Eric
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Posts posted by Eric
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There is no type of NOA sent out after submitting a DS-160 and you and/or your in-laws will not hear anything else until additional steps are taken. When the DS-160 is submitted electronically a confirmation number for the application is generated which you indicated you have. The next step is to pay the visa application fee at a participating CITIC bank branch and then a visa interview needs to be scheduled by calling the Visa Information Center in Shanghai - all non-immigrant visa interviews (excluding K visas) in mainland China are scheduled through the Visa Information Center regardless of which Embassy/Consulate the interview takes place. You will need the application confirmation number to schedule the interview.
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In laws are there (China)-We're here (U.S.).......can we e-file DS-160 from here FOR the in laws?
My in-laws are on their second set of B-2s and each time, I have filled out their DS-160 and electronically submitted it for them without any problems. I fill it out, submit it and then email my in-laws the confirmation page which is what they will need to present at their interview. There is a section at the end of the DS-160 which asks if anyone assisted you with completing the application and I have always entered my name & information there.
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My mother-in-law received her second B-2 last week by using the visa drop off service - it was a very quick and efficient process. She did not submit any financial or property ownership documentation with her application this time, just the minimum requirements - Passport, DS-160 confirmation page, 1 passport sized photo, receipt for visa fee payment, plus an invitation letter from me. Her passport was received by Guangzhou and the visa was approved and sent back very quickly - her time line was as follows:
Monday: Dropped off passport & visa materials at a CITIC bank branch in Xiamen
Wednesday: Visa approved/issued by Guangzhou Consulate
Thursday: MIL received a text message from GUZ stating that her visa had been approved & was being mailed back to her
Friday: Passport/visa delivered via EMS in Xiamen
All in all, you could not have asked for better service.
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Were a bit nervous because Tin is still waiting for her 10 year card and her 2 year is expired and were traveling on an extension letter.
We have heard horror stories about the exit authority thinking the extension letter is just a receipt or other such nonsense. We could not get immigration to give her a stamp in her passport so keep your fingers crossed.
My wife and I traveled back to China this past February when my wife had an expired 2 year green card and she didn't experience any problems at all. We exited China via Xiamen and both the Korean Airlines ticket agent and the Chinese immigration official who we encountered knew exactly what the extension letter was and did not give it a second thought. Good luck and have a great trip!
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Finally I will be on a long flight in a 747, outbound. I have been wanting that my whole life. It is a -400, hope the interior is worth
I flew to China on a Delta 747-400 2 years ago and I have specifically avoided doing so again ever since. Delta inherited their entire 747 fleet from Northwest airlines when they merged and the interiors on those planes were really dated & worn out - economy class did not have personal audio/video systems, instead they were still outfitted with overhead TVs. The good news though is that Delta began retrofitting the interiors of their 747 fleet and the last that I heard was that the retrofitting was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. So hopefully your flight will be using one of the planes with an updated interior.
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I got one of the 24 month multi-entry visas for my son which we used for a trip this past February and I did not have to provide originals of anything except for my son's passport - I sent copies of his birth certificate, my wife & I's marriage certificate, wife's Chinese passport information pages and her green card to the visa service that I used (www.mychinavisa.com). I received his passport & visa back in less than 1 week without any issues. I would not feel comfortable sending originals of all of those items via the mail - it would cause way too many problems if they were to get lost. If the visa service you are planning on using really is requiring the originals to be sent to them then I would use a different service.
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My wife and I took our son to China this past January-February for the Spring Festival and he was about 11 months old at the time. I recommend that you call the airline and let them know that you will be traveling with an infant and would like to request a bassinet for the flight. Using one of the bassinets makes a big difference - my son slept in his for most of the flight. The bassinets can only be used on certain bulkhead rows, so they are very limited and need to be reserved well in advance. Before the flight, you can also request an infant meal for your son consisting of either baby food or formula (your choice).
As Dan has already mentioned you will need to get your son a passport and you will also need to get him a Chinese visa as well. I was able to get one of the 2 year multi-entry visas for my son without any trouble - just needed to send in a copy of his birth certificate and copies of my wife's Chinese passport information pages and green card with the visa application.
We also took a lot of baby food & formula with us - filled up one big suitcase and several carry-ons with it, as my wife does not trust the Chinese brands after the big fiasco with the tainted baby formula that happened a couple of years ago.
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My wife is from Zhangzhou, so getting a gig at Xiamen would be a dream come true for her! I heard it was difficult to get selected as a teacher there.
My wife is from Xiamen and she has several aunts/uncles/cousins who live in Zhangzhou who we go visit during our trips. She was an English teacher at Xiamen Foreign Language School which has both a Middle School & High School campus in Xiamen and employs 90+ English teachers each school year - including a fair number of foreign teachers. I have met several of the foreign teachers who have worked there over the past several years and each of them were satisfied with their job & employment benefits. You may want to check this school out during your search - however they do require at minimum a Bachelors degree and either a teacher's certification or TESOL/TESL/TEFL certificate.
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I wonder if GUZ is harder for the visitor visa given all that they see there for IV and students already...
My in-laws interviewed and received their B-2s from the GUZ consulate. They thought that their interview was easy and also said that pretty much everyone who interviewed for B-2s the same day that they did were also approved. My wife also has several cousins who received B-2s from GUZ without any problems. So based solely upon our family's experiences I would say no.
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No longer an option, ACH has been discontinued for a couple years now.
Yep - I attended ACH back in 2009. Too bad they discontinued it, I found it to be very useful not just for the Fujian question that I had but also because they were able to fix a problem with my birth date being entered into their system incorrectly - the VO that I encountered was very professional & helpful.
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Again, my biggest concern both my previous and current wife are from Fujian, as I learned this is the Nigeria of China.
My biggest concern is the Fuzhou or Fujian province part. As I have heard way too many stories about peopel getting rejected from this area.
IMHO, Fujian = automatic red flag is mostly an urban legend that has been blown way out of proportion via the internet. Like you, I too had read many horror stories about Fujian province causing problems with obtaining a visa whenever I first started to research the visa process for my wife (who is also from Fujian).
So I attended ACH before my wife's visa interview and asked a VO about this and he then asked me the following - does your wife (then fiancée) speak English (yes) & what city is she from (Xiamen). His response after hearing my answers was - 'You should be fine'. He then went on to tell me that being from Fujian province doesn't cause any more scrutiny than being from any other province however he did reveal that there are certain 'watch' areas within Fujian that could cause more scrutiny if certain other factors also existed. But he also said that there were these 'watch' areas in all the other provinces as well, not just Fujian. He wouldn't tell me what the 'watch' areas were other than to say that Xiamen was not one of them. My experiences since then, has backed this up in that my wife's K-1 visa was approved after a short 2-3 minute interview and that my wife's parents and several cousins who are all from Fujian have since successfully received tourist visas to the US after very short interviews.
My two cents is that the fact that both your ex-wife and your current fiancée were introduced to you by family members and that they are from the same area (no matter what province that may be) in China will be the biggest red flag & obstacle for you to overcome. These two things coupled with the fact that you met your fiancée shortly after your divorce was finalized and then got engaged on your first trip to visit her could cause a VO to be highly suspicious and conclude that the relationship is not bona-fide . I am not saying that such a conclusion would be the right one but just pointing out the possibility.
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Hello, I have some questions. Are two year tourist L type visa still available? In this topic it seems like it may not be. Whereas in Zhou Zhou's reply in the pinned post ( at the top of the page) on this subject suggests that they are. Last year at Xmas I didn't feel they were they were. The info listed by the consulate's site indicated that they were only available to China born applicants? I am going try doing it thru Oasis but are there any special ways to answer the questions? Any clarification were be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Danb
I was recently able to get the 24 month visa for both myself and my son issued by the Houston Consulate without any problems. I always use China Visa Service Center to get my visas and on their website (www.mychinavisa.com) they do mention that the 24 month visas are not available from the San Francisco Consulate.
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where is the Customs for entry into China when you take the rail out of HK?
what about return, where is customs for HK?
We cross at Lo Wu. Basically you get off the HK light rail train, go through the customs station there, then walk out right into to the Shenzhen transportatio center. There you can catch a bus,, a standard rail train, or the high speed train to the Guangzhou train station. I recommend the hish speed train. It's about one hour to Guangzhou at about 110 mph.
Another option, which I usually do, is to just take the direct HK-GUZ train which departs out of the Hung Hom station in Kowloon and runs 12 times a day. You go through HK exit customs/immigration at the Hung Hom station and then go through China entry customs/immigration at the Guangzhou East station which usually goes very fast. The train does not stop at the border and the entire trip takes about an hour and 50 minutes. The fare is HKD$190 (~$25US).
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The time to submit my wife's paperwork for removal of conditions is fast approaching and I have been gathering up all the necessary documentation/evidence but have a question in regards to children and the I-751. My wife and I have a son who was born in the U.S. after my wife immigrated and is a US citizen - my question is should I list him on Part 5 of the I-751, which is the section about your children. My first thought was to include him on the form as it asks for information of all children but then after looking into things a bit more it seems as maybe only children who also require a removal of conditions should be included on the form. Thoughts? Thanks!
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Yes, I am trying to look ahead to possibly getting a vistor's visa for Baba. I am just trying to determine if there is anything I can do now while we are still here in China to possibly improving his chances of getting a visa.
You may want to go ahead and fill out an online DS-160 for him, submit it and then print out the confirmation page that he will need to take to the interview with him. You could then also call the Visa Information Center in Shanghai and setup an interview for him. I took care of all these steps for my in-laws B-2s.
Be forewarned - the online DS-160 is still pretty buggy, it tends to time-out much quicker than the advertised 20 minutes of non-activity. If it times out then you lose all unsaved data, so make sure that you save everything after entering each page of information. My advice would be to print out one of the sample DS-160 forms that is available online, go over the questions asked and make sure that you gather up everything that you need to answer the questions before actually beginning the form in order to better avoid timeouts due to looking around for the needed information.
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By the way does anyone else think its a good idea to fly in and out of Hong Kong to get to GZ? You can go nonstop and it seems a little cheaper. The high speed train between HK and Gz is only about an hour and a half.
I have taken this option several times myself as flying into HK is usually much less expensive than flying into GUZ for me (all depends on where you will be flying from though). The train between HK and GUZ is a good and inexpensive option (~$25US) and is easy to do. There are 12 trains a day that run the HK-GUZ route so you should be able to find one that fits into your schedule. One thing to note though - the trains on this route are not actually high speed trains and the travel time is closer to 2 hours. But the good thing is that the trains arrive at the Guangzhou East railway station which is only a few minutes walk from the consulate.
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Well, yes, BUT - the catch is that SOMEONE needs to show financial responsibility for the trip. If they DO NOT HAVE "a level of socio-economic stability in the home country that is sufficient to overcome the burden of presumed immigrant intent" , then they obviously can't show that they do. The burden then falls on the inviter. This DOES NOT rule out a visa, however, provided they can show OTHER sufficient ties to their homeland.
I would think that the bar on proving that level of "socio-economic stability" would be higher than most of our Chinese relatives can prove.
What was odd about my in-laws B-2 interview was that they could have easily proven a sufficient level of "socio-economic stability" for themselves but were never asked to - the VO only wanted to see an I-134 from me. In fact, the VO asked just as many questions about my wife and I as she did about my in-laws which I found to be a bit odd. This is what was asked during their interview:
1. Why do you want to visit the US? To visit our daughter and her husband and to help them out whenever their baby is born in February.
2. How long do you plan to stay? We will go in February and stay 2-3 months - we need to return to China before the summer break starts because we will need to keep our grandsons in Xiamen during that time.
3. How did your daughter and her husband meet? They originally met online and then my son in law came to China to visit 4 times before they were married.
4. When did your daughter move to the US? July 2009
5. What company does your son-in-law work for? My mother-in-law gave the VO one of my business cards
6. How many family members do you have that live in China? My Mother in law had made a small photo album of family photos which she showed to the VO and briefly explained who the various people in them were.
The VO then asked to see the I-134 which I had filled out for them - she looked it over and then returned it to my in-laws at which time she said - "No problem - you get the visas".
My MIL did remark that she felt that the decision to approve their visas had already been predetermined before their interview.
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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 can only comment on my in-laws' B-2 visa experience and what I did this past October. For several months prior to their visa application it seemed that there was a growing trend being reported on this and other boards that indicated that an I-134 was being requested from B-2 applicants, particularly those who were retirees. So I took the safe route and filled out an I-134 for my in-laws just in case one was asked for at their interview.
My in-laws both draw very good retirement incomes, have sizable bank account balances, stock holdings and own several apartments. They took all the proper documentation verifying all of this to the interview however none of that was asked for but they were asked if they had an I-134 from me and/or my wife. The VO asked to look at the I-134 and after giving it a good look over told them that their visas were approved. The VO then immediatly returned the I-134 to them - it was not kept.
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hello, can anyone help us with the steps involved for my wifes parents coming to the u.s. for a one month visit? My wife has her 2 year conditional residence green card. Her parents live in Shandong province and are in their 70s. Thanks for any guidance you can provice
Compared to getting a Fianc¨¦e or Spouse visa the steps needed for obtaining a tourist visa are much more straight forward. Basically it boils down to each of your in-laws will need to fill out & submit an online DS-160 non-immigrant visa application form (or you can do this for them)and print out the confirmation pages. The forms are submitted electronically, so there is no need to mail in anything. You then call the Visa Information Center in Shanghai to set up an interview appointment at the Consulate/Embassy of your choosing (don't have to reside in a particular consulate's district). When I did this for my in-laws a couple of months back they were able to get an interview scheduled within 3 weeks, so the process moves pretty fast. Your in-laws of course will need to take proof of strong ties to China with them to the interview and I would recommend filling out an I-134 Support Affidavit for them as well (the VO who interviewed my in-laws asked for one and gave it a long look).
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I'm suspecting it may have been because we did not supply the I-134.
I'll have my wife call home again tonight and see if I can get some more info on how the interview went down.
Basicly she said it was less than ten minutes and the VO thumbed through "our" papers (without reading) and then issued the denial. She mentioned the VO did not look at the papers submitted by our mother in law and friend.
My in-laws interviewed last month for B-2s and were both approved but they pretty much said the same thing that you did. The VO was not really interested in any of the paperwork that they had brought with them - the VO did not want to see any of their property ownership or bank account information. The only thing that the VO did ask to see was the I-134 that I had filled out for them - he took a good look at it and then returned it to them before telling them that their visas were approved. He was also interested in seeing some of the pictures that they had brought with them showing other family members in China - my MIL showed him these after he asked how many family members they still had in China.
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My wife couldn't decide between a sedan and an SUV, so I ended up getting her a crossover as a compromise. It is a Toyota Venza and she really likes it a lot. She owned a Ford Focus in China and drove here in the US on her Chinese license until she received her green card after which she passed her driving & written exams on the first try. She hasn't put so much as a door ding in her new car and as adapted very well to driving in the US.
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Dan is correct - the Visa Information Center in Shanghai handles the scheduling of all NIV visa interview appointments no matter which consulate you interview at. You have to purchase one of the prepaid PIN numbers for the call - this can be done online.
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Congrats!
Good to see the NIV unit has lightened up a little.
Yes, I was pretty suprised at how pain free the entire process turned out to be. My wife and I filled out an online DS-160 for each of them and printed out the confirmation pages. We then immediatly called the Visa Information Center in Shanghai and got their interview scheduled for 3 weeks later. My MIL said that most people interviewing for B-2s the same day that they did were getting approved.
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My In-laws had a B-2 interview in GUZ on Tuesday and both were approved. My MIL said that it was a very easy interview consisting of 6 questions and that no property ownership or bank balance documentation was asked for. They were also allowed to interview together.
Visitors Visa
in General Visa Discussion & First Steps
Posted
It all depends on what the workload of the non-immigration visa unit at the embassy/consulate that you want to interview at is like at the time of the call. But generally speaking you are talking about a matter of weeks. When my in-laws got their first set of B-2s, my wife called the visa information center and was able to schedule an interview for them 2 1/2 weeks later - so the lag time isn't too bad. They interviewed in GUZ.
One of my wife's friends just received her first B-2 several weeks ago and she was able to get an interview scheduled in GUZ less than 2 weeks from calling.