Corey&Xu

I am curious Rob.........were you born and raised here in the United States? Just my observation but you really seem to have an axe to grind and I am wondering if it has to do with your personal experiences being raised in the USA?

Thanks everyone for the replies. We will try again through ICBC and if it does not work then we will look to open another account at a different bank or do the transfer through one of her friends accounts if we need to. We will need to look into that closely as she is here in the US so verifying it is her making the wire transfer may be a little tricky on a new account. We will give them again all of the proper codes and routing numbers so hopefully it will go through.

Hi All, We are trying to bring some money here from China and I wanted to see if anyone could help us that has had experience doing this. We tried last week to wire transfer from ICBC-International Commercial Bank of China to BOA-Bank of America and the transfer reciept said it was completed correctly but BOA never recieved the wire or any contact from ICBC and a few days later it was back in the account at ICBC. My wife has talked with her bank and as near as I can tell it sounds like the clerk was not sure what to do. BOA told me they can recieve wire transfers from ICBC but can do nothing until they make the transfer request. ICBC website has BOA selection to transfer too so.....? We are trying to do this through the bank to avoid any heavy fee's. Is there a better way? Maybe need to open accounts at another bank? Thanks,

Great news! Time to relax and enjoy being together.

Thanks for your reply Dave. I am hopful that we will follow the same path. If I am understanding it correctly the 11th grade is a big year in regards to colleges looking at future prospects and students preparing for college. We will just do the best we can for him.......

Good write up, but what are "AP" & "ABC" please? Richard, This is not on topic but I wanted to be sure to wish you well for your upcoming interview......I am sure you and Amanda will sail through!

Thanks Missingyou. That is exactly what we feel we want to avoid is having him set back a year. It is all new territory for my wife and I so we just want to try to get it right for Michael.

Hi Corey, I would go back only to the 9th grade because most middle schools in NC are for socializing........ As far as Math goes they will test him and they will check his English too. It is good he speaks English...He is far ahead of my boys... . I don't know whether they will give him credit for subjects taken in China (Probably not). Tom and Ling Thanks Tom.......we are trying to get all of his records for 9th and 10th grade. Two different schools so we will see......

My daughter came here last August to start 11th grade. She was going into 11th grade in China, and I did not move her back. Her math and science were so far ahead of USA students, she would have just wasted a year of her life if I sent her to 10th grade. Here is what I know. High school in China is only 10 - 12, but high school in America is 9-12, so you need a transcript from both the Chinese middle school and Chinese high school. The Chinese schools do this often, know what they are doing, and will translate the grades and classes to English and 4.0 grade system. The content of classes in China is not clear from the name of the classes on the sheet, so you need to understand what content was taught in social studies or math or whatever class in China, then the registrar in America can map the class properly. Classes in China are much more difficult than std. classes in America, and should be credited as "AP" classes in many cases (adds 10 points to grade). The American school will only grant AP credit if the school in china marks classes as "advanced courses deserving additional credit" or some such notation. As for immunizations, most you will get as part of the visa (if you are cr/1). The additional shots are the 2 follow up hepatitus shots and some other follow-ups I dont remember. point is you cant get them all in china no matter what, and at health dept. they are cheap, so it is not a big worry. Do be sure and get a record (official yellow book) of shots received in china so he doesnt have to get them again in america. ESL classes were a terrible waste of my daughters time. I enrolled her in ESL so she could get help with homework etc., but in truth I think they were a waste of her time. She would have done better spending that time talking to american student. My daughter was great in english in china, scored 99 or 100 on most of her tests. She could speak to me most times, and communicate without issue. Upon going to class here, for the first 6 months she did not understand anything the teachers said. Fortunately there were ABC students in her classes, and they helped her with homework assignments etc. By 6 months, she could understand her teachers, and is doing much better. My point to this is, even a brilliant student from China will suffer in american school for a while. Thank you for such a detailed response. Your input along with all the others is exactly what I was hoping for. I agree that at first it will be a big adjustment.......just hoping he will settle in quickly, have fun and feel like he is home.

Thanks Tom, I have the requirements as far as immunizations but the transcrits portion from the school was not precise. They basically said "get as much information as possible". Michael has been attending a high school that has all of the classes in english. He can read, write and speak english very well. I think the high school he is in can hopefully provide a transcript for the past year in english. The previous year was a different school as 9th grade in Beijing was considered a middle school. I am not sure how far back I need to go....1 year...maybe 2? I am sure each state and county is a little different.....just thought it would help to know what others experienced. Thanks, One of the more important things needed is proof of certain vaccinations that are required by all students. You can ask the school about what vaccinations are required. Hi Corey&Xu, Like samsong said...get what the High School requires for immunizations. Ling and I got all the immunizations in GUZ and it was enough to satisfy the High School. The boys brought their immunization records from China and make sure that Xu gets those records. Ling translated the records and the doctor in Chapel Hill was satisfied with the translation. And what the boys had in GUZ was mostly booster shots. One of the biggest problems the boys had was English. They don't speak english and so the middle school put them in the eight grade, and they would have gone on to High School next year ,,based on age. I was totally against this but the school was insistant, however, two weeks later the middle school agreed with me and placed them back one year so that they could get more English behind them before going off to High School. You won't have that problem since your boy is already in High School, but how well does your boy speak Engish?? You might want High School records from China and have them translated. There are translators here in North carolina at most schools but it might be easier to have it done there,,however it is free in North Carolina,,atleast it was for us. Phillips Middle school had a Chinese translator for our parent/teacher conference. Tom and Ling

We are getting soooooo close to getting our son here! I am hopeful it will be within the next few weeks and once he is here we need to register him for school. My question is for those who have gone through this....What do I need to get from his school? How many years going back? If it is translated in China does it help or need to be notarized? Can we translate it ourselves? Michael is a rising 11th grader. Thanks for the help,

Hi Tom, I just saw this post..........We have already been through this as a K-1. Our biometrics and interview was in the Raleigh office....which as you indicated is in rtp. The office is pretty new and very nice. They were not to crowded and the officers we dealt with were very nice and very helpful. The office is right by the intersection of Rt 40 and Miami blvd. It is back behind the hotel and very easy to find. Good Luck!

Yes......It seems recently they are requesting DNA more and more. We had custody papers, a letter from the father and all of the certificates so it came as a surprise to us that they wanted DNA. The process is not difficult but it does take time. You have to select and pay for the DNA lab here in the USA first. They fed ex the swab kit to the consulate. Once the consulate has the kit you can call for an appointment to have the swab done by the consulate physician but they schedule them in order of received so what we found out was they were very backlogged. As you can see it took two months for his appointment........once the swab is done (stepson's in China, Hers here in USA) they are sent to the lab here in the USA, tested and the results sent back to the consulate. We are now waiting for the consulate to process the results and i hope it is quicker then the wait for the swab. Are you in the same boat? If so I hope they have reduced their backlog. We are in the process of petitioning stepson. To have to make two trips to GUZ land with yan being in the US and working two jobs would be a real pain.Yan has family in ChengDu but it would be difficult for them also. Good Luck.....I hope everything goes smoothly for you.

Yes......It seems recently they are requesting DNA more and more. We had custody papers, a letter from the father and all of the certificates so it came as a surprise to us that they wanted DNA. The process is not difficult but it does take time. You have to select and pay for the DNA lab here in the USA first. They fed ex the swab kit to the consulate. Once the consulate has the kit you can call for an appointment to have the swab done by the consulate physician but they schedule them in order of received so what we found out was they were very backlogged. As you can see it took two months for his appointment........once the swab is done (stepson's in China, Hers here in USA) they are sent to the lab here in the USA, tested and the results sent back to the consulate. We are now waiting for the consulate to process the results and i hope it is quicker then the wait for the swab. Are you in the same boat? If so I hope they have reduced their backlog.

steve and rong went thru the dna testing and the best i can remember you should expect to hear something in the next few weeks. Thanks£¡

We are doing a K2 follow to join for my wifes son and when she went for the interview they gave him a blue slip and requested DNA. This has delayed him getting here but if that is what we need to do then we will get it done. It took about two months just to get him into the consulate to have the swab done, then back to us for the testing, and back to the consulate with results. The consulate received the DNA results on 4/14/09. My question is how long will it take before they will send out an approval notice for the visa? Anyone with any experience with this would be a big help to hear from you. Thanks,

Dylan and Wendy, Congradulations on the approval. Reading your write up made me think of our approval and how at peace we felt after getting the visa......I can sense that in your write up and you both deserve it.....enjoy the days in China and have a safe trip back to the USA. the future is now wide open for you....treasure each day together.

Thanks!

We are on a very close timeline of both of you for AOS. Where do I go to see if our file has been touched or is moving? We already received the EAD card and also AP at the end of december. Really looking forward to getting her green card. Thanks,

Dennis, I very rarely post but this is a very interesting topic so I felt like adding me two cents. First I will say I have read many of your posts and so I am certain that you are a good soul so I am merely stating my opinion. " you can sugar coat a turd and sell it as the best candy ever....it still is a turd" Your loyalty to your wife is key.......but it is a two way street. Me personally I would lay it out that the sister in law must come clean to Al within a few days or you will do it for her. I would never allow this to pass in my house........the marriage I have with my wife is based on COMPLETE HONESTY and relationships are difficult enough without throwing in more s..t to deal with. The fact that Al is naive and is in way over his head makes it even more important that he is told. You or I may have found our wives without any of these conditions in play but all of us had to go through the "what if" senario's prior to making that leap and traveling to China..........the level of dishonesty towards Al is just wrong. The conclusion in my opinion is "man up" and run your household from a position of honesty and respect towards ALL OTHERS and the rest of her family will follow your lead. My wife also would never play a part in this either.......honesty for her comes first. I vote to tell him. Corey I GOT MYSELF INTO? Why am I feeling like Fred Mertz, Larry David, or ...? From the posts, so far: Tell him: Randy TimB Whutthapho Wendy W Cathy Tony and Terrific Rob Jin Amberjack Amand 10 Don't tell him: Richard and Li George Lee Jhammer Aussie in love Michaln Warpedboard DanR pkfops 8 Looks like I should have made a poll.

Thanks Don, We will file it fairly quickly so we can get him here next summer. K-2 needs to be issued within 1 year after the K-1 to FTJ, so I would not wait longer than 6 months or so after the K-1 was issued to start the K-2 FTJ process.

Randy & Lee, Thanks for you replies. Lee- I think the K-2 Follow to join is the way for us to go. I was looking at your timeline and noticed it was a number of months from your wife's visa until you filed the follow to join K-2. Is there a time limit to file this way? Did you reschedule your interview because of waiting for AP? What will I need to have from her son's father if anything to allow him to come here? Thanks again,

I am currently working my way through the paperwork for my wife's AOS. The question I have is can i petition (I-130)now also to bring her son here? He is 16 years old and we waited so he could finish this school year in China and then come over. Can we file the petition now? How long does it usually take? What are the concerns that could possibly delay a visa for him? Does his Mom have to be with him for his interview? Any information of feedback would be helpful. thanks,

Is there any way to coordinate / plan for a specific interview date? Is the interview date tied to the P4 return? If you want the longest leeway between P4 and interview, what would be the best time frame to return the P4? Or is it just a crap-shoot regardless? Bill, I am certainly no expert as I have not been through the process but the only thing I tried to guage it by was everyone's posted timelines. Like all the others I also was calling DOS everyday to see when we were eligible for the interview and then when we were scheduled. Based on that I thought we were looking at a late August early September interview but ended up with August 5th. go figure! Sorry if this only makes it more confusing.

Bummer! We have all the P-4 documents downloaded, done, and ready to go as well as all the certificates and translations and notarizations and everything else. Apparently, we just need that %$@# appointment letter so she can get the medical. I think its kinda crummy that we had less than 3 weeks to prepare for all this (enough time (if we get the documents in time), but still), and we'll have less than 2 weeks by the time we get the P-4. If my fiancee hasn't received the P-4 by this time next week though, I don't think we have any other choice but to reschedule the interview. But I'm not that pessimistic yet, I'm still hoping she'll get it by the end of this week. I am in the same boat with you. Our Interview is the 5th. My fiance just received the P-4 packet today. You can see from our timeline that DOS gave us the same date of the 16th as the P-4 being sent. I hope you get your packet soon and good luck at the interview.