EdG

I just want to give an update and share my experience with you all just my way of giving back to this very informative forum. First of all, my wife got the VISA We hired a law firm which has 2 offices above and below the embassy. For those of you who are just in the beginning of process, save your self troubles and hire a law firm. Had I hire them from the beginning, my wife would have been here at least more than 6 months ago. I had both CR1 & K3 in Guangzhou at the same time but they never process my K3. I found out that if a lawyer gets involve, they will process the k3. In any case, I will give the update for those of you read my 1st post. After my wife got the blue slip, we hired the law firm. 2 days later, I received an email from the law firm detailing the overcome evidence that I need to collect. They also adviced me to take a trip to GuangZhou and do some traveling with my wife and take more pictures. There's a lot more than that in the email but not sure how useful my information be to you guys. Like they say, everyone's situation is different. To make a long story short, I got my ticket and spent about 3 weeks with my wife in GuangZhou. The first week was mostly traveling with my wife and taking pictures. I handed in the overcome to the law firm the 2nd week. They were pretty confident that getting my wife the VISA is not a problem as I have very complete overcome evidence. They were right, we got the VISA approval on the 3rd week. However, it was a little too tight to get a seat for my wife on my return flight. We were lucky enough to reserve a seat for her on different date and traveling with my relative. There are quite a few law firm that handles these kind of thing so you guys need to do you home work. We were lucky enough to pick the right one. The lawyer for this firm has been doing this for a long time. And if it means anything, the lawyer that deals directly with the consulate is American. The people that I come in direct contact with were very nice people too. I was just amazed how patiently they explain things to me with a smile at all time. Like I said, I won't be doing this again, but if I were some of the new guys here, I would hire a law firm to handle these things for me. Well, good luck to all of you who are in the middle of it and sorry for the long post.

No. when I went back in 1992, it was a vacation. But since the VO asked how many times I had been back, my wife wanted to give an honest answer, which is 3 times. Had he asked how many times I had been back to see her, she would have given a different answer which is 2. But hind sight is 20/20. She said that she couldn't really explain the answer of 3 or that the VO wasn't interested.

I am not sure if I will get a clear picture of why the blue slip. I asked my wife what's on the blue slip. She said more document needed but it's the document that she brought with her which the guy didn't even review. One possible theory is that when they asked her how many times that I have come back to China, she said "3times" The VO said "1 time". She repeated "3 times" again. At this point, VO asked for photos but he didn't even look at them. I have been back 2 times since I have known her. The one other time I went back to China was 1992. At the time, we kind of know of each other. I got to know her better after my divorce and it was the suggestion of our parents. We talked on the phone for a few months and I got to like her a lot because of her personality, family values and when I see her in person after all these years, I just couldn't help but got married with her in GuangZhou. So this is the history of how we met. From reading you guys' responses, there will be letters asking about what evidence we needed to provide? If they asked to provide the 1st time visit back in 1992, I am not sure how to get my passport back because they took the old passport when they issued me the new one

I am sorry for this news. I know the exact feeling. One thing to keep in mind and this advice was given to me from Donahso, GUZ officials are doing their jobs. These people consider you as just another file, not an actual person. I realized this before but hearing this from him gave me the determination to re-group and gather the needed evidence to overcome. The denial notice should detail all the evidence needed. I hope it is merely an overcome and not for admin review! As soon as you get more details, please inform this group. There is a grip of advice and support here, as I have found out from our denial. Funny that you referenced Guangzhou as Canton. My fiancee still calls it Canton and she also refers to Beijing as Peking. It sounds like you have contacted King as I hear he is based from Seattle and practices in GUZ. To my knowledge, from what members say of him, he is very trusting and will do what is required. Get the info, rally the troops and go get it done... Best of luck... esun41 161646[/snapback] Just talked to my wife again. She said that the interviewer(white male) didn't even look at the pictures, files or anything else. He asked how we met, how many times I had been back?(By the way she said 3 and he asked 1? She had to repeat 3 again.) and then asked for the pictures which he didn't even look at them. He kept all the pictures and gave her a blue slip requesting more supporting evidence. I am not sure what more evidence they need. We have record of conversation everyday, email... included in the envelope. I hope the lawyer can sort this out. At this point, I am not sure what else I can do. I have a very good income and I own my own house with very little mortage left in my mid 30s. I would think that should be enough to show them that I am not in it for the money. This is so frustrating. The lawyer asked me to send him the digital pictures to him and see if he can figure out why they kept the pictures.

Just talked to wife. She got the blue slip. Information are sketchy. It seems like the officer has doubts about our marriage. Something about that my previous marriage officially ended 6 months before I married my wife. But what they didn't know was that the marriage was ended more than a year & a half before paper work and then that took another 6 months before they send you the official marriage ending paper. Just hired a lawyer in Canton but their office is based in Seattle. I hope this lawyer can help. One thing the lawyer said stranged is that they kept all the pictures. Argh!!!!!!!!!! This sucks big time.

That's cool you guys. You guys didn't run me off. I like the "Chinese Fly Lice" thing Candle For Love never crossed my mind. I was thinking it stands for something like CR1 or things like that. Heck, not until I got on this board that I found out that CR1 is really I130. I can laugh a little now since things are coming to an end soon. I hope my SO's interview will be as smooth as some of your SO.

I am preparing the top 10 questions and going to practice with my SO for her Oct interview. Can someone tell me what's CFL stands for? Thanks.

. . . . and I felt like April was a long time (from a Feb filing date)! I can't begin to imagine what you're going through, or how you're getting through it! I hope you're first in line! 151305[/snapback] We just got words that our interview date is set for Oct 19th. Our CR1 was enter into GZ computer on 6/8/05. It's been a long wait since the filing of I130 & K3 last May.

I just received the same email from GZ. They said my wife's CR-1 is almost complete and they are about to schedule an interview. I hope it's next week.

I understand you saying that you mailed the I-129F after CIS NOA1 for I-130. You say GZ has the I-130? After CIS approval of the I-130, it is sent to the NVC. NVC sends the petitioner more forms. You have already done that? If so, you're leaving out a big chunk of the process. That's were I'm not following you. According to what you say, you have paid the fees for both the immigrant visa and the nonimmigrant visa? 144948[/snapback] TVWY, Yes, I already finished all of the forms here even the ones after the petition and Biography and other forms last year. Everything reviewed ok by NVC and they then packaged the whole thing and sent to Guangzhou last December for the I130 petition. Not sure the exact date GuangZhou received the K3 package but I believe sometime in March or April.

Yup, sounds like they are proceeding with I130. But I wouldn't mind extra paper work if that means getting her here sooner but I guess that's not much of our choice. Thank you all on this.

I hope I am not confusing anyone as I didn't know some of the acronyms like CR1 and still don't know what AOS is. So yes, I filed I130 last year in May. After I received the approval of the I130 petition a few weeks later, I filed I129F last June as most of you know that you can't file I129F without the approval letter of I130. I filed I130 in California but not sure which branch they routed to. Could be Fresno or San Jose or somewhere eles in CA. I emailed Guangzhou last year on the I130 case # and they confirmed that they have the I130 case package in Guangzhou last December. When NVC told me they also mailed the I129F case package to China in Feb, I email them in March thinking they would have a status but they didn't. And when they told me it will take up to 6months for them to received the package, that's when I gave up following the K3 case because I thought the I130 would have completed by then. Boy, was I wrong.

Actually, my K3 packet was sent to Guangzhou January from NVC. I emailed Guangzhou early March with the GUZ number and they said it was not in their system yet. They said it may take something like up to 6 months to receive the packet. I basically gave up the K3 knowing that my I130 packet was sent to Guanzhou December last year. In May my wife got a mail from Guangzhou consulate ask for document and that's when I found out that they already have the K3 packet. I emailed them with my K3 case # ask about the status in July when nothing else happened after the initial contact. That's when they told me that the CR1 is being process, once it's done, they will schedule the interview and they said it will take up to 3-4 months. I thought this was too odd that a K3 is waiting for a CR1( I later found out CR1 is the I130). Just wondering if there's anything else I can do. 144881[/snapback] My understanding is, if the I-130/CR1 gets to post (GUZ) first, before the I-129F/K3, the former will cancel the latter. My assumption, with what I hear, is that the CR1 is processing and the K3 is probably no longer processing; Unless the K3 got there first.. so you can try to figure that out with an email... You could send GUZ an email asking specifically to pursue the CR1 and whether they are also still processing the K3 or not... their answer might tell you if they have already done just this. (I assume you want to go CR1 at this point). You could still call DOS and ask them for two things, to help possibly determine a rough guess for your interview date. 1) When was the DATE the K3 and/or CR1 received by GUZ and ENTERED into the GUZ computer? 2) Did they do a security clearance / namecheck in GUZ and what is status? Pending or complete? -- if your wife got the mail in may (what date?) , then you would appear to be fairly close.. as a few with May P3 dates are getting interviews in Sept... And what document did the GUZ mail ask for ? What was the date on that doc, and when did you send it back ? 144882[/snapback] David, these are some great information. I am very sure that the I130 got there first. As for when they enter the CR1 in their system, I got an email from them saying they received CR1 June 8th. I have to ask my wife to look at all documents to determine the exact dates. Also, I have a feeling that the people who answers email, they basically look up the computer status and if it shows "Processing CR1", that's what they will tell me, CR1 is being process. I had send email twice regarding why my K3 is waiting for CR1 with no response on the question. In any case, if what they said(3-4months) is true, we should hear something in Sept or Oct which mean interview could be in Nov. At the start of my K3 application, I was thinking it can't take longer than 9 months. In any case, thanks for all the feedback.

Actually, my K3 packet was sent to Guangzhou January from NVC. I emailed Guangzhou early March with the GUZ number and they said it was not in their system yet. They said it may take something like up to 6 months to receive the packet. I basically gave up the K3 knowing that my I130 packet was sent to Guanzhou December last year. In May my wife got a mail from Guangzhou consulate ask for document and that's when I found out that they already have the K3 packet. I emailed them with my K3 case # ask about the status in July when nothing else happened after the initial contact. That's when they told me that the CR1 is being process, once it's done, they will schedule the interview and they said it will take up to 3-4 months. I thought this was too odd that a K3 is waiting for a CR1( I later found out CR1 is the I130). Just wondering if there's anything else I can do.

NVC send my wife's K3 packet to Canton back in March. And now the K3 is still waiting for the processing of CR1 which is the I130 application. Why are they doing that? Anyone knows? This is very frustrating.