hoby

Thanks, yuehan123. I actually should give an update on this, since they've had their interview now. They passed, and without needing to show much of anything at all. Basically, once the visa officer heard how many apartments they own (which is where all their money is), he didn't even look at their bank statements, or our I-130 (which we did decide to submit). They hope to come to visit in a few months!

I was in China with my spouse, and my mother signed an I-134 for her. But it seems a little strange to me to have my mom, who lives halfway across the country, sign an I-134 for my parents-in-law to visit us in Texas. On their DS-160 forms, they marked down that they were paying for their trips themselves. Perhaps I'll prepare the information but tell them to only provide it if asked for? I would also like to avoid including a letter from my employer since my job ends on Wednesday, but it says so explicitly in the form instructions on USCIS's website, so it seems a bit of a stretch to not include it¡­

I believe form asks about past income, as for current simply sho what you made so far this year, you made an income so list it, blank line is not a correct answer. Hmm¡­ The more I think about it, the more I'm worried that an I-134 would actually hurt my parents-in-law's chances. With the form you are supposed to submit proof of employment from your employer, including whether the position is temporary or permanent; you are also supposed to submit bank statements showing money over the past year and how much is in the bank presently. We literally have about $200 in the bank right now, with a bad-looking history over the past year. And my letter from my employer would state that my position terminates on next Wednesday¡ªtwo days after my parents-in-law's visa interview. My impression is that the I-134 isn't required, so is it possible it would be better not to submit it? Simply say in our letters that we will provide them with a place to stay and food and they will pay the rest, and leave it at that?

Thanks so much for the reply. They have plenty to show ties to China, especially lots of real estate. But I am concerned about money. We have next to nothing at the moment (I'm between jobs and a student, and my wife is a grad student paying her own tuition), so I don't know if the I-134 would help. We literally have a couple hundred in the bank right now. Should we still fill out an I-134 just for room and board? As I said, the truth is that I hope to have a good job by then so that they don't have to pay for their insurance and other expenses, but I imagine that this is useless information for the VO, correct? Most of their money is tied up in real estate, so I don't think they have a lot, as far as the VO will be concerned, but I'm not sure. That's exactly what you do with the I-134 you indicate your income level and that you ar providing a place to live. In this case there is no income level requirement, they are not immigrating, the I-134 is a tool showing partial support. Parents show that they are paying the rest of expenses, airfare, etc... Thanks, dnoblett. So would you recommend we just leave the income part of the I-134 blank? Or what should we do there? Since currently I have a part-time job but it will end next week and I haven't found a replacement yet, and my wife has no income¡­

Thanks so much for the reply. They have plenty to show ties to China, especially lots of real estate. But I am concerned about money. We have next to nothing at the moment (I'm between jobs and a student, and my wife is a grad student paying her own tuition), so I don't know if the I-134 would help. We literally have a couple hundred in the bank right now. Should we still fill out an I-134 just for room and board? As I said, the truth is that I hope to have a good job by then so that they don't have to pay for their insurance and other expenses, but I imagine that this is useless information for the VO, correct? Most of their money is tied up in real estate, so I don't think they have a lot, as far as the VO will be concerned, but I'm not sure.

My SO (permanent resident) and I helping her parents apply for a B2 visa to the States. We need to provide them with supporting documentation, but we're not sure about a few things. I would greatly appreciate help with any of the following questions. 1. We're both students, and are currently extremely tight on funds. Her parents don't exactly make a lot of money either. In our current draft of the letter, I say that they are paying for airfare and travel insurance, and we will provide free lodging in our apartment and pay for food. Does this sound okay? (The actuality is that I am currently looking for work and hope to be gainfully employed full-time by then.) 2. My wife and I got married officially in China in 2006, but didn't actually do a wedding until this past summer, when we held a ceremony in her hometown. Should they take pictures of the wedding, or will that just confuse the issue? We have lots of pictures of us together without needing the wedding to prove anything. Also, my parents didn't go to the wedding this summer, so we don't know if it's bad to use pics from the wedding because of thid. 3. Is it necessary to provide both a letter to the consulate and a fake-sounding letter of invitation to her parents?

Awesome!

Not to dig up a dead horse (is that the saying?), but we're now worried again about this $380 thing. When my wife did her interview, she wasn't asked to pay the $380 fee. Also, the more we thought about it, the more we realized that we didn't pay it at any other time--we did DCF, so the interview was definitely the time when we should have paid it. My wife said that just tonight someone on 001 told her that they were told to keep the receipt from their payment (they did DCF), and that it's definitely important and we should get in touch with GUZ about it. Was anyone asked to see this receipt by the immigration folks at the border? Could this possibly be a hindrance to her entering the country next month when we go over?

Thanks a lot, you two. Good to know it won't take too long. Wish I could be in line with her though

We're trying to plan our trip to the States, and we were thinking of taking a long layover in San Francisco or LA to make a quick trip into town. When I travel by myself, I usually plan on about 45 minutes to 1.5 hours for customs. Will it take longer since my wife will be entering for the first time on her CR-1 visa? Does she need to go through the visa holders line the first time? Thanks a lot!

Do you need to wait until you get your green card before applying for a social security number? I was reading in the AOS FAQ, but I couldn't find anything about this. Also, the AOS FAQ has an overview of what you do after arriving in the US for K1 and K3, but I didn't see anything of the sort for CR1. Is something like that available somewhere? Thanks a lot.

I figured I would get on here and post some more about my wife's interview experience. Her appointment was for 7:15 AM. We got in line outside a little after 7:15, and she actually got to the entrance to the Consulate around 7:50 or so. I went to the coffee shop on the fourth floor to wait. People started to come down from the Consulate around 9:00 or 9:30 (I can't quite remember clearly). My wife, despite her 7:15 appointment, didn't come down until 1:15 PM. That was definitely some of the most agonizing 5+ hours of my life. Same for her; since they don't call the numbers inside in numerical order (why on earth don't they, by the way?), she had no idea when they were going to call her. She didn't even dare to go to the bathroom in case they called her number while she was gone. As for the interview itself, it sounds like she did an awesome job. She says that she spoke English the whole time (the VO said Ni hao when she walked up, then switched to English when she started speaking it). Also, the VO only looked at our picture album; she said that she kept talking the whole time, volunteering information about any picture that he paused on, so that she actually spoke more than he did. It sounds like she came across as very confident, which I think helped a lot. After over 5 hours of waiting, her interview lasted only 5 minutes. We filed through DCF, and have been living together since early 2005, so this interview might not be very representative of what some CFL people will have to deal with. The thing we were most worried about was domicile. My driver's license expired last year, I didn't have proof of voting any elections while over here (I only voted in the presidential in 2004), nor did I have any kind of job lined up. What we did prepare were a bunch of things sent to my permanent address in the U.S., including credit card and bank statements, a letter from the career counseling service I'm using now to look for a job in the States, and a few other random things. I gave her my driver's license with a letter explaining why I let it expire. Turns out the VO didn't look at any of that stuff; we think it's probably because of my job over here--my first year here I was on a U.S. government scholarship, and the next two years I was doing English teaching--not exactly the kind of sweet gig that you don't want to give up to go back to the U.S. Perhaps if my job were better or more permanent there might have been more trouble on the domicile front. Anyway, here's how the interview went, as best as she can recall: Well, that's everything. Hope this is useful to someone here. We had a lot more stuff prepared than we needed; in fact, my wife says that she had the most stuff of anyone in the room.

She says that she saw a lot of blues, but she saw a lot of pinks as well. Of course, that covers all types of immigrant visas. Also, she saw a lot of older people getting pinks. Regardless, at least according to what she saw, there were definitely more than 10% of the people getting pinks. We basically prepared everything suggested on 001 by a couple of "homeworks" (as the kids over there like to call them). My wife happened to meet a woman she knew from 001 at the Consulate, and both of them passed--the other woman only had a 1 minute interview. So my wife suggests that people prepare the stuff suggested on 001 and their chances of success will be pretty high. She also said that the "1-minute interview" woman submitted almost all of her materials with her original application, which I know was suggested on here before. She was basically asked 3-4 questions and then given her visa.

I've seen these mice many times in other people's threads. It's great to see them in ours, Ling-Curt As for the money, I really don't remember paying it. I know we paid $190 (I think) when we submitted the I-130 at the Shanghai consulate, but that's it, I think. Regardless, we're holding onto it...

My wife got pink!!!! We had her interview today (or yesterday, actually, since I'm posting this at 2:00 am). It was an incredibly nerve-wracking experience. We were up all night last night preparing our forms and getting everything organized. Then, despite being in the 7:15 group, she didn't get out until 1:15. Those 6 hours were some of the most stressful 6 hours I've experienced, that's for sure. But, the good news is we passed! Her interview was really short, too. She's going to do a big long post on 001, and then I'll use that info to put a nice post up here about her interview, what all we prepared, etc. Until then, just wanted to share our results and say THANK YOU, CFL!!! We really owe you guys so much for all of your patience and help. We couldn't have done this without you all. I'm just so happy that my wife will be able to make it in time to start school this fall. A quick question: We haven't paid the $380 fee yet. We had the money prepared but my wife never got asked for it. After getting her pink slip, she asked one of the guards about it, and they said that we must have paid it, or they wouldn't have given her pink. Then they said that even if she didn't pay it, she'll be able to pay it later--even in America. Anyone ever heard of anything like this happening before?