS yesterday (since there was no ACH this week). We feel ready to go! Thank you to everyone who has been kind and helpful. I'll report back with details of my and her meetings later. Off we go and good luck to everyone else who is going today (see you in the coffee shop!) and in the future. Joe

I followed a format from our lawyer and just got a letter that said XXX XXX has been employed by XXXXXX since (date). His annual salary is $XXX. Lawyer said it was OK for the payroll dept to do it but since I have regular contact with the CEO, I asked him to do it and he was happy to. I had it notarized along with the I-134 before sending them both to Weiwei. Joe

Thanks. I got her to call back and talk to some different folks at the Beijing Hospital and they said she didn't have to get vaccinated. I think the first girl was working on commission. I've convinced her (for now) to stave off any attempts at immunization. She'll be going for her exam in her next morning. Oh, and looking back through her P4 she did find the attachment that said forms no longer collected at the medical exam. She is relieved that she has a few more days to finish them up. I think she is on her 20th copy as they aren't quite perfect yet! Thanks for everyone's feedback. The anxiety increases exponentially as the day approaches. I hope they have a pink straight jacket for me to wear for the big day. Just 9 days to go!

Thanks Mike...most health insurance stops covering and county health departments stop giving vaccinations at 18, though they will give if you pay. Luckily, I can jab her myself in my office and she can blame me for the tong.

Congratulations to both of you. I hope you zip right along to pink now.

Hello. Stapled to her appointment letter, your SO should have received this note from the consulate, in both English and Chinese: Effective January 1, 2009, we will no longer have the panel physician facilities collect any immigrant visa documents other than the medical exam forms. Please bring all documents required to the consulate on the day when you come for interview. Thanks! As for the vaccinations, Xiongxing didn't get them. She did her medical in Guangzhou. We will get all the shots in USA. Thanks. She didn't tell me about that slip!

The hospital in Beijing is telling Weiwei that as of Jan 1 they no longer take any forms but the medical forms and everything else she just brings to the consulate. They told her to only bring passport, visa photos, appointment letter, and the medical forms. So NO DS 156, 156K, 157, supplemental forms or bank receipt. Are others at this point in the process getting the same story? The hospital is also telling her if she doesn't get immunizations they won't give a "healthy card" and she could have problems at China exit or US entry without it. Are they trying to make a buck on the shots? Thanks Joe

Ha! I guess you can't make a list with a B with a close parentheses after it! Learn something new everyday!

I think the choices do show a slant of assumption that only capitalist democracy offers opportunities and basic rights...because, of course, our politicians would never drive around in more expensive cars than the general population owns. I mean wouldn't it just bowl you over to find that your congressperson is driving around in an Audi A6?! And the choices are they stay pat or become like us. A shift in the other direction, even if it isn't your choice doesn't seem to have crossed your mind as a viable option. I think that this black and white thinking stops us from solving many of the problems in China and America. Capitalist democracy can only be good and anything communist or socialist must be bad, although when asked to list the evils of socialism most people list the evils of totalitarianism that has often accompanied the socialist governments on this planet and say nothing of socialism itself. I believe that the experience of China and America make it clear that some aspects of society offer more opportunity when managed capitalistically, some offer more benefit when managed socialistically and most require some blending of the two concepts. In that regard, China may be ahead of us in realizing that the two philosophies can coexist and be blended. (even if they haven't worked all the bugs out yet) Of course, since FDR we have had some experience of blending but the ideologues always rise up (again, in both countries) to insist on "purity." We learn from a very young age to turn a blind eye to the excesses and failings of our own family/culture while maintaining 20/20 vision for spotting it elsewhere. The current failures of unregulated capitalism will not compute with the capitalist ideologues, as the failures of Chinese communism don't compute with the communist ideologues. We see that people living in a democracy where the basic rights of habeus corpus and freedom from unreasonable searches have been rescinded and where the government imprisons and tortures those it deems to be terrorists without due process, can still assume that "democracy" means these rights are intact, while these same conditions are used to justify why the other system is lacking and even barbaric. And before the ideologues fuss too much, I know, it's OK to rescind those rights if your leaders tell you to be afraid, be very afraid! They must be right! Many of the problems in both countries stem from first deciding that one system is good and the other bad and then applying that system to everything and even if it fails, it must still be good because our ideology tells us so. We love nothing more than simplicity and so we take the complexities of life and decide that one "system" has the answers. We are relieved of the hard work of thinking about what actually works in which arena. The answer is always the same. My ideology, my religion, is best, even where it fails. So in both countries, problems are approached in 3 ways: A) My ideology must be applied! No! My ideology must be applied! C) Could we study the problem and do what actually works? I think partly because we are pack animals who tend to think religiously and magically unless we train our minds to reality, A & B are always much louder voices than C. It is a failing of both countries that we perpetuate the debate between A & B and rarely get to C. In fact, C is actively avoided because it's too much work, while sounding righteous about my ideology is a breeze! There was a time in history when option C became available. We call it "The Enlightenment". Yet every effort is made to get back to choosing A or B. I would love for the people of China to be afforded basic human rights like habeus corpus, freedom from unreasonable searches, and absence of the fear that your own government could whisk you away to a secluded prison and torture you on their whim or a rumor of possible wrong-doing. I would love for the people of America to have those basic rights once again, as well. There really is much less of a dichotomy in reality than there is in our gilded perceptions of what "capitalist democracy" means as opposed to "socialist evil". Yes, we may be unaware of the darker side of China when we just walk around with them but we also choose to remain willfully ignorant of the darker side of America while they walk with us here. So I vote for beginner's mind for both countries and an end to ideocracy/theocracy everywhere. May both countries learn to deal with reality without the thick glasses of their ideologies and, instead, do what's needed for the greater good that benefits each and every one of us. Movement of either one toward the philosophy of the other is failure. May they both, instead, strive to be better than what either can offer now.

Stepbrow, I'm not a lawyer and my reference was to whether a constitutional right was violated (per OP) but it is certainly possible that some law was broken. I tried to research the above but the references are too general. Can you say what specific aspects of the statutes were violated. It would probably be helpful to the OP. The Code of Federal Regulation is pretty huge. Do you know what section to look for for immigration statutes and what aspect of the federal code was violated? The INA's section on granting visas seem to hinge on an early paragraph that says these protections apply to the "bona fide spouse" of a USC. It would seem to nullify any other of its sections once they decide you are "non bona fide". Is there another section that offers protection prior to attaining "bona fide" staus? The Life Act or a succession of Life Acts, seem to deal mainly with asylum and allowing K and V visa holders to enter and adjust status rather than wait out the whole process in their country. Again, if you know which section, I would really appreciate it. Thanks. You stated that both rights and statutes were violated. What rights do you see as having been violated? Do you mean rights afforded by our constitution or laws or do you mean just things that should be rights?

Your point is well taken.. But knowledge can be power, possibly by exposing the nonbona-fide fraud being commited by these Consulates as opposed to what is right may help someone, someday. I may have to deal again with these people in the future, one person at the Consualte has denied a US citizen of a fundamental right, but please do not go off telling me they denied her, they denied, Us. So I will beat my drum, many people read this board, maybe someone can make a difference. I think I can understand the emotion. I occasionally allow myself to feel how I'd feel in the denial scenario for about 1 second and then I'm overwhelmed, so I stop. Beating the drum is great, but I think that you need to beat the right drum to hear the tune you want. Splinterman is correct that you have a constitutional right to leave the US to pursue happiness and she has no protections under our constitution as a foreign national. So no one is ever going to buy the argument that any right of yours was infringed. Certainly you know that not every foreign spouse/fiance/e has positive intentions and I'm sure you aren't suggesting the doors should be flung open to everyone who convinces a US citizen to marry them. But then you talk of the problems with the not a bona fide relationship excuse. I think you are right that it gives the state dept an easy out when they wish to refuse a visa without sufficient cause or based on vague suspicion. IMHO, the drum to beat is accountability and not rights. Our govt needs to be transparent and accountable to we the people. If the rules were changed in favor of accountability and state knew they would need to defend their decisions in court, there would be less (but never 0) bad denials. Of course, there is always a price to pay and that would come, most likely, from an increase in fees to cover the govts costs in lawyers, etc. I think accountability is a subject that will be heard by the incoming administration and may be a more effective drum to beat. Since one of my Senators will soon be Sec of State, I'm writing to her now to ask that she give the matter of accountability in family visa processing some attention.

We have no objective evidence that being there makes a difference if they form the judgment that you are non bona fide. Many people get visas without their SO there. Your life circumstances made it impossible to go. Don't feel guilty about that. You don't know if that was a factor and no one else does either.

You seem confused about what the word religion means, re·li·gion (r-ljn) n. 1. a. Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe. b. A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship. 2. The life or condition of a person in a religious order. 3. A set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader. 4. A cause, principle, or activity pursued with zeal or conscientious devotion. Yes, at some point GUZ may realize that to truly have power and compliant clientele, nothing beats inventing a deity and stamping your opinions with the deity's approval. So far they seem to be taking a more legalistic than supernatural course. Did you have specific cases in mind where GUZ invoked a supernatural explanation or the teachings of a spiritual leader for their decision? I would note that "wrong" or "far-fetched" would not pass the line into supernatural. Addendum: I should add that I don't believe that W's purported ability to receive military instructions from a supernatural being that he hears in his head qualifies him as a spiritual leader, but one could argue that his admission to be governing according to these voices in his head puts the entire govt in violation of the separation of church and state. I think that would be a tough sell if you wanted to use it to get a visa, however.

An IUC is just an IUD that emits hormones or other chemicals that increase it's effectiveness. It is still an IUD. SOME IUDs caused problems because of their design but IUDs are still used in the US. Calling something an IUC is just a marketing device to avoid saying IUD since the term brings up negative connotations for many. The first IUDs were stones, which were placed into the uteri of camels to prevent them from getting pregnant on long caravans. Also, I'm sure the OP's wife didn't have the Democratic National Committee (DNC) messing around with her uterus. I would guess she had a D & C (Dilation & Curettage) performed. I agree with the sentiment that we should pay attention to their healthcare needs once they arrive and my experience is that gynecologic care is VERY different in China.

So sorry. I hope the new year is good to you and your SO.

Why would one choose to explain or defend?

You are quite the skilled practitioner of deceptive rhetoric! Do you enjoy telling lies about others to advance your unfounded opinions or is it a compulsion? Please cut and paste any post where you could document your ridiculous straw man. I stated that your picture of a small piece of cinder block, that you hold up as proof of your arguments, is proof of nothing. I stated that I suspected there were problems with the school construction but unlike you, I don't have "proof" of that. I could take a picture of a cinder block and claim it proves my assertions, I just don't operate that way because of an attachment to honesty. I'm sorry if my attachment bothers you. Please don't feel the need to speak honestly about what you actually know and don't know on my account. You are free to fill candle with fact-free rhetoric if you wish. But since you have thrown out this ridiculous argument again, step up to the plate. Lay out the actual evidence you have that that picture is a weightbearing wall built without rebar and not a non-weight-bearing wall or decorative cinder block wall. I anxiously await your "proof." Once you have laid out the facts that you can confirm about that picture, we'll all know the hard work you did to confirm what that picture actually represents. I DON"T KNOW what that picture is and I mentioned some of the possibilities. I NEVER claimed to know what that picture is. You are the one who "knows" it is a wall built without rebar. It may be, but at this point YOU DON"T KNOW THAT. Who took the picture? Where, exactly? What part of the structure does it represent? How did you determine that? How were you able to distinguish that chunk of concrete as "wall without rebar" and not appropriate cinder block construction? The actual piece of concrete seems quite small. What steps did you take to document that overall school construction in Sichuan could be extrapolated from that small bit of concrete? How much time did you spend researching these important questions so that you could feel comfortable making the public claim that your picture proves what you claim? Maybe you could take a moment off from lying about what I said to answer some of those questions? I made no claims about knowing how anyone died in this disaster. That picture and your caption are nothing but a device to inflame emotions and detracts from the real discussion of the problems, although it does garner you much attention and cast you as the compassionate, irate crusader with proof of the conspiracy. Might you be enjoying that attention? Wait! I will soon have a picture of you smiling and that will prove that you're enjoying the attention. If it's fair for you, I should be able to use the same device, correct? So what if I don't know why you're smiling. It nust be for the reason I imagine and that is enough to call it proof by your standards. If you've done no research on that picture and you don't know what part of the structure that picture represents, you should stop publishing your assertion that you have evidence of no rebar walls. There very well may have been no rebar walls. You simply don't have the evidence you claim to have. Stop trying to pretend that I have less compassion for the victims, merely because you want to be right about your silly picture. Anyone able to read English will be able to see that my argument was always about your picture and what you claim it represents and proves. Why are you unable to grasp that?

Count me among the skeptical. Heck, I'm usually feeling much better after three days of just advil and chicken soup. Roger, Dave, my brothers, you've got to learn that healing starts by having a little faith. B) Here's all the FAITH I can manage... It probably won't hurt... Actually the plastic one you pasted above with a pump can hurt. The pump can pull hard and the plastic edge is sharper than the traditional glass ones I prefer. The glass is rounded so it wont cut as the skin is pulled into the cup. I've seen the plastic ones break the skin several times. Once it was me when I agreed to try them instead of the glass cups. I tend to think that the american medical industry is not really about making people healthy just making money. Wait till the person is so sick that you need to cut something out. Many of these techniques focus on wellness and helping people stay healthy. I like many of the TCM and the massage techniques. The Placebo effect might be part of it, if we believe it will make us better. The Placebo effect is also part of the success of medicine. Blind testing has shown about 20% will get better just thinking they have taken an effective medication. Call it a placebo or the power of mind over matter. I agree the placebo effect is strong for most of medicene and big part of its sucess. The pills we take give us faith we will improve and our body heals us. Now do not get me wrong, i think that food and pills do change us and can help heal but there is more than the chemicals involved. What i do not like in medicene today is the focus on managing the symptons. I wish more time was spent on a cure. Just a few comments. Many of these criticisms of western medicine are, in fact, just what people are accusing western medicine of. They are talking points with little foundation that hopefully convince you to choose the billion dollar alternative health system over the western medical system. I'd be happy to get all my patients off all their drugs and so would the vast majority of colleagues that I have had contact with. The problem is that 99.9% of patients are not willing to do what they need to do to stop taking meds. The fact is that western medicine is the best system to save you from an unhealthy lifestyle. The fact is that 99.9% of Americans want to be saved from their lifestyle and refuse to change it. Even when I have offered alternatives, I note that these alternatives come from systems that assume you are eating a certain way and exercising daily. The most common response is, "Doc, I just want an herb that is going to cure me. I'm not interested in changing anything." Even those who say they are really motivated to change come back and say well, not so much. Maybe I'll change next month. I spend considerably more time in my day trying to talk people out of drugs than into them. Most doctors (me included) come out of school thinking we are going to be the one who convinces people to change their lifestyles. Then we meet up with the sad reality of the American population. Even those who come for alternatives are usually of the mindset that 1) "Drugs" are bad so I want to stop them (drugs are not inherently good or bad, they can be used for either purpose) 2) I don't want to change my lifestyle and i shouldn't have to because Bob at work is worse than me and he looks healthy. (why we need to do a better job of teaching science and logic) 3) I want to pretend that alternative treatments can't have side effects and hope they'll save me from my lifestyle. (pie in the sky) So then, to come up against this reality feels bad enough but then to find out that this is actually MY FAULT because I want to sell drugs, as everyone can so plainly see, is doubly difficult. Those of you who so easily toss around this generalization about doctors might want to think about how totally unfounded your conclusions are. They are no different than conclusions drawn about all Chinese people or all black people. The healthcare problems in America go far beyond the pharmaceutical industry and may I humbly suggest that if 99.9% of the population didn't spend their days creating huge demands for these interventions than you could easily put us drug pushers out of business. Good luck with that. On some of the points that were made: "Healing starts by having a little faith" and so does every con-man count on you to believe. So be very careful of where you put your faith. Con-men are usually much better than honest people at creating faith. Placebo rates of 15 -20 %. The rate of placebo effect in older studies on pain are probably over-estimates of the placebo effect in general. Outside of pain it is not clear that placebo effect even exists. So quoting these high numbers is probably not valid. Diseases and symptoms abate for a variety of reasons including the natural history of the disease. Termination of a symptom/disease after ingesting placebo does not prove causation. "I wish more time was spent on a cure" I'm sorry but probably the silliest criticism of western medicine. How many diseases has western medicine cured that alternative systems wouldn't even touch. Today herbs are offered for all sorts of conditions that the ancient texts say "avoid these people and don't treat them, they die and you look like a bad doctor". In western medicine we have an honest accounting of how well we do with various diseases. Alternative systems don't (in most cases) have any data that demonstrates how well they do. When there is no cure, we pay attention to quality of life and relieving symptoms, if we don't we are accused of not caring about quality of life. If we do, we are accused of preferring to treat symptoms over "cures". If you have the cure for cancer step up to the plate and lay it on us. If not then we will continue to treat symptoms for those that we honestly tell we don't have a cure. One shouldn't forget that alternative medicine is an industry as well. They sell the idea that supplements and herbs have no side effects, which is false. They sell an idea that was never sold by the original practioners of TCM, Ayurveda, etc, that supplements can save you from your lifestyle. There is good and bad in both industries. If you as a patient go in with the idea that one or the other is entirely bad then you have done nothing but take away your freedom to choose the best option for you at any given moment. If anyone truly feels their doc cares more about the pharmaceutical companies than about them, find a new doc. Remember though, that if you are truly willing to change your lifestyle and do what it takes to stay healthy, your doc will most likely be happy to help you with that but you are a rare breed. We see one of you once a year, MAYBE. Don't blame us for not noticing, bring it to our attention. Despite our best effort at lifestyle change people still get sick. There are a wide variety of choices of what to do then but listen to the facts before you decide. The field of medicine is vast, no matter what approach you take. Approach it with an open mind and discover the best path for you.

There is an entertaining collection of unfortunate tattoos over at a website called hanzimatters.com.