chinashawn

Oh, and a funny thing: I mentioned on the phone that my wife was unable to get a bank account or get a job until she gets the card. I then said, "She can't even pay Social Security taxes to you guys." I thought that might spur them to some action - - but, to my surprise, the response was, "Actually, the IRS has a special form that your wife can fill out for paying Social Security taxes." So there's no way my wife can legally work, but of course there's a way she can pay taxes to the SSA! I was too incredulous to say more than, "My wife is paying no Social Security taxes until she gets her card." In my three years in China I never had to put up with this type of government BS.

Well, I don't know how others have fared, but based on my experience we may have to start a sister site on obtaining Social Anxiety cards for our loved ones. (My apologies in advance for the somewhat-off topic.) My wife immigrated to the US on Sept. 18, and she has yet to receive her card. When she went in for her visa interview, she checked "yes" on the application form where it asks if you want a card. She also checked "yes" where it said something like, can the Dept. of Homeland Security give us information, blah blah blah. The sheet of paper given us by the Embassy said she'd receive the card in 2-3 weeks in the mail, and that she wouldn't have to go to a local office. We waited and waited, nothing showed up. Three times I navigated through the tedious SS 1800 voicemenu to a person, and got two different answers: 1. Wait or go to a local office to apply for a card. 2. Wait, and do NOT go to a local office to apply. We waited, waited, and finally on Oct. 28 my wife went to the "local" SS office (it's actually pretty far away) with a friend of ours who is also a Permanent Resident from China and needed a card. To make a long story short, our friend got her card a week later, but my wife has yet to receive her card. She's tried calling the local office ("if you don't receive your card in 7-10 days, you may call, write, or visit any Social Security office"), but the phones have been put on perpetual hold. I called the 1800 number again, and slogged through the voice menu again, and was told that they could not look up any info for me, not even whether anything's even been done. So my wife has a job interview tomorrow, but because of the incompetent, inefficient SSA, she won't be able to accept any job that's offered. And we have to go all the way to the Social Anxiety office again, probably just to be told, "Sorry, no number's been issued yet, and you have to wait." Any ideas or tips?

Congratulations!!!

Congratulations!!! I hope you two enjoy your new life together!

Ditto on the not worrying about it. I accidentally put the wrong place of birth for my father, but had no problem.

Just got back from the P.O. - - finally have the visa in hand!! The long ordeal is over! I gambled and bought plane tickets back for both of us a month ago, so we'll be going home in a couple of days. Time to stuff ourselves with some Guangdong delicacies and shop like crazy for souvenirs and Chinese books!

My wife passed the interview a few hours ago. It was a four-and-a-half hour wait, though. Man, I was getting worried toward the end. All that time, and she had a five-minute interview during which they didn't look at one pebble of the mountain of evidence she lugged in. Still good to be prepared, though. Now we're ready to get that visa in hand and fly back to the states!

Congratulations!!! Keep the visas coming!

Congratulations!!!!! So all the evidence-gathering was for naught, eh? Hope I have the same good news to report next week. Leaving in 3 days!

Just want to clarify - so that's passport photos of the beneficiary? Should I bring any extra passport photos of myself? And the receipt for visa payment - is that for the payment made the morning of the interview? Or is that the receipt from way back when the petition was filed? I've got all my stuff in manila folders now, and will move to an accordian folder as the great date nears.

Maybe I've been working too hard today, but... where are the FAQ for the GUZ medical exam experiences? My wife's planning on having her exam the day after I arrive in GUZ - - and two days before her interview.

Congratulations!

Congratulations!

Congratulations!!

Awesome news, everyone! If anyone will be in Guangzhou from around Sept 10 to Sept 17, let me know! I'm planning to go, if I can find some reasonably decent airfare.

After dialling the number, press 1, then 0, then 0.

Just got off the phone at DOS. VISA INTERVIEW DATE: SEPT. 14!!!!!!!!

Now when you say "certified", do you mean notarized? Just want to make sure I'm not missing something extra I need to do for my Affidavit of Support, etc.

Haven't seen any Woo-Hoo! posts recently. Any late-March or early-April P3ers get their P4? I called DOS on Jul 15, and my wife's appointment still hasn't been scheduled, so I'll pass the prediction table date by a week or, more likely, more.

No worries here... at the time of my petition I had been working in China on a Z employment visa, with a green resident permit booklet, for nearly 3 years. My school was, fortunately, legit.

So am I reading this right? Nonimmigrant Visa Wait Time for Beijing 6 days to get a student visa? 29 days to get a tourist visa? And as we all know, 1-2+ years to get a family visa for our spouse. Utterly absurd! Now we see that the family values BS that politicos always talk about is just that: BS. I'm definitely mentioning this when I contact my congresspeople next week.

I've seen various references to the K visas being faster than the R visas, and I'm trying to find out some definite info on this. Are the K visas faster only if you file in the States? What if you do DCF? Is the whole thing faster, or just parts of it? I.e., from P3 to P4 is it about the same amount of time, or longer? If K visas are quicker, why? Seems like if you're married, they'd consider your relationship to be more legit and long-term (just talking about from the perception of consular officials). And if the P3-P4 time is quicker for K visas, why? Especially considering that the Affadivat of Support (I-134) for K visas is valid for a year, whereas that for R visas (I-864) is only valid for 6 months.

The opening page of this site has the following sentence: "However, it is difficult to be patient when thousands of student and tourist visas are being issued in many countries, including China and Russia, but family visas are held in indefinite suspension." Is there anywhere I can get definite statistics on the timeline for these different types of visas? Or any sort of information about how long it takes to get a student or tourist visa?

Well, I wish the Consulates would put this type of information on their websites, and provide some sort of timeline to let us know roughly how long the process will drag on, that way we can plan our lives accordingly. Based on the little I found on their websites, and what they told me when I applied (6-8 months), it seemed Nov 2004 was fine for applying. Knowing what I know now, I should have applied in Feb 2004. But of course, they wouldn't think to provide this type of info.

You have to DCF at whatever Embassy or Consulate has jurisdiction over the part of China you're living in - e.g., I lived in Wuhan, Hubei, and that's part of the Beijing Embassy jurisdiction. A map of jurisdictions can be found here: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/beijing/consulate-map.html But after you get DHS approval, then your case is forwarded to GUZ, and they handle everything from there, up to the interview and issuing of visa. Be sure to call the place where you plan to DCF before going there to apply. You need to find out what documents you must bring. This information isn't on the Embassy website, surprise, surprise (at least it wasn't when I did this last November). And even though I called, they forgot to tell me to bring one document - when we travelled to Beijing and applied, they mentioned it. I said I brought what they told me to bring, and they fortunately accepted my application. And I guess this applies to everyone, but send that P3 checklist off as soon as you get it. Ignore the bit about getting the items before sending it. That's just a misleading instruction from the government trying to get people to waste more time. You won't get your P4 until 5, 6, 7, 8 months later, so you have plenty of time to obtain all of those documents. And if you're doing a CR-1 like I am, and get your I-864 early like I did, it will expire (after 6 months) before they schedule the interview.