screamneagle

She just turned 20 years old in July (her birthday and my 2 daughters, who are 7 years apart in age, all have their birthdays on the same day! How's that for destiny?!!). In any event, I will be working on the AOS as soon as they arrive next month. Thanks for the heads up!

1. I sent in a ton of chat logs with my original I-129F in April of this year. These were from January 2009 to April 2010. The chat logs I included in the "Proof of Relationship" folder for the interview were chat logs from April 2010( from when I sent in the initial filing of the I-129F) up to 2 weeks before the interview. I am sure that that they wanted to make sure that we still spoke online everyday and the relationship was still going strong (which it is). 2. The letter the visa official pulled from the file was a letter translated through the dating service translator assigned to our relationship. I have met this young girl and continue to see her in person when I am in Chengdu. She has become our very good friend and we often go out on double dates together with her and her fiancee. The letter was not part of any chat session but rather a formally composed letter which we usually sent back and forth 2 to 3 times a week in addition to our chats. Whenever I wanted to be absolutely sure that my fiancee understood something of importance that she and I spoke about in any given chat session, I would send a letter through the translator. My lady would confirm or address what I had said in the letter and I would know that we were on the same page. Thank you for your best wishes!

The news finally came. At 5:06 a.m. this morning my fiance sent me a text with the news that she had finally received the visas for both her and her daughter. Talk about excited! Out of all the people standing in line for her interview at GUZ on August 24th, she and her daughter were virtually the last ones called to the interview window. I waited for 4 hours down in the coffee shop with some other American men. One by one they peeled away as their ladies came down from the 5th floor with their pink papers. Finally, I was the last man standing, wondering if the long wait was a good sign or a bad sign. At 12:15 my fiancee and her daughter came down from Mount Olympus with smiles on their face. My eyes scanned in vain as I looked for some sign of a pink paper ... but nowhere was it to bee seen! I suddenly saw my fiancee holding a white piece of paper and my heart fell out through my lower parts! So why were they smiling? The whole place had pretty much cleared out by the time my fiancee and her daughter came down but I still had to shoo the lurking sharks away that were trying to sell us airline tickets, EMS labels, lawyers and what have you. I asked my financee what had happened and she showed me her white piece of paper. I was immediately relieved to see it was not a rejection notice but rather a "call-in" letter. She told me that the visa official had told them that they had passed the interview but that they could not issue the visa until we had a notarized book for her daughter's unmarried status! This was news to me. When had every document they called for in the P4 letter plus another 40 pounds of documents, papers, photos and proof, proof proof galore! They told my fiance that as soon as she brought the unmarried statement in for her daughter, they would issue the visas. I should interject here that we stayed with the Yangs at the Tian Yi Garden appartments and that we paid Mr. Yang 1000RMB to act as our Power of Attorney. He was absolutely great. He took us for our medical exams, helped us with our documents and was "Johnny on the Spot" for all our questions and small concerns. Mrs. Yang help reorganize our documents into the 4 folder system, when over our documents again and went through our photos. She spoke English very well and was very helpful. I highly recommend staying with them at the Tian Yi Gardens Apartments as the service and assistance that they provided to us was priceless! We were on the plane back to Chengdu within hours of the end of the interview on Tuesday. Wednesday morning we were standing on the doorstep of the Notary office in Chengdu where they made 2 copies of the 2 notarized books that we needed. One was the un married statement booklet and the other was a statement from my fiance authorizing Mr. Yang to act as her Power of Attorney. The price was 600RMB for the documents and 12RMB for the EMS shipping. The EMS mailman came to the notary office and we shipped both my fiancee's and her daughter's passports along with the 2 notarized statement books back to Mr. Yang in Guangzhou. Mr. Yang brought the notarized statements back to the consulate the following week. We had already made provisions to have the consulate mail the visas to Mr. Yang. He received them this past Monday, September 6th (no Labor Day holiday in China ... post offices are open). Mr. Yang forwarded them to my fiancee and she received them today! Some observations that may be helpful to others... The whole process was exactly as out lined on this wonderful website time and time again. The only surprise was the revelation of the un married statement for my fiancee's daughter. So be aware ... if your lady has a daughter over the age of 20 years she will definitely need a notarized un married statement. When I went to the ACH on the Monday proceeding our interview, I asked if the Letter of Evolution needed to be notarized. The answer was, "No". I asked if the letter from my financial institution needed to be notarized. The answer was, "No". I asked how much it cost to notarize a document and was floored by the reply, "$50.00". So gentlemen, be forewarned ... the cost of notarizing at the consulate is no longer $30. It is $50.00! Do it at home! My fiance told me that she got a seat in the front row and close to the interview windows. She was able to overhear some of the questions that were being asked to the other ladies at the windows. This helped her self confidence as we had been practicing this aspect of the interview for months on skype and for 6 days face to face prior to the interview. She was "dead on" with all her answers. The visa official only asked the following questions: How Many Times has he been to see you? Is he here with you today? May I see his passport? May I see your chat logs? Is this your daughter? Do you have an un married certificate for her? May I see your photos? How do you communicate? To test her English ability, the visa official pulled out a random letter I had written to my fiancee from our files and asked her to read it. After reading the first 3 lines she said, "OK, Congratulations, you pass." We had 5 books of about 30 photos each. The visa official only looked at one book. Didn't look at any financial documents other than the last 3 years of income tax transcripts. My fiancee said that the visa official was an "American woman with a big body who was very pleasant, courteous and smiled a lot." So, needless to say ... we are now on Cloud 9 with her arrival date set for October 18th. I would like to extend a heart felt "THANK YOU" to all who helped guide us through this entire procedure from the very first step. I truly could not have done this without you and this fantastic website. Next stop ....AOS! B

Congratulations and best of luck to you both! We passed our interview on August 24th and are now awaiting delivery of the visas! Can't wait to get them here in the U.S.!!

Best of Luck! Job well done!!

Congratulations and all the best for a GREAT future!

Well, tomorrow I'm off for Guangzhou and the warm up for the big day on the 24th! Everything seems to be in order. I have enough weight in documents and photos to buy another plane ticket and carry it in the seat next to me!(can't afford it though!). I will file an "after action report" when the smoke clears. We are thinking "PINK" as hard as we can ... nothing but positive waves but proceeding with caution! Our philosophy is: Hope for the best ... but be prepared for the worst. Speaking of prepared ... as some of you old timers already know, I have been going over and over all the documents ... the forms ... the photos... the "I-'s" this and the "DS-'s" that ... pages 1 and pages 2 ... copies ... duplicates ... P-4 documents in English and Chinese ... backups ...blanks ...extras and such ...until my eyes are crossed and about ready to fall out of their sockets. Talk about an "Excedrin" headache! We've practice the interview until we are blue in the face. We feel as ready as we can possibly be but there is always that nagging thought that maybe you forgot something and that's the something the VO will ask for! We'll be staying at the Yang's and he has told my lady that he will go over everything when we arrive to make sure that all is in order. Its like training for the 100 meter race in the Olympics ... you train your whole life for the event and its all over in 10 seconds! Its the same with this ... after all of the work and preparation ...our whole life revolves around a 5 minute interview. Hope the visa official has a good night the night before. We are locked and loaded for action! Thanks to all of you that made it possible for us to get this far. We would have never got to this point without your selflessness and generous help. I shall remain eternally grateful to you all!! Wish us luck ... we will need all we can get! A rosary will help too!

Ouch! Didn't see that coming!!

This may be a little premature not having our interview date until August 24th but .... I started thinking optimistically ahead to the time when my finacee and her 20 year old daughter are in the states and I will need to have their status adjusted to PLRs. I am already anticipating the sting of $1,010 for the adjustment fee for my fiancee but I'm wondering if I will be required to pay an additional $1010 for her K2 daughter who just turned 20 years old. Also, will all the immigration fees I am incurring for the mother be required of the daughter as well. Has anyone had experience along these lines? I'm bracing for the worst

I did it for her. I filled in all the information and just had her sign it ... slipped it into the envelope with the EMS label and off she went.

Thanks, Lee! Now to just get past the interview day successfully is all we are hoping and praying for. We feel pretty good about everything but do not want to ere into any sense of overconfidence. I keep reminding my lady that even though we have done everything we can think of ... even though we are continually preparing and practicing questions, answers and document retrieval ...even though we feel we are as ready as we can possibly be ... ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN! We can work and hope for the best ... but we must be prepared for the worst. I have never seen such optimism and determination in anyone who is striving to achieve their goal as I do in my lady! It is a beautiful thing to see! It is an even more beautiful thing to know that she is working this hard for the sake of our happiness and future life together. Can't help loving a person like that!

Still wondering if anyone has had experience with the consulate's new DS 160 electronic Visa Application form. Like I mentioned, they say it replaces the DS 156. I started to fill it in the other night. You have to electronically scan in a passport type photo ... it has to be accepted by the website after you click "Check to see if photo is acceptable" and you need to have your ladies name in Chinese characters for her signature line. This is where I stopped. I had to contact my lady to ask her to send me an email with just her name in her native alphabet. I am planning to cut and paste it into the signature line. Hope this works! The consulate say that they will use the information from the form in a number of different ways and that it is supposed to "speed up the process" (their words). Anyone gone through filling this form out online yet?

Congratulations on a job well done! I firmly believe that the preparation, preparation, more preparation and extra attention to detail pays off in the long run. I wish the both of you much happiness and success in the future.

Bull: Not sure about the P.O. box. It would probably be best for your lady to go to the post office and inquire about this. For our P-3, my lady had to go to the post office to retrieve it. As I already mentioned, the P-4 sat in her mail box at home for a day and a half because of the sever rain storm. She sent me a scan of the appointment letter and it was dated 21 July from GUZ. We were online talking about how we could find out if we had an interview date scheduled by GUZ yet. While we were on line at 8:45 a.m. China time, I called the visa branch at the consulate in Guangzhou. I was told that they do not answer any questions about visa cases (go figure) and that if I wanted to get any information about our case I would have to email them using the email form on their website. Prior to this, I was told by DOS that I would have to contact the consulate in GUZ directly to learn anything further about our case once it left NVC. I had everything in place to send the email to the consulate on Monday morning when I got the excited call from my lady around midnight this past Sunday (US time)she had received her P-4. Now I am trying to get a ticket to Hong Kong and the cheapest I have found is on Cathey for $1420.00 ONE WAY!!! After September 1st, it would cost $720.00. I'm not even going to think about trying to reschedule the interview. I will just have to suck it up and open my veins. Anyone out there know where I can find a cheaper ticket in August with out taking over 48 hours to get there? Good luck to you Gentlemen who are still waiting. My heart is with you. The anxiety of waiting from day to day is enough to drop you in your tracks! I think I have been very fortunate in respect to the amount of time I have waited for this day to arrive... very quick! I will keep you posted on how things develop.

My lady received her P-4 on Saturday, July 24th! She did not know about it until last night because a heavy rain storm in Chengdu prevented her from checking her mail box. The gate keeper of apartment unit informed her that she had a large blue envelope in her mail box and she raced to to get it in the pouring rain. She gave me an excited call last night to tell me that the eagerly awaited P-4 had arrived and was now in her hands. Our interview date is set for Tuesday, August 24th at 7:15 a.m. Everything is just about ready to go! We have all the necessary documents and are now coordinating travel plans. She will fly from Chengdu to Guangzhou with her daughter and then take the #6 bus to the Yangs. I will fly to Hong Kong and take the train to meet them in GUZ. It is inconceivable to me that this whole process from the initial mailing of the 129F to P-4 in hand took only 114 days! Unbelievable!! I was on the GUZ website early this morning and learned of the new DS 160 non-immigrant electronic visa application form. Has anyone had experience with this form yet? It says that by submitting this form online that there is no longer a need for the DS 156. It is also supposed to speed up the process. I checked it out and it seems straight forward but I'd be interested to know if anyone else has used the DS 160 and how advantageous it might have been in the process.

My lady just received her P-4 on Saturday, July 24th! The interview date is set for 7:14 on August 24th. We're locked loaded and ready to go. I'll be there!

What a great day for you both! Congratulations and a hearty "Welcome" to the U.S. for your lady!!

Good luck with the interview! I hope you get your "pink" in spite of everything. We are still waiting for our interview date. Don't have much left in the way of finger nails though. Think positive! I hope it all works out for you and your lady!!

I have made 6 trips to Chengdu on Air China with no problems whatsoever. Flight attendants are exceptionally friendly and courteous. 5 trips were economy and 1 was first class. To me, the difference in price wasn't worth it. In economy you are on the same flight with the heavy weights ... you get to your destination in the same amount of time ... the food is pretty decent. The down side to economy ... you do not have your own entrance/exit door to the cabin ... you don't have the extra wide reclining seats ... you don't have the fancy bar in the center of the cabin ... you don't have your own personal flight attendant calling you by name ... you don't avoid being run over by the hoards trying to exit the aircraft all at once upon arrival and most importantly ... you don't avoid have some kid kicking the hell out of the back of your seat or crying in your ear for 15 hours. I may be getting old but for the difference in price, I'd stick it out in economy. Besides, the price you pay for one first class ticket is what you pay for two 2 round trip economy tickets. I'll take the two trips for the price of one. Also, bring two spare batteries for your laptop as there are no electrical outlets on Air China. I made one trip on China Air that was a complete fiasco (it was the only ticket I could get in August. Every tried to get a ticket to China in August?? No fun at all$$$$!). The only good think was that every seat had an electrical outlet staring you right in the face on the back of the seat in front of you. The little green light next to the outlet comes on when it was OK to use your laptop and turns red on take off and landing. That was the only thing good about that flight! I think you're OK with China Air and will most definitely like it. Have a great trip and good luck at your destination!

Heartiest congratulations and good luck in your future life together!

Yep! That's what I am hoping for too. It could be as soon as the end of August! Got my fingers crossed and rosary in hand. Hope it comes soon for all of us. Hopefully we'll all through one hell of a bash on interview night. Keep thinkin' them positive waves, Moriarty! Pink will be the order of the day at GUZ!

It would really be great to bump into a friendly face in that environment of excitement, nerve wracking and great expectation! I'll look forward to it and to multiple pink slips! Keep us informed and I will do the same.

Yes, as Dan mentioned, the question of permission from the mother and father is something I thought would prove not only consideration and respect for the family but also proof of the fact they they are part of every decision we are making with this process. I am not aware if the question has come up in any interview prior to this but I want to cover every possibility that I can think of that might be a sticking point. Better safe than sorry! It is definitely not required but could be an ace in the hole if needed. I'm sending her in there fully prepared for anything they might possibly come up with. As a side note, I just spoke to my lady a few minutes ago and she informed me that GUZ sent her an email message acknowledging receipt of the P-3 she sent out to them 2 days ago. Now we stand by and wait for the big one.

Thanks, Dan! I neglected to mention the pay stubs as part of the I-134 package but they are in there as well. I'll keep you posted!

Amaro: I hope you will not have to call at all! The folks at my lady's agency said that things appeared to be moving very quickly with the visa process now and that she can expect an email confirmation of receipt for her P-3 from GUZ in 3 to 4 days. Then we move on to the wait for the P-4 and interview date. I've got almost all of my documents together and am just waiting for the tax transcripts. Got to get all this stuff organized for her and then just stand by for the big swoop to Honk Kong and on to Guangzhou where I will meet my lady and her daughter. I'll keep you up to date on the P-4 time frame as it develops. Good luck to you and your lady! I hope everyone's application moves more quickly now and that is the beginning of a new and welcomed trend at GUZ. Here's a question for Dan or anyone who might know. The VJ site says that you should bring an entire copy of the original I-129F submission package with all the original documents to the interview. Is this true? Does my lady have to carry that boat load of documentation into the interview with her? If this has already been looked over and scanned into our case, is this really necessary? I thought that I would just bring the following in an accordion folder: I-134 Tax transcripts Letter from employer Visa fee receipt Airline receipts proof of visit from trip after the I-129 was submitted Updated Letters of Intent to marry Updated Evolution Of Relationship letter Letter explaining divorce Personal letters e-mail Chat logs Skype screen shots Photographs She will have: Appointment letter Passport for herself and daughter P-4 medical forms completed/x-rays Birth certificate - notarized white book Divorce certificate - notarized white book Ex-husbands death certificate - notarized white book Police reports for her and her daughter - notarized white book Baptismal certificate - notarized white book Letters from mother & father giving permission for daughter to go to US 4 Passport photos of both What's your thought?