frank1538

This happened only once for me. Your inability to get through may be my wife's fault - she been on the phone a lot, telling all her friends and family about the new grand baby.

I believe the Chinese language forum discussed this.

When I went to the hospital yesterday to join my step daughter when she and her new baby were being discharged, I noticed a WIC packet among the discharge papers. For those who don't know, WIC is a federally funded, state administered program to assist women, infants, and children nutrionally. In KK's packet was about $300 worth of vouchers for formula, milk, eggs, cereal, and juice for the next two months. KK said the state worker didn't ask a lot of questions and set her and the baby's father up with an account, good for a few years worth of these vouchers. Needless to say, I had to check to see if the WIC program was one of the prohibited I-864 programs that we all said we wouldn't use when we sponsored our SOs with the I-864. For those who are interested, here's a link about what's covered and what's not: http://foia.state.gov/masterdocs/09fam/0940041N.pdf

We filed AOS locally in Atlanta back in April, 2004. All three (Jingwen and her two kids) AOSs showed an MSC number. We had the biometrics completed within a month, and the USCIS online status showed this. Jingwen's and KK's AOS was processed without an interview, and they received their green cards about one year later. This is a record for Atlanta which, at the time, was taking about 2 1/2 years to process AOS. Minghao, my step son, did not receive a green card. Rather, USCIS scheduled him for an interview, then cancelled it, then scheduled him for a second set of biometrics. His online status did not reflect any of this with the last update back in June, 2004. Go figure. I suspect that the changes in centralizing the processing have created problems within the system. Some of those problems are good like getting the green card without an interview while some of the problems are bad, like cancelling interviews, rescheduling biometrics, and bad online status checks. Ty can probably attest to these. I guess eventually things will sort themselves out. I still check Minghao's status each week - still no update since June 2004. At least the family is here - sure makes thing more tolerable.

When you say travel visa, I'm assuming a tourist/visitor/work visa. It's all of question of intent when you enter the US. In other words, why are you coming the the US? To visit - ok. To work - ok. To get married - not ok. Once you are here, things might change, but whether you will then be able to convince the USCIS that your original intent was not fraudulent will be up to you. Here is a link that talks about certain time frames and the presumptions that can occur if you try to adjust status from say a tourist to a permanent resident: http://www.kamya.com/download/0940063N.pdf Sometimes you will hear this referred to as the 30/60 day rule. We have one member whose SO traveled to the US on a work visa and got married while she was here. She returned to China and is going through the process of obtaining a visa that corresponds to her current intent to be with her husband permanently.

Good news on the interview date. Hopefully, the P4 is just a minor hiccup.

http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/iv/kvfaq.html will tell you which forms to bring, but those listed on the OF-171 ( http://home.comcast.net/~donahso/P4/OF-171.pdf ) are brought first to the medical exam folks who will assemble them for your fiancee to take to the interview. If a form requires a "subscribed and sworn to" signature of a consular official, she would sign it while at the consulate, not before. I believe one of the forms in the P4 is a "certification of legal capacity and intent to marry" form. This is in addition to the one that may have been filed with the I-129F. Incidentally, I think this form is one that gets counter signed by the consular official. When something is asked for "in duplicate", it usually means two original forms, not one original and one copy.

Your fiancee will pay 830 RMB to the bank in advance of the interview. This is the actual K-1 visa fee. Make sure she brings the receipt with her to the medical exam. The fee is paid in advance (see #1) The 20 RMB (I think) pickup fee is paid at the post office. Maybe others can give more specific info particularly in light of the consulate's move.

This is very encouraging news. Good luck.

Patience is a virtue Possess it if you can Seldom found in women Never found in men.

The finish line is in sight. Just a little more for this old race, then get prepared for another. Good luck.

Shoot, barely enough time to clean up the place. Good luck at the interview.

To Jingwen, patience is waiting 30 seconds after she yells "chi fan". In all honesty though, Jingwen does have the patience of Job on some things, but not others.

Depending on the length of time between marriage and the green card, your wife will either be a conditional legal permanent resident (for two years) or a legal permanent resident. If she gets the two year green card, you will have to file to remove the conditions after which she will get a 10 year green card. Other than that, there's no difference.

That slow boat to China is picking up steam. Great news and gook luck at the interview.

Coffee!!!!

Sound like September is shaping up to be a good month. Congrats and good luck.

Most often, AOS refers to adjustment of status. It is the process of adjusting one's status from non immigrant to immigrant and is used to convert a person coming the the US on a non immigrant visa such as a K-1 or K-3 to a legal permanent resident. Just a reminder. Since you are K-3, you also have the I-130 going through the system. A person who comes to the US off the I-130 will enter the US as a legal permenant resident and will not have to adjust status after arrival. Many folks use the K-3 visa to enter the US because it is usually issued before the I-130 is fully processed. It is ever over? Eventually. I guess full citizenship is the final chapter in the book, but many stop at legal permanent resident.

So, I guess it came as no surprise. Congratulations and best of luck.

You can call me Frank, you can call me Sal, but don't call me Gramps. David Uriel - 7 lbs 5 oz. Not bad for a women would came to the US at 88 pounds.

Most excellent. Best of luck at the interview.

Wow. Keep those cards and letters coming. Good luck.

My fingers are wearing out but a hearty congratulations.

Congratulations Paul. The second wave is gaining strength.

On boy, oh boy, another one rounds the corner. Good luck.