Batmaniac

Good news! Love to read about those double CFL pinks.

Excellent news!!

That is crazy!

Love most fruit, but by the end of the summer in China I was so sick of freaking watermelon after every meal. Grapefruit is about the only fruit that I consistently avoid.

Wow, I wonder if this was just a weird backlog the whole week? Visa printing machine broke? Nobody was there waiting when we went.

YAY!

Those crackers aren't bad really. I think I liked the tomato flavor the best.

You need to confer with Ying about the BBQ here. She is wild about it! Congrats again!!

Thanks Bill, ours looks pretty much the same, but it's nice to double check. Probably send out this week sometime. Just not sure what to put it all in. How do people mail it out? Looks like you sent it out priority 3 Day from the PO? Tracking number , etc? Probably the best option for a PO Box.

I think I might be the only one who has ever had a successful change of address by emailing GUZ. It was even at least 6 weeks before they received our case from NVC.

I saw fellow who was angry, loud and obnoxious in ACH. When he came out he talked to my group a few minutes. Ying talked to his wife in Chinese. It turned out she didn't even know what type of visa she was applying for when the VO brought it up! Communication, communication, communication . . . there it is again.

Very happy for you guys!! Good job! I had no doubt that it would happen for you two. Hope you got some of that shrimp you like, Dylan! When you get back and get settled let's get together.

Doh!

congratulations! I have been wondering what was happening with you. Haven't seen you around!

I wrote down a few questions. What exactly the order was she would be handing over documents? There is actually as sign in that room and i pointed out to the VO that answered my first question and we chuckled about it. She said it would all be very clear and not to worry about that. Do I need my letter of intent/evolution of relationship notarized and is 3.5 pages too long? She said no. Don't even worry about that. I suspect my original 1.5 page letter was already on file from front-loading. Does she need to hand over 2 copies of the notarized I-134? I casually mentioned that I got 1 copy notarized at ACS the month before. She said no need for 2 and getting a notarization at ACS never hurts. I felt that was a little "wink wink" moment. I then asked about POE and if they had heard of airlines requiring purchase of a roundtrip ticket for a K1 holder. She had not. But she found the question interesting and we discussed it for a minute. And I asked about what the customs officers take. She pretty much said when they issue the visa, it is all out of their hands. So I really just wanted a few questions to ask that I pretty much knew the answers to already just to register with GUZ that I was there. Basically like everyone else on the board. And my wife did not get the same VO. She got the "handsome guy who passes everyone" according to 001.

They shouldn't do one. If she is here on a K1 and still within the year time frame they should know that she doesn't need another exam.

We got ours at some other hospital in Guangzhou AFTER the interview and just carried it with us.

We got that book in a hurried trip back to Guangzhou, but I'm not sure we should have even bothered. The (Chinese) civil surgeon here didn't even want to look at it since there were no vaccinations in it. They gave her the vaccinations and wrote out the sealed supplement.

Can you explain the poetry in the handicapped stall sign I saw that read "toilet for deformed man"

I think you met Charlie briefly in the coffee shop our interview morning. I sure wish yours had been so easy. It's so unfair.

Absloutely! I forgot to mention the VO also was playing CPA and going line by line through Charlie's tax return. Charlie met the requirements easily and has been paying quite a bit in taxes being self-employed, but the VO insisted on asking his fiancee if Charlie made enough to support her. It was overall a weird experience, but it sounds like this VO is no longer at GUZ. I think this story goes to show the importance of front loading with an evolution of relationship letter, ACH and notarization of the I-134 and prehaps an ammended relationship letter at ACS prior to the interview.

On our interview date in GUZ, Wolvie and I met only one other USC (I'll call him Charlie) in line and had coffee with him for a couple of hours waiting for what would be our girls' successful results. Unfortunately, Charlie's fiancee received a blue slip asking for one letter of eveoluition of the relationship and and one detailing his 3 trips to China. Charlie was incredibly frustrated there in the coffee shop. He was just pissed beyond belief that the VO didn't ask for the evidence they had in their "kitchen sink." Note that Charlie wasn't aware of ACH or notarizing at ACS. Frustration boiled over into anger, and for a few seconds I was quite concerned he would try to go upstairs and confront the VO. During this time we learned what actually transpired during the interview. Charlie had been married twice, both years and years before. One marriage lasted 2 months, the other marriage lasted 10 years and there was a daughter from that marriage. Guess which one he discussed more often with his fiancee. His fiancee's English is limited and when he talked to her about the two month marriage (and maybe only a few times), it didn't stick. The VO asked her "how many times has Charlie been married?" She replied "once." The VO snapped immediately back "he is lying to you." and blue slipped them seeking more information in two notarized letters. I think they were extremely lucky to get blue. We calmed him down, got him to relax and Ying and I took Charlie and his fiancee to our hotel where I helped him write his two letters. That afternoon he got them notarized at ACS where a former VO listened patiently to his complaints and was very sympathetic to his situation. He totally understod the two month marriage not ever having been discussed at great length and made notes in the file as such. He even mentioned the VO was transferring soon and would likely want his desk cleared and the "blue overcome" could be a quick process. We spent the next several days with this nice couple having dinner and hanging out trying to cheer them up. The following week I even took Charlie to HK to have his passport stamped. He only had a 6 month visa with 30 day entrys which obviously added even more pressure on him staying up in Shanghai with his fiancee. The next Monday he went to ACH and gave them the notarized letters. They asked him to mail them in as well, which he did. Today I heard from Charlie. They received their visa a few days ago (expedited the same day at GUZ for no extra charge) and they will be here in Texas in March. Yes, another Texan. Hopefully we will be getting together with them next month or so. I wanted to give some of you blue slipped couples some hope out there with this story. Hope your overcomes are as quick and successful as Charlie's.

Congrats! I'm sure going to ACS looked really good to them. Glad you did it. Did they ask you any questions for her file during your ACS visit?

I can only tell you what we did in at DFW. I mentioned some of it here a few weeks ago. We both got into the visitor/non-citizen/non-green card line. I got out of line and asked a guy at the immigration booth if we could come see him since we had a K1 and he had no line. He said we had to get stamped with the regular visitors first. So I got back in line with Ying and then an officer (the boss I think) came over and took us out of line and jumped us ahead of everyone in a faster queue. He saw our sealed K1 packet and asked if we had pictures inside. I said we have pictures, but she passed her lengthy (ok, i lied to him, it was 3 questions) interview in Guangzhou. He went into full on dick mode and raised his voice telling me that we must satisfy customs before she is allowed into the US. Now I could have gone into full on dick mode as well, but why? We were so close now I knew that if I just smiled he'd cool down. I told him that as far as I knew there were not pictures in the sealed packet but I had 200+ in my bag. He then smiled and said "Sir, we only need 5!" So he goes away and we both go up to the regular customs officer at the same time. She looks at my passport (but doesn't stamp it, I've found LAX and DFW don't stamp me ever on entry but ORD does) and looks at Ying's passport and I 94 and declaration card. I think she gave Ying a stamp (maybe just on the declaration form) and quizzed her about some kind of fish shaped cake she brought in from HK that we had listed on the declaration form since it is food. We walked over to the original immigration officer's booth that I talked with before. "Full on dick mode guy" was dealing with another immigrating couple and seemed to have lost interest in us. The first guy went through the sealed packet while we sat. He called us over and told us what he was mailing off asked when we would marry. I told him in a couple of weeks. He then said "welcome to the United States!" Very friendly gentleman. Never asked for any pics. He stapled Ying's I 94 stub into her passport and off we went to collect luggage. It was exiting there that another officer took the declaration cards. Yes there were two because we were not married yet. Hope that helps. It's pretty straightforward. If you are doing something wrong they will tell you.

Much of the various Chinese beers all tasted like Tsingtao to me. Little difference. I can't agree that Chinese beer is better than all US beer . . . but it certaintly has Bud, Miller, Coors beat. Anyone ever have what they suspected to be fake Heineken? icky . . . Oh I saw Harbin at the Chinese grocery store the other day. Surprised the hell outta me!