Meelo

Your wife will take care of most things you need to worry about. I made sure that we had our kylintv set up for Chinese tv for them and made sure the Vonage was working on calls to china. The mother in law needed to have qq games working on the computer which was a pain in the ass on a English language computer. The in laws have been out here multiple times. Be prepared for a bigger fight about the thermostat haha!

+1 If you are going to go to the hospitals in China (even Shanghai) I recommend this. The class of Doctors and Patients are much better. You will not have as much of the other visitors pay attention to you. When my daughter was born in Shanghai, we went to a good Chinese hospital. But we would get random people who would walk into our room just to see the mixed baby. that gets old really quick when you have been up all night with the baby and the wife. In Hangzhou, the "expensive" hospital is only like 10% more than the cheap one, but the crowds are wayyyyyy less there.

Thanks for the heads up. Here is what happened: PPD was positive. Chest X-ray was negative. Quantiferon Gold test was positive. Quantiferon test is the new blood test that is done to diagnose TB. It knows the difference from the vaccine they get in China and if they were actually exposed to TB. Lao po has latent TB because she was exposed to it :-( Did lots of research on this and found that this test is new and is actually included in the Technical Instructions for Civil Surgeons.

You right about the cost. It was good. But the office girls there are very rude and they don't know the proper procedures. That is why I say nay! EDIT: I even got them to charge my insurance for the vaccinations.

Do Not See This Civil Surgeon! I am in Phoenix and we went to see this guy: DR. Larry Sobel SOBEL FAMILY MEDICINE & PHYSICAL THERAPY 4550 E. Bell Road Suite 114 Phoenix, AZ 85032 The total cost for the exam was $240. This included the needed vaccinations. LeiLei needed a whole new exam due to being over a year removed from the last exam in China. She failed her TB test and was diagnosed with Class B latent TB. The Doc said everything was fine as long as she took the meds. We received the exam packet for USCIS to open. Last Friday we received an RFE due the the Civl Surgeon not signing the I-693. I called them yesterday to find out why. They told me that since she has TB they cannot sign the documents. I spent all day yesterday researching and found that in the technical instructions for giving immigration exams in the TB section that in fact they should have signed it. Today, I went down there and showed them that they were wrong (which they didn't like at all!) and was told that they would sign the I-693 but they didn't feel comfortable doing it. Sounds like these guys need some retraining! These people were rude and treated my wife like dirt! Do Not Go Here!

DW has at least 2 apartments in her name in her home town. Her Aunt has no children and has told my wife that she will be giving her 3 more places in the future. Not to mention her parents places too. We are looking into having DW become a US citizen in 3 years. I know that China does have strict strict rules about laowai owning houses. How would DW becoming a USC affect her ownership of those places? Can we keep them and rent them out or should be liquidate them? We would like to keep one of her places for the future because we may end up back there someday.

DW found a guy that installed our pirate dish for dream network for only 1200rmb in Shanghai. The card needed to be replaced every 6 months which was included in the price, but I usually tipped him 100rmb because he came out the same day. Since then, we moved the dish to our house in Hangzhou and the guy just mails us the card. But we havent been back for 18 months so not sure if he is still able to get us the cards. I also used the slingbox to stream video from my brother's house to our apt in Shanghai. That was awesome! Full control over my TiVo!

Yeah you are right on that one. At the time, I was stateside and she was in Hangzhou with our baby. I guess all we cared about was getting back together here. I understand that one, this is typically the K-3 was originally meant for, but the primary reason the K-3 exists, (WAITING for I-130 approval) no longer exists your I-130 was approved before the K-3 was issued, since then NVC has started closing K-3 because of the approved I-130. I would have filed the I-485 just prior to 2 years of marriage, so the spouse would have green-card to be able to do things like travel, work, apply for a driver's license, etc... Luckily we are in AZ. Here they let anyone who has had a US Driver's License get one. Also here K-3 visa allowed her to get one but it expires the same day her i-94 expires. Normally it expires when you are 65. Tons of snow birds come here and they get their license and then go back to the midwest where they are not allowed to get a new one. Crazy! I almost got hit by a driver with a "Pearl Harbor Survivor" license plate. That was almost 70 years ago!

Yeah you are right on that one. At the time, I was stateside and she was in Hangzhou with our baby. I guess all we cared about was getting back together here.

Green-card will allow visa free travel to our neighboring countries like Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean. Europe, and any place that a PRC citizen needed a visa for will remain the same and still need a visa. Will it be easier for her to get the Shengen visa or a visa to the UK being a LPR?

From your timeline, you paid NVC fees, did you get a CR-1 or pursued the K-3? OR are adjusting status from the K-3?? Would not make much sense to do K-3 if had paid all the CR-1 fees to NVC. If removing conditions (I-751) more than likely there will NOT be an interview. Also the I-751 extension letter and expired 2 year green-card will allow international travel, however there have been some posts about having problems leaving China with the extension letter, so getting an I-551 stamp in passport may help there. AOS from K-3. We got the first Visa that we could. At the time, I just moved back to the States from Shanghai. Looking back we should have just waited the time to get the CR-1 visa. Stupid! DW hasn't needed to travel back to China because her parents were able to get visas to come stay with us. So we have been lucky. We are looking into a cruise to the Bahamas for our 4 year anniversary and our celebration for the GC. We should be getting the 10 year green card

Thanks for the help guys! We will be happy when she has the green card in her hand so we can do some traveling internationally again. Where to go...

We sent in our last "White Books" for our Marriage certificate and my wife's birth certificate with our AOS packet. Do we need any more copies of these documents for our AOS interview? I guess it is a pain in the butt to get them when we are not in China. Do we need these for any other steps in the process to become a USC in the future too? Thanks for any help.

Our interview is on the 25th of November. Since the interview is the day before Thanksgiving, I am assuming that my wife wont have a visa until Decembe right?

My Daughter was born in Shanghai. The process of getting her a Chinese birth certificate was a bit difficult only because they wanted to shorten her name on it. The birth certificate isn't meant to fit western names. Getting everything from the consulate was very easy because we were married. It will be more difficult if you are not married. I would reccomend waiting until she gets to america because the hospital we went to was a chop shop. Something like 66% of the babies came by way of C-Section. Also the rooms were terrible! But my wife was scared as first moms usually are and it made her feel very comfortable being with Chinese Doctors and having nothing lost in translation for her. We will have the second baby at Scottsdale North.

Thanks for your help!

Hi All, My CR-1 case is still at NVC. I have already sent the DS-3032 by email and have paid all of the fees. I have not sent any physical documents to NVC. Am I too late for this new process? Thanks in advance!

Thanks for the help! Very appreciated !!

Wow! You are busy!!! Thanks again for your help! http://www.uscis.gov/propub/ProPubVAP.jsp?...ad312b1ab639b17 http://travel.state.gov/pdf/I-864GenInfo-FAQ-Final.pdf Sometimes the webpages are overlooked and have wording for the older forms. If the form itself complies with the new format that does not need notarization then no notarization is needed. http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=175696

My wife lived in America for 2 years. Does she need her police records? I assume that they would have pulled them during the background check. Any ideas?

Hi All! I am preparing documents for NVC and I came across a problem. The instructions for the I-864a say they need to be notarized (click here). However there is no place to put a notary stamp nor does it say it in the instructions for the form. What should I do?

Haoran congrats on the fast approval! I guess that we got lucky huh! I am also trying to get these police forms. My wife lived in Switzerland for 5 years and I was able to go and order the police report online. I printed out the form and sent it to Switzerland. It costed 40 francs! My wife also lived in America for 2 years. Does she need a police report from America? They should have done a background check on her already. I would imagine that they would have already pulled the police report. Anybody know for sure?

It's too bad but it's making retirement in Malaysia look like the only alternative... I'm just not going to put up with endless visa hassles... With the price of a Chinese Visa up to $130 a pop, wouldn't it just make plain sense to go for a Multi-Entry L Visa? A notice I read on the Chinese Consulate's Website states they are availabe for up to 24 months. Since I'm headed for Beijing this January for a 5 week stay, and we usually go back to Beijing at least once a year....I figured this was a way to beat the cost of another visa. Funny thing though, when I printed out the Visa Application Form, the longest option for a Multi-Entry Visa was 12 months. So I just penciled in the 24 month option and created a box which I checked. I submitted the application to the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco and the processor looked at it and matter-of-factly told me "No". Hey, can't say I didn't try. She did look over our marriage registration booklets and agreed to issue me a Multi-Entry L Visa for 1 year with 60 day stay each entry. Makes me happy and is a step in the right direction. If we need to go back for any family emergency or some situation where we need to do something with our home......no problem. Now what's all this talk about registrating with the local police? I've never had to worry about this before. We'll have to find out what the situation is in our neighborhood, then do what is right....I guess. PapaBear B) I am happy to hear that you got your new visa! I live in Shanghai so for me it was expensive to get a new F visa so I started to look at other options so I didnt have to leave every 60 days or so. If you are married to a Chinese citizen you can get a 1 year multiple entry visa that does not have a maximum stay. Meaning you do not have to leave every 60 or 90 days or so. I could only get that were my wife has her Hukou. It was still expesnsive compared to other countries. It was 940rmb. I got it back in a couple of days. Very easy.

That is something new that I wasn't aware of. It must be a leftover from the increased security from the Olympics and the decreased trust / friendliness between our countries since the Tibetan protests, (and/or recent American weapons supply to Taiwan). Maybe it's a combination of all those things along with the 'Free Tibet' movement in America and the continuous China bashing in the American press. I know, I know... I'm and need The Chinese Government Changed the rules because getting an American Visa is difficult and expensive. Many of my colleagues can go to Thailand or Japan to get a visa, but I could only go to Hong Kong. During the Olympics I could only go to the Consulate in America. This was for a F visa and later a Z visa. Before the olympics I could get a new F visa here in Shanghai with out leaving.

Each visit is good for a number of days. If you are allowed, say, a 90 day visit you may stay for the full 90 days. Just don't expect to be able to leave the country (such as a quick visit to Hong Kong) and come back after the visa expiration. Of course, you could always pick up a new visa in Hong Kong. You must go to any Chinese consulate outside of China and re-apply for another L visa. If a consulate is not convenient to get to, you can use an expiditing service, just mail your passport, make payment for the visa and their fee, and they will mail the passport back to you. It is of course quicker to appear at the consulate personally. Make sure you ask for the maximum length of stay and multiple entries during the length of time the visa is good for. Hope this helps. Bill Now Americans can only go to the Chinese Consulate in Hong Kong or the Consulate in America. We are unable to go anywhere else B) . Stupid I know. You should have no problem getting an extension for 30 days, maybe even 2 consecative extensions.