Randy W

What I've heard is that the parents have maybe a 20% chance of being approved. With other relatives, it's closer to 0. With pretty much that kind of a turn-down (no or little reason). I have a friend at work whose parents made the trip to Shanghai and paid the $100 fee 3 times just to hear the VO say "No". They won't be trying again.

If I remember right, I sent in only 1 copy of the 4-part G325A form.

I'm sure you have to fill out 2 forms - maybe someone else will verify that. Here's my links that I've collected recently: SSA Policies on K-1 SSN Enough Time FAQ SSN Changes Dec 2005 VisaJourney Example Forms AP & RP I-693 for AOS

She needs an international driver's license, which is hard to come by in China. Otherwise, she will need to get her state driver's license after she arrives. On a K-1, she will be eligible to get her Social Security card (Employment Authorization comes with the Visa, whether stamped Employment Authorized or not). All they needed was her passport.

It seems to me that about half the people here who have hired lawyers swear buy them. The other half swear at them. The K1 and K3 processes are similar, but the K3 application tends to get more scrutiny, and so take longer on average. Check out various timelines here. Good luck and welcome to candle.

Right ear must be visible for one of the photos - they know this at the passport photo shop.

We use Outlook Express (Chinese characters and all) without any problem. We translate by cutting and pasting into babelfish.altavista.com. Input is by the Microsoft IME (pinyin or handwriting recognition) or her Ruier tablet w/software that she brought with her. To use the Microsoft handwriting recognition, you must also install the Japanese IME (via Control Panel, Regional and Language Options), but she prefers the Ruier software.

They (GUZ) responded to me that they had not yet received the P3. Finally, when I pointed out that it had been signed for on xx/xx/xx (maybe 3 weeks earlier), they replied, "It takes time to open and processed each letter."

Trigg - What time, what channel is this program?? Jesse - ESL Online from a Chinese member

Until Mr. Stamp does his thing, it means that the GUZ has not yet accepted responsibility for your petition. The various DHL states mean simply "It ain't there yet", although others may have better detail for you to ponder while you wait.

http://bergoiata.org/gif/Feu4.gif Conga Rats

If they REALLY wanted to throw us a curve-ball, they'd change that track-by-reference ID. Mr. USCONGUZ doesn't read these, does he?

It's "shagua" in my dictionary (fool, or more loosely translated melon head). Darn! Now I had to teach her how to say "silly boy"!

Way to Go !!

Aiiiiyaahhh! Xie xie! <-- Sagua! 180144[/snapback] Thanks to Jesse, I knew just what to do when Jiaying called me that - I called her one back!. It quickly developed into a scene from Monty Python - "Ni!", "Ni!", "Ni!", "Ni!". Until she got the upper hand be calling herself "Shagua de Lao Po". Of course, "Silly girl" was my fallback.

Congratulations !!

Perhaps someone will be able to explain what happened in the other cases. In the meantime, be rational about your own - don't get carried away.

No news here! In the south (Cantonese-speaking provinces), Mandarin is spoken in the schools and so tends to be viewed as the language of the more educated. Jiaying speaks both, says she speaks Mandarin with a southern accent, and seems very fluent in both. Our Chinese markets here in Houston seem to speak both as well. at work however, we have one Cantonese speaker (Hong Kong) with the rest Mandarin. These people all have bachelor's degrees and above.

that's great news, Ken! Good for you guys!

When she means, ". . . . In your dreams, buddy!"

The K-1 and K-3 applications are the same, so they theoretically should take the same amount of time. But K-3's are often singled out for extra scrutiny, which is why they take longer on average.

Specific employment authorization is required - K-1 is authorized, K-3 is not. I'm not sure how that applies to CR-1. We had no trouble (K-1). He asked if she had employment authorization - I said simply "K-1". It's a good thing I knew to do that, thanks to Frank's links.

Jesse's is undergoing "administrative processing" - hopefully, yours won't and will be more in line with my timeline (even more hopefully, his will get done first - the wait is excruciating when you don't know what's going on). Check other timelines - and I think that statistics were posted recently showing that Vermont has been much quicker than the other three (not good news for you). Good luck.

It was forwarded. They do this sometimes to shuffle the workload around.

We haven't heard from you in a while - welcome back!