Broseph32

I was origionally just going to post a simple review on VJ or something but realizing i have too much free time on my hands here has made me think otherwise. Dont be expecting another Kyle, but i've done my homework every day for the past 7 months, and i've a keen obsevation, so i will be going into detail. Lets begin: We woke up at 4:30 on monday morning. Made our flight for 7:25 at Zhengzhou airport- i was worried there might be a delay because of the GZ weather, but there was'nt. After our arrival in GZ, we promptly went to see the Yangs. Both my fiancee and i were epecting an old wise man, but who we met turned out to be a middle-aged wise man. He led us up to his apartment, where it looked like a few others were staying as well. We discussed our case, and all our eveidence. He assured us we would be "99%" able to get the visa. We do have, literally, everything. Now, we're here for 2 (two) weeks. Not sure, but probably the longest anyone who dosent live in GZ has ever been here solely for the visa. The reason we made it out so early, was for ACH on monday. Next monday's a holiday, and Yun interviews on the monday morning after that. At the yangs, there was another couple from Zhengzhou as well. Dont know how many are familiar with ZZ, but not alot of forigners there. I was pretty suprised and refereshed at the same time. They were here for the early ACH as well. At 1:20, we went down to the consulate, and up to the 4th. Here we waited for about 10 minutes, and then they started letting people in. I was suprised to see a fairly short line, but it turned out that being early was a good thing. We went up to the 5th at 1:30, passed security, and lined up at window 19 or 20. I forgot. There were alot of other non-US citizens and other US citizens at other sections (i.e. window 1-10) as well- i assume the US citizens were there for ACS, but i dont know what the other chinese people were doing there. Here we waited for about 30 minutes, and we were some of the first people in line. Over the course of the next 30 mins, alot of other people got in line behind us. I wouldn't say if your not in line by 2:00 they wont let you in, but being early means you get to ask questions alot earlier too. Around 2:00, an asian man (possibly korean by blood?) began answering simple questions for those who asked, and for anyone that said they wanted to ask question(s) they were given a form and a number. As I waited for the VO to get to my number, i talked with some other people there as well, and over heard the VO that would later talk to me answering another guy's questions. I learned two interesting things some may not have considered: 1. Come interview day, the applicants they interview are random. Its not the same VO handling your case from p3-interview. 2. The first person they interview of the day makes their day. This means that if they're normally a very generous VO, and the very first person they interview is an asshole, your gonna see alot of white and blues from them that day. When my number was called, my VO was a very nice, white, larger woman with brown semi-curly hair. She first asked for my passport, and as i handed it to her with 2 hands, she made a comment that i must have been in China for a long time. Now, I had been planning for this day for the last 7 months. I had alot of questions, but she was very patient and held with me the entire time. We talked about quite alot, and i've forgotten a little bit of it, but the gist of it was she started out asking how long ive been in china, how i met my fiancee, what i came to China the first time for, and if i had a job in China. She made a note in the computer that i had came, but did'nt write what we talked about. She also kept my passport the entire time we talked, but did'nt look at any of the visas/stamps. Some of the questions i ased were: 1. Needed a new I-157. She have me the whole P4 DOS form packet. 2. My I-129F only had the bare neccessities. Would this be a problem? Her response was that come the interview, she looks at the I-129F and the information my fiancee has on hand to come to a decision. She then said that she preferres more professionaly put together petitions- but i personally dont see why more would hurt. 3. We talked about my financial situation, and she asked if i had a cosponsor, which i did. I didnt find out alot about this, but i dont think there will be any problems since i have a 'well endowed' cosponsor. 4. I mentioned that we wernt able to muster up any proof of living togteher from a juweihui, but i did have other proof (such as dengji copies) of living together. She didnt say if that would be good enough, but i think to her it would, as she then answered by saying that i would need to prove up domicile because of that. 5. talked about my cosponsor's 134, who didnt have a few documents to back what he wrote on the 134 form included (such as life insureance). He does however have wayy more than enough to qualify on the 134 for which he does have proof of. She replyed by saying that come interview day, they consider the totality of the information given to come to a decision, implying that as long as we could prove enough to convince the VO of financial stability, not proving up the remaining $50000 in life insurance would not matter. 6. I mentioned i dont have much to prove my chinese language ability other than to use it. She said that in cases where the USC and chinese national have only been together for a few weeks in person, proving up communication is an issue. In our case we have a year and 1/2 together, which she said its obvious we can communicate if we have that much time together. 7. I said that my fiancee's english is not bad, but not too great either. For the interview, what should she use? The VO replied by saying they can use chinese if shes comfortable with that, but in the beginning they'll try to get a feel for her english ability with a few questions. 8. I asked why they dont interview the petitioner, to which the summary of what she said was that all consulates have different procedures. Interviewing the petitioner isnt one of their's. 9. My fiancee is 5 1/2 years older than me (== female > male). I asked if that would be an issue, and se started out sarcasticly saying that it was sooo bad and we would not get the visa because of it, and then mentioned that it was no big deal. 10. Talked about her prior B-1 visa denial. The VO said 'its hard', and that it wont matter for the interview. 11. I asked if since my fiancee would have my real passport, if we would still need copies of my passport. She said no. 12. The last thing i asked was how she like being a Visa officer! I think maybe later in life i might like to do that, and she said that you do get to choose which contry you want to work at. Thats the gist of it, and the end of our monday AND our contact with GUZ till my ACS on the 5th. More to come later.

Thanks for that! What i really mean, is that i'm 20 And Chinese law prevents me from marrying her now.

From what i've seen of your intent to marry letter, i think it'd be pretty helpful to see it, if its not too much trouble for you.

Ok, i understand the 'apologetic' part with the old letter and what not, but i'm not seeing it in the first. You did see where i said it was for reference only? It was for that same reason that i trashed it and only worked on the first one. I have no intention of using the 2nd one. Ok- the whole part about not having enough money.... noted, but then how am i (or my fiancee for that matter even) going to explain not having engagement party photos if the VO asks? My cosponsor more than qualifies financially, and we have provided everything under the sun for him- my finances being a problem or not. I understand that writing a little longer letter might not hurt.... but honestly, like you said, they have 60 sec.- weather or not they even bother to read the second page is a doubt of mine. I always thought the best idea was to make sure they'll read it- especially since i think we sorely need it- so i erred on the side of the 1 page max idea.... but can anyone confirm having had their VO read a longer letter come interview? Also, im biased toward a one letter max- when we were in beijing for her tourist visa, my letter was 2 pages, and i heard my letter was the one thing the VO spent anytime looking at- but she didn't actually read the letter, she just spent about 90 sec. trying to figure out what a word i had blacked out with a pen said. It was a typo.

Now that its getting close to our interview time, i think i've all but perfected my EOR letter in my eyes. However, my eyes arn't the ones that will scrutinize our case. So here i am looking to second opinions on my EOR letter. But first, a little history: We interviewed in August for a tourist visa for my fiancee in Beijing. It was denied, albeit my grandfather (90), who is like a father to me, was in the hospital for pneumonia..... That day i provided her with an invitation letter i wrote up myself. From what i hear, it didn't impress. Anyway, since the very beginning i have been working on my EOR letter, updating it- editing it- tearing it down and starting over again- as time passed and situations changed. I have two (2) EOR drafts. One is clearly superior to the other, and i intend to use it. I stopped using/editing the other some months ago. I just want to provide it so everyone can see more options i had considered earlier for an EOR letter. I feel an EOR letter is very important to our case, especially as we didnt front load our I-129F. I constantly feel that the biggest problem with our EOR is that there's sooo much i want to say but only 1 page to say it in. So, any thoughts/feedback? Here's the one im using (minus bolds, underlining and italics): And for reference/ my older ideas, my old EOR draft: Thanks for the help! I know i have a bad habit of writing letters that sound like music to my ears, but often can appear quite mediocre or even aggressive to others.

Alright sounds good! Glad you could join the fiestas! Stay in touch and maybe we'll get together sometime!

Actually, you and I are in the same boat pardner! Cept' i've got it even worse! We're on the 10th: the very first Monday back from their break! She interviews just hours too soon.... Lucky for me, i live in China at the moment, so we're going down on the 26th JUST to be at ACH! I bet we will be setting records for time spent in GUZ- excluding those that live in GZ of course. Yea, we got some pretty bright red flags as well, and even before we started this whole process, i knew i HAD to make it a top priority to be there. I remember that even months ago, i was planning what to do, should they schedule her for a Monday. Of course, what i didn't foresee, is that i would need to go 2 WEEKS in advance... (it figures ) Either way, know that you wont be the only one this god damn international labor day has screwed over...

Sorry i would use chinese if the computer game me anything more than the 5-bi right now... zheng ming- its the very first word on the pictures kyle posted! I get the feeling that the people here in zhengzhou dont do this very often, and may not know what they're doing themselves. So, kyle, your wife never ran around getting zhengmings before she could get the actual gongzhengshu then? Maybe they're just lazy....

Oh, im sorry- i meant Zhengming! had a late night.... So this is standard procedure then?

Just carrying over a post from the may interview thread. Will be in GUZ from 4/26, so if anyone wants to get together/ share horror stories from the crypt let me know!

While we're all on the topic- I've read around a lot about the whole gongzhengshu business, but i've never heard about anyone else going about it like we are. We're going to go to the henan province gongzhengchu, as opposed to the zhengzhou city's, and get it done there. Thing is, they want a whole lot more from us than what i see people talking about on here. Let me explain: we got 2 shengmings from 2 different places in her HOME TOWN (not the city, btw) that they said were required for her birth certificate. Then, back in the city, we had to go and get another shengming for her police certificate from the big PSB. And a 4th one was required from a marriage registrar for her single certificate. All of these shengmings were free. But i've never heard anyone mention this on either here or VJ, and im wondering if we're doing this right/going to the right office? & Her hukou is in zhengzhou.

5/10. We'll be there from 4/26 to the interview. Anyone else at GUZ around that time, we should get together and hangout, i know we're certainly going to be bored...

Yea i would but im only on my tourist visa for a few weeks, then i'm off to hong kong to get my work visa!

Ok thanks. I know when i got my first visa around Olympics time, I got it without having bought a round trip ticket or a return. They stopped me in atlanta when i was on my layover, wanting a return ticket before they would let me board. Now that thats no longer the case to get the visa in the first place, i wasn't sure, but better safe than sorry.

If i go to China on a tourist visa, and am leaving from the US, are the airlines still gonna want to see return flight tickets, or have they stopped that?

When it comes to flying within china, qunar.com is always my starting point. I found they can even find me prices that beat all the best local travel agents, allow me to view other dates with ease, and since its online, no need for them to come give me the paper tickets. I guess only drawback is that it may or may not be English friendly... haven't tried...

Wow, i like it i like it.... But it just reinforces all theories that they have no clue/ due/ fair process through which they go through there at guz. A very large portion is just luck, and indeterminable factors. One more question, you said you had 3 photo books? i'm currently looking for ideas on how to do our photos- what were the other 2 books of? Oh and how big were they? I forgot where that picture with dimensions of the VO window went.... OH and did you do ACH??

XD (I'm glad thats not the case!) Ah thanks! i knew the nian nian you yu, but i like the other 2 also. Thanks.

Am about to call my girl's parents and wish them a happy new year- Anyone got any good lines for two soon to-be newly weds?? Other than the usual xin nian kuai le of course?

Congrats man!! ...Any details yet?

That's ridiculous, but business as usual at GUZ i suppose. In a situation like that, i wouldn't take no for an answer. If you have the money and the time, i would recommend going to the next ACH. Don't even waste your time with the VO there. Immediately insist on a supervisor. That's

Sounds like a plan to me!

Not sure, but i thought that it was only every femily member that will immigrate to the US. Dui bu dui?

Yea i heard from a friend of mine that it was added around the 4th.... Ive never used it though.

Oh, god yea. Thats something thats always pissed me off- the way that its all taylored to laowais'. But, thats the Chinese for ya. The only country in the world to have businessmen represented on its own flag. Yangshuo is a awsome place. We rented a moter bike for 100RMB a day. We road in the countryside. Best time i had in China. O yea? Sounds nice- might check it out when i'm back!