SirLancelot

I read the same thing and when I filled out the I-129F form, I didn't write anything on the back. I don't think the people adjudicating my file will be looking on the backside of the photos. I wouldn't suggest you NOT do it if you really want to, but if you hadn't, don't worry about it. I highly doubt your adjudicating officer will look on the back of your photos as well. Best wishes!

I don't buy the use of email as evidence at all. How hard is it to fake emails? EXTREMELY easy. How hard is it to fake hand written letters dated and posted marked? MUCH more difficult. I can wait until the week before the P3 is sent off to churn out 50 emails back dating it. I certainly can't do that with hand written letters and proper postmarks on the envelopes. Personally, I don't even write emails much anymore. In this day of Skype, webcam and cell phones, talking is about all that I do. I have not written a snail mail letter--although I personally think that's the best evidence--and I rarely write email of significance. Everything is done through Skype or Jajah. (BTW, have you guys heard of Jajah.com? Free telephone calls to China). So I really don't have much of a trail. I'm NOT suggesting others do as I am doing. But I think I'm fine. I am not concerned about evidence of our genuine relationship.

Glad you asked that question. I read the February 23rd date on Friday and thought WTF.... Hope it's true that this is not as omenous as it looked at first. I just saw the revised date now and reacted in the exact same manner: WTF?!? I confirmed with my SO and she said it use to say March 6th. So next thing I did was of course to come here looking for answers. This is really frustrating, especially for the SO. Are we sure this is no cause for alarm? Essentially this status update is bogus then, if this info is not accurate.

I have used Annie Flowers with good success. They also keep an online account for you that I have printed for more relationship evidence, http://china-flower.annie.com.cn/ -James and Loving Candle OMG! I just took a look at the website and saw their prices. INSANE! While they are perfectly reasonable prices in the US, as compared to 1800florist or FTD, but in China, they should be 1/10 the price. Outside of the big 3 (BJ, SH, GZ) it should be 1/12 or 1/15 the price that this Anna person is charging. She's making an absolute killing! Have any of you purchased flowers while in China? These are totally rip off prices. 10rmb is more than adequate delivery fee for intercity deliveries and I gaurantee they are not flying these flowers in from some other city. These are locally delivered from that city and 10rmb should be adequate delivery fee. I just can't believe the prices she's charging. It's enough to make me want to go to China right now and start a flower delivery company catering to foreigners wanting to send their GF's flowers. Absolutely flabbergasted!

Thanks a lot for this info... do you know which Senator I should contact in the future? I have two, a Class I and a Class II Senator? I have no idea what the difference is, thanks!! Just trying to be proactive and get all the info I can in advance! 227282[/snapback] For any state, there are two US Senators. They both equally represent you. Unlike your US Congressman/woman who may have a much smaller district to represent, the two Senators from your state equally represent the entire state. There's no such thing as a Class I or Class II senator. I suspect you're referring to the term Junior and Senoir Senator of any state. The junior Senator is the newer of the two Senators and the Senior has been representing your state longer. In theory, they both have the same power, but generally the Senior Senator has more connection in Washington DC and sits as a ranking member or committee chair on some committee. You can contact either or both.

With all due respect, no, this is not correct. The Chinese are getting wealthier and wealthier by the day and in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing, there are many wealthy individuals with homes and cars and other assets which would demonstrate ample evidence to the VO that a visitor visa would and should indeed be issued. What it boils down to is whether the person seeking a visitor visa can demonstrate whether s/he has enough funds to travel to the USA and support his or her trip and whether or not that individual has sufficient ties to China to compel that person to come back to China once the US visit has concluded. I have seen many educated Shanghai females with sufficient means obtain tourist and business visas to visit the US. It is not at all a slim or nil chance endeavor. However if the female in question is rather poor and from a poor province (for example: GuiZhou or GuangXi) then indeed it would be pretty darn hard to obtain a visitor visa--still it's not impossible. Lastly, as it pertains to a K-1 visa application, then it would be almost impossible to obtain a regular tourist visa once you're already in the K-1 visa process. Because the K-1 visa application is based on the intent of eventual immigration, then no toursit visa will be issued as one has to prove that one is not interested in immigrating to the US if issued a visitor visa. But a K-1 visa application would directly counter that.

As of 4/21/06, they updated again, now it's moved to February 03, 2006. So it's moving along! https://egov.immigration.gov/cris/jsps/Proc...nter=California

Hi, I do not believe this point is correct. I remember specifically reading that once your spouse becomes a US citizen that you are no longer responsible for that spouses financial support. Even if there's no divorce, she can get public benefits if you two are poor enough. No where does it say you're liable for her finances forever. When she becomes a US citizens, she's entitled to the full responsiblities and glories of being a US citizens and that includes welfare benefits.

Doesn't this mean it's passed Chinese Customs in GZ and the packages are with DHL Guangzhou? It should be shortly sent to your destination, either today or tomorrow I'd imagine.

I'm curious, how huge is "huge"? We talking about 10? 20? 30? year age difference?

Haha.. alright.. finally something to smile about with the rising RMB to USD exchange rate. 810rmb it is then. Thanks for the replies/confirmations folks.

Due to the rising nature of the Chinese RMB/Yuan vs. the US Dollar, has the application fee for a NIV been changed from 830rmb to 810rmb? I went to a SH branch of the CITIC to ask if they can accept payment for GUZ NIV application and the girl there said yes. We asked how much was the fee and she replied 810rmb. So I'd like to confirm here with you guys who have recently gone to GUZ for their interviews. Was the fee 810 or 830rmb? Thanks!

RLS, I think it's best to over prepare rather than underprepare. So go overboard. Include it all if possible. Offer them both the bank statement and the employment verfication letter. I don't believe they need to be notorized, but if you have a notory public at work who can stamp these documents for you, then by all means get them notorized. If you do more than is required, they won't penalize you for it.

Snail mail is always the best. It will convey that you took the time to write/print out and post a stamp on an envelope. But if that's too much trouble, then writing email is better than nothing. Had written letters mean the most, but it's getting rarer and rarer to see hand written letters in this day and age. The address would be dependent on your respective Congress-person and Senators.

I nominate Dave G. He wrote a wonderful letter to GUZ on his sister-in-law's behalf. His choice of words in the letter was just superb! Take a gander at his letter and see if you guys agree that Dave G. should compose the initial draft. edit: Request to MODs, would it be possible to pin this thread to the very top? It would be ideal if newer members--and older members--would be constantly exposed to this thread. I found out about this thread by digging deep into the past. I think once this thread goes back a few pages, members will forget about it. It would be good to keep this thread in the headlines for all the see.

HanLi, it would be helpful if you could provide a timeline in your signature so that we can see how your application progressed. Thanks.

Ok, so I went to DHL and tinkered around with their search by reference ID and discovered, as so many of you have, that packages sent to GUZ have this outragous wait time of about a month. Yet, packages sent to Beijing with the same reference ID has never had to wait in Customs. It gets to the Embassy in BJ generally under 5 days, as it should considering the packages are Interntional Express with appropriate express charges paid. So my question is this: Why won't the NVC initially send the packages destined to GUZ to Beijing first? Then Beijing could domestically in China express it over to GUZ and then there wouldn't be this one month long wait? Of course there are two drawbacks to this: 1) More shipping/transitting could (and will) created more avenues for the documents to be lost. 2) Extra shipping/handling cost for shipping from BJ to GZ. But I think the reduction in the processing time at GZ Customs would well be worth this extra step of shipping to BJ first then BJ to GZ. Have we (this forum) asked GUZ to request that BJ ask NVC to ship the packages to BJ first, then have BJ relay it over to GZ? I think this is one effective step that the DOS staff based in China can do to help speed up this Visa processing step for the applicants. As an IT Business Analyst, this would be the first thing I'd recommend to help improve this flow/process. Any thoughts on this?

That sounds about right. In looking through the Visa issurance statistics (http://travel.state.gov/pdf/FY2005_NIV_Detail_Table.pdf), Mexico and Philiphines were indeed issued a lot of K1 visas, along with Russia and Ukraine. I would imagine they would be up there in the TOP 10 busiest IV issurance Consulates.

What happened to the plan? I am absolutely for this. There should be over 2000 members on here. If we can combine our efforts in a letter writing campaigne to our elected reps, I think it will do some good.

Hey Jonathan, how did it go? Give us a status update.

Dear GUZ: I have read some posts indicating that the GZ Consulate will accept visa payments to certain CITIC branchs in Shanghai. These were posts by other members and not from the official GUZ account. Could you please confirm which branchs in Shanghai are authorized to accept payment for the GZ Consulate? http://www.ecitic.com/citicib/branchbank/i...0002&newsID=128 Are these the only two CITIC branchs in SH that will accept payment for your Consulate? Thanks.

Wow, this trip to Nanning has indeed proven very disappointing and frustrating for you. First the lost luggages and now this cancellation. Absolutely horrible. I sympathize. At the very least, you are with your loved one. Try to think positively and cherish the time with your SO. And definitely do as others have suggested, try visiting GUZ on Friday and speak with a VO to see if there's anything you or they can do to rectify the situation immediately. And try contacting the Consul General directly. Good luck.

I'm curious, how do you know it's 86lbs and 18 pieces? Where do you get this info? Do you call DOS and do they give you a tracking number?

Hi RLS, If you're wanting to go through some motions to seem married in China to appease the Chinese relatives or friends, what they are most interested in is the reception dinner. You don't go around showing people the marriage license from the government, so a wedding reception at a Chinese restaurant, that is what's considered a real marriage in the eyes of the relatives and friends. You can certainly do that. But, as pointed out above, do NOT register the marriage with the Chinese city authority, and you are fully within compliance of the US law if done this way. You can do this before you get legally married in the US. A reception dinner is NOT considered a legal marriage in the eyes of the US legal system. And again as pointed out, do NOT show photos taken at this reception to the VO. Don't confuse them into thinking you've actually married in China legally. This dinner reception would be a very nice and welcomed gesture to the Chinese relatives and friends. They will be more accepting of the girl/woman leaving China after that.

Add gas/fuel! Wish everything turns out exactly as you planned it. Enjoy your stay in GZ.