frank1538

What a nightmare. I'm trying to piece this together. What it sounds like is that Yang returned to GZ in January to submit additional documents following her December interview. It also sounds like GZ took these documents and has a record of this. It also sounds like you attempted to submit additional documents in March and confirmed that you could with the GZ chief of the IV unit. Apparently, the word never made it down to the rank and file, so when you went there in March, they immediately returned these documents. That may be why GZ has no record of this visit. What seems to be missing is what happened after the first submission back in January. Did Yang get anything from them? If GZ was doing their job, she should have received something on the status, but it sounds like the case is now in administrative processing, which probably means that they haven't reach a decision yet. You may now have entered a new black hole because it's so open ended. I don't know how important the second submission documents are to your case, but if you believe they are, I would make bigs waves with the IV chief until he agreed to let you bring them in. If the documents are not that important, you might just have to wait until GZ makes a decision. Good luck.

Sounds like your fiancee's daughter was included on the I-129-F. Did the P3 and P4 have forms, etc. related to her? If not, I think others have simply requested additional forms or made copies, although I know time is running a bit tight for you. If you have submitted everything for the daughter, I would keep pestering GZ, letting them know that the daughter will be there for the interview, that you have filed all the forms for her, and asking them to give you confirmation that the daughter is included. Good luck.

I believe shots or shot records are not required for the interview. Jingwen went ahead a got some shots before the interview and some after the interview because they were cheaper in China. The info was put in her yellow book which we carried to the civil surgeon in the US at the time we we filed for AOS.

Just read on Jenny's post that Ling got her white slip too. Trying to sneak one by us are you? Congratulations.

My sense is that it's not a PRC problem but a lack of capacity at GZ. I have a sneaking suspicion that DHL's facility is used as off site storage for GZ.

You should be breathing a little easier now.......unless labor has started. Congratulations and best wishes.

Wow. I know how glad you are getting this 18 month ordeal behind you. Best wishes and congratulations.

That's a real pisser. Glad she's okay, but what a pain to have to get replacements for all the docs that were stolen.

The medical folks told me the same thing concerning my step daughter. They said, since she was of marriageable age, she needed such a certificate. I figured since she was K-2, we'd go without it - no problem. But, this was for a derivative K-2 rather than K-1. Jingwen's notarial divorce certificate had a statement to the effect that she had not recorded a marriage since her divorce. Although the divorce certificate has unlimited validity, we got a second one with a more current date on the notarization so that there would be no large gap in the date of the certificate and the interview date (I think it was actually less than a few months). This, coupled with the statment of "legal capacity and intent to marry" form that came with the P4, seemed sufficient for GZ. Just a side note. Proof of divorce is not necessarily proof that your fiancee had not re-married since her divorce. I don't know about the consulate notarizing a "marital status" certificate, but I would doubt it. My sense is that GZ will be looking for a Chinese document on your fiancee's marital status.

She's in the queue to the queue for the interview queue. Clear as mud.

A very good conclusion I must say. Hopefully, the visa will be in hand very soon, and you can get on with your lives. Best wishes.

Take a look at http://www.onesuite.com/ Not quite less than 2 cents, but as low as 2.2 cents along with a detailed record. Jingwen still uses onesuite. As a matter a fact, just today, she spoke with a friend in China for 66 minutes for a cost of $1.50. Oh oh. A double post. Damn.

John, Sorry to hear about Hai Yan's grandmother. Jingwen was already here when her dad died, and I don't know if the customs differ with respect to parents and grandparents or male vs. female. I do know that Jingwen wanted to return to Zhanjiang as soon as possible, but we had to wait on her advance parole. Here's a thread that I posted about customs and traditions observed by Jingwen's family. Maybe it will help. http://candleforlove.com/forums/index....8060330c8633587 I know you guys have waited a long time for the interview. It would be a real shame if you had to re-schedule. If at all possible, try to get the interview behind you. If you want, I'm sure Jingwen would be willing to give Hai Yan a call. Just let me know.

I've been exercising my fingers, practicing typing "congratulations". Good luck everybody.

Congratulations. Now, have the time of your life.

I see three pressure points here. I think money is at play to some extent. Your husband is probably pissed that he has to give so much of his income to his ex particularly in view of the fact that he now has to face the prospect of another child. He may be taking out some of his anger/frustration on you. The second thing is that he seems torn between devotion to you and devotion to the kids, and he is feeling guilty now because his time is divided between you and the kids when it wasn't before you came to the US. I suspect the kids are young, and this probably adds to his feeling of guilt. The third thing is that there seems to be increased tension because of his ex, particularly now that you're part of the picture. I don't know the facts, but a weekly 2-3 hour visit to the ex, unless it's part of the visitation provisions of his divorce, just isn't a healthy thing for you two. It would be better for him to pick the kids up and leave the house - go grab a bite, go to a movie, but definitely not hang with the ex unless it's court ordered. One way to think about this is to reverse the roles. What if you had to divide your time between your husband and, say, elderly parents? What if money was tight because you had to provide for them. What if parents came to your one bedroom apartment every other weekend? How would you act and how different would it be than his behavior is now? How would he react and how different would it be from your feelings now?

Yea, I think you got ripped. The MIB probably gave the guard a few yuan to let you pass. Rule number one. Never give anybody money at a Chinese airport. I remember when Jingwen and I were returning from Guangzhou, the check in lady said we should go to that weigh in counter "over there", which we did. Some guy took our bags, put them on the scales and them taped them. 160 yuan please. Please my ass. Why? I taped them for you. Asked him if it was required to get the bags on the plane. No. Take the damn tape off. Stare down time. Finally, he conceded and returned the bags with the tape - no charge. Weight limits seem to vary a little, but I have never heard of having to weigh a carry on bag. I've taken my lap top without a problem, packed in my carry on with a ton of other stuff as well. On this last return from China, the checked bags were weighed. I can't remember the limits but I do know that we were within 1 kg of the max on one of the suitcases.

Don't tell me she still has the hair style that Jingwen tried out on her.

I don't know what it is about hair color and some Chinese women. Jingwen, in a former life, was a beautician and is well versed in hair colors, styles, and dying. My step kids have tried just about every color. Even Jingwen's hair has a red tint to it. My step son went blond for a while. I bit my tongue. He went red for a while. I bit my tongue. His hair is black again at least for the time being. My step daughter seems to have settled on a dark brown with a little blond thrown in. If you look at my avatar, you'll know that I'm not one for messing with mother nature's colors. But, I figure if the family wants to try a few colors, so be it. They can always dye it black if all else fails. On a related subject: You know what's the difference between a good hair cut and a bad hair cut? About two weeks.

Exactly the same thing happened when we went house shopping. Everything had to be new - a difficult requirement when looking in town unless you've got some big bucks. The house we ended up buying was fifteen years old, but with a brick exterior and fresh paint and appliance updates, it really was hard to tell. For about a month or so, Jingwen actually thought the house was new. When she found out it was "old", she couldn't believe it. She has also learned a lot about location, location, location. My brother recently sold a small house in a good part of town that appreciated fourfold in 15 years. Now, everyday, she recalculates the appreciation on our house.

Unless you are using the divorce certificate for another purpose, GZ says it has unlimited validity. Jingwen's divorce certificate was also used to show that she had not recorded another marriage since her divorce, so we made sure that her copy was less than a year old just to be safe. (She also had the consulate certification form related to legal capacity and intent to marry.)

Have you completed the I-864? If not, my inclination would be to tough it out and get the verification of employment, etc. If the I-864 has already been prepared with the required documentation and is still current, I'd probably tell my boss to take the job and put it where the sun doesn't shine.

I'm sure she'll do just fine, especially with mom and dad there.

Yepper, Friday after 12:00 - still at work though.

Another step in the right direction. Actually, your papers are in an old corked bottle that NVC threw into the Atlantic. If it catches the gulf stream, the bottle will make it to Europe in a week or so. From there, depending on where it hits land, it will be picked up by a drunken French fisherman who will try to drink your papers. Finding the taste too American, he'll toss the bottle back into the ocean where it will drift down to the Mediterranean and work its way to the Middle East, where it will be picked up by some Saudi oil producer and tossed into one of the tankers headed for China. Upon arrival in China, it will be off loaded in Guangzhou and inspected. Noticing that the bottle says something like "Colt 45", the customs inspector will assume the contents were meant for George Bush. Not knowing where else to send it, he'll forward the bottle to the consulate.