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ameriken

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Posts posted by ameriken

  1. Just when I thought we had no more questions...

     

    This is the letter GZ gave to Jie's parents. This process has taken so long that no one remembers setting up an account on ustraveldocs.com or choosing a CITIC bank to receive the passport and visa docs as per the letter. Any suggestions as to what direction they need to go?

    http://i57.tinypic.com/iptc9j.jpg

  2. Questions asked of Jie's parents:

     

    How did your daughter and son-in-law meet

    Where is your daughter working now

    Who is providing the financial support

    Are you members of the CCP

    What kind of work does your son-in-law do

     

    Then the IO asked for all the documents they brought and took all the I-864's, I-864a's, 3 years taxes, police certs, etc. Only thing they didn't take was my proof of current employment.

  3. After 2 years and 2 months of battling the snails pace of NVC, everything was finally sent to GZ and we have an interview date for Jie's parents. We're getting ready to ship original documents and I'd like to clear up a couple of questions.

     

     

    GZ is asking for 2014 taxes as well as originals of 'financial evidence'. I assume 'financial evidence' means completed/signed I-864, I-864a, 2013 tax transcript, taxes, employment letter, etc.

     

    1) As for the I-864, I emailed those last year based on 2013 tax returns.

     

    In the interview letter GZ is also asking for our most recent tax return (2014).

     

    If I am providing the 2014 tax return, do I need to update the I-864 and I-864a to reflect 2014 or just send the original we did last year for 2013, and just supplement it with the 2014 return?

     

    I don't care either way, my main concern is screwing up GZ up by changing something already in the system.

     

    2) As for the 'original documents' of the 'financial evidence', since Jie's parents will be at the interview together, do they need a copy of everything for each person, or will GZ accept one copy for both people?

     

    I know they each need their own I-864, however do I need to send duplicates of my paystubs, employment letter, taxes, etc?

     

    Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

  4. ameriken is a combination of 'american' and my name 'ken'.

     

    Movies? One that both my wife and I really liked was 'The Book Thief', set in WWII about a young Jewish girl that gets adopted by German parents during WWII. Excellent and poignant story.

     

    One thing that helped my wife when she first came to America was watching American movies that had Chinese subtitles so she could hear the English while reading the Chinese. Then we switched to English subtitles so she could read what she was hearing (or hear what she was reading). Now she can watch movies without any subtitles.

  5. Since I am in a similar situation (wife going to school and has no income), let me add a related question to this thread: I am completing the I-864a (to bring her parents here) since I will ultimately be the supporting family member. My wife does have a 401k from her last job. When completing the assets section on P2 of the I-864a, does her 401k get included here, or only joint assets and assets in my name only?

  6. Best tip I can give from my own experience is not for the Chinese immigrants, but for the spouses that bring them here: don't force feed them American culture and food and people unless they are ready for the challenge and openly want to be immersed in it right away. Do it little by little to give them a chance to acclimate or until they are ready for more.

     

    I cringed at Doug's example of "When having a Thanksgiving party for family and friends, at your new home with your hubby, don't be surprised if some of them don't like your Chinese dishes." Doug, this may work for your wife, but for mine this would have been a social assassination. Thrusting her into new and unfamiliar cultural holiday with many new and unfamiliar faces with much new and unfamiliar food. Having to sweat over whether or not her English was good enough or the feeling of not being able to engage in the conversations about football or other American issues. Stressing about what kind of impression she would make and what everyone might think of her. Now add to that the worry about how her food would be accepted and if she will make a social mistake that might offend someone.

     

    Doug mentioned helping her understand how the American folks might respond to her food and how to deal with it, but what about how she'll feel and react to the American food everyone else brings? Should she just tell the Americans 'your food sucks' or should she do the phony polite thing and say 'it tastes great' when she really wants to puke? There's no correct answer, but I imagine all these feelings just adds enormous pressure on some of the newly immigrated Chinese ladies who may just barely have started getting used to all the other cultural differences they encounter on a daily basis.

    For my wife, we did things very slowly in tiny bits and pieces which helped her get acclimated at her own pace, and greatly reduced the cultural shock I expected when she first arrived. If I suggested something and she wasn't ready for it, we just didn't do it until she was ready.

    • Like 4
  7. I've been to Shanghai several times and flown out of both airports (though never as a connection) and personally if I doubt I would fly in to PVG and connect with at SHA in 4 hours. Yes, it's doable but could be a royal pain in the ass...if your flight arrives late (which happened to my wife when her flight was delayed in SFO for mechanical issues) you've got even less time to do it all. My wife is from Shanghai and she said she would not do it and would try to fly in and out of PVG.

     

    I mean you've got immigration, baggage claim, finding the right bus, travel time, hoping you encounter light traffic, then checking in at the other airport. Just one of those things that looks good on paper that you regret when you are actually there after a 13 or 14 hour overseas flight and trying to do it all within a 4 hour window. Not a large margin for error.

    • Like 1
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