JerryL

Thanks. I'll certain keep the group updated. Looking at the old posts, it looks like there is more than a few of us with petitions going to Guangzhou around the date. Misery loves company, I suppose... Jerry

So NVC tells me that our case was forwarded to Guangzhou back on July 29. I sent an e-mail to the consulate a few days ago and just got this back: We have searched our files, but there is still no record pertaining to the applicant. Please be assured that we will contact the applicant for visa processing when we receive it from the NVC. guangzhouiv (I'm new at this so I don't know if this is a form reply or not...) From the info on this forum, it seems that the petition should have been there by now... How can they not have it? Is there anything I can do here besides wait? Is there anyone I can pay to get something going? Agh!!! Okay now I feel better... Jerry P.S. How do I reply to their e-mail if they don't get e-mail via their e-mail address? Do I submit a new query via the web form? Thanks.

From what you've seen, do they mail these packages out to Guangzhou from NVC every day, or is it more like a once every two weeks? Also, I'm seen people allude to e-mailing the consulate to see if the file has been received... Do you know what this e-mail address is or point me to the right FAQ? Much obliged, Jerry

Just re-read your post again... Are you running some kind of number harvesting program looking for airbill numbers originating from New Hampshire? B) Jerry

So if the NVC operator tells me that my application was forwarded on July 29, are the chances good that it made this shipment? Hope it didn't catch the later 8/8 train... B) Jerry

To contribute another data point, the NVC operator told me that our case was forwarded to Guangzhou on July 29. And no we have't heard boo from anyone... I didn't realize there were so many of us in this late July/early August timeframe waiting for a P3 until I ran across this thread... Wow! B) Jerry

I called them two days ago on 8/20 and found out that our case has been sent on to Guangzhou back on 7/29! And I never got any sort of letter from the NVC... I asked about this letter that I was suppose to get, and the lady at the other end wasn't really sure and guessed that there may be delays in getting the letters out. I don't think she really knew. It wouldn't surprise me if I'll never receive this letter, though I'm just happy that we're through that process. Now comes the wait for P3... Jerry

Congratulations! I'll bet the speed at which the application moved after P3 was a pleasant surprise, no? Jerry

Just to add to the story of anecdotes, I usually use Global Priority Mail (GPM). I like the idea of a flat rate for "all-you-can-stuff-into-envelope". One time I stuffed it so full, I couldn't get the contents back out to add something I had forgotten. Presumably my fiancee was able to at the other end, though she has the freedom to destroy the envelope in the opening process... From San Francisco to Hangzhou (about two hours out of Shanghai), the mailing time is consistently 7 or 8 calendar days. GPM moves no faster than regular airmail. There doesn't seem to be a difference, though this clerk at the local post office tells me she uses GPM to mail to Taiwan and it shaves about two days off regular airmail. Jerry

This is a great quote! It pretty much sums up what each stage of the process feels like! Jerry

Hi Bobby, I'm doing K1 too and my timeline is very similar to yours. B) Did you go through CSC? I mailed my I-129F around 2/12, NOA1 on 2/21, NOA2 on 6/21, and NVC on 6/23. But I haven't heard boo from NVC since. I've given up calling them since they never have any new info for me. B) Just curious... Did you get a letter from NVC about the approval? I'm thinking maybe I should give them a call again tomorrow just to see how they're doing... Jerry

Thanks for posting this! I've always wondered how this 'name check' process works, especially since my fiancee and I are stuck in the middle of it right now. Does anyone know what a Visa Mantis or a Visa Condor mentioned in the article is? Jerry

Next time this happens, you can tell them that the going rate is $40,000. According to the news story, these dudes collected $40k but only paid the guys doing the actual legwork $8k. Talk about exploiting the workers. Make a few phone calls, fill in a few forms, pull in $32k... Jerry

I noticed this domain is registered through NSI which charges $35 a year on a year-by-year basis. For whatever it's worth, there are a number of ICANN accredited registrars that charge significantly less. I've transferred several domains from Network Solutions to GoDaddy (yeah I know the name is stupid :-)) without any problems. They even update the DNS entries automatically using the old values. They only charge about $9 a year. There are many othern registrars that charge in that range but I've no experience with them. Jerry (No affiliation with GoDaddy other than a happy customer :-))

What do you mean by the second part? Jerry

Do you mean you believe there is a conspiracy to stop immigrants, or just immigrants from China? If the latter, how come? Jerry

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/artic...-2003Jul17.html Story reproduced below in case the above link goes away... Witnesses Say Brothers Staged China Romances Md. Men Deny Involvement In Immigration Scheme By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 18, 2003; Page B01 In photos snapped in southeast China, Steve Lu and You Zhen Chen looked like a couple deeply in love -- hugging as they posed together while sightseeing and at an engagement luncheon with Chen's relatives. But in a federal courtroom in Washington this week, Lu said he had met Zhen for the first time on the day the pictures were taken and had received instructions for his trip to China at a Dunkin Donuts in Rockville. Their feigned romance was one of dozens that David and Michael Cheng cooked up from the kitchens of restaurants they owned in the District, Silver Spring and Chesapeake Beach, Va., according to federal prosecutors. Families in China each agreed to pay the Cheng brothers $20,000 to $60,000 to help them line up phony fiances in the United States so that their young sons and daughters could get visas to enter the country, prosecutors have charged. The soon-to-be-weds never walked down the aisle, but more than two dozen Chinese twenty-somethings used the visas to slip inside America's borders during the 1990s with the Chengs' help, according to the government's case. They quietly joined the ranks of an estimated 7 million illegal immigrants living in the United States. That tide has been largely unstoppable in recent years, and federal law enforcement agencies say curbing it is one of their top priorities after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. If convicted, David Cheng, 37, would face up to 25 years in prison and Michael Cheng, 35, would face up to five years on charges that they fabricated transcontinental love affairs and defrauded U.S. immigration officials for profit. David Cheng is also charged with trying to pay a witness to lie for him. The Cheng brothers argue through their attorneys that they developed an expertise in immigration rules and were simply helping friends sort through the paperwork. The Chengs say they cannot be held criminally responsible for love that withered or fiances who got cold feet. In the trial in U.S. District Court, more than 20 witnesses have come forward to describe their supporting roles in what they described as a scam to smuggle pretend brides and grooms into the United States. Among those who have taken the stand are several Chinese-born U.S. citizens, many of them University of Maryland students, who said they were recruited and paid to stage blossoming romances with young Chinese women they had never met. "They said I could easily make some quick cash," said Chun-Ping Cheng, now 29 and a financial analyst in Rockville. "All I had to do was go to China, take some pictures with a girl, and sign some documents." The steps for documenting a fake romance were similar, the men testified, with several of them getting their instructions over coffee at the Dunkin Donuts on Rockville Pike. Jimmy Sun testified that he worked for David Cheng and told the young men they could make $8,000 each. First, they had to sign an immigration paper saying they intended to sponsor a young Chinese woman, bring her to the United States and marry her within 90 days as the visa rule required, the witnesses testified. They said they were then given plane tickets to travel from Reagan National Airport to China's Fujian Province. On the day of their departure, David Cheng drove them to the airport in his Camry, the witnesses said, and handed each of them two items: an envelope containing information about the family they would contact in Fujian and a camera for taking pictures with their "fiancees." Once in China, another Cheng associate took them to the women's homes and took pictures of each couple in hugging poses. Back in the United States a few days later, the men said, they were told to write love letters to the women, to call them once or twice and to provide the Chengs with a copy of their phone bill for the calls. "None of us knew the girls," Chung-Ping Chen said of his travels to Fujian with two other Washington area men. "We were just told to act happy for the pictures." Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan of U.S. District Court has presided over the trial, now entering its eighth day of witness testimony. One of the trial's most dramatic moments came when Chen described in her Mandarin dialect how her parents summoned her from school to return to their village and told her to "act like boyfriend and girlfriend" for a photo shoot with Lu. Chen, who was 22 at the time and is now 27, said her parents had arranged to pay a man named David in the United States $40,000 to fake her engagement so she could get into the United States. "That was the dream of my life, to come to America," Chen said through an interpreter. "This is a free country. I could improve the livelihood of my family. " Federal agents began their investigation after David Cheng was arrested in the District's Chinatown in March 1997 on an unrelated charge and police found Cheng's Toyota Camry filled with petitions for visas and identification documents for several people in China. A later search turned up more petition files in Michael Cheng's home in Lanham, authorities said. David Cheng's attorney, James W. Rudasill, told the jury that the government cannot prove the Cheng brothers' money came from Chinese families paying for such visa help. He said the brothers worked hard and long hours in five restaurants throughout the 1990s to earn their money. "They say they've got David's fingerprints on the documents," Rudasill said. "That's because he still had the soybean oil on his hands when people came to his kitchen asking for his help with their papers." Rudasill and Doug Wood, attorney for Michael Cheng, said government witnesses have agreed to plead to lesser charges for their alleged roles in lying about the visas and therefore cannot be trusted.

The web page http://members.aol.com/MDUdall/sctimes.htm has the processing times for NSC (about half way down the page) as of July 1. They're currently on January 9 applications, so six months seem like a good guess right now. There is also a K1 advocacy group on Yahoo where they are trying to identify the I-129F receipt numbers and then tracking their progress. If you know how to run Java, you can download the software and search for receipt numbers around your date and keep an eye on them. Jerry

What service center did you send you application to? The time frame depends on who's doing the processing. There are web sites around where you can check the progress reports of the different centers. The numbers are usually released twice a month. Jerry

This is my first time (and hopefully last ) time through this procedure, so forgive me if this is a silly question... I'm in that time period between NOA2 and NVC-starting-name-check. I take it that the way you tell if NVC has received the I-129F petition from the service center is when the case number shows up in their automated case status database? I thought I read somewhere that I-129F's don't show up, but I can't find the source of that info anymore... Thanks, Jerry

We had an engagement banquet with tons of people and my best friend videotaped the whole thing. Would they allow my fiancee to bring in a camcorder to show the videotape as evidence of a 'real' relationship? I second (or third, or fourth) the suggestion about having professional photos taken. Irregardless of whether or not the interviewer wants to look at them, the memories of spending an entire day doing silly poses together and having these wonderful photographs to show friends and family are totally worth it. Jerry

I thought a transcript of the tax return would be sufficient. Were folks bringing the entire photocopied tax return? Jerry