yuehan123

My wife is in China now. We just spoke about Retirement on WeChat. She said: 1. Retirement age for women has moved up to 60. For men it has incresed to 65. 2. You can no longer simply 'buy' retirement. 3. Her mom did retire recently after obtaining proof of her previous work history and paying up the difference under a special program which has since been terminated. Her mom is and was over 60. 4. My wife's older sister is not yet 60 and is still making annual payments to 'catch up' her reirement account after she also provided proof of her previous employment. 5. Retirement rules are changing at least yearly. 6. Next year family Hukous supposed to be changed to individual only Hukou. 7. Next year Chinese local ID alledgedly to start having fingerprints added. 8. Next year supposed to start 'close' cooperation between local, state and national Police jurisdictions to eliminate Chinese ex-patriot (living outside China) retirement payments.

According to Bloomberg; "The hackers who stole data on tens of millions of U.S. insurance holders and government employees in recent months breached another big target at around the same time -- United Airlines." The article seems to go on to say United not's talking about it.

If this is a typical lawful permanent resident case, there may be an Immigration fee payment required before a G.C. is issued. See: http://www.uscis.gov/uscis-elis/e-filing-using-uscis-elis/paying-uscis-immigrant-fee-uscis-elis/uscis-immigrant-fee

Visit this website to track the Passport: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/cn/cn-niv-passporttrack.asp Passport Tracking OptionsFor your convenience, you have several options to choose from to track the location of your passport. If your status shows "origination scan", it means your passport has left the Embassy or Consulate is on its way to the delivery location you have chosen. It is however not available yet. Only when the status shows "ready for pick up", it means you can go to the CITIC branch you have chosen to pick up your passport. Please do not go to your delivery location if your status does not show "ready for pick up" as it means your passport has not reached its final destination for pick up. The Embassy or the Consulate cannot help you regarding the status of your passport delivery. Please do not contact the Embassy or Consulate regarding the status of your passport delivery. Instant: Enter your passport number below to check on the status.

Yes, they do seem to be fast and efficient. Can't be a gov't progrm can it? What did you decide on the premium service? Congratulations on the addition to your US family.

I agree that I've not heard of any verifiable case that a local I.D. was confiscated. My wife has returned to China many times as USC.

This is definitely relevant to my situation. There is this from the Interview Prep FAQs at: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/prepare/medical-exam-faqs.html "If the applicant is pregnant must she have a chest x-ray? The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) requires that women who are pregnant and required to have a medical examination in connection with the issuance of a visa, and are examined in a country currently using the 2007 TB Technical Instructions must have a chest x-ray examination conducted. Pregnant women will have to provide the panel physician with consent to conduct the chest x-ray. For the health of the applicant and her unborn child, CDC instructs panel physicians and laboratories to provide abdominal and pelvic protection with double layer, wrap-around lead shields when they receive the chest radiographs."

In this case, the medical exam expedited processing was successful with the results ready for pick up at 0800 the day following the exams. More on the changes, the medical fee is up to 1100 rmb. More for expediting.

Sing a tune- 'changes dadada changes...' Fingerprints are taken as part of the interview. Some applicants were inside up to two hours. As noted on this website: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/interview/applicant_interview.html "You must bring all your original forms and documents with you. Your original documents will be returned to you when the interview has been completed. The photocopies will be kept" Note: unable to change paragraph formatting. "They" asked for, and kept, almost all the original documents and the copies. They did not return any. Yet.

I just 'learned' this today about the Guangzhou Visa Medical Process. 1. You need two forms. See: http://www.gdwbzx.com/ Form #1: http://www.gdwbzx.com/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=438 Form #2: http://www.gdwbzx.com/ReadNews.asp?NewsID=439 2. You need 8 passport photos for the medical plus two for the Interview plus your Interview appointment letter. 3. If you stand in line with incomplete forms or are missing anything you will be sent away. You will not be given a number. 4. The number of morning and afternoon numbers given out are limited. 5. #29 was not called until 10:00 a.m. 6. The last morning numbers were given out around 10:00 a.m. 7. The X-ray room Doctors pointed out a 'new' Consulate Policy Notice on their wall. Any shadow or any doubt in an x-ray requires a 3 day TB test. 8. You will given a pick up slip and a pick up time. 9. You may pay for expedited service with no guarantee you will get faster service.

There is a website you can use to check the status. At least, if it tells you the same thing as the call center you will know what the system knows. https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=o/iS8zDpeAKjMWCuebHqOw== On our recent case NVC records dropped the case like a hot potato. That is, when they said they were done and an interview would be scheduled, it only took about a week for the case status webpage to update from "AT NVC" to "AT GUZ." In fact, I checked today to see if the link and webpage works. Case status has changed from "at guz" to "administrative processing." 3 months is a long time. Perhaps someone else who filed with snail mail recently will tell their experience.

I suppose you are being sarcastic. who knows on these forums. I tried, in my limited way, to agree with you.

NVC has requested prior to this issue: "Please place your case number in the subject line of the email and keep your attachments below five megabytes (MB)." Here: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Submit_documents.html#method1 5 mb is not so much. I had to resize all my .pdfs for submission. These 10 files were all submitted electronically April 15. By April 22nd I had an e-mail that 6 of the 10 files I had already sent were needed. This time (April 22) they specified "Please place the Case number in the upper right hand corner of each page of every document." Prior, they had only requested the Case number in the Subject line and in each Document Title. On May 12th they again requested 4 of the 6, the same as the first 10 I had already sent. So, these 4 files were sent 3 times. On June 16th I received an e-mail that "...all documents have been received." Note that this took place during the down time period. Later, the snail mail arrived postmarked June 18th stating the Interview has been scheduled. Therefore, yes document processing and Interview scheduling continued during the down time.

NVC sent an e-mail to us on Sunday. At least the e-mail date claims it was Sunday, June 21. The e-mail is assigning a 'new', as opposed to a rescheduled interview date on July 28th. This implies the system is fixed.

More likely than not, the lawyer will tell you to fill out the forms and gather all the proof of relationship anyway. After you do all that you might just as well mail it in yourself instead of paying the lawyer a $1000, plus to mail it for you. Depends on if you got more time than money or vice versa.

Yep, broken. Again. and in between somebody hacked everything. But, no it's not hacking related. Yeah, right. Here's what the Travel.gov site said on the link Randy gave: "This issue is not specific to any particular country or visa category; this is a global issue. We do not believe these problems stem from any cyber-security hacking issues."

I submitted the actual visa application with all required forms as attachments to NVC on April 15. Multiple requests from them and re-submittals by me for forms already sent on April 15, I got this today, June 17: "All documentation necessary to complete the National Visa Center's processing of your case has been received. As soon as an interview date has been scheduled, the applicant, petitioner and attorney (if applicable) will be notified." They initially stated, give us 60 days to process. Later, during each subsequent document submittal they stated, give us 45 days to review this, we'll get back to you. Last document submittal was May 12th. No interview scheduled yet, but the system slogs along. p.s. I called as often as every day. Never got through. "Due to extremely high call volume...."

In a different topic, some days, or weeks ago, I discussed that my wife was able to receive, in the US, the "China" based Credit Card and ticket Reservation confirmations on her Chinese Based Cellphone using a Chinese based WeChat. This takes place in a WeChat subfolder called Wallet. She does that sorta as Randy says. Her Samsung Notepad 4 (from China) has 2 SIM cards available. One from China one from At&t. Which card doesn't seem to matter now with the WeChat Service.

No on line Tax Transcripts for now. From the Transcript website: Alert:The online Get Transcript service is currently unavailable. Transcripts may still be ordered using the Get Transcript by Mail service. We apologize for any inconvenience. Why? A "sophisticated" organized crime syndicate used the IRS website to steal tax forms full of personal financial information on 104,000 taxpayers, the agency said Tuesday. See the website story: http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/26/pf/taxes/irs-website-data-hack/index.html How did it happen? The bad guys used all ready stolen data available to them to pose as real people. Now they really have the data they need. whattya gonna do? Live in florida, Georgia or D.C? Try this: IRS IP PIN pilot continues in Georgia, Florida and the District of Columbia See: http://www.irs.gov/uac/Newsroom/IRS-IP-PIN-pilot-continues-in-Georgia,-Florida-and-the-District-of-Columbia

OK, so it is a very slow bear. The confirmation e-mail rumbled out of the tunnel at 12:49. Perhaps 30 minutes after the initial activation.

Downloaded and installed Chrome. downloaded and Installed tunnelbear. Alas, Rawwrr. no email received to confirm activation.

I followed some links two weeks ago, or so, and ended up with this called ASK NVC!: http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/english/contact/ask-nvc.html I did ask them. The reply I got today said: "We received the 'blah-blah' document. However, we are still waiting for the response to the checklist letter for the Immigrant Visa Application or civil documentation. Please return the requested information so that we may complete the processing." Oh, brother, I already sent them the checklist cover sheet and all requested documents along with the document they admit they have received. Maybe one hand really doesn't know what the other hand is doing. In each case, they acknowledge receipt of some attached .pdf documents, but not all of them. I usually cc: myself and have opened all sent attached documents on each e-mail. Same decision/dilemma as C4Racer just went through. Send it again, reset a 60 day clock. Don't send it and wait 'forever.' Called 32 times so far today.

Congratulations. Best wishes on Interview day.

I also called the NVC within the last week. The recording I connected to stated "Due to extremely high call volumes we are unable to take your call. Please check our website...." and then, the line disconnected to dial tone.

The Chinese women I have information about took one of the three routes already recommended above. Some attended ESL and then the local Technical School to obtain their 'haircut,' 'facial,' or 'nails' license. Some of the others, one way or another, found the boss who owns the School and thus, the tests, and in short order (pay enough) they all obtained massage licenses for their respective states. Others continue to work in the Chinese Buffets. Usually for tips only. And also, as mentioned, for long and tedious hours 6 days a week, or more. One went to work for Panda Express. Hard work, somewhat flexible hours. Benefits. Three noteworthy benefits. First, up to one month off with only local store manager's approval to return to China (or anywhere else) for vacation and then immediately return to work at the ame job level and location. 2nd, eligible full range of Medical, Dental and eyewear after 6 months of 30 hours minimum per week. 3rd, flexible work schedules. Ability, with managers' support, to accomodate evenings and week ends while you attend school.