audelair

Thanks for all of the support, everyone. I feel for all of you who have gone through or are going through much longer and tougher timelines. Once the visa is in our hands, we'll consider this journey successful. I just hope I can be of help to other Chinese people applying in 3rd countries in the future!

Some of you may have read the other thread I started about "DCF Sydney - Refused" and how they doubted our relationship. ---quick recap--- We got a Section 221g form that said we are waiting for "administrative processing". The interview went terrible, and the consulate said he did not believe in our relationship. The day after we had our interview, I had my mother, brother, and 2 friends send testimonies. These were all very good testimonies from people who knew us both very well and had much to say, all from different perspectives. One of my friends even notarized his before faxing it. We also gathered a testimony from a classmate of my wife's who testified that their University exchange program is legitimate (between Norway and Australia) and that they both passed an opportunity to study in the US, and chose Australia instead. This was meant to show that she was not aggressively pursuing residence in the US, since she could have studied there easily. We also had a testimony from a landlord that testified that we live together, sleep in the same bed, kiss, shower together, and other displays of affection. We added personal statements from ourselves and a timeline of the relationship. We also included more official evidence of her university acceptance letters and exchange program showing that there were no ulterior motives for coming here. We included fertility charts that we've been filling out for my wife. And phone logs as well. The first 4 testimonies were faxed in from the sources. And the rest of them were included in a package that we mailed yesterday afternoon (next day expresspost). ---recap over---- TODAY, at around 3 PM, i received a call on my brand new mobile phone. This is a new number and there are only 2 people in the whole world who know my number. One is my wife, and she was with me at the time. The other is the American consulate (since I included the new mobile number in the package I sent yesterday). Immediately, i was thinking "no way!" I picked it up and it was the American consulate. They are ready to issue the visa and wanted to see if i could come into the office tomorrow morning to bring the passport! I told them we were in tweed heads and had to mail it. THey said that's fine and that they already have a return expresspost envelope that I gave them last time at the interview! This is exactly 1 WEEK after our interview, almost to the hour! We left the consulate last tuesday around 2 PM! Of course i am trying not to completely rejoice until the visa is in our hand, but my wife and I are overjoyed. She is in class right now, and i'm waiting for her in the lab. She's going to leave class early so we can go have ourselves a nice meal and some drinks and celebrate! Thanks again so much for all of the support. CFL has to be one of the greatest communities in the world. It has been quite a journey. Let me know if you have any questions about the DCF 3rd country filing that we did, and of course, I will update when we actually have the visa IN HAND!

whatever it means, it is OVER! I got a call from the embassy today. They are ready to issue the visa. I have no idea what this was all about, but I think i'm going to start a new thread to give the details!

As some of you may have read in my previous thread, we ran into serious problems at the Sydney consulate. The big one that left us devastated was how hostile the CO was about doubting our relationship, despite all the "standard" evidence we had. We are in the process of overcoming this right now, and have lots of testionies and other evidence and I hope we will be okay. The weird thing is taht the 221g form didn't say anything about doubting our relationship and the only outstanding issue right now is an "administrative processing". They said they are waiting for a response from Washington. What could this mean? The DCF process here in Australia is pretty simple. It's one day of processing pretty much all forms, except the DS-230 Part 1 document, which they review ahead of time. I'm assuming this administrative processing is specific to Chinese. My wife and I are here until January, and we're so afraid they don't finish processing our application before we leave. Anyone have any idea what would happen? We've already done EVERYTHING, including the medical, the police certificates, and the interview. Thanks.

I would not even mention the work fraud in any context from you... simply use the VO's own words. In response to Lee's comments, he has good suggestions... however, there is ususally not a specific person listed as to the duties, there is somone ususally dedicated to immigration matters and your email should be re-directed to that person. I would include the summary only of the issues and your evidence in the email, do not attempt to send all the documents to the congressman's office unless requested to do so... good luck!! 154325[/snapback] Unfortunately the VO did in fact use the word fraud. He specifically accused our marriage as "fraud".

Thanks so much for all of the encouragement. I think i will begin writing a letter to my representative, and wait until I get my next response from them (after the HUGE amount of evidence we are sending them). Based on their response, I will be able to characterize the situation better to the congressman. We have wonderful testimonies from friends and families right now that are very encouraging. One of our best mutual friends just notarized it and faxed it today. As did my mom. The consular officer questioned whether my wife had dishonest intentions in coming to Australia just to apply for the visa. He also questioned whether she married me for the opportunity to go to the U.S. Here are some examples of evidence we are supplying to refute their accusations: (this is going into the overcome letter i am writing) 1. Evidence that her decision to come to Australia occurred prior to our romantic relationship which started January 2005: a) Acceptance letter into Southern Cross University dated in Nov 4 2004. Printout of information on Australian student visas that she made dated Nov 5 2004. c) Printout of an email that I sent to AMVISA@state.gov (should be in your archives) dated March 27 2005 inquiring on the possibility of applying in Australia. This evidence described above is intended to show that my wife decided to go to Australia BEFORE we got romantically involved. It is also intended to show that I inquired about the possibility of applying in Australia AFTER the two weeks we spent in Norway, when we decided to get married. We want to prove that applying in Australia was based on inconvenient circumstances of her being abroad, and NOT used as an opportunity. We were so grateful that your consulate would accept our application and that we did not have to wait until she was back in China to pursue the visa, since we couldn’t bear to be apart any longer. 2. Evidence that she passed an opportunity to study in the United States prior to our romantic relationship: a) Printout of the requirements of the exchange program that she was attending in Stavanger University that shows she must choose to study in one of four English speaking country and she could choose between the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. She ended up choosing Southern Cross University in Australia because she liked the program. A personal testimony from her close friend and classmate from Stavanger University who also chose to study in Australia. She testifies that they both had an opportunity to study in the United States but chose not to apply, and were only considering between Australia and New Zealand. c) An invitation to the consulate to do a check and validate that Hua Wu has never applied for a United States student visa. This evidence is intended to prove that Hua wanted to come to the United States on a spousal visa only after we became romantically involved. We believe that if our marriage was fraud with an ulterior motive to allow her to go to the US, she would have long ago chosen to take advantage of the exchange program she was in and study in the United States. We believe that studying in the US would have been a much more practical decision than studying in Australia, if her intention was to immigrate to the United States. Her decision to come to Australia was purely based on academic reasons. As for bona fide marriage accusations, we are providing the following: a) Phone logs between January and June 2005, showing that I called Hua in Norway, China, and Australia everyday for an average of one hour. B) Timeline of our relationship which started in Sept 2001 as a platonic relationship. c) Personal Statement from me. d) Personal Statement from Hua. e) Testimony from close friend and classmate of my wife f) Testimony from James Williams, landlord and housemate g) Bank slip showing that I deposited traveller’s checks into Hua’s bank account shortly after my arrival into Australia. h) My airfare showing that I bought tickets with a return date to the United States on January 25, 2006 so I can stay with Hua here in Australia. i) Fertility charts from March to September 2005 in my handwriting, showing that he has been recording Hua’s morning temperature and bodily signs for several months, so we can prepare for pregnancy in the near future. During our time apart, I recorded information on the charts based on what Hua stated over the phone. These are in the package we are sending. THe landlord and close friend are here with us, so it can be included. We have MANY more testimonies being faxed in from my friends and family including both parents, siblings, and close mutual friends who all have very honest testimonies. We are all sticking to 100% truth and there is absolutely nothing we are hiding. At this point, I really feel it's a matter of whether the consulate is going to treat us humanely or not, as I think the evidence is more than enough. Please let me know if we are on the right track and whether or not you have any other suggestions. Thanks so much, everyone. we've been so devastated, but the support from you guys have helped so much. I also agree we should try not to sound so desperate so we are rescinding on some of those drastic proposals we were planning to make. One of the biggest mistakes I made was expecting that Chinese nationals would be treated with more respect outside of Guangzhou. How sadly mistaken I was. I have heard of Australians who apply for a SPOUSE visa before marriage, and fly in two days before the interview, get married, and fly back to America 3 days later. And at the consulate, all of the australians were met with courtesy, while we had nothing but hostility directed at us.

I would take photos of him, tape his conversations. Do not lose contact with him. This guy needs to be exposed. 154017[/snapback] There's no way we'd get through security with a camera and tape recorder. They are very strict there. And if we pull out a camera, there is no way we are walking out of there, unfortunately.

Lots of encouragement and ideas on VJ. Similar ideas about testomonies from friends and a few perspectives on what might be happening. Someone considered that perhaps it is just cage rattling and we have nothing to worry about? Hard to say, i suppose. I have not posted on Brits yet. I will post on there tomorrow. As for bringing documents to the consulate, it is hard for 2 reasons. We are far away from Sydney, and don't have the time to fly there right now, as my wife is busy with her studies and assignments. Plus, it is expensive for us to keep travelling. Also, we need an appointment to get into the consulate, except on Thursday morning walk-ins and she has classes on Thursdays. I think we will fax for now, and say that all statements are available to be notarized if needed. Hopefully we can at least get a response after they get a few testimonies.

and one more thing... another thing i posted on visajourney which we are considering... --- I was just having lunch with my wife and talking about how desperate we are to be able to be together in the U.S. and plan our future. We thought of what kind of "drastic" measures we would be willing to take. A few ideas popped in our heads, and it sounded to us like it might be ridiculous, bordering on insane, to propose these to the consulate. But we so badly want her to pass (and not have to reapply next year in China and wait) that we'd be willing to do anything to prove our legitimate love for each other. The ideas were: - Find some way to swear before a notary or something under perjury of law that our relationship is legitimate, and perhaps find some way to set a condition on it... i.e. if we get divorced in 10 years, for instance... or if we get divorced EVER, we'd be subject to imprisonment or something? is this even possible to do???? - We were planning on having a baby soon, but for obvious reasons, wanted to take care of the visa and return to the U.S. with a secure job with good healthcare, before conceiving. Would it be crazy to propose to the consulate that we'd be willing to conceive early and send the doctor's report? This is something we'd only be willing to do, if it was a guaranteed visa, since I can't take the risk of being left stranded without a visa, with no decent outlook for our future, and a pregnant wife! Anyway, hope we're not going off the deepend here. And of course, we're going to do the normal routes of having friends write testimonials, etc., before we would go the next step, but I just wanted to have some ideas thrown around as to how other people might approach this. My wife and I also agreed that we have the truth on our side, and given enough time, we would surely pass. But we're afraid that the consulate just doesn't want to approve us, and is planning to just drag their feet with this "administrative process" they are talking about, and wait for us to leave Australia. We feel so robbed. The consulate practically invited us to apply as a 3rd country national under a student visa, saying it was perfectly okay. They were so courteous in their correspondence. And now the "3rd country national under a student visa" is their main criteria for questioning our relationship! Thanks again for any insight. --- we're pretty much open to anything that might be helpful in proving our relationship. Has anyone done anything drastic that really helped, or is the standard stuff like pictures, testimonials, etc? We're just so afraid of losing everything we've done and leaving Australia and not being able to continue in GZ, and end up starting all over :-(

Thanks for the encouragement and ideas, guys. I posted this on Visajourney, which is a recap of what happened... ------ the CO was initially skeptical as to our legitimacy as a couple. Mainly because we started off as a platonic relationship for years before becoming intimate. My wife and I always felt that this is why we have such a strong relationship, because we know each other and trust each other so much. But the CO had a negative perspective on it. He asked me if her parents paid me to marry her, to which I said no. He asked for evidence of a bona fide relationship. I provided the following, and unfortunately, he did not give it more than a glance before handing them back: - about 70 pictures of us from 2001 until the present - chatlogs over the past 9 months or so - emails from 2002 until present - phone logs over a 5 month period, showing an average hour per day phone conversation from overseas. After all this, he still was not convinced, since our "intimate" relationship happened relatively recently and occurred mostly over the phone as detailed here: - After 3+ years of friendship, we took our relationship to the next level last January 2005. Because we were so close as friends, it escalated fast. I also already knew i wanted to spend the rest of my life with her before I even asked her if she loved me. - In March, I visited her for about 2 weeks. We decided to get married - I came back to the states, preparing to live with her in Australia for the duration of her studies there (6 months). I took a leave of absense from work and arrived end of July 2005. Got married August 2nd, 2005 and have been living with her since. the CO said the 2 weeks together in March was not enough, and that it seems that I am just doing her a favor to go to the U.S. He asked for more evidence of a bona fide relationship, and unfortunately that was all we had. He told us: "I'll have to think about it. From what you say, it sounds like a wonderful relationship, but I find it highly unlikely to be true." I asked him if there was anything else I could do, and he told me there was administrative processing to be done anyway. I asked him if a statement of our relationship would help, and he told us to include a timeline and to fax it to the office, which we are working on right now. They initially were going to hold onto her passport to wait for the administrative processing, but because the interview was not passed, he said that he would hand us back the passports, which he did, and that they would contact us. I asked again what we can do, and he said nothing. He said he might call Beijing to see how they would handle such a case, but right now, he's not convinced of a bona fide relationship. I think that covers it, but please let me know if there are any details I missed. ---- The 221g that I got from them did not say anything at all about the lack of a bona fide relationship. It did say that there was administrative processing that needed to be done. Their exact words was that "We need to contact Washington and wait for a response". And also, they returned the passports which to me, meant they weren't ready to issue a visa. Any idea what happened, and where we are in the process? Does the 221g usually mention something about a bona fide relationship needing to be proven, or do I just have to take it verbally from the VO? thanks again, for everything.

thanks for the advice everyone. as far as the details of our relationship, we've been living together since July and plan on living together in Australia until January, and then return to the U.S. together. We plan on typing out a timeline of our relationship for the consulate, and can provide more details. thanks for all the advice on overcome evidence. we plan on doing all of those, but pictures are minimal unfortunately. Neither of us thought of taking many pictures back then :-(

It seems the one thing we were least worried about (the legitimacy of our relationship) was the one thing they didn't accept :-( We had our interview in Sydney today (my chinese wife applied there). The VO simply did not believe in the legitimacy of our relationship. Here is the timeline of our relationship - Met 9/2001 in China - Became close friends when I lived there for about a year - Left China and kept in touch by email and phone - January 2005, decided to take our relationship further (romantic) - March 2005, met for about 12 days in Norway/Denmark - Talked on the phone for over an hour a day starting in March and until the day I arrived in Australia in July. (showed him phone logs) - Got married in August - Interview yesterday He says they hesitate when issuing visas to people of lesser developed countries and found it unlikely that we had a bona fide relationship. I showed chatlogs, emails, and phone logs, and he said that it still didn't look legit to him. There was still some administrative stuff they needed to do, but they said they cannot approve the visa, and that he would have to think about it. He mentioned that he might call Beijing to see how they would handle the situation (although, i think he'll end up talking to Guanzhou). We asked what else we can offer, and he agreed that a written statement from us that describes our relationship might help. But given his demeanor and his attitude, we are incredibly pessimistic. We think this might lead to a rejection. Can anyone offer any advice on how to handle this? Thank you very much.

Thank you for the response and your perspective... very much appreciated I think in GZ, they tend to like to not make an issue out of this, but i'll be in Sydney. Actually, it would make sense that Sydney would make even less of an issue out of this, huh? We'll see. I can't wait to post my experience, about going third-country DCF in Australia. I'm very interested to see how different my experience is doing it here as opposed to GZ!

Oh, she will most definitely be truthful. I was just wondering whether to volunteer more information than was needed. I thought maybe it would be a good gesture to talk to them about the past membership even if they only inquire about current membership. Can I take it to mean that if a former CCP member who has already quit is asked "Are you a member", a "no" would suffice? And if the applicant is asked "Are you or have you ever been a member", a "yes, I am a former member but quit XXX years ago" is the answer to give? From the threads, I gather that CCP membership is a sensitive issue to both the consulate and the applicant, so I just want to make sure we are doing the right thing.

Congratulations!!!

Hank, you might want to read question 17C on the GNI-2 form that is sent with P4 before advising someone to answer NO when they were a member of the party. 152037[/snapback] the P4 from Sydney doesn't include the GNI-2 form, so I was inquiring about if it comes up as a verbal question during the interview. So the only time it comes up for us is in DS-230 Part II, which asks about being a present member of the party, to which it is advised on this board frequently to answer "no" if you already quit. So without thinking about the GNI-2 form, i'm just curious what the best way to approach it would be during the interview. It likely won't even be brought up, but we did indeed prepare a statement if it is asked for.

Hello, I hope this isn't beaten to death, but after reading all of the links on CCP membership, I'd like to ask one more question, regarding how you all would handle approaching former membership with the CCP. Considering that the applicant was a former member but already quit, has an explainable reason for having joined (good for career, or applied during University when it was popular to do so), and is not sympathetic at all to the principles of the party... Upon being asked "Are you a member of the Communist Party", how would you answer? I'm inclined to think that you only need to answer directly to the question being asked, in which case, the answer would be "no". On the other hand, would it be better for the applicant to be as forward and open about it as possible, and perhaps answer something like "no, but I was a former member but quit over a year ago." ...and then proceed with any other Q&A related to the topic? I'm just wondering if volunteering more information than needed is a good thing here, or whether it's preferable to just answer what is asked. After reading the links in here, I'm inclined to think that CCP is not a big problem if you quit already. Waivers usually are only needed if you are still a member? Anyone with very recent experience with this? And do you think we would face more or less difficulty with this in Sydney, as opposed to in Guangzhou? Thanks again, and I look forward to any ideas as to the best way to handle it. edit: Also, i know the GNI-2 asks, but as far as i know, it is not used all the time, only for K1 fiancee visas? According to the DS-230 Part 2, which everyone has to fill out, the ineligibility refers to current members only.

Thanks for all the info, guys. So now that her 6 months has long since passed, I guess a letter to the CCP is unnecessary? I guess all she'll do is be truthful and answer the VO's questions. I'm hoping they won't ask (the interview is done in Sydney, Australia). Also, she never seeked any employment since she's been in college and grad school continuously, so it'll be hard to make a convincing argument saying she needed it for employment. Perhaps she'll just say that at the University, it was recommended by classmates and teachers to join, because future employment would be easier, but she never took advantage of it. Thakns again for the advice, guys

Hello, My wife resigned from the CCP by stopping her monthly payments. According to their policies, membership is automatically terminated after 6 months, from what she was told. But now that the interview is coming up, I just wanted to ask the candleforlove members if they know of a better way to officially quit. How have your SO's handled it? Is there a phone number or an address she can write to to reconfirm the resignation? I really don't want to have to wait for another "letter" to show to the embassy, but I also don't want her to say she quit and find out she's still on the list! I did a search, and couldn't find any info on this, unfortunately. Thanks for any help you can offer!

wow! sweet! that's so weird they wouldn't look at the I-134, i always thought the two main things they worry about were the relationship authenticity and the affadavit of support! congratulations

thanks, and you were one of the people that encouraged me to do this. i was nervous at first, but i'm really glad I stuck with all of your advices Of course, i shouldn't rejoice until/unless we get the visa, but i'm glad that she will have her interview so early, as it will give us 4 months to fix anything they ask of us (we are leaving Australia in January). :)

Well, I arrived in Australia on 7/28, and we got married on 8/2, and immediately sent off the DS-230 and DS-2001's. We just received our appointment letter, faster than we expected, with our interview date for 9/13!!! We gotta hurry up and book the medical appointment, and also, there was an unexpected request for a police certificate for Australia, so we gotta move on that. She already has her documents from China, and everything else seems to be in order. Anyway, please wish us luck. I'm going to go make an appointment for the medical now, and i'll keep you all updated, for those of you who have Chinese SO's studying in Australia and are interested

Thanks guys! In response to the concerns: 1) The bank letter is actual one of two choices for proving assets. The other thing I can provide is 12 months of bank statements, which are available online for me in pdf files. I will print them all out, up until the final interview, so in conjunction with the bank letter, I hope it will be okay As for the employer letter, I think it would be a concern, but my particular case is a bit different, in that there is language on the letter that states that I am on a company-approved leave of absence that begins July and ends May 2006. Since the interview will be during that period, I hope the consulate will find no reason to question my status of a leave-of-absence being any different a couple of months later. 2) I know that this might raise some eyebrows, or people might think i'm ultra-super-naive , but according to visajourney and the DCF process there, i expect her interview to be well before 2006. And actually, if it goes far beyond January 2006, my wife-to-be and I will be out of luck, because her student visa will expire in February. We actually expect to send in the DS-230 and the checklist requesting an interview date in the first week of August, and hopefully get an interview date for September. Of course i'm totally crossing fingers here! (the Aussies applying DCF at Sydney seem to get their interview dates very quickly) If they expect to see 2005 tax returns, it will be quite troublesome, since no one will be in the US to receive my W-2's and I would have to file from overseas. If they ask to see the 2005 returns, I think it will be incredibly problematic, especially due to the tight schedule we would be having nearing the end of her student visa. I am hoping it doesn't happen! Thanks for the comments. I appreciate all the concerns, as it's always best to be prepared for all scenarios.

Hey, about to leave for Australia for a long holiday with my fiancee (chinese citizen in Aussie at University). Can't wait! Gonna be doing DCF there (which will involve the DS-230 apps, the I-130 petition, and I-864). I think I got everything, but if there is something i totally overlooked, it's my last chance now to get it taken care of before i take off! - 2002, 2003, and 2004 tax transcripts (from the IRS) - 2002, 2003, and 2004 W-2's (not really needed, but might ask for it) - Letter of employment indicating my full-time employment, salary, and that i'm on official leave of absence. Signed by my manager on official company letterhead. - A letter from bank stating my total amount of money in my savings account (i will print out statements from online while i'm in australia... 12 months worth, just in case they want to see deposit/withdrawal activity). - Birth Certificate and Passport - Proof of relationship in the following forms: photos, airline tickets visiting her, years worth of emails, chat logs, activity from my telephone calling card - Correspondances with the embassy (faxes and emails that i've printed out) This is all stuff that i think i need as the USC. My fiancee naturally has all the stuff she needs for her end of things. And we will, of course, have the marriage certificate after we get married (which is scheduled for a week from Tuesday). We will also get passport size photographs taken while we are there. Thanks for everything so far on this forum. You guys have been a big help. I'll keep updating for people interested in the DCF from 3rd country process.

congrats!