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.

Congrats on nearly ending the process! Must feel great. Thanks! Great to see a Portland example (which is where we live as well) so we may have a similar timeline. Got our first NOA very fast (less than a week after they received the package). But still waiting for the biometrics letter.

We just got the letter of acceptance. That was pretty quick! We will be on the lookout for the biometrics. If the interview is in 6 months, we should be ok. Right around the 4-5 month mark is when we are most likely to be away and have to reschedule, which I admit would muddy up the waters!

So we finally sent in out N-400 package last week. As it is early June, we are hoping the process will be completed towards the end of the year. I am wondering if anyone can give me insight on what to expect regarding notices. The reason I ask is that we have some plans throughout the year which may mean we are out of town (and away from checking our mail) for a couple weeks at a time. This makes me a little nervous. My understanding is that we have 3 major schedules. The biometrics appointment (which should happen within the next month or two). And then we have the examination. And then the swearing. Is that it? And do they send out notices well in advance for these things? Also, if our trip lies in the middle of the exam or swearing, is it a big deal to reschedule? My hope is that, a.) they will give us notice well in advance so that we don't get the notice while we are away and find out we already missed the actual appointment by the time we got back! and b.) that in the event that we are unable to make an appointment, that it is relatively painless to reschedule. For those that have gone through the process, what are your experiences? Thank you very much!

Yep, got all that! Thanks for the reminder though, can never be too careful.

LOL, yea, my wife and I have been joking about this all morning. OK, we solved the problem. My mom is an artist and has a set of artists' pencils. We found a couple that worked. Whew! Looks like she can become naturalized afterall.

Wow, after a long journey of visas, and removal of conditions, and now citizenship, I've reached a really dumb issue! I'm about to package up the N-400 application and they say to write name and A-number lightly in pencil on the back of the photos. Well, it doesn't work! I've tried 5 different pencils, and I can't get any lead onto the surface without severely scratching the surface through to the other side (edit: actually that's not true. No matter how hard I press, the pencil lead simply doesn't make a mark on this shiny surface of this photo). I've nearly ruined one of these photos! Can i just use a pen? Anyone else have this problem!? This is an ordinary passport photo from Costco!

Hello, Thanks for the warning. We were always very cautious of this question. The only time it was asked of us was on DS-230 Part II, where it states "...who is a member of or affiliated with the Communist or other totalitarian party". In that case, we answered "no" and it appears to be the consensus among CFL and Visajourney members that a member who quit the CCP can honestly answer "NO" to that question on the DS-230 form. We did CR-1 (direct consular filing), so no GNI-2 form was given. So we were never asked the "are you or have you EVER been..." version of the question. And the question was never asked verbally at the interview. However, in this case (on the N-400), the question undoubtedly includes prior membership, so we must answer YES. I hope that makes sense, and I hope we did the right thing! Thanks.

So we are filling out the N-400, and the question comes up regarding if she has EVER been associated with the Communist Party. She'd gone to CCP member meetings during her college years (as recommended by the staff there, for future employment purposes), but quit her membership when she left about 5 years ago. She will put "yes" on the form, and we are considering attaching an explanation to the package. I'm curious if anyone else had to deal with this, and whether we should expect any complications, with the N-400 process. Her affiliation with the CCP simply involved a few meetings, and she pretty much fell asleep at all the meetings .

I tried to get the 2008 tax return transcript through the IRS phone number, but it is not available yet. I'm just curious how long it took after you filed before it was available? Thanks.

Sounds like a good idea. will give it a try. Thanks!