ciao

From the PDF file you referenced: You cannot file a Form I-131 to obtain a reentry permit unless you are physically present in the United States when you file the form. and then, in the next paragraph: We recommend that you file Form I-131 while you are in the United States. Those two statements have very different meanings (to me). I think the first one is correct, and the second one is misleading. No wonder people (even immigration attorneys) are confused about this stuff. From a day spend reading tedious documents and regulations, my conclusions are:(1) You have to be in the US when you file an I-131 (by mail)(2) You have to be in the US when USCIS "accepts" your I-131(3) You can then leave the US(4) You have to do the "biometric" examination in the US(5) After the biometric thing, you can leave again, and your re-entry permit can be mailed to various facilities overseas (though not to you personally) So, for many people, two trips to the US are required. But note that "US" includes Hawaii, Guam, and the Mariana Islands, which are much closer to China than the US mainland is.

My wife received her green card in August 2017 (thanks to everyone here for all the help with that), but we returned to Shanghai in September 2017, and have been here ever since. We plan to live in the US, but various things are keeping us in Shanghai, for the time being. Since the date of our return to the US is uncertain, we’d like to get a re-entry permit, and with a minimum of fuss/travel. So, the plan is: (1) Fly to Hawaii, Fed-Ex I-131 and G-1145 forms to USCIS (in Phoenix ??) (2) Wait for confirmation of acceptance by e-mail or text message (3) Come back to Shanghai (4) Try to get fingerprinting done in Shanghai or Beijing (5) If unsuccessful, return to Hawaii at the appointed time for fingerprinting Questions: (A) How long does confirmation of acceptance (#2) typically take? (B) Has anyone tried to get the required fingerprinting (i.e. "biometrics") done in China? © Any suggestions for a more streamlined process?

Thanks, Randy. So, sounds like the medical CD could be removed from my list. Should we carry receipts for the green card fees?

We're almost done (thanks in part to the great help given here). My wife and daughter have IR-1 and IR-2 visas, and we'll be going to the US in a week or so. But there's some last-minute paranoia about documents that will be required at the port of entry. The things I know about are (1) Passport (obviously) (2) Sealed envelop mailed to us after interview (3) CD with medical info (x-ray's, I suppose) But then, in some text I copied from this site (I think), it says (Following the medical exam ...) You will be given two sheets of paper, a sealed envelope, and a sealed CD. The sealed ones are to be given to the consular during the interview. Don’t open them beforehand. The other two papers will be needed when coming into the United States. What are these two sheets of paper ?? Also, we have various little yellow books documenting vaccinations. Are those needed? Anything else ??

Thanks, Randy. Just found it myself, too: https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/visas/immigrant-visas/contact-us/immigrant-visa-unit-question/

It looks like the Guangzhou consulate web site has been redesigned, and now I can't find anything. Specifically, I can't find the form that's used to ask questions. It used to be here http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn//immigrant-visa-unit-question.html Does anyone know where it moved to ?

Looks like it's *really* bad in some cities, and there is no real country-wide policy: http://lawandborder.com/amcham-issuance-china-police-certificates-foreigners-must-easier/

I filed I-130 petitions for my wife and daughter. Things have been going well, and their interviews are scheduled for about a month from now. However, we just noticed that my wife's passport has only one completely blank page (plus a couple of partially blank ones). Do the Guangzhou folks have any rules about the number of available pages in the passports that they process? Certainly they will require one blank page for attaching the visa, but will they demand more, I wonder?

> Note upon entry to the USA the VISA will serve as a green-card, so yes you can travel, work, get SSN etc using the visa. Does that include travel outside the US? My wife and daughter will be entering the US on IR-1 and IR-2 visas, and they don't want to be "locked up" in the US while waiting for green cards to arrive. Never mind ... I think I found the answer. Looks like traveling outside the US is OK. This site has an interesting discussion. Some poor guy traveling back to US was denied boarding by incompetent gate agents because he "only" had a I-551 stamp in his passport (but no green card). The key point, I guess is that the stamp in your passport and the green card are both I-551 documents -- they are essentially equivalent.

> ALL (except #9, of course) of these things help I don't suppose #1 and #2 help very much , and #3 looks fishy, maybe. So, I should just pick some friend's address ?

I think I found the answer here: http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/45892-from-dcf-to-gz-blue-our-story/ > my wife received an email instructing her to log in to the website and make an appointment. > The website showed wide availability; we could have made an appointment for the next day, if we’d been ready for it… So, it seems that I pick the date (from among the available ones on the web site). ​Assuming nothing has changed since 2913.

For mail forwarding, I have been using PMI for 10 years. The service is good, and it's not too expensive if you don't ask them to forward to often. One nice thing -- my address with them looks like a residence, not a mail-forwarding service, and that has benefits sometimes. As others have said, you are certainly eligible to receive SS benefits regardless of where you live (as long as it's not Cuba or Afghanistan or North Korea). Regarding the SS office in Manila: I have successfully communicated with them via phone and e-mail. Not too bad.

In my experience (from 8 years of living in China), local medical care is inexpensive, but the quality is highly variable. If you're lucky, you can find good doctors. At the other end of the bell curve, you will find doctors who are just plain irresponsible and incompetent, and (more commonly) ones who are so overworked that they can't possibly provide good care. Medical techniques in China are a few years behind US, Europe, Japan. There are some procedures that they don't perform because they simply don't know how. This might be good or bad -- it's not necessarily a good idea to be on the bleeding edge of medical research. And the basic ideas of ancient (traditional) Chinese medicine seem preferable to western ones, anyway, in some ways. If you're going to have surgery, it's well known that you have to give "gifts" to the surgeon and anesthesiologist to help things go smoothly. Stuff like that scares me to death. For me, finding good medical care is the single largest problem with living in China. I'm 65 years old, but (for now) I'm very healthy. I definitely would not want to be here when I get older and body parts start to wear out. Of course, I represent a sample of size 1. Others might well have had different experiences.

This seems like a simple question, but I can't find the answer anywhere. In the DCF process, who sets the interview date? Do I request a date, or do the Guangzhou folks tell me the date, or do we mutually agree somehow? We want to enter the US in September 2017. So, as I understand it (6 month rule), we have to receive our visa after March 2017. Is that correct? So our interview (assuming success) should also be after March 2017.

I'm preparing to fill out a DS-260 form on-line, and there's a question that asks "Do you have an address in US where you intend to live?". This question makes me nervous because it seems related to the "maintain sufficient ties to the US" requirement, which is a bit shaky in my case. My situation is: (1) I haven't lived in the US since 2006. (2) I don't own a home in the US. (3) I use a PO box and a mail forwarding service for mail. (4) I have numerous US bank accounts and credit cards (5) I have a US (California) drivers license (6) I pay US taxes every year -- a *lot* of taxes. (7) I have various investments in the US (stocks, money market accounts, etc.) (8) I'm part owner of a small US company, though not really involved with it. (9) I don't have any relatives who live in the US. When we return to the US, my daughter will be going off to college, somewhere, and my wife and I will live in hotels for a while, or stay with friends, and then will probably leave the US. So, I guess I could answer "yes" and provide a friend's address. The question says "live", not "live permanently", so I'd only be deviating slightly from the spirit of the truth. I'm worried that answering "no" would automatically lead to denial of the visa applications. Any advice?