lynne

I just found out my husband passed his interview. He said they only asked a few questions and didn't look at any pictures or documents or anything.

Doug, as someone who has a really bad timeline I know how you feel. I got really depressed sometimes seeing how things got so messed up for us and others who started the process long after were much further ahead. We've finaly got an interview 18 months since starting the process. It seems like you might go longer than that and it is far too long of a wait. What GZ does doesn't make sense, I think CR-1 cases should have priority, especially cases like yours that have already had several delays. I wish you the best and hope that there will be some good news in your case in the near future.

That is a very funny story! You have to be carefull where you are in China too, there can be very deceptive names for things. At a small resturaunt they were out of whatever I had ordered at first and the lady asked if tianji would be ok. She showed me the characters on the menu and it was tian field and ji like the character in Chicken. So I thought field bird must be a pheasant or something, why not try it. I soon found out that in some parts of Fujian "field bird" means frog. Not the best meal I've had in China.

I just found out my husband is planning on brinning a video tape. Since we lived in China together and have a baby they probably won't question our relationship and ability to communicate, but why not bring one? I had a video camera while in China and we taped a vacation with my husband's friends and our wedding which show lots of communication. I am sure he will bring far more than he needs to the interview. Even if the VO doesn't want to watch the tape it must really look good for them to see that you have one.

I know exactly how you feel Katrina. There when times when I didn't check CFL for quite a while because it was so depressing, especially when we were so far away from an interview and our timeline is so bad compares to others. But it always feels so great everytime you get one step closer!!!

Thats great news Katrina! I really hope the rest of the process will go quickly for you.

I worked in China for all three tax years and hadn't filed while I was there, someone told me that it is better to file so I did this all at once. For each year as well as a 1040 I filled out a 2555-EZ Foreign Earned Income Exclusion form. I still had to write a letter explaining why there were no W2s. I simply wrote that for the three tax years I was working in China and was qualified to take the Foreign Earned Income tax exemption. As I was working for a foreign company I am unable to provide W2s.

Oh well, my husband isn't familiar with Guangzhou where he will have to exchange RMB for US$. I trust that he will find somewhere soon and will be carefull not to get counterfit money. I am sure he'll send it Western Union right away after that.

That is great news! You've had a long wait and I'm happy to see they considered that! I hope that this will happen to other cases that have been delayed in the future.

I thinks I read somewhere a while back that some people have had problems exchanging RMB even after they have a visa, that there might be some limits on how much you can exchange? Also has anyone exchanged money on the black market in Guangzhou recently? Are places to exchange easy to find? We'll need to get some money out of China and to the US before my husbands interview, we have done this before but in a different city. We need to move before he gets here and with a deposit, first months rent, and furniture we will go through a lot of money very quickly.

I think it is usually a month, for our case and I think several others who have interviews in September have had more than a month notice between p4 and interview.

We are having problems like this as well. I beleive that once you SO has a visa then the bank will change the assets into US dollars then the safest way is to do a transfer into a bank account in the US. My husband wants to exchange some money right now before he has a visa and has no idea of how to do it in Guangzhou. In Xiamen the banks wouldn't let me exchange RMB for US dollars because my Chinese bank account was over a year old and I didn't keep the documentation they gave me when I opened the account. I ended up exchanging quite a large amount of money on the street which I really hated doing. Banking in China is so frustrating! I knew of a lot of people who were living in the US or other countries abroad and renting out their apartment in China. I don't think this would be a problem now but you never can tell what might happen in the future.

I had some really good cheese sent to me from the US while we were living in China. I will never forget the look on my husband face when he tried it, he said it was the worst thing he ever ate. Now when we talk about if he can get used to the food here he always says he can eat anything except cheese.

If you do get your CR-1 then I think the wait is two years for that point until you get the 10 year green card. Our case was so delayed we will be missing the IR-1 by just a few months. I wouldn't want to deal with this stuff again soon after he gets here.

I would love to be able to be there, but there is no way that I am going to make a another trip to China with our son who will be turning 1 on Sept. 10th. My husband says he's almost got all the documents he needs but I really wish I could be there to help him prepare everything for his interview.