Cody

Thanks for your help!

I'm in the process of helping my brother fill out the I-130 form for his spouse in China. As far as I know, she doesn't have an English name, and her name is printed in Chinese characters on the marriage certificate. How do I fill out the I-130 form for her name and address? Do I have to get them translated? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

My wife satisfied none of the requirements above. She was satisfied with her ten year green card and did not want to get citizenship. To make matters worse, she refused to work and doesn't really have any work credit. After our divorce, I'm sure that there will be at least two years of alimony payments. Does the I-864 mean that I will need to continually support her for the next ten years while she gets a job? How is it enforced?

I recently discovered that my wife is cheating on me after seven years of marriage, and I need to get a divorce. I remember signing an affidavit of support when applying for her visa back in 2004. I may have filled out another affidavit of support when applying for her green card, but it was so long ago that I don't remember anymore. Does anyone know how long the affidavit of support is enforcable? Will I still be on the hook even after we are divorced, or can I just move on with my life?

My wife, who is living with me in Pennsylvania, wants to open a bank account for her mother in China. She wants to be able to add a hundred dollars per month to the account and give access to the funds to her mother. Are there banks that operate in the United States and China, where an ATM card would work in both countries?

I have a friend from China who married an American and arrived in the United States a year ago. She is a good girl, but married a guy who is emotionally abusive and a real jerk. When she was unable to live up to his unrealistic expectations, he decided to divorce her. She received the divorce papers yesterday, and broke down in tears. He is trying to bully her into returning to China by threatening to withold any support unless she leaves the country. Furthermore, he told her that she will never get her ten year green card because they are getting divorced. Is this true? If he divorces her, will that prevent her from getting her ten year green card? Will she be forced to return to China?

My wife immigrated from China five years ago. When she first arrived, she spoke almost no English at all. Today, her language skills have improved and she can easily engage in a casual English conversation. She has tried different jobs over the years, but they were all minimum wage jobs. She eventually became discouraged with each one and quit. Ultimately, she wants to earn a college degree or some sort of certification... anything to help her earn a decent wage. Finances are really tight in our one income household. The problem is that she is probably reading at a 5th grade level, which is a long way from what is needed for college or even to earn a GED. So I have several questions: 1. Does she even need to get a GED, since she completed two years of college in China? If not, how do we get her credentials transfered and recognized here? 2. How do I get her speaking, reading, and writing skills quickly up to par? Is her dream of getting career training or attending college even reasonable? 3. What are some possible careers for someone with limited English skills? Does anyone have a success story to share? Thanks!

Wouldn't your wife's father-in-law's brother be your uncle (your father's brother)? Good observation. It's kind of tricky. My wife's father-in-law is not really her father-in-law. He is more of a live-in boyfriend with my mother-in-law. However, he has lived with her for so long that my wife considers him to be her father. So in reality, there is no legal connection between me and this guy. For the sake of simplicity, I'm calling him my "wife's father-in-law's brother".

My wife's father-in-law's brother wants to visit the United States. Since he can't find another sucker to fill out an affidavit of financial support, he has turned to me. Of course, my wife wants to help out her uncle, so I have no choice. So I have a few questions: 1. What form do I need to fill out to support this guy? 2. I don't really know or even trust the guy. If I fill out an affidavit of support, what am I liable for? He is only planning to come for a few weeks, and I am pretty sure that he will leave. However, I don't really know what his intentions are. He says that he is here to visit his mother in California, who can't support him because she is on welfare. But the guy is a schemeing rat... so he could be doing something illegal for all I know. If he screws up, can I get in trouble? 3. Has anyone else experienced pressures from your Chinese wife's family? As soon as I married her, all of the relatives line up for favors. It's so infuriating. Unfortunately, I don't have a choice in this matter. Either I support the jerk or I alienate my wife's entire family... which is not an option because she is very, very close to them.

My mother-in-law in China wants to visit to see our newborn baby in Pennsylvania. She will be here for about three months, and I started wondering about health insurance. Is health insurance really necessary if she only plans to stay for three months? If so, are there any reliable health insurance companies that sell policies to international visitors?

My mother-in-law from China wants to visit to see our new baby. Does anyone know how long it will take and how much it will cost to get a visitor's visa?

When my wife came to the U.S. four years ago, she could not speak any English. Today she can carry out a basic conversation with anyone, and she has no problem communicating with others on a day to day basis. She can even read and write on a sixth grade level. While she is pleased with her accomplishments, she really wants to go to college. What are the best resources for developing college-level English skills?

My wife has been in the U.S. for three years, and she has developed the ability to carry out basic conversations in English. However, she decided that she wants to earn a GED and go to college. To achieve this, her English skills will need to improve dramatically. She will need to be able to read and write at a college level. Are there any books, videos, CDs, or online resources that you could recommend?

When my wife arrived three years ago, she could not speak any English at all. After about a year, she could carry out a very basic conversation, so she decided to get a job. She applied at Target, but was rejected because of her weak English skills. Then she applied for a job at Subway, and took the position for $5.15 an hour. She worked there for three months, but didn't like the prospect of making minimum wage. So we tried something different. We contacted a temporary staffing agency, and they found her a job at a cosmetics factory for $9 per hour. She spent her day putting labels on bottles of make-up. From that job, her English skills improved enough to take a job at a before/after-school program at a nearby school district. This job paid $12.70 per hour, and it has really helped her to improve her language skills through interacting with elementary school children. Today she is motivated to attend college, although her English is only at a basic conversational level. We picked up a book on 6000 essential English words for her to study, and she plans to tackle 10-15 each day. With some effort, her dream of going to college may come true.

The truth is that people on both sides have the potential to be dishonest. We live in a cold world, where everyone is out to get what he/she can get. Everyone has motives... and it's not always love.

My wife also has a business degree from a three-year college. However, it doesn't seem to be worth much, since it isn't recognized by any employers over here. For the most part, she is looking at starting all over. Our biggest challenge is helping her to develop adequate English skills for college. She can handle basic English conversations, like a first grader... but that is such a long way from understanding lectures and writing college-level essays. I would be completely happy if she were satisfied with working at a restaurant or department store. In fact, I would even be happy if she were content with being a homemaker. The problem is that she had a good job in China and wants the same thing in America. She feels unfulfilled without getting some sort of office or health-care job earning thirty-thousand or more. That requires a college education, which seems almost out of reach... for now. Given her current langauge abilities, do you think it is unrealistic for her to be thinking about college? Perhaps I'm being too pessimimistic about her odds for success.

When my wife came to the U.S. three years ago, she couldn't speak any English at all. After working a few part-time jobs and interacting with people, she can carry out a basic conversation on most topics. Her English is still weak, but she wants to get an education and start a real career. My concern is that her English is still far from being college level. Has anyone here faced a similar dilemma? How did your wife develop language skills sufficient for college? Are there any good careers that don't require a college degree? What about vocational schools, are they a better bet? If so, what programs are really useful? Any advice or success stories would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

My wife needs to get her educational credentials evaluated by a company called "World Educational Services" (www.wes.org) in order to keep her job. However, World Educational Services requires copies of my wife's transcripts direct from the Chinese Ministry of Education. Furthermore, these transcripts need to be translated in English. We have no idea how to get these. My wife attended secondary school in Shenzhen, and had three years of college at an obscure school called the Guangzhou Nanyang College. Has anyone encountered such a challenge? If so, how do I go about getting her credentials translated and sent to the United States? Any help would be really appreciated. Thanks.

My wife's two year green card will expire in June of 2008. It took her a year to get it, so when it expires, she will have already been in the U.S. and married to me for three years. Rather than applying for a 10 year green card, she wants to become a citizen. Can she become a citizen after being married to me and living in the U.S. for three years? If so, how does she apply? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Thanks for all of the recommendations. I went with PassportVisaExpress.com and they were awesome. Their application form was online, and they even contacted me by phone when I made a mistake on my application. I was able to track the entire process, and it was really a pleasure working with them. Thanks everyone for the advice.

My wife and I are planning a trip to China so she can visit her parents, but I need a Chinese visa first. I was told that I could not get a visa by mailing my passport and application to the Chinese consulate, because an actual person has to deliver and pick it up. Does anyone know of a reliable visa service in or around NY that could handle this for me? I don't want to mail my passport to just anyone. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Keep it simple. Don't give anyone any information about your case, unless it's someone that you know and trust personally. There have been several cases that were severly hampered by letters to the consulate from a "3rd party"... whether it be from the vultures outside the consulate or someone else with motives to sabatoge your visa. From what I have read, the worst visa denial cases involved "3rd party coorespondence". So don't tell anyone anything until your so has her visa in hand. You never know who you can trust.

After waiting for almost a year, my wife finally received her green card. Now she wants to travel back to China to see her parents. What documents does she need to travel and return? Are U.S. passports only for citizens, and not permanent residents? Will her green card be enough to get by?

My fiance and I were waiting for our K1 visa in December of 2004, so I was on CFL all the time. Like many others, I was outraged to read about your so's visa being denied at pick-up. Since then, I have been hoping to hear some good news. Any progress? Are you two together yet?

Link to article on Yahoo News ---------------------------------------------------- Red tape is holding up wedding bells for an estimated 10,000 U.S. citizens waiting on the Homeland Security Department to design new paperwork so they can apply for visas for their foreign fiancees. A new law, approved in January, required Homeland Security to retool visa application forms in an attempt to protect foreign mail-order brides from abusive American spouses. But the department, which oversees immigration services, failed to meet a March 6 deadline to produce the paperwork. And that has had unintended consequences — snarling the immigration process for thousands of other couples. A Homeland Security spokesman estimated that at least 10,000 couples have had their plans jilted even before they got to the altar. On Tuesday, the department said it would send out additional forms to the visa seekers for more information that should satisfy the new law's protections. "Mine never got approved. It's just sitting there," said Bill Hall, 41, a construction foreman from Burlington, Vt. He applied two months ago for a visa for his fiancee, Debbie, to immigrate from Canada with her two sons. In separate interviews, the couple said they have been dating for six years. Homeland Security acknowledges the bureaucratic delay is "certainly an inconvenience," said Chris Bentley, spokesman for the department's Citizen and Immigration Services. ---------------------------------------------------------------------