baobeizhu

Oh, I should also add that the CA service center in our case was actually w/in 6 months. The extra month in our case was self inflicted b/c we needed to reschedule the biometrics appointment.

So, as a follow up to our application, today I just received my hubby's 'Notice of Removal of Conditional Basis of Lawful Permanent Residence" (I-797 NOA) and our AOS was also filed thru our friends in the CA Service Center (yet the online notice system isn't updated yet w/ the BLUE decision Ball?!) At least per this NOA, it states that we should get his new card w/in 60 days! Hooray! So I'm assuming no interviews or additional info is required from us...*is it time to breath a brief sigh of relief yet?* Now, our late summer trip to China may not be held up (we sort of agreed to just travel domestically if there was any added complexity b/c I'm on paperwork overload as of late and we don't anyone (= me) to blow a fuse with extra paperwork fun.....), which would be good b/c his family surely misses him.

ugh...I had a feeling this was going to take a while. We've only been waiting 4 months. I guess there is a ways to go Silly question time-can one NOT travel w/ the 1 year extension letter? i.e. there MUST be that extra stamp in the passport pending receipt of the 10 yr greencard?

Basically my husband and I sent text message to our cell phone's email addresses constantly while he was in Beijing and I was in the US. For example if you have verizon your email address is just xxxxxxxxxx@vtext.com In china, many cell phones basically have the same function, for examply my spouse used a 联通 number and his cell's email address was xxxxxxxxxxx@m165.com and he just had to set up access for something like 5rmb/month for the email box. Then you just send text messages to the cell number email addresses rather than the cell phone number directly and wala, no crazy international text message charges and no fancy cellphone needed to read text messages on your cell. Hope this helps!

Thanks! Yeah, all this is just cute lil' things that happen here and there on our various day to day 'adventures'. When I lived in China I always got myself into little messes too, so now I think it's just all evening out.

hahah..this story may top the bathroom story: Well today's interesting adventure was that he went grocery shopping by himself. After explaining the difference between debit and credit (not to be confused with 'a bit' and 'rabbit' that is) and watching me use my debit card on multiple occasions, he was fairly confident he knew what he was doing. Then I guess something odd happened at the checkout and they made him sign the receipt instead of inputting his PIN. (I still have no idea what exactly happened but think the 'credit' option was selected instead either by him or the cashier, even though he is convinced he didn't select credit) So the cashier told him to sign and he was really confused by what they wanted and what he was suppose to do. Next, he proceeded to write out his PIN on the signature line*.....good grief! (*he's never used a credit card in China so the swipe and sign concept so familiar to Americans is, well, very very foreign to him) hmmmm...so I may need to go to the bank and change this pin number now Good thing it's just the pocket change account for him so he has some type of cash available to him(technically my pocket change account since still no SSN for him)! I think I'm going to have to wait a bit until he gets added onto any of my "real" accounts as a precaution now though B)

Will do! Also, we did check that box requesting a SSN number on the visa form, but today we also went to the local SSA office to see if we could apply for his number. However the lady helping us looked at his passport and entry stamp said they aren't suppose to work on these until at least one month after POE b/c the paperwork may still be in transit/processing. She was nice though and did look him up to see if there was anything processing, but there wasn't. So basically we were told that if we do not receive the number w/in 1 month of POE then we can go back to request a card. In the meantime it's not a bad thing we don't have the number yet because he can focus on studying and not quite worry about getting his license or a job yet. So far he is making good progress at ESL adult education class and goes M-F for 4 hours daily. He says he has a better time understanding in class now than when he first arrived and the teacher has praised his speaking/listening progress so far.. I've been giving him tasks like reading through grocery flyers for deals and making our shopping lists since his written homework is too easy for him at his class level and he usually finishes it at school. The class has some ESL DVD's that are pretty helpful and fun to watch, so he watches those quite a bit before I come home from work and after he gets out of class. He's been studying pretty hard recently so on Sunday I let him drive a bit in a parking lot to get a feel for my car. I think he's a better driver than me since he use to drive in Beijing and thinks driving an automatic is a joke but it looks like we may need to visit the optometrist before there is any DMV road tests His vision is probably not bad enough to require glasses to drive, but I think this will be the next item on the list of things to do. Maybe I'll post my list of things to do when your love one arrives~ or just add on to some of the lists already on this board So all in all, week 2 has gone well....

Yeah, long live 'Packzi Day'

Ooh, update! We just received his welcome notice w/ A# and greencard today, just 1.5 weeks after POE, not bad!

Hi everyone, Just wanted to drop forum members a few lines to let you know that my husband entered the country about 1 week ago. Thank you very much for your answers and advice in my previous post just over a month ago when he first received the visa. We had originally bought him a round trip ticket due to some family drama, but in the end we didn't end up using the return ticket because matters are basically under control~ for now at least The POE was smooth, but required about 2 hrs after arrival at LAX. He said everyone was super polite to him and it went well. Also, I have his X-rays here, and it's still completely sealed up, so those were not looked at. That evening was entertaining b/c he was really excited about using the bathtub in my apt. He then proceeded to take a nice hot bath followed by a looooong shower while I unpacked his things. The only problem was I failed to inform him that US bathrooms do NOT (generally) have drains in the middle of the floor, ONLY in the tub or shower area, so actually closing the shower curtain is pretty important haha. Anyway, as a result we had a ton of water...gallons at least...to clean up but a really sparkly bathroom afterwards! (Lesson Learned: Securely close shower curtain and inform spouse not to spray water everywhere as there is no drain outside of tub ) The first few days he was completely jet lagged, but on the 3rd day I enrolled him in ESL at the Adult school down the block (much to the surprise of his now classmates though...nope, sorry, no time for fun & relaxing--socializing, getting on a daily schedule, & practicing English need to take place ASAP heh). Unsurprisingly his reading skills are much better than his speaking, but even over the past week he has built up some confidence to run errands and talk to people more. I think the culture shock is setting in little by little as he realizes he has minimal communication skills and a fairly difficult time understanding people. Even so, he is really motivated to find a job and take his drivers license test, so he's studying both ESL and the Chinese version of the DMV manual everyday . Despite not having a license, the good news is I live in an area where many things are accessible by walking (not super fun things, but the daily necessities) so he can be fairly independent and walk to class, the market, etc. So, as I mentioned, he's been here 1 week, but we haven't received anything in the mail quite yet. I thought a welcome letter might be on it's way soon, but maybe I'm making this up...hmm, I better read some other posts. Anyway, hopefully the goodies come in the mail soon b/c I want to get a slightly larger apartment but don't want to have to go through the ordeal changing addresses quite yet! I've been making the list of whom I need to update w/ a new address...and it's not a short list! haha Anyway, I just wanted to follow up with you a bit and say hi, and let you know all is going well B)

Thank you for this information. As it turns out (since everyday brings about more questions and concerns), this is the exact issue that I need to look into today. I don't want his having to stay abroad to negatively impact his status in the US, so I think I may indeed have to prepare that re-entry permit in advance in order to send it out before he exits the US. I'll look at this paperwork a bit more and will probably post some related follow-up questions. Thanks again everyone. You've been very helpful~

I think only staying for longer than one year, do you need to file for a reentry permit. Any stay longer than six months, however, will put the burden on the green card holder, to show that they have not given up the intent to immigrate. Although a reentry permit isn't required for stays less than one year, an LPR can still lose their status (trips for 6 mo + but less than 1 yr) if they cannot adequately prove that they have kept their intent to immigrate as well as lose time eligibility requirements for naturalization. Ok, good to know. These are all the worst case scenarios, but it's good for us to consider all of this in advance indeed! I am basically looking into bringing him to the US as planned but on a round trip ticket instead. Also, once he enters at least his SSN paperwork, GC, etc will get rolling... At least in terms of entering the US this visa business isn't looking as disasterous as we originally thought, so at least there is some good news

Question, have all of your SO's arriving on CR-1 received the stamp w/o requesting it? i.e. will the officer at POE automatically put it in the passport? Have any of your SO traveled solely on the stamp? It was not requested. They put it in without question. I can't see why there would be a problem traveling on a stamp. That is what it's for as well as working in the US. It IS a temporary green card with all of the green card benefits. Ok, good, got it. Thanks again. The stamp perfectly makes sense since not everyone may receive the greencard in the mail asap.... I don't think he will have to stay in China over 6 months, but if he does we'll just have to plan ahead and file the appropriate paperwork it seems...hopefully it doesn't come to that though~

Question, have all of your SO's arriving on CR-1 received the stamp w/o requesting it? i.e. will the officer at POE automatically put it in the passport? Have any of your SO's traveled solely on the stamp?

Sanity check: Does the visa itself get stamped in the passport? Is that the proof of endorsement? Or is it something else that needs to get carried around in addition to the passport. His visa says the same thing as you have listed..w/o the actual endorsement of course. So, w/ such an endorsement, would re-entry into the US be acceptable without actually having the greencard in hand at a later date, possibly a few months later? I am thinking it would probably be best if he comes to the US for a few days and then fly back out and continue to tend to family matters and then the green card would still be mailed to us at my address. If he really needs it I could send it to him in China I suppose....but ideally I wouldn't want to mail something like that..ughh Well, at least it initially appears as though entering and exiting the US is a viable option. I'll relay it to him tonight and hopefully it will help him at least take this visa stuff off his mind:(