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I wanted to share my experiance of getting this Chinse tourist L visa. I just got this 24 month multiple entry visa. I got it because I have a Chinese wife. I also requested stays of 45 days in length - when I got the Visa it was stamped for visits of 60 day duration but I believe you need to request stays of longer than 30 days to get this. You can only get it through the Chinese Embassy in Washington D.C. You can not get it from your local Chinese consulate. You must use a visa agent because you can't mail request directly to the Chinese Embassy. The total cost was $215. $140 application fee, $55 for visa agent and $20 for return UPS. I had excellant service using Oasis China Visa as an agent (They have an office in the embassy building but there are also a couple of other agents offsite). They let me scan and email to them additional papers they wanted. They wanted 1) copy of wife's Chinese passport information page, 2) copy of wife's greencard, 3. dark legible copy of marriage papers (the light copy I sent them was not acceptable as they had problems in the past.) The process took less than 2 weeks. You could pay more to expedite but I did not need it that quick. I just thought this may help some folks.

Where can we post our 10 year greencard timeline? I just want to help anyone looking for a timeline.

Congrats, Now you can rest easy.

I can't figure out if my wife needs to wait the 5 years or 3 years to apply for U.S. citizenship. If I was married to her for two years before she immigrated she would have received Pemanent Resident Status without the 2 year condition. Does this factor in to the requirements to apply for citizenship?

On my wife’s U.S. immigration visa her name is shown as Feng, Xin Hui. I am sure that I wrote her name Xin Hui with the space in middle on the immigration forms. I think I made a mistake because when she received her greencard her name appears as Feng, Xin H but at the bottom of her greencard between the codes her name does appear as Feng<<< Xin<<< Hui<<< It appears that they are picking up the H as her middle name. My question is should I try and change this on her greencard now? I think that we will be traveling internationally in one month and I don’t want this to hold up our plans. I heard that when she applies for citizenship that she can change her to one of her liking. My advice is to write the Chinese name on the forms as Feng Xinhui. Any advice would be appreciated.

We entered the country at LAX and I was very tired from the flight. The agent said that the stamp in my wife's passport would serve as a greencard until one was mailed to her. 1) My question is on the CR1 visa how long does it take for them to mail the greencard. We did a direct consulate filing DFC and were married for less then 2 years. 2) What should the proper stamp look like in the passport? The motor vehicle division in this state would not give my wife a driving permit because there was no stamp indicating the period she would be in the country. 3) Can I use the passport to apply for social security number for her or should I wait for the green card to do this? I told them she is a conditional permanent resident with a CR1 but that did not help. Thanks for any help.

Yesterday I sat with 4 other americans on the fourth floor of the consulate while our wifes were upstairs getting thier interview's. Unfortunately none were CFL members. One guy from California started his visa process 2.5 years ago. This was his 4th trip to the consulate. I believe one of the problems was is that she was from Fujian Province which is known for a lot of fraud. He first started with a fiancee K1 that was rejected, then got married and filed a K3 and finally he was at the consulate with a CR1 filing. One of the previous questions they asked him was why did he retain a lawyer from New York while he lived in California. The good news is that his wife also got her visa yesterday.

XinHui passed her interview this morning. She got the lady known as Pearl. To be more sensitive I want to only refer to her as 'Pearl'. Her interview time was at 7:15 and by 9:45 she came down from the 5th floor to the 4th floor trying to hide her smile. She did not fool me except for the second my heart skipped a beat. Shhe said that she first handed over the I-864 and my 3 years of tax forms to a Chinese lady. This same lady then asked her when and why she went to Enland. In June we both took a 3 week work/vacation to England. This trip was never documented to the consulate. My guess is they found the English visa during the name check. They then took her fingerprints and she paid 3,078 rmb for the visa. She was then called up to Pearl's window. Pearl first asked for XinHui's passport which XinHui responded by handing her both mine and her own passport. She only accepted Xinhui's passport. She then asked how and when she meet her husband which she stated blossems.com in March 2004. She then only looked at only one of our wedding photos and stated that she passed and will get her visa. It seemed like we did a lot of prepareing for just a 1 minute interview.

Please add my timeline to the table. Somehow it got dropped. If you wait 2 days I hope to give the good news of : interview passed.

My wife got her packet 4 this week. The interview date is Feb 9. With the chinese holiday she could not get an updated police record check before the interview. Her hometown of Guilin will reopen for that service on Feb. 6. and it takes 2 weeks after that to get the result. Yesterday, I faxed Guangzhou with a request to reschedule to the week of Feb. 20. My wife now tells me in packet 4 the instructions state the the police records check must have been completed within the last year. She has a notarized copy of her police record check and it is 11 months old. 1) question: What is the exact verbiage in packet 4 regarding the police records check? 2)question: Will Guangzhou put her interview date at the bottem of the pile? 3)question: Should I now try and make the Feb 9 date and how do I reverse my faxed request. This all gets a little more complex in that I have always planned on being with my wife (outside) at the interview. Any advice would be apprieciated .

Today I called DOS (Dept of State) at 1-202-663-1225 1-2-0 to check my CR1 case status since it appeared times have sped up. I was told we are not yet scheduled for an interview. I did verify that the name check was completed 9/5/05. The bad news is that they told me since her name check is over 90 days old they will probably have to do another name check. I did not ask who is responsible for getting the name check redone if it is older than 90 days. I asked when I should check back and they suggested that I call back in two weeks. Has anyone heard that a name check should not be over 90 days old to issue an interview date? Any suggestions what I could do to get an interview date? Should I call DOS back and ask who should initiate another name check?

Yesturday, I phoned the USA Visa Information center in China (the one you prepay a fee to call.) I spoke with Elaine and she stated our Case Qualifying Date was Oct 12 2005. She stated that date is the date Guangzhou finished their part in preparing this stage of the paperwork. She also read what was on her computer which was that I had to wait (4 months) or (6 months if I also filed to bring children back) from my Case Qualifying date before they would send my P4 out. We do not have any children to bring back. Trying to get all the info that was on her computer I asked her what our Priority Date was. She stated that CR1 filing does not use Priority Dates. We did get a Priority Date in our P3 packet with our Case Number and Visa Category. She told she could not tell me when my P3 was received and that was no other information on her computer. I found that strange because I phoned the USA Visa Information center in China a few weeks ago and I was told then about the date my P3 was received. Thanks to a post on this site CFL, I then called U.S Dept of State (1-202-663-1225 press 1, then 0, then 0, have your GUZ number and Wife's name/birthdate and other information available). They told me that my wife has passed her name check. She did not have the date she passed the name check but she was able to tell me that our P3 was mailed out Sept 6 and received back OCT 12 2005. So the good news is Xinhui passed her name check. Now just waiting on a interview date.

Just to keep everyone informed of our progress. I live in Jiangxi Provence which is in the Beijing Consulate District. Beijing told me that I could save on travel expenses by filing the I-130 in Shanghai and they would forward it to Beijing. I did not want to add another step in the process so I filed directly in Beijing at the Kerry Center which is about 1 mile from the U.S. Embassy. I had a scheduled appointment in the afternoon but they told me it is flexible and to come anytime in the afternoon. When we took the elevator to the 27th floor in the Kerry Center we had to search to find the office as it was not placarded like the other offices. I dropped my I-130 and related documents off with them in the Kerry Center Office then proceded to the U.S. Embassy 1 mile down the road to pay my application fee. The Kerry Center office told me that I could just have the Embassy fax my receipt to them. I wanted to eliminate another step so I hand carried my receipt back to the Kerry Center. I am happy I did that because when I returned to the Kerry Center they were further checking my package and asked to see some original documents. My time line from filing to receiving P3 was exactly 2 months. Now the wait! Bob & Xinhui

Hello all, I am a U.S. citizen that works and lives in Nanchang Jiangxi Provence. Since Jiangxi is in the Beijing district I filed a I-130 directly to the Beijing Embassy July 14. They told me they will take 2-3 months to approve my petition then forward it to Guangzhou where they will take an additional 7 months. They indicated to me that I had to show them a residency permit in order to due a DFC. My passport has a Chinese visa stamped (2 year residency permit) so with this they accepted my petition. I also asked if they would open a provisional file on my case as I had all the paperwork completed that Guangzhou will ask for but they refused to accept it. I will keep all informed of my process. Bob