I love Sunshine

Many younger Chinese people follow "Prison Break" TV series more closely than any Americans I know.

Wait until you get to adjust your status (after you marry). That AOS fee more than doubled to $1010 as well on July 31, 2007. But they promise us better service as a result...

Another sample can be found here: http://www.immihelp.com/forms/i-751-sample...n-residence.pdf

It was raised to $455 on July 31, 2007.

The key point of this article is that China will sell its soul to protect the social order. In other words, if you citizens cause no riots or upheavals of the government officials, we will look the other way to anything you wish to do -- unless other foreign countries complain. We have to save face after all. China is more capitalistic than the USA in many ways. Very lassiez-faire. Charity is virtually non-existent. Everything outside of your family or your friends is simply not your business and no need to get involved. Selfish behavior abounds -- and will get worse with the next generation (those little emperors born 1980 and afterwards). Many of these views are shared by the average Chinese citizen on the street, not simply by people on the outside looking in. Ask your SO his or her viewpoint.

It could be that people are better prepared, or that through more volume of cases, more people who are reasonably prepared are getting through more quickly once their case gets to GUZ. When I was there, the guard told my SO that about 80% get pink, 20% do not. Not scientific, but he is closer to the everyday action than many of us are. There still are plenty of blue slips. Most seem to be for information that all CFL'ers know about (i.e. bringing tax forms) but the general populace does not. When I went there for ACH, the line of people for overcomes was pretty long. And waiting for my SO, I saw plenty of people who left with blue slips.

Good luck to you too, moonglare!

I put salary, a rental home I have some equity in and my bank account information. I also had many supporting documents for all of these. I also went to ACH to explain my lower income in 2006 (but still above the threshold), which was duly noted in their computer. None of it was scrutinized too deeply during the interview. It is worth being prepared in advance as others have mentioned.

There really isn't any relationship between a touch and an approval. About the only thing you can guarantee is that your petition hasn't been lost! We had one touch about a month after our P1. I suspect the workload was initially given to one person to process, and she/he went on holiday, was too overloaded, etc. and it was moved to someone else. No touches after that until BAM! Approval! Some get many touches, some get none as others have mentioned. But trying to analyze the touches could prove as damaging to your health as eating cheetos during the long wait!

Congratulations to you both! Hope you can enjoy your Christmas together!

That's great news! Did the man in your dream give you any indication of where the stock market is heading? CONGRATULATIONS!

It must feel great! Congratulations to you!

They must have been under quota for blue slips this month, and you were the easy victim. This sounds like an easy overcome. Hope you can schedule an overcome appointment soon, and find some photos (or take more). Good luck to you!

Count on 3 months from NVC to P3, about 4-5 weeks from P3 returned to P4, and about 4-6 weeks from P4 to Interview. Your time and mileage may vary.

She will do well. I am sure you can dig up some good information here as the time grows closer and last minute questions occur! Will she arrive by Christmas if you get PINK?

Welcome to the start of a great future together, all three of you! CONGRATULATIONS!

It seems like people don't have the urgency or zeal about the I-485 petition that they had about their original visa filing. One can understand that once you are with your SO, you have what you want, and the other items will come in (reasonably) due time. Just an observation here, but do others agree or disagree?

I am curious why AOS petitions could be caught up in a long name-check delay. One would think the name check situation would be resolved before the K-1/K-3/CR-1/IR-1 visa was granted. What else could they possibly check for? Am I missing some key information about this?

I am a bit new to this part of the forum. Does this mean some people are not required to interview for AOS? Is this done at random or has there been any attempt to understand who is likely to get interviewed and who is likely to not be? I did see some people got a "welcome" letter, but didn't know this meant they didn't have to go to an interview before getting the green card. Is my understanding correct? Thanks, ILS

Wow! Great news! The waiting is soon to be over! Congratulations!

Congratulations Michael and Fang! Welcome to the start of the rest of your lives together!

You were wise to schedule the overcome appointment as soon as possible. Keep in mind during that time, she will just be dropping off the documents and given a paper that tells her when she will be able to get the decision, normally in a few days. So the documents have to speak for all the items they request by themselves.

Fantastic to hear this good news! Welcome to the start of the rest of your lives! Congratulations!

You can think about the interview like a court trial, with a few exceptions: - you are not allowed to appear, only your SO. Therefore you don't even have "trained" counsel (except for the folks here on CFL!) - the burden of proof is on her/him (in other words, guilty until proven innocent) - the VO will have previewed your case, so knows what direction to take the case, whereas you are on the defensive - a decision is often granted on the spot, with few checks and balances for impartiality When you go to court, with very few exceptions, you are not told to bring a certain document -- only told to bring evidence you need to defend your case. That is the same here. You don't know much about the judge in your case, but he knows information about you before the questioning even begins. It is much better to bring your full arsenal with you. And with your SO under the spotlight, he/she will feel better too knowing she has many more documents than he/she may need.

Zach, I also had an "unusual income year" in 2006, and was a bit hesitant to show my 2006 taxes as well. I think a good approach (if you can do it) is before your SO's interview, go to ACH and explain your situation to the VO. It may be a bit complicated for your SO to fully explain your situation when she is under the bright spotlight and pressure of the interview, so going to ACH beforehand and getting them to document this about your case will help you. The VO did ask for my I-134 and last year's taxes during my SO's interview last month. We had no problems. I did go to ACH to explain my case. Since future income, not past income, is more important, I think your explanation won't be any problem. I think all the VOs are college grads, and have eaten their fair share of ramen noodles while hitting the books (but doubt they have been knee deep in salmon sperm) ILS