audelair

I was wondering how visiting Chinese relatives should bring cash (pocket money and emergency purposes)? I imagine bringing a stack of RMB cash would be hard to convert once arriving in the US? How about an ATM card and if so, any issues or things we should watch for to make sure it would work? Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. That helps clarify a few things… And I suppose that means we would need to get a Chinese passport for her in order to get the visa, since we cannot get automatic citizenship with a US passport. Will have to ask my wife to look into how that all works out. We are still on the fence about the whole thing, but pretty excited about this possibility!

Hello, A situation has come up for me and my wife, where we may have the opportunity to adopt a baby in China from someone near my wife's hometown. We are both US citizens, and currently reside in the US. I understand that without going through the Hague convention process, that there is a two year custody and residence requirement before being able to bring back the adopted child. Circumstances in our life are such that moving to China for a couple of years or more is a possibility, and we are now seriously considering this idea. We are wondering, if anyone has any experience or know of people that have gone through this process? Being that we are both US citizens, will this process be fairly simple after the two-year requirement has been approved? Additionally, is there going to be an issue proving that we were living with the child for two years, as long as we have the legal adoption papers from the Chinese court, and the visa/work documents showing our stay in China, as long as many beautiful photos of our family together, which I am sure we will have many? I just was not sure whether this non-Hague process is a viable option, or is it a process that often comes with a lot of uncertainties and difficulties. Any advice or feedback on the situation would be greatly appreciated. We are very excited about this possibility, but also worried that there may be complications that we are unaware of. Thank you so much.

Good info, thanks guys! So my take is that the best strategy is to show self sufficiency (on form DS-160, say you will finance the trip and have supporting evidence) but have the I-134 (with employment letter and bank statement) ready in case the VO feels they do not have enough money to cover the trip.

On Murthy.com, there is an interesting FAQ question... Question 6. I am in the United States in H1B status and I earn a very good salary. I would like to sponsor my parents for a tourist visa. Can I provide an employment letter from my company for them to take to the consulate, which will demonstrate that I have the ability to support them while they are visiting? What other documents should they be prepared to provide at the consulate? One of the most common misconceptions regarding nonimmigrant visitor visas is that someone can / should act as a sponsor or offer to guarantee a person's return to his/her home country. Each applicant must qualify based on his or her own circumstances. Moreover, submitting evidence to show that a family member in the U.S. will financially support a visitor visa applicant actually could decrease the possibility of receiving a visa because it would tend to indicate that s/he does not have a level of socio-economic stability in the home country that is sufficient to overcome the burden of presumed immigrant intent placed on all applicants for visitor visas. Therefore, it is better to focus on relevant aspects of the intending visitor’s life that would lead a consular officer to the conclusion that s/he has enough reasons to return to the home country after a short trip, as discussed in question 2. I wonder if VO's ask for this to test the waters? I see nothing in the official documents to suggest that sponsorship from the inviter is a good thing. I wonder if the kitchen sink approach is actually a bad one and that we should keep things simple. Focus on relationship and ties to own country? Interested to hear what other CFL'ers have to say about this.

I was wondering what precedence there is for the inclusion of tax transcripts, or even an I-134 from the inviter? My thought was that the B-2 should be a self sponsored event and the only evidence on the inviter's side that is required is relational evidence and not financial evidence. The applicant needs to show lots of financial evidence, of course.

Done with the oath today! Now we have to change names on a whole bunch of stuff! Went to the SS office today to update name and citizenship status. I think it went smooth, but when we got home, the letter they printed said "this is to acknowledge that you applied for a social security number on xxxx date" We will keep the same number, right? For others that did this, can you verify that you had the same wording on your letter?

My wife passed her interview yesterday. It was much quicker and easier than we expected. The officer did not even want to look at all of our evidence and documents other than ID. Since she is changing her name, we need to wait for a court date which will be in a couple of months before she is sworn in. But at this point, I think all we can do is wait! Thanks to everyone on this forum who has guided us along the way.

Cool, thanks guys. If they don't even offer there, that makes the decision much easier.

My wife is changing her name at the oath. I understand they let you apply for a passport right there? I've heard advantages of taking care of your passport afterwards are: - you can take care of getting status changed at the SS office - you can make a copy of your Naturalization Certificate before you send it off. - lines are shorter at the Post Office However, I have also heard if you get your name changed, there can be hassle at the post office because your Naturalization certificate does not have the same name as your other government ID (like driver's license). According to the rules, the Naturalization certificate is all you need, but more than one person has had an issue with this on Visajourney (due to name change). My thought is if you do it there, they will not have any ID issues, since they have completely verified her ID during the oath and just finished the name change. With that in mind, would you recommend taking care of passport at the oath ceremony, or to do it ourselves afterwards? If we do it there, should we have the passport application form ready and filled out already? Thanks!

Thanks for the response, warpedbored. One question... you mentioned that the oath was done on the same day since interview was in the morning. But did you request a name change on the N-400 document? Is Portland's office able to schedule with the court to have a name changed on the same day along with the oath?

Yea, i agree it'd be best not to postpone, but it is my brother's wedding and we've commited to being there. There is like a 3-day window that we wouldn't be able to make the interview (the days leading up to the wedding)... any other day, and we can accommodate for it (and change travel plans if need be). Is rescheduling generally highly frowned upon (in that it causes major delays and/or complications)? I guess we really need to get that interview letter so we can finally start planning!

Thanks for the response. I did a little googling this morning, and it seems that some people receive the yellow letter first and others receive the interview letter. I guess they are sent from different locations, and it can be weeks between letters. So i suppose we should just hold tight for a couple of weeks before making an Info Pass appointment. Is the Info Pass appointment generally a successful way to make inquiries about your case? I have heard that you can't really get any info over the phone, but have people had success getting status by making the Info Pass appointment? Also, we have a wedding to go to in October. Is it possible to send a letter preemptively, before getting the interview letter, requesting that they schedule it on any day other than that week in October? Or best to wait for the interview letter and reschedule only if necessary? Would this request be do-able by Info Pass? Thanks again!

Hi, I am anxiously awaiting my wife's interview date for our N-400 application filed first week of June (we are located in Portland). Today, we got a yellow form that is titled "Case File Review Notice / Interview Document Check List" which tells us some additional stuff to bring to the interview. Specifically, they asked for all passports and travel documents (expired and current) issued by any government. However, we have yet to receive our interview date. It just tells us to make sure she brings the stuff mentioned above, and to be properly attired and on time. Did anyone else get this, and is it normal to get this before the interview date letter? Thanks!

Got the biometrics letter yesterday so things are moving along.