IllinoisDave

Awright Gordon!! Get her home for Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanks to all for the kind words. I'm in the hotel room doing some last minute surfing before we head to the airport for the flight home. China's been great but it'll be nice to get home with Christine after all this time.

GOOD LUCK!!

CONGRATULATIONS!! I definately feel your joy.

Congrats! We reserved spaces for you and everyone else with interview dates in Oct./Nov. in line outside the consulate. Just a friendly suggestion for everyone for the day of the interview, bring an umbrella. It didn't rain the day we were there, but it dawned on me later that if it had, my SO didn't have one and I would've been scrambling around to find her one.

Sorry I'm just getting this posted. We had to get out of Mr. Yang's right after the interview yesterday and then ran around GUZ getting the medical stuff taken care of before heading back to Shenzhen last night. Too tired to do anything but eat and crash after we got back. I would first give a very detailed account of my experience at ACH on Monday if it weren't for the fact that I didn't have one. Like an idiot, I didn't bother to check a calender before I went to see if there were any obscure holidays on Oct. 8th that might pose a problem. So I decide while I'm sitting in the hotel room on Saturday after I got here to log into the consulate website to make sure they would be open on Monday. Oops. Colombus Day? Crap!! So much for ACH. As for our interview experience, it was pretty straight-forward. We decided at the last minute to stay at Mr. Yang's the night before. Only met his assistant,Miss Lei (spelling?), who was very helpful. We got in line about 6:45 and there was already maybe 30 to 40 people in line. We met fellow CFLer Kungpow and his lovely wife who happened to get in line just in front of us. After the guy with the bullhorn ordered us out of the queue we went up to the 4th floor to find the famous coffee shop and for Kungpow to take care of some last minute business when the consulate opened at 9am. (I'll let him give the details if he chooses as well as his results) While we were standing around on the 4th floor, I realized I was holding something in my hand that definately shouldn't have been there. Only the bag containing all the documents my SO needed for her interview! Holy Crap Batman!! So I made a mad dash back downstairs expecting Christine to be frantically looking for me. But, she was just standing there in line calmly chatting with Kungpow's wife as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. I thought maybe she hadn't realized that she didn't have the bag. So I profusely apologized and she just smiled and said "We knew you would be back Darling. You were just holding my heavy bag for me." Are our gals great or what? Crisis averted I headed back up to the 4th floor to wait along with Kungpow. It was nice to have another CFLer, who also happens to be from Illinois, there to chat with. It made the time go much faster. Our conversation was interrupted only by the occasional chattering outburst of loud,very fast talking female voices trying to corral people into the offices after they finished their interviews. I'd say it was about even between blue and pink except for the very first gal who had a very angry look on her face and a white slip in her hand. I have to say it was kind of sad to see the ones with the blue slips even though some may have deserved them. We hadn't waited very long before I saw Kungpow's wife coming down the hall. Again, I'll let him give you their results. After they left, I waited for what seemed an eternity until about 11:15. Then I saw my Christine coming down the hall with a smile on her face and I was pretty sure what the results were. When she got to me I said,"Did you get it Sweetie?" She smiled and said "Yes, I got the pink." That was the happiest moment of my life. A mixture of equal parts joy and relief. Finally we didn't have to worry anymore about I-129fs and ds-156s and I-134s and saving receipts and photo-copying phone bills and credit card statements and all the rest. At least for this part of the process anyway. Then we left and went up to our apartment in Mr. Yang's to check out before noon. We headed over to the medical center to get her international health documents taken care of and then back over to Shamian Island to get her innoculations. I've seen more of the grimy streets of Guangzhou than I ever care to see again let me tell ya. After the shots it was back on the bus to Shenzhen and the peace and quiet of a hotel room with air conditioning and hot water. Now for the interview details: Christine walked up to the window and as she took out her folders and put them on the counter with both our passports on top the SO (Korean/American guy) said "Nihao." She replied in English, "Good morning sir" and he started asking questions right away: VO: How did you meet your fiancee? SO: On the internet. VO: Which website? SO: Chinalove. VO: Who does your fiancee work for? SO: She tells him. VO: When did you date your fiancee? SO: Do you mean meeting in person or on phone or email? VO: When did you feel you wanted a relationship? SO: Last September. VO: How many times did you meet in person? SO: 3 times. VO: Including this time? (he obviously noticed the passport) SO: He's downstairs. VO: I know. (smiles) VO: When did you meet in person? SO: In February. VO: How many days? SO: about 10. VO: When was the second time? SO: May, we've met in person about 24 days including this trip. VO: Can I see the taxes? She wasn't sure which docs he wanted so she gave him all of them including the returns and transcripts from the last 3 years plus the W2 copies and originals. He looked them all over and handed them back.. VO: Can I look at your pictures? She hands them over. He notices one of the top pictures and says: VO: Oh, you can buy Cubs t-shirts here? SO: No, my fiancee brought it to me from USA. VO: Oh, he;s a Cubs fan? SO: Yes. VO: What about the Sox? SO: His sister is a Sox fan. VO laughs. Christine said the interview was very relaxed in general and the VO was very friendly, especially when they were talking about the Cubs. It's the first time in my life being a Cubs fan might have actually done me some good. They joked a little about my job, he typed for a minute and said: "Congratulations, you get the visa. Don't forget to make arrangements with China Post to have the visa mailed." Christine said "Thank you, nice to meet you" and that was it. She said the whole thing lasted less than 5 minutes. Countless hours putting together all those documents and worrying about the smallest details and which ones should be notarized and certified and sterilized and all he wanted to see was pictures and tax returns. Oh well, whaddya gonna do right? We still have the whole AOS/green card part of the process to go through but I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone at Candle for all the help we've received so far. There's no way we would have gotten to this point this fast or this successfully were it not for this website and all the great people here. I know I'm not the first nor will I be the last to say what an invaluable resource this is for anyone going through this process. I'll do my best to give back as much as I can to those following. We still have to pick up the visa at the post office hopefully on Saturday and then we'll head back next Tuesday. That's our story and we're sticking to it. Sorry for the length but I wanted to be as detailed as I could in case it may in some small way help others in the pipeline. Good luck to all who have interviews coming up.

Thanks Clayton. We're off to GUZ to do the medical now. Will update everyone as we go along. Cheers.

Yep, right or wrong, that's the only thing I've got notarized. And it's pretty much too late to add any to the list now. I'm goin for it.

Any sign of Bin Laden?

He was your friend so I mean no disrespect to you, but I say, based on his statement, GOOD EFFING RIDDANCE!

It seems you are somewhat hypocritical David. Huh?

Hi Zack. Another Land of Lincolner. Welcome to CFL. You've come to the right place. You'll get plenty of info, advice and support here. Many knowledgeable and helpful folks. I speak from experience as I'm off tomorrow to see my Christine and prep her for her interview Oct. 11 and I wouldn't be in this position if it weren't for Candle and all the great members here. You'll get many valid suggestions and sincere opinions on whether you should do K1 or K3. Take them all in,consider them and make the decision that's right for YOU. That's the best advice I can give regarding that. Best of luck to you. Dave

Makes sense.

Where is the OP or link? Jim's bored and resurrecting old threads for fun. This one's over three years old. I think the link timed out.

Nice write-up Roger. Glad you enjoyed the visit. I'm headed that way Thursday. Lots to do between now and then.

Jim..... Are you bored? Resurrecting very very old threads?

CONGRATULATIONS!!

This is great news Michael! CONGRATS!!

Certainly puts life into perspective.

CONGRATULATIONS LLOYD AND HUIQUN!! That is great news! And yes, as Roger said you should post in Interview Results as soon as you can so everyone can find out. Way to go!!

Carlos. Remind me. What part of The Constitution guarantees you or any of us the right to bring a foreign born spouse or fiancee to this country? Or even to do it in a timely manner? This is the government we're dealing with. As others have said, they hold ALL the cards. You sue, they say "This is a homeland security issue", end of story/you lose. Or, they'll just decide that they suspect fraud. Who do you think a judge is going to listen to, you or them? Now if these posts are just you blowing off steam then,by all means, blow away. Lots of people like to vent here to sympathetic ears. But if you're really serious then you're kidding yourself big time, not to mention wasting valuable time and energy better devoted to things you can actually control. The members who've offered their advice/opinions to you so far are as knowledgable about this process as you'll find anywhere. Do yourself a favor and use it. Good luck. DavidZ, TY99, and I-Dave: I hear ya all and must agree with what you've all said, but there is another part of me that really wishes more US petitioners would indeed file lawsuits. DoS/GUZ really does need to be challenged more often. They get very little legal challenges as is, mostly based on the reasons you've all given. But I would like to see more legal challenges brought their way. They may prevail in the end, but wouldn't it be nice to let them know once in a while that we (the petitioners) are not all supplicants who must kow-tow to them all the time? I'd support Carlos filing some kind of a lawsuit. Lance. In theory I agree with you. It would be nice if someone would challenge DOS/GUZ/DHS/USCIS and get them to treat people like human beings or just make the process even a little more efficient. And I think Chilton or Steve would be excellent candidates to file a suit given what they and they're SOs have been put through. But Carlos's case seems to be much, much less egregious on the face of it. From what we know up to now, it seems that all he's being required to do is provide some simple overcome evidence. Evidence that I think most would agree should have been ready going into the interview. But, who knows... They say the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If that's the case he can squeak away.

CONGRATS!

Ain't that the truth?

Carlos. Remind me. What part of The Constitution guarantees you or any of us the right to bring a foreign born spouse or fiancee to this country? Or even to do it in a timely manner? This is the government we're dealing with. As others have said, they hold ALL the cards. You sue, they say "This is a homeland security issue", end of story/you lose. Or, they'll just decide that they suspect fraud. Who do you think a judge is going to listen to, you or them? Now if these posts are just you blowing off steam then,by all means, blow away. Lots of people like to vent here to sympathetic ears. But if you're really serious then you're kidding yourself big time, not to mention wasting valuable time and energy better devoted to things you can actually control. The members who've offered their advice/opinions to you so far are as knowledgable about this process as you'll find anywhere. Do yourself a favor and use it. Good luck.

I hope you all aren't using up all the pink paper in Guangzhou. Congrats to all.