GIS

Would someone be so kind as to drop some knowledge on me. My oldest sister in law filed for her other siblings in Oct 2006. How should I read the visa bulletin to know when and what to do next?

My wife had her Citizenship interview yesterday in Chicago. Everything went well and the Oath Ceremony is in a couple weeks. Took about 9 months to get the interview from when we applied the N-400. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here. Remarkable I still remembered my password. Everything has been well for us. More than 9 years married and a couple of kids. Living the life. Hope everyone is happy and healthy!

Ok. Thanks. It seems pretty clear. Need 6 months. I was thinking before the 6 months was just for applying for a Chinese Visa.

My wife and I and our 2 kids are thinking MAYBE of going back to China for Chinese New Year. Our oldest son’s passport expires 28 FEB 2018. He already has a valid Chinese 10 year Visa. New year is on the 15th so we’d be back before it expires. However, does anyone think we could encounter an issue with China immigration being that we’d cut it so close to the expiration date?

I know that until it becomes law anything could change. I'm just trying to get a feel for the direction its going...grandfathered vs. totally screwed. But your quote above is exactly the reason why we cannot take anything for granted. Although, in the end there's not much I can really do other than contact my Senators.

My wife's oldest sister is a naturalized US Citizen. She petitioned for her other sisters (except for her youngest sister - my wife) and brother when she became a USC. Based on their priority date they still have a wait of 2.5 years. They've already been waiting about 11. If the RAISE Act passes will those that have already applied be grandfathered in or are they screwed?

All this RFE talk has got me worried. My wife and I will file a week from Tuesday. I think we've got everything covered but we'll see I guess. Just a quick note: I got my 2011 tax transcripts from the IRS. I file back in early Feb and requested it in late Feb. it took about double the normal processing time but I got 'em.

I don't know a way around it... But as far as the iPhone, my wife watches Chinese tv shows and movies on her phone(and iPad) with apps like PPTV and PPS.

My wife and I are expecting our first child in a couple months. Lately we've been busy preparing for our new arrival. One thing we've done is load up on Chinese kid stories on our iPad. We've easily found over 100 free story apps. And they're all really good with cool pictures and animations! Most have English and some Have pinyin as well. In the app store you can find them by searching ¶ùͯ£¬º¢×Ó£¬or ±¦±¦Êé/ er tong, hai zi, bao bao shu. Or search by the app makers name: Joy Orange, YoYo books, iReading, Appletree, Tinysky books, Tinman, and Rye books.

Anybody in the Chicago area still going to this?

My experience in the Land of Lincoln was pretty much the same. I worked as a cashier at a grocery store before I went to college. People would pull up in brand new cars or come through the line wearing thick gold chains buying 10lb bags of jumbo shrimp using a Link card. Not sure if it's still called a Link card today.

My wife and I will probably be there as long as we're around in July and even though its a few months away I don't think we have any plans to be anywhere else. Keep us posted.

Glad to hear all is well and you're all havig a good time. My wife and I (mostly my wife) decided that she didn't want to go to Tokyo anymore. If it were up to me, I probably would have given it a shot...but obviously its not up to me...haha. I can live with eating the 7 bucks for the cost of the Japan Visa and now we get a few more days in China so that is fine with me. Besides, its probably just as well. It sounds like there was too much potential for problems and mop slaps in Japan.

Just wanted to update. My wife got her Japanese visa in about a week. Very easy. I was able to get a two year Chinese visa from Chicago.

Awesome! Thanks for the valuable info. Would you suggest that my wife preemptively include a paystub from me and a copy of our marriage cert. for her visa app? (We have the flight and hotel itinerary already). I'll be sending it off in a couple weeks.

Cool! My wife is from Nanning too. I'll have to talk to my siser-in-law there and see if she can give me a definitive answer. @danb: We'll only be in Japan for 4 days...so we're basically going to spend it in Tokyo. We're still investigating what we'd like to do there...and open to suggestions if anyone has any. We'll have to see what the rest of Japan has to offer some other time. We're not sure yet how many days we'll be in Vietnam, but sorta planning between 5-7. We're going to try and see a few areas in the North, at least thats the plan thus far... It'll be a few months still, but I'll post the fun details when we return. Thanks for the help everyone!

Can I ask why you think the consulate in Nanning is closed? Everything I have seen indicates its open. I just want to make sure I'm not missing something important.

Thanks! My wife hasn't gotten the visa to Japan yet, but it doesn't look to be too difficult...the standard flight itinerary, yadda yadda, with a copy of her green card. What I wasn't sure about with the Vietnam consulate in Nanning is if I could apply there. I don't know if it makes a difference because I'm a USC and I need to apply in the USA. I agree that Japan is very expensive...I remember not too long ago the exchange rate was 1:110. But my wife and I want to take advantage of the opportunity to visit...who knows it may be even more expensive in the future.

My wife and I are planning on doing some traveling to a couple other countries when we visit China later this year. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions on hotels to stay at in Japan and also about how much money needed for a 3 day stay. In China, we'll be staying in Nanning so we were planning on driving down to Vietnam for a few days. Does anybody know if we can get our Vietnam visa at the border or not? Thanks

Just wanted to bring this to a close. We received the Green Card in the mail a couple days ago. I think on the 20th. Anyway, I also wanted to add that I did in the end enlist the help of a Senator to make an inquiry on behalf of my wife. 6 days later when an inquiry was made the case was updated. Then 7 days after that my wife's application was approved. Its not that I was impatient, I was just concerned my wife's application had fallen through the cracks. Like I said before, on VJ there were alot of people that filed around the same time as us that also seemed to get lost in the shuffle (maybe it had something to do with the new directions on where to send the I-485. Most of those people are still waiting. I am convinced that getting my Senator's help was the difference. Thanks to all for the help along the way. We're done for a couple years!!!

Thanks Randy. We're on vacation now....now we can relax and celebrate. We weren't sure if it was something potentially serious.

Got this yesterday: Decision On July 1, 2010, we mailed you a notice that we had registered this customer's new permanent resident status. Please follow any instructions on the notice. Your new permanent resident card should be mailed within 60 days following this registration or after you complete any ADIT processing referred to in the welcome notice, whichever is later. If you move before receiving your card, please call our customer service center at 1-800-375-5283. During this step the formal decision (approved/denied) is written and the decision notice is mailed and/or emailed to the applicant/petitioner. You can use our current processing time to gauge when you can expect to receive a final decision. What the heck does this mean? We have to do something else before the Green Card is issued? And then we still have to wait.... I am confused.

I'm getting more and more discouraged as I see people on VJ that filed AOS 2 and 3 months after we did already getting their greencard. It seems there is a group of people that filed AOS in late Jan - mid Feb that have been forgotten about. Our Local Office is Chicago (processing I-485s from 12/31/2009 as of April 30, 2010 - last page update June 16, 2010) but our case was transfered to CSC and their proc. time is 4 months (for work based, I can't find family based). Which timeline should I go by? Is it too early to start thinking Infopass?

My wife and I live close to a Chinese buffet we frequent and made a couple friends there. A few of the employees would like to learn English from us. Any current or former ESL teachers that can give us a few tips on some good ways to approach the lessons? very much appreciated

I'd suggest being very careful here. Not sure how you were able to print an altered pass, but that most certainly could raise flags that could leave one vulnerable to far more scrutiny than you might have imagined. Yeah, I'm not going to alter the boarding pass. I am SURE it would cause more hassle, as well as being illegal. But it is easy to do. I plan on getting there early and explaing everything to the ticketing agent. And I have second hand information that in some cases the ticketing agent will accompany the passenger in cases like this and explain it to the TSA doing screening. We'll see what happens...I have a lot of time to wait...we're not flying until.....9/11 <--thats why I was a little extra concerned about the mistake because I'm flying on such a sensitive date.