USCONGUZ

A J-1 with 2 entries allows you to depart and re-enter the U.S. during your authorized period of stay. Please see http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1267.html for more information about the J visa.

In the Immigrant Visa Unit, K1 and K3 applicants are not required to submit the EVAF DS-156.

If the document is unobtainable, you should submit a written explanation as to why it is unobtainable. It may not affect visa issuance, but it depends on the individual circumstances in the case.

From what you've posted, it sounds like you've already done a lot. Any non-English language document should be translated into English (which you've done). You mentioned you had the Chinese police certificate already, too. Please also remember to obtain a police certificate from every country where you have lived for one year or longer since you turned 16.

If the beneficiary is a foreigner in China who neither reads nor writes Chinese, the Chinese version of the forms would not be required. There are different language versions of these forms. Check the U.S. Embassy or Consulate websites in your beneficiary's home country to see if the forms are available in their native language (if it would help the beneficiary complete the forms in English).

1) No. If we have already received the namecheck results in a K3 case, we normally apply those results to the CR/IR case. 2) You do not need to contact the Consulate in this situation. We will use the first namecheck result that we receive. 3) Namecheck results can expire. In some cases, we need to resend namechecks when the previous results are too old. If the "old" namecheck results are from the K3 case, and we've already received the CR/IR case file, then the new namecheck would be sent from the CR/IR case. In most K1 and K3 cases, the namecheck process has already been started at NVC. It is impossible to predict how long the namecheck process will take. Each case is different.

Once your authorized period of stay in the U.S. has expired, you "overstay" your visa and you are considered unlawfully present in the U.S. An authorized period of stay can vary depending on the non-immigrant visa classification. Overstaying your visa without approval from USCIS could make you ineligible for another visa.

The Consulate is aware of the new law. We have not yet received specific guidance on how this would effect our procedures at post.

We are doing our best to in-process the many case file boxes we have received from the NVC. There is not a problem with all the K1 case files shipped from NVC in January. We are in-processing them the best we can given our resources.

The interviewing consular officer will look at your ability to support your beneficiaries. We understand that for those who are self-employed, annual income can vary widely from year to year. We'll look at all the factors involved and make a determination based on the totality of circumstances. We wouldn't recommend delaying the interview for the sole purpose of being able to submit next year's tax returns. Just submit what evidence you have that shows your level of income (bank records, evidence of business income, etc).

Sometimes the Consulate gets email inquiries about a case from someone who is neither the petitioner, the beneficiary, nor their legal representative. We do our best not to release case specific information to these third parties. This is why we are strict about email addresses used. If you want to switch email accounts, let us know via fax or mail. Ask specifically for us to make a case note in the file with your new email address. Then when you send future email inquiries, you won't get the "unable to distinguish if you are the petitioner" response. As with any fax or letter, it will take us a little longer to process it than an email. If your second fax asking us to confirm whether we had made the date of birth change was sent on May 8, then it may take us several more days to reply. We try our best to handle correspondence in the order it is received. What may be a very simple request could take several days to generate a reply because we are dealing with earlier requests that may be more complex.

The police certificate is valid for only one year. You'll need to obtain a new one. The birth and marriage certificates are valid indefinitely.

You used the correct methods to contact us (letter, fax, and via webform at http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/iv/email.html). When did you send the 2nd fax to verify the change had been made to your wife's date of birth? Usually, we answer emails quicker than we can respond to faxes. There's also been a delay in answering correspondence due to the Chinese Labor Day holiday, as many of our staff were on leave. The best way to follow up on a fax sent is with a webform inquiry.

1. If you've already submitted an I-864 to the NVC, it is not mandatory to submit a new one at the interview. However, if the interviewing officer has any concerns about the financial support aspects of the case, the officer can ask the beneficiary to provide an updated I-864 (as well as other financial documents). It is best to have an updated I-864 at the interview, but you don't need to submit it unless the interviewing officer requests it. 2. As the CR1 and CR2 are 2 separate petitions/case files, you will need to prepare a set of AOS supporting documents for each beneficiary. Photocopies of tax returns and other supporting documents (deeds, leases, etc) are acceptable. Original signatures on photocopies are not required. However, the I-864 must be an original for each IR/CR beneficiary.

If an American marries a Chinese woman, the American becomes the step-father of the Chinese woman's unmarried children. Evidence of the biological relationship between a beneficiary and his/her children can include notarial birth certificates, or in extreme cases, DNA test results. If the child is adopted, adoption decrees or notarial certificates would be required. In some cases, interviewing officers may ask for evidence of the parent or step-parent's relationship with a child, which could include photos, letters, phone records, videos, etc. Which kind of relationship evidence is needed depends on the circumstances of the case and the concerns of the interviewing officer. One of the colored refusal sheets should explain clearly (in English and Chinese) what type of evidence is needed.

After a temporary visa refusal, the beneficiary, the petitioner, or their duly designated representative may show up at their scheduled "overcome" appointment time to hand in additional evidence. This is not a second interview. You just hand in the documents. You can designate a representative using the G-28 form.

In most cases, an interviewing officer will require more than the small divorce booklet. We usually ask for a notarial divorce decree. It will be in the standard white notarial booklet, have an official red seal, an English translation, and an attestation to the true translation.

If your IR1 petition has not been sent to Guangzhou, then you will need to contact the NVC with your current mailing address. Once the NVC notifies you that the case file has been sent to Guangzhou, you may contact us via mail, fax, or using our webform to let us know where you want any future correspondence and Packets sent. http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/contactiv.html

If the Consulate returns a petition to USCIS with a recommendation that it be revoked, the petitioner may start the process again by filing another petition. USCIS would likely approve the re-filed petition, but there is no guarantee that they would. The new petition would go through the same process as the first one, including a consular interview. A previously revoked petition does not automatically result in a visa refusal for the re-filed petition. However, if the first petition was revoked based on confirmed visa fraud, then it would be irresponsible for the interviewing officer to disregard this information when making a decision on visa issuance.

The Consulate does not require that these forms be filled out by hand. Typed or Adobe Reader filled is acceptable.

K visa applicants must fill out and submit the Chinese version of these forms.

The Consulate does not require petitioners or beneficiaries to submit NVC fee receipts. The NVC provides the Consulate with this information.

Immigrant Visa fees, if they have not been paid to the NVC, must be paid at the Consular Section in Guangzhou. NIV applicants, including K visa applicants, can pay the visa fee at any designated CITIC branch in China. The Shanghai Consulate's website, for example, lists the branches where you may pay the NIV fee. http://shanghai.usembassy-china.org.cn/cit..._locations.html.

As long as the notary office is authorized to perform notary services concerning foreign affairs, we will usually accept it. We most often see notarials from provincial level offices with the standard white book, official red seal, English translation, and which attest to the true translation. We will look into this question further and post another message with any updates.

You should return Packet 3 materials as soon as possible. After returning the Packet materials, you can always request that we postpone scheduling an interview. Mail sent from inside China to the Consulate's Shamian Island address is normally received by our Consulate mailroom. If the mail is received on a weekend, the White Swan Hotel will receive it until our mailroom reopens during the work week. The Consular Section at Tian Yu picks up mail from Shamian Island twice a week. The IV Unit receives a large volume of correspondence, and we in-process the mail as quickly as we can given our resources.