robhon

And THAT'S who we all should be talking to.

Anyone know who sponsored the LIFE Act? It's a helluva thing to actually get a bill passed on the hill. Are these people still in office? If there's anyone in government who will REALLY care about this issue it will be the original sponsors of this bill.

What??? Who's your lawyer? Johnny Cockran?

As well, if it's illegal and you get caught, your spouse/fiance will never be able to come into the U.S. ever again. Thousand bucks ain't nuthin' compared to that price. I'd wait five years over risking a definitive "never."

I've been talking and emailing with a person at my local congresswoman's office (Rep. Barbara Lee) and am feeling less than confident in this person's ability to help me. Each time I've talked with him it's as if he doesn't remember what's going on. He says things like, "There is a new visa called a 'K-3' that should help to expidite..." "No!," I say, "Remember, I told you I filed that in January." Then he'll say, "When there's a security check going on there's not a lot our office can do." Then my step-mother contacted her congressman and their office called Barbara Lee's office prompting another call to me, where again, he seemed clueless. He left me with a, "Well, we'll see what we can do." Now, my mother has a friend of a friend who is friends with Sen. Diane Feinstein, who says they'll see if they can get something going. What's annoying is, here's a issue that has enough meat on it to make a young congressional assistant's career take off! Bloated disfunctional government, the disrupted lives of young families... Hell, it's made for TV! So, how in the world do you get these people to bite? Has anyone had any real luck here?

My understanding is, the I-130 still gets processed in order to provide immigrant status. What's goofy is that they do all the same immigrant status work right now in order to process the K-3 visa. K-3 is a non-immigrant visa but you have to jump through all the immigrant visa hoops. Someone tell me if I'm wrong (haven't fully researched this part 'cuz we're not there yet) but after your I-130 goes through then you have to apply for Adjustment of Status (AOS) to become a permanent alien resident, i.e. the green card. Don't you wish we could just fire these guys and find a new company to do the work?

Absolutely. If you read the intent of the act they're saying it should be little more than a matter of scheduling a simple interview. None of that crap about name checks, NVC, DOS, etc. That should be taking place WHILE the spouse/fiance is in the US! THAT is 100% the intent of the LIFE act, and somewhere along the way someone diverted the implementation. I can practically hear hard-liners (somewhere) saying, "but we have to protect our borders." But if I were a terrorist trying to get into the US, what would I do? I'd get a student visa. Which is what the 9/11 hijackers did!! So, no one is protecting our borders any more by keeping our families separated. Are they worried about false marriages? They don't catch that in a security check. They catch that at an interview. Same as other non-immigrant visa applications. My 5', 105 lb, pregnant wife is NOT a threat to the security of our nation! ...Actually, at 6 months she probably weighs more than 105 now. BUT she's still not a threat!! To whomever in the government is monitoring this forum (and you know they are): Dammit! Let us have our families!! Please!! I'd love to see the statisics of what they actually accomplish in the name checks. I'd love to know that someone is actually analysing their effectiveness.

The original point I was trying to make is, they are STILL processing K visas like an immigration visa. I read one place (it's on the internet, so who knows) that the intent was to circumvent the whole NVC/DOS process in order to get the family member here quickly. There should be no reason the family can't be together while the NVC/DOS do their thing. But none of that has changed, regardless of whether it's any faster now or not. When I read the whole thing I think the intent is that we should all just have to do a simple interview in GZ, similar to a non-immigrant visa interview, and then do all the other processing while the families are together. And that just ain't happ'nin yet.

Tim, You know, my worst hangover ever was also in China. It wasn't the food, though... I had a previous girlfriend in Nanjing a couple of years before I met my wife. We'd gone to Yanchang where her family lives. One evening we went out for "dinner" with an uncle. Well, it was less of a dinner and more of a table around which we were all repeatedly toasting each other. Of course everyone wanted to toast with the American. It was just Tsing Tao beer but a hell of a lot of it. Several times I tried to stop by turning my glass over but the girlfriend would say, "No, don't be rude." Not only was I "driving the porcelain bus" all night long, but the following day I had to take a real bus from Yancheng to Shanghai to catch my plane home. It was a torturous, bumpy 8 hour trip (it's when they were building the highway between Shanghai and Yancheng). The worst worst WORST part of all was repeated getting sick while on the bus and having to use the gawdawful toilet IN the bus, which of course made me feel even sicker. My wife now is much more protective of me in such social situations. But still, she likes how I tell this particular getting drunk in China story. She laughs like crazy but then says, "Mouh man tai, louh gung. Ngo wui jiu gwu leih." (Cantonese: No problem, husband. I will take care of you.) She's such a sweetheart. ....I want to see again her so much.

I have spent the better part of this day trying to research what the K visa is "really" all about. From the LIFE act I get that it was created to allow the legally married spouse of a U.S. Citizen to enter the U.S. under a non-immigrant status (I would read: like a tourist, student or business visa) in order to unite families while the lengthy immigration process takes place. Do I have this right? When I read how long it takes to get other non-immigrant visa applications processed it's in the order of days or weeks. But everyone here on this site, like myself, seems to have been stuck in this system for months and months on end, some past a year. As best I can gather the actual process that's taking place behind the scenes (BCIS, NOA's, NVC, security checks, P3, P4, etc.) is what it was before there was a K-3, all things that have to take place before the visa is issued. How in the world is any of this like a non-immigrant visa???? How could they expect what is virtually the SAME process would somehow be faster??? In fact, have they done anything more than just INCREASE the workload on an already over-taxed system because they now have to also process K visas??? Pleeeeease tell me I'm missing something here!

Tim, Where is it you'll be living? I envy you in a way. I have soooo much fun everytime I go! That's pretty unique that your wife likes these spices. I have a lot of friends who are Chinese here in the SF area and they tend to all be very squeemish about food that's not Chinese. And these are people who've lived here for many years. My friends act the same way about pancakes that I do about "ji heut" (that curdled pig blood... stuff). But, yes, ice cream is always a common ground. In Shenzhen, when my wife was living there, our "special place" was the Hagen Daz store. Rob

No, they will welcome you. The K-1( or K-3) visa holder should plan to live in the US and no question should be asked about one way ticket. I'm no expert but I believe a K-3 is officially a "non-immigrant status" visa. If I'm not mistaken, the idea is that your spouse may come into the US in a similar manner to a student or tourist on a K-3 and wait for their I-130 (or other) application to go through procedures. Even though you and everyone else knows the ultimate intent is immigration, you never know who you're going to get when crossing into the US. A "non-immigrant" with a one-way ticket seems like it's just asking for someone, who got up on the wrong side of the bed, to cause trouble... regardless of whether they are right or not. No question "should" be asked. Doesn't mean they won't. Again, I'm just speculating.

I had a checking account that is little used so I sent the ATM to my sweetie and stocked the account with a grand. Cheap and fast way to access money from there but the ATM limits withdrawls to the 1,000 ~ 4,000 RMB range (depends on the bank). I've found that it's a little spotty using ATM's in China. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. On several occasions we've had to go to the bank manager to have my card retrieved. On another occasion the machine didn't give me money but deducted the amount from my account (took 2 months to resolve). At this point I've reconciled myself to my wife's admonishments to "bring cash!" I've always said, "But we've already almost been pick-pocketed twice, that we know of." She just says, "We just need to be more careful." I also tried opening a multi-currency bank account in China but you still get dinged all over the place. And, NEVER, EVER (as I learned) try to do a cash advance off your credit card! When I take cash over, my wife's mother does this thing. We all go to the bank. Outside the bank is an individual who will make a deal. Her mother and the man go to the teller and chat for a bit. After that we've got a pile of RMB at a good exchange rate. Still not completely clear on what everyone gets out of it, but I know we do well.

Tim, I'd suggest leaving the thyme and basil behind. Take the plunge! Be as the Chinese while in China. What a fantastic and unique adventure! Imagine (if this is the case) what it will be like for your wife when she comes to the US and has to acclimate to our culture. Unless you live in a large metro area your wife will have very little access to things of her culture. What a great way to fully understand and empathise with her situation by having been through it yourself. I've been to China about a dozen times now, two or three weeks at a time. Each time I become more and more acclimated to the cuisine and lifestyle. Although I still struggle with the tripe, fishheads, chicken feet, roasted duckheads, etc. But I'm getting more used to it. Now I can even manage to toss back quite a number of shots of that "white Chinese wine" with the menfolk... at least until my wife comes to "rescue" me. Rob

This might be a longshot but worth a try... My wife is in Chongqing, bored to tears, waiting while our government slooooowwwly processes our K-3 visa application. I was thinking, if anyone else is in the same situation in CQ, it might be nice to make friends.

And I thought Cantonese was difficult....

Hi, JJ. It looks like you posted this a while back. I've heard that you were processed very quickly because you were pregnant. My wife, in China, is now 6 months pregnant and I'm trying to get her over here as quickly as possible. If you get this message please email me at: rob AT zuluworks.com Thanks! Sorry, but I changed your address. SPAMbots run through the online forums and bbs - you'll be inundated with junk mail. It's much better to PM or email another member than post your personal addr in a mesage. If you click on the other member's ID, it takes you to a screen where you can choose between PM or email so you can exchange info off board.

That 001 site is all in a character set my computer won't display. And even if it could display it, I don't read Chinese. (Speak Cantonese but can't read a lick.) I've emailed my wife to ask her to check out this website. In the meantime, doesn't anyone know how I can contact this JJ person? TIA! (Already, in one day, this site has been invaluable for me.)

Can someone tell me where I can find this "001?" (I feel like the new kid in school.... "where's room 001?"

I'm new to this forum. Just found it today and have a question for those more experienced in these matters... My wife and I were married in China early November... Our I-130 and K-3 applications were filed in January... Received NOA's saying our petition was approved March 29, '03... Our case is now at the NVC and has been in security check "since mid-April" according to the nice lady on the phone. So, it was in late December that we found out my wife was pregnant Now she is into her sixth month of pregnancy and, with SARS (even though it's waining) and the quality of health care there, I REALLY don't want her to have the baby there. Everyone in my family has been contacting their Congressperson about our case. Does anyone know if there are ways to plead special circumstances? You can be sure it didn't take the NBA so long to get Yau Ming (the basketball player) over here. You know there have to be ways to get things done... Rob (missing his wife Youyue)