Scott@Hong

Hopefully they will soon be able to interview Petitioner and Beneficiary together in Guangzhou, the recent Inspector General report says the new facility under contruction will have 112 interview windows and also the waiting area will be indoors, not outside like it is now. The only issue I see once they finish the facility is staffing and/or coming up with a new excuse why they cannot do interviews together. They have used the excuse they don't have the space for so long.

Criminal background or violence against women is ONE reason they can call you, there are many more. I was called, I was not fingerprinted, I have no criminal background, no violence. The USCIS can require this interview for any petitioner for any reason they want.

Yes petitioner can be called for interview in the USA before USCIS approves petition and sends on to NVC. There are a few red flags that pop up that can make this happen. Its often debated if it helps or not for you to be there, basically you are there so she can show VO your passport. Moral support is also a big plus. Im on the side that the petitioner should be there if at all possible.

Difficult situation you are in, but ont thing you might want to mention to her is you would like to be able to talk to her family when you visit them. My wife studies constantly and her English is very good, and at the same time she is teaching me Chinese for this very reason. I want to be able to sit at dinner table with her family and effectively communicate. I see this as a very important aspect of a long term relationship, because you are not just marrying one person, your are marrying a family and she is marrying your family.

Make sure you explain to her about the carts in JFK that she will need to pay for them and she will need some American money to do this. She will have to get those 4 bags from baggage claim, through the Customs check and then out into the reception area where you meet her. Not a long distance at Terminal one, but 4 bags she will need a cart.

If you do write an EOR, make sure your spouse can recite it word for word. Our original K1 got the big white slip partly because officer used letter for some questions about my prior marriage and my wife got a few dates wrong. She had the letter long before interview but people on 001 told her the VO's never even look at the letters so she did not take time to study and know everything on it.

I think joint interviews should be required, it would greatly reduce fraud cases. Many of the fraud petitioners would just not show up for the interview or if they do a stokes type interview (interview party, then the other seperately to see if get same answers to same questions, then jointly) they would weed out fraud cases quickly. I think any relationship that is real could easily pass a stokes type interview. After a short period the workload would be reduced because so many fraud cases would cease trying to apply. I think many on this board would have loved to be part of the interview.

About the same price everywhere, and according to policy if you go back to get more copies after 6 months has passed you pay the whole fee again. We needed some more copies after the failed K1 and luckily the guy was nice and didnt charge us since we were 8 months since he did them originally. We bought him nice bottle of wine as thank you.

Might be able to just carry it onto a plane. I just returned from Chongqing and awhile back we shipped a large wedding picture thinking it was to big to carry on and it arrived with broken frame. This time I had another large picture (3'x4') which I decided to just try to carry on to plane. Another plus for Air China, I walked right onto plane, flight attendant asked me if package was fragile and I said yes, and she took picture and stowed it in the first class cabin closet for me. When I got off plane in New York flight attendant had picture waiting for me at the door. And noone even thought about charging me extra for doing this. Have to love non American airlines

Though it will not cover K visas it might lesson the load on Guangzhou and speed up the immigrant Visa interview scheduling a little if it frees up a few people there that have been handling the non stop flood of non immigrant Visas.

I fly Air China everytime I go to China out of JFK. Flight usually on time and food decent. Planes are older 747s so entertainment system old. Just read a book or bring lap top to watch movie etc.

Just have one made in China, very cheap and lots of shops that can make a good quality shirt. I have one I wore at wedding and one mother in law had made for me and gave me as gift. Wife has many traditional dresses (Cheongsams?) that were all hand made at local shops for few hundred RMB.

I am shocked you have time to type with the wife coming home in a few days. Get away from the computer and get back to scrubbing everything you messed up while she was away.

My wife changed jobs, she went from full time wedding planner working large number of hours to full time English student. 1.5 years later her English skills are amazing, reading, writing, speaking, but she spends 50 hours plus a week in class or at home reading and practicing. If you want your spouse to improve English skills then you have to give them a way to have the time to do so. I wanted her to improve her English skills so I fund everything now. Basically it was either I quit my job and work full time on Chinese or she quits her job and works full time on English. The great part is the better her English the better the relationship has become, the down side when she is mad, now I actually understand what she is yelling at me about.

I think many people here that drive or want to drive in China need to take look how the laws actually work, not how they are written. Pretty much if you hurt someone, be it with a vehicle, beat them up, stab them or whatever you will be put in jail and threatened with a long jail term. Now what happens next is where it gets strange, basically before a person goes to trial lawyers from the person who was hurt and the person who committed the offense meet. If the person who committed offense can come up with enough money to satisfy the person who was hurt, then the victum tells the court they do not want to continue with the charges and you walk free. Being American is where this will get very touchy, because they will see you as rich, even if you are not and the amount of money asked for will be huge. If you visit or live in any city in China it is far cheaper, and far less risk to just hire a driver if you own a car, or use public transportation.

Many Chinese men love gambling, and any Chinese woman that was married to one of these men will hate gambling. Chinese women that have not been married to the aforementioned Chinese man will moderately like to gamble with small amounts of money. My wife hates gambling so you can guess what classification her first husband fell into.

Certain spices are not available here, I just returned from Chongqing with 2 large bags of spices for someone's wife that is already in the states. I am just glad Customs didnt open my bag, would have taken long time to explain "But sir, it is used for cooking, I swear". On the customs note, when I came through JFK this time, anyone with non US passport was getting bags searched, not sure if they stepped up security for some reason but the line was insanely long and they had 10 stations searching bags. US Passport and you walked right through.

I tried China Post for a large picture and though the picture survived the frame did not. Best thing I have found is good old frequent flyer programs. Star Alliance which includes Air China allows you to check 3, 50lb bags at no charge if you are silver member or above, silver member is only 2 round trips to China basically. Every trip I bring things back with me that my wife does not use or wear on daily basis. When she finally moves here she will not have much to bring at all, since most is already here.

You have to save the wife, the kids are just going to grow up and leave anyway. The wife will be nagging you for life. Hmmm, second thought

Grats to the Slugs and to Louis and Yihan 7 FOR 7 Splinterman 7th PINK 3timesacharm 7th PINK Vinny 8th PINK TheMace 9th PINK GIS 14th PINK Bigslugandlittleslug 21st PINK LouisandYihan 22nd PINK ScottandHong 24th Crazybanana 24th TomandHongyan 28th Highlander 29th Richard&MissWang 29th Me and Hong are up tomorrow, I am praying we don't break the December streak.

Well big week coming, arrive Chongqing today, heading to GUZ tomorrow. Tonight had dinner with Gary's wife (I am so sorry Gary, more on this in a minute). Also had Highlanders wife and Richards wife there with us. Hoping to see few others in GUZ over the next week. Gary, when your wife tells you I called you old, DO NOT BELIEVE, it was 4 women all speaking Chinese really fast and one Dumb man trying to keep up and I said something about our ages compared to wives ages and apparently it came out as "Gary looks really really old". I think they are still laughing at me but it was totally unfair odds. Gluck to everyone this week, see you all in GUZ .

FIVE FOR FIVE, Grats GIS Splinterman 7th PINK 3timesacharm 7th PINK Vinny 8th PINK TheMace 9th PINK GIS 14th PINK Bigslugandlittleslug 21st LouisandYihan 22nd ScottandHong 24th Crazybanana 24th TomandHongyan 28th Highlander 29th Richard&MissWang 29th Next week begins the second half of month rush, all we want for Christmas is a pink piece of paper.

Why do people just post links with no comment, whats the purpose? I think most people here are quite capable of reading the news, linking one story without commenting is pointless.

FOUR FOR FOUR, GIS is next, lets keep the streak running Splinterman 7th PINK 3timesacharm 7th PINK Vinny 8th PINK TheMace 9th PINK GIS 14th Bigslugandlittleslug 21st LouisandYihan 22nd ScottandHong 24th Crazybanana 24th TomandHongyan 28th Highlander 29th Richard&MissWang 29th