David11

Once your visa has been approved, you will need to make arrangements with China Post to either pick up or have your visa mailed to you (but please note--this service is currently only an option if you live in Guangdong Province or in the city of Beijing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Changle, Nanjing, Wenzhou, Tianjin, Shenyang and Changchun). Passports are typically available for pick-up within 3 business days after the interview. http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/iv_faqs.html#A1 You cannot pick up the visa from the consulate but rather pick it up from a China Post office located about 5 minutes by taxi from the consulate. HK does have more flight options directly to the USA than does GUZ, but that doesn't make it by default cheaper (and sometimes not shorter either) - it completely depends on where you are going and when you book your ticket. I just checked a random date for a one way flight to my home airport (Pittsburgh) and leaving from GUZ is actually cheaper than HK. The trip from GUZ is indeed an hour longer than from HK but they have the same number of connections and if you factor in the time to get to HK, GUZ is faster for me. The only way to make HK the faster trip home for me is to remove one of the connections which increases the already more expensive ticket price by about 40%. It's nice to have HK as an option though and that's great if it works better for you. It's just personal preference maybe, but the prospect of hauling all of my luggage (I lived in China though) and my wife's luggage into a vehicle (or three), through a train station, onto a train, through PRC mainland customs departures, through HK immigration, through HK customs arrivals, through HK customs departures, and getting all the exit/entry/exit stamps along the way sounds like more of a hassle to me than just making an extra connection somewhere. Whoops, I took so long to write that out that a couple folks beat me to it!

Too many is better than not enough, but "just right" is better than too many. Nobody is interested in going through (nor are they likely to go through) a ridiculous stack of pictures. Anyone faced with a massive stack is likely to just skim through a few to quickly get some idea of your relationship. I think Randy's post is dead on. From what my wife went through and what I have read here it seems each VO is tasked with interviewing between 10-20 people every day in addition to whatever other duties they have to do. The chance that they look through more than a few pictures for any given applicant is probably slim. Say the VO looks at not more than 20 pictures (a number completely pulled out of my arse but probably a very high side estimate) - would you rather you have submitted your 40 best pictures and 20 of those get looked at, or your 200 best and 20 of those get looked at? Regarding pictures with family and Great Wall pics, I don't want to in any way downplay the importance of pictures with family - get some if at all possible, but a variety is best, and this is why... A picture with her family, especially if your SO isn't actually in the picture, at face value doesn't prove anything beyond the fact that you had your picture taken with some old Asian-looking folks, potentially down at your local Panda Express or P.F. Changs. A picture of you and your SO together at the Great Wall means..well that you and your SO were together, in China, and traveling. All positives, regardless of how cliche the destination is and how common those photos probably are. Cover all possible bases, but don't slather on so much gravy that your meat and potatoes are impossible to find in a reasonable fashion.

Here is a list of what I submitted with my DCF in Beijing last December. It's probably not the best list here but with the website acting up it's easier to find my own content than look for others and my wife had her visa issued a few days ago so it must not be that bad because it worked. http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/42631-dcfing-i-130-next-week-am-i-forgetting-anything/page__p__565511__fromsearch__1#entry565511 Application Materials- Completed I-130 4x Completed G-325A's for myself 4x Completed G-325A's for my wife Her Notarized Birth Certificate Her Notarized Divorce Decree Our Notarized Marriage Certificate Copy of actual Marriage Certificate Copy of Bio Data from my passport Copy of Bio Data from her passport Copy of my valid Chinese Residence Permit 1x Passport Photo of her 1x Passport Photo of me Supporting Info- -Affidavit from my employer stating that we have lived together since August 2009 and function as a happy couple, etc. in her opinion -Affidavit from a current co-worker briefly outlying similar information as above -Photocopies of old Chinese visa and entry/exit stamps from visit -Screenshots of the two of us having Skype video calls with my family -EOR letter (4-pages) outlying when we met (Sept 2008), how we met (Skype), and how things have evolved. I make mention of our conversation methods, my initial visit to Chine in February of 2009, how we have lived together since August of 2009, taken multiple trips together, visited her family on multiple occasions, etc. In the EOR letter I also mention that her ex-husband has since their divorce also remarried. -Flight Itinerary/etickets/credit card receipts for my three flights to China -Credit card statements with the name and city of the hotel I stayed at (in the city she lived in) during my first visit -Copy of one letter she sent to me via postal mail. Multiple letters I sent to her never arrived. -(23) Emails exchanged between my wife and I spread out between September 2008 to July 2009. 99% of our communication was on Skype but we do not have any logs of that. - Skype screenshot of phone calls made to her and her mother's home when both of us made a trip home (hers to her hometown, mine to to the US) to visit family this summer. -(15) Emails exchanged with my family spread out between Feb 2009 and present day. Some of the emails are addressed to both of us, but most of them are just family asking how the two of us are and me talking about her with family. -(4) Receipts for gifts I purchased for my wife -(2) Copies of e-cards from family congratulating us on our marriage -(40) Pictures of the two of us together spread out between Feb 2009 and present day. In the pictures we can clearly be seen at different points of interest in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an, and others). In a few of the pictures we are together with my wife's family during visits. I did not have any of my affidavits notarized (four between what I gave in Beijing and what my wife submitted with her interview) and they were all still accepted. Whether they were used as toilet paper after being accepted because they weren't notarized, I have no idea, but they were accepted. In addition to the required documents listed in dno's most recent post you should try to "front load" your application with as much relationship evidence as possible by submitting it along with your I-130 application. The reason for this is that if you do it right, they will have an idea of the legitimacy of your relationship, ability to communicate with your SO, and other things that they would otherwise have to try to sort out in a brief interview later before going into the interview. Most of the evidence choices listed on the application form are literally impossible for someone in your situation to obtain, so think outside the box.

If this is an issue of semantics rather than incorrect information then I apologize, but based on the original question of prepaid postage the replies are misleading/incorrect. EMS labels (as well as EMS envelopes) in China need to be 'bought' and cost 1RMB each, but I would definitely use the term 'bought' and not 'prepaid' there because they are just address labels and have no postage value. Postage is paid for at the time you send your EMS and in this case the postage for P4 is paid for by GUZ (how would anyone know how heavy the P4 envelope will be and how much postage to buy?). Your wife will have paid 1RMB to purchase the address label that she returns with the P3 documents, but not bought prepaid postage.

Maybe 140-180 with an estimate of 130 people being interviewed. A surprisingly high (wife estimates at over 10%) number of people were screened out and refused an interview because they lacked the sufficient documents at the document intake session. Also on the morning of the interview, there were a lot less friends and family tagging along with folks than there had been the day prior, likely because they learned they can't actually go inside with them anyway. When everyone first went inside I was the only person in the coffee shop and up until 9:00am I didn't see anyone other than the staff of the travel agencies. I was actually worried that I may have been in the wrong place. Once people started to come out of their interviews, small (never more than about 10 at a time) groups of friends and family started to arrive to wait in the waiting area beside the coffee shop. I may have actually been the only person waiting in the coffee shop that morning. Most of the other patrons were people who just finished their interviews. When my wife was handed her pink paper after the interview she was also given back all of the photos we had submitted with the I-130 in Beijing. Along with her passport and the brown envelope, today inside the package at the post office they also returned all of the relationship and communication evidence I had submitted and my wife's notarial documents that were given to Beijing. They kept the copies that were given to GUZ on the day of the document intake, as well as a few pieces of evidence my wife offered the VO during the interview. Getting additional copies of the notarial papers was a huge pain in the ass, and surely they have to be aware of how difficult it can be in China. Surely it could be worked into a more logical process than giving the notarial documents to BJ, BJ giving it to GUZ, the applicant giving another copy to GUZ, then GUZ giving the applicant back Beijing's copy. After filling out the paperwork to pick up her passport with visa in Guangzhou she was given a map showing the location of the Junyuan Post Office, but be warned that if you are not familiar with the area the map may not be of great help. The map is not very detailed and entirely in Chinese and my SO isn't...let's say..good with maps, so we had no idea where to go. I got a good idea of where to go from Google Maps but it looked like a decent hike so we grabbed a taxi. The driver had never heard of the street, which is a small side street (single lane of traffic if I recall), but found it with the help of the map that pointed out that it ran parallel between two better known streets. The post office opens at 9AM and we expected a line but there was only one other couple there ahead of us when we arrived right at 9:00. Her Chinese ID was required to pick up the package, which again contained her passport with visa, brown immigration envelope, and all notarial documents and evidence submitted with our DCF application.

My wife had her interview this morning and it could not have went any better. She was nearly the last one to be interviewed and my bladder nearly exploded because I refused to leave my post at the coffee shop outside until she was finished, but beyond that it was a great experience. A big thank you to everyone at CFL. I'm relatively quiet but I've been a daily lurker for about two years and I'm grateful for all the knowledge we've picked up from this website. Here is a rundown of our Guangzhou experience. Hopefully something here could prove useful to someone in the future. We applied for a CR-1 with DCF in Beijing the the process took 4 months and 8 days from submitting the application to passing the interview. Our application was "front loaded" with everything we had at the time - mostly communication evidence and pictures. Day 1: Our plane arrived in GUZ about Noon. We had reservations with Yang and he told us which airport shuttle bus to take to his place but didn't know where at the airport we should go to actually catch that bus. The busses stop just outside the doors to the arrivals area and the signs say they come around every 20 minutes or so. The bus to Yangs was Bus #6, but for some reason that bus isn't listed on the sign that shows the location of the bus stops. The bus stops are numbered with 2-3 busses stopping in each area. We found bus #6 to CITIC Plaza (I think?) in the #4 area. The bus cost 20RMB/person to be paid to the conductor after the bus is on the road, had good air conditioning, very comfy seats, and took maybe an hour. The bus has two stops and Yangs place is near the second stop. Mr Yang met us at the bus stop and took us to the apartment where we would be staying. After arriving he glanced over our photos, I-864, and Notary Certificates. He only spent about a minute looking over our things, but maybe the hundreds of hours spent preparing paid off and no additional review or suggestions were necessary. He does not speak any English and seemed to be in a hurry and left after that. We have not seen or heard from him since that time, likely because this is a busy time for him because of some events going on in Guangzhou. After Mr Yang left he sent over someone he called his sister to collect the money. She also brought toilet paper and towels with her because the apartment came with neither and we asked Mr Yang if it would be possible to get some. The apartment has a medium sized refrigerator, couch, desk with reliable internet access, a single bed, cable tv, coffee table, and a water dispenser all in a big living room. The bedroom has a full-ish sized bed (it's actually a nice frame with a box spring and thick foam mattress pad on it) of average comfort level, wardrobe closet, and a bed side stand with a lamp with a red lamp shade that makes the room look like one of those Chinese "massage" joints when lit. The kitchen had a sink, two gas burners, cupboards, and a washing machine. The kitchen also had a pan, a mix and max selection of cups and bowls, and a few utensils, but they were of varying colors and smells so we opted to buy disposable. The bathroom is pretty standard with western style toilet, sink, mirror, and shower. The water gets nice and hot after a minute or so, but the shower sprays in the center of the bathroom so you need to remove the toilet paper and anything else you don't want wet before showering, and the shower head is positioned about 5 feet high on the wall so hair washing has to be a manual thing for anyone tall. There was an air conditioner in the living room and bedroom that worked very well. The area outside the apartment windows was very nice with lots of trees and flowers, but the wet environment made for a mosquito haven even in mid April. I had about twenty bites after the first night to my wife's one, but on day two we bought mosquito repelling and it has not been much of an issue since. Across the street and to the left of the apartment complex is a big shopping mall. The highlight of the mall for me was a supermarket called JUSCO. I have lived in China for about two years and that supermarket seemed to carry a lot of "western" things that I have not seen regularly available in other places. The food they make in their deli was also reasonably good, and very cheap compared to other food in the area. There is also a KFC, Pizza Hut, and Starbucks in the same mall along with various Chinese restaurants. The consulate is located less than two minutes from where we are staying. Leaving the building, we need to take a left and walk for maybe 10 seconds, another left and walk for less than a minute, then the complex with the consulate is located in an area set back in from the street on the left. There was nothing outside whatsoever that I seen to indicate that the US Consulate is located in that building. There were several travel agency signs and an advertisement for a same day results DNA testing service (lol) outside that kind of gave the hint that were in the right place, and we asked someone on the street who confirmed the consulate was indeed located in that complex. Day 2: Yang's sister met us outside the apartment building at 8:30am and accompanied us by taxi (13RMB) to United Family Healthcare for my wife's medical exam. After helping my wife fill out the registration form, she gave us her card with the apartment complex's address on it so we could find our way back and she went on her way. We did not have any contact with them after that time until after the interview when we called about extending our stay. I expected a very complex procedure after looking at the medical forms I printed, the medical exam was a surprisingly simple process. After registering my wife had to put on a gown and sat in a centrally located waiting area. Around the large room are different smaller rooms for the different stages of the medical exam. Up first was a blood test, followed by a chest x-ray, followed by someone listening momentarily to her heart and lungs and having her drop trou for a crude gender verification (judging by the giggles, whispers and actions of the adolescent boys who came out of that room, the procedure is the same for everyone). She spent no more than one minute in any of the three rooms and the medical forms we printed were not collected or used, but the process still took nearly two hours due to wait times between the different phases. After the medical portion of the exam finished near 11:00, the folks at United told us that vaccines would be administered at another location (the other place listed on the paperwork for acceptable exam locations in Guangzhou, I can't remember the name) and that they would shuttle everyone there by bus at 12:30pm. At 12:30pm, we met everyone back inside but unfortunately only the person going to get the shots were allowed to go, so friends and family had to wait in the United office for the ~3 hours it took to complete that process and everyone to return. By the sounds of it they usually bus people there but that day United roped in enough Taxi's to take people (and they paid for them) to and back. The medical at United cost 800RMB and the vaccinations, which included Td, MMR, Varicella (chickenpox), and Influenza cost 493.1RMB. The Td, MMR, and Varicella all require followup vaccinations. After the vaccines and a little paperwork she was given a sealed envelope and an x-ray in a rolled up envelope in a nice little tote bag. Taxi back to the apartment cost 16RMB and the driver didn't know where to go until my wife told him the Chinese name for the big IKEA located near the complex. Day 3: Having read that getting there too early is of no use we arrived for document intake at around Noon for the 12:30 scheduled time. There were maybe 200-300 people outside at that time and there were two signs indicating where people should stand, one line for immigration and one for non immigrant visas. The lines were kind of Chinese style "lines" in the sense that it was basically a mob of people in the same general vicinity rather than a real line. It was 12:40pm before they started to let people inside and after my wife went in the building I went back to the apartment to wait. The immigrant lines were let in first and more guards came out to start to let in the non-immigrant folks when the immigrant line was about half way finished. To gain access to the building, she needed to show her passport and appointment letter and was given a small card. Inside she went to the 4th floor via escalator (there is an elevator located down the hall to the left of the 'up' escalator if needed) and went through an informal security stop where her card was taken away. After that pit stop she went up another escalator to the 5th floor and went through a formal security checkpoint. Cell phones and electronic devices are not allowed past this point. Upon entering the main room she surrendered her appointment letter and was given a number and took a seat in the waiting area. There were more people there than there were seats available, so while arriving early won't get you seen sooner, it might assure yourself a seat. There were a total of 15 windows open, in order from left to right there was one payment window, two fingerprint windows, ten document intake windows, and two more payment windows. Numbers were called manually in the form of "Number xxx to window xx" through microphones like bank tellers behind glass use. Some were called out in Mandarin and some in Cantonese, presumably based on the supplied birthplace/residence/etc. of the applicant. LED signs were present above all of the windows but were not used at this time. The financial and document intake staff were all visibly Asian and spoke perfect Chinese. One fingerprint agent was visibly Caucasian, and one appeared Asian but based on his spoken Chinese was likely not native Chinese. The document intake agent at the window was friendly. She looked at my wife's passport and requested the contents of the sealed medical exam envelope, all of her notarized booklets, my I-864 and tax returns for the past three years, my joint sponsors I-864, three years of tax returns, and accepted his W-2, pay stubs, and employment letter. She refused a copy of his birth certificate, my birth certificate, and my domicile evidence that I had attached with the other financial documents. Having considered that the document acceptance worker may be unsure what my purpose my domicile information served I had prepared my wife with that to say in the event that it was not accepted initially, but after the explanation the agent just said that if the VO wants it they will ask for it at the interview. She was asked here if this was the first marriage for both of us (second for her, first for me) and if she is a CCP member (no). After handing over the documents she was given an invoice and went to pay. This is the only mildly unpleasant experience she had involving the consular office. The cashier was mildly snooty, seemed inconvenienced to have to accept payment in RMB instead of USD (Tip: Embassies and consulates "accept" payment in local currency but offer a lower exchange rate than banks. It may be peanuts to some, but had we paid her interview fee in USD we would have saved more than $10. The delivery fee still must be paid in RMB however.), was unwilling to verbally state how much the amount owed was in RMB when my wife was unable to clearly read the LED cash register sign located behind the scratched glass window, and got upset that my wife counted her change to make sure she was given the correct amount. For fingerprinting my wife was called to the window with the Caucasian woman, who she described as having blonde hair and who looked to be around 30 years old. She was very friendly, and spoke decent Mandarin. Somewhere in the last couple steps of the process she was given her appointment letter back with a stamp on it instructing her to return at 7:30am the following day for her interview. Day 4: We arrived outside the consulate complex at about 6:50am and there seemed to be less people present than there had been the day before. This time there were neat orderly lines and a guy shouting in a megaphone to make sure they stayed that way. We were right about in the middle of the line by the time people were let in, which was a few minutes after 7:30. Getting inside was the same process as the previous day with her having to show her passport and appointment letter and going through the various security points. I did not have to show anything to gain access to the building but knew I could not go past the 4th floor and did not attempt to. On the previous day they were given a stern warning not to bring mobile phones with them despite them having an area designed to store them (they don't have space for 300) so my wife obliged and I kept her phone but it seemed like most others didn't listen. After separating at the checkpoint on the 4th floor I went out in search of the coffee shop I had read about on CFL. After exiting the 'up' escalator on the 4th floor and making a right the checkpoint is there on the right, but if you keep going down the hall the coffee shop is just ahead also on the right. It was dark and unattended until about 8:00am but it's kind of in the open and not walled in so I sat there waiting before it opened up (sit on the side opposite of where you'll enter for the best view of people coming out after their interviews). The menu has maybe 8-10 beverages listed - three kinds of coffee, milk tea, wanglaoji canned tea, Heineken beer, bottled water, canned coconut juice, and dole orange juice. Prices for all choices ranged from 49RMB-60RMB, and additional bottles/cans/cups of the same thing were 5-10RMB each. Along with my beverage, I was given a small pack of "tomato crackers" and a bag of sunflower seeds. There was no food available on the menu. The staff of the coffee shop also seem to work at the travel and ticket booking agencies situated around the coffee shop and a website on the wall of the coffee shop directs to a Chinese travel agent. They tried to give everyone coming out of the consulate a brochure and ask if they needed to book a flight to the USA but didn't hound anybody about it too much. The coffee shop had about 16 tables, each with 4 chairs of a tolerable comfort level for the wait. Anyone not a paying customer is given the boot out of the seating area and is forced to stand in a designated waiting area. The waiting room for interviewees was the same room used for document intake the day prior, the only noticeable difference was that this time the LED signboards above each interview window were being used to show who was serving which number. Again today there were not enough seats for everyone and some had to stand inside for well over an hour before enough opened up for everyone. Interviews ranged in length from 3-30 minutes and she thinks everyone who was there with family having more than one person interview together were interviewed first. All of the VO's today appeared to be Caucasian and 8 of the 10 were male. Some VO's sat alone while others had a translator with them. The translators backed away from the interview window when not needed. Most people there were nervous and little groups of people sitting together tried to comfort each other. My wife was interviewed near the end of the group that day and her VO was a woman who looked to be in her mid 30's and according to my wife looked like Marcia Cross in Desperate Housewives. She seen that most of the unsuccessful interviewees were very apprehensive and passive and most offered no indication that they spoke a word of English unless asked directly, so she tried to take the opposite approach. When called she walked up to the window with a big smile and offered a "good morning" before spoken to. The VO reacted very positively and responded with a smile and a "Good morning! How are you?" before getting down to business. Originally my wife also planned to only demonstrate her English when called on it, but after seeing the struggles of others who took that approach she opted to try to use English from start to finish despite her admittedly average level of English, and she seemingly got through the whole interview in only English flawlessly. The actual interview breaks down as follows: [Greeting] VO asked for my wife's passport VO asked for my name VO asked how we met (Skype) Wife offered chat evidence (this was all already submitted to Beijing with initial petition), VO declined VO asked when I first came to China (two years ago. wife offered pictures, VO accepted and scanned through a few) VO asked if she had ever applied for a US visa before (no) VO asked if I can speak Chinese Wife answered no and mocked my inability to speak much Chinese despite two years here, VO laughed Wife offered my domicile evidence as I have lived in China for the last two years and am still here, VO declined VO asked how my wife knows her joint sponsor (my father) Wife offered letter from my father about how he's very happy for us, excited to meet her, etc. VO accepted and kept letter VO asked my wife to name everyone in a screenshot of us talking with my family on Skype (my sister, father, and nephew) VO asked my wife if she was CCP (no) VO told my wife congratulations and gave her the peach/pinkish/orange paper Wife went to post office area to fill out form for picking up her passport later. The line there took about 30 minutes and the fee was 20RMB. She estimated that her interview took 3-5 minutes but she wasn't out until 11:00am. Domicile seems to be stressed for DCF applicants but the VO declined to even look at my domicile information (maybe because I listed my address as my US address?). The VO also did not request any relationship evidence, though we did front load, and my wife offered a few things which were accepted. Overall the experience was as close to painless as we could have hoped for. The interview process went perfect and the Yang's, while our contact with them was minimal, were helpful and the apartment a much more comfortable experience than a hotel room and in a perfect location. The only downside at all was running into some dumb luck with the timing of the interview coinciding with the start of the Canton Fair which considerably raises the price of all accommodation (and maybe everything else) in the city. This was typed up over the course of several hours and very much not proofread, so apologies for the grammatical errors and incomplete thoughts posted in some parts!

One more quick question and I don't want to hijack James in Jinan's thread so I'll ask it here. The subject of address on I-864 is mentioned in his thread but the replies leave some confusion (maybe because like so many things in this process there is not a clear answer). I am in China with my wife and have been here for most of about two years. What do I list for mailing address and place of residence on my I-864? At the moment I have my US address listed as mailing address and place of residence blank (as it says "if different from mailing address"). My reasoning is that in my opinion I have decent evidence to show that I have "maintained" US domicile - maintained and used a US bank account, made student loan payments monthly, received stacks of mail, used and paid US credit cards, renewed US memberships etc, - but nothing in the way of "re-establishing" domicile, so I want to take the stance that except for a few minor things in China I would still want to use my US residence as mailing address and residence. I'm questioning this choice because I did list my address in China on all of the other forms so far and it is quite clear that I have been in China for two years. Should I stick with US address, or does me having maintained US domicile render the need to re-establish domicile unnecessary by default and it safe to list Chinese address? Or perhaps one for mailing address and one for residence? At least in the crazy world that is my mind right now, there seems to be an argument for every conceivable possibility.

I do not have a job lined up for when returning to the US. This is partially deliberate (I'd prefer to avoid working for the initial month after arrival to help her get settled and travel with her) and partially because we won't be going to the USA until mid-to-late summer so I was waiting on trying to line anything up. This made me a bit concerned with domicile and I'm still considering "applying" to a couple of jobs on Monster even though it's probably too late to get interview requests like Kyle did. No to CCP.

My wife and I will be headed for Guangzhou in a little more than a week for her interview on April 15. Here is what I have prepared at the moment (I will reorganize folders a bit later). Is there anything obvious missing or anything else that I could obtain or prepare quickly that could be useful? Do you think I am alright on domicile? Already submitted with my I-130: -Affidavit from my employer stating that we have lived together since August 2009 and function as a happy couple, etc. in her opinion -Affidavit from a current co-worker briefly outlying similar information as above -Photocopies of old Chinese visa and entry/exit stamps from visit -Screenshots of the two of us having Skype video calls with my family -EOR letter (4-pages) outlying when we met (Sept 2008), how we met (Skype), and how things have evolved. I make mention of our conversation methods, my initial visit to Chine in February of 2009, how we have lived together since August of 2009, taken multiple trips together, visited her family on multiple occasions, etc. In the EOR letter I also mention that her ex-husband has since their divorce also remarried. -Flight Itinerary/etickets/credit card receipts for my three flights to China -Credit card statements with the name and city of the hotel I stayed at (in the city she lived in) during my first visit -Copy of one letter she sent to me via postal mail. Multiple letters I sent to her never arrived. -(23) Emails exchanged between my wife and I spread out between September 2008 to July 2009. 99% of our communication was on Skype but we do not have any logs of that. - Skype screenshot of phone calls made to her and her mother's home when both of us made a trip home (hers to her hometown, mine to to the US) to visit family in 2010. -(15) Emails exchanged with my family spread out between Feb 2009 and Dec 2010. Some of the emails are addressed to both of us, but most of them are just family asking how the two of us are and me talking about her with family. -(4) Receipts for gifts I purchased for my wife -(2) Copies of e-cards from family congratulating us on our marriage -(40) Pictures of the two of us together spread out between Feb 2009 and present day. In the pictures we can clearly be seen at different points of interest in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an, and others). In a few of the pictures we are together with my wife's family during visits. Black Folder: Pocket 1- My Birth Certificate My US Driver's License My Passport Wife's Passport Wife's Chinese ID Card Wife's Divorce Certificate Wife's Marriage Certificate My Marriage Certificate Notice of Approval Paper wife typed with name and last known address/phone number for her ex-husband 2"x2" Passport Photo's of Wife (8) P4 Appointment Letter Photocopy of Bio page of wife's passport Photocopy of Bio page of my passport Wife's resume Pocket 2- Notarized/Translated Marriage Certificate Notarized/Translated Divorce Certificate Notarized/Translated Birth Certificate Notarized/Translated Certificate of Non Criminality (dated July 2010) Pocket 3- My completed I-864 Photocopy of my Birth Certificate Photocopy of my Passport Photocopy of my 2010 Tax Return Photocopy of my 2009 Tax Return My 2008 Tax Return Transcript Domicile Evidence: Photocopy of US Driver's License (renewed in the middle of my two year stay in China) Photocopies of dozens of pieces of mail (largely junk mail and magazines I subscribe to that go to my US address) Annual IRA Statement (2010) 2009 State Income Tax Return Copy 2010 State Income Tax Return Copy Credit Card Statements Nov 2009-Feb 2011 (6) Student Loan Repayment Paper 4/2010-3/2011 Credit Card #2 Statements Jan 2010-Dec 2010 (8) Bank Statements Apr 2010-Mar 2011 (12) Every month had *some* activity, even if it was only my student loan payment being direct debited. Pocket 4- Joint Sponsor's I-864 JS's 2010 W2 Letter from JS's employer 3 months worth of JS's pay stubs (6) JS's 2010 Tax Return Transcript JS's 2009 Tax Return Transcript JS's 2008 Tax Return Transcript Photocopy of JS's Birth Certificate Pocket 5- Additional Evidence not already front loaded: A few additional emails from my family Letter from my mother Letter from my sister Letter from my father ~50 additional photos taken since filing in December, including photos in Beijing together when filing, photos at a Christmas party, photos on a trip with the Uni I teach at, and Chinese wedding-style photos we decided to get taken. Pocket 6- Photocopy of all relationship evidence already submitted when I filed DCF in December 2010 Blue Folder: Photocopies of EVERYTHING Additional blank forms for all forms involved from start to finish

Great information. Thank you! Could you provide any additional insight as to what exactly is submitted during the document intake? The instruction packet form says: On the day of your interview document intake, bring the medical envelope, any necessary documents you did not submit to the National Visa Center, and any potential evidence proving the applicant(s) relationship to each other (as applicable) as well as the petitioner. That would make it sound as if, assuming the required documents such as I-864 and various notarized certificates are also submitted during the intake, that essentially *everything* is to be submitted during the document intake. Is that correct? Being it says "any potential evidence" I wonder if they would treat that as a warning to be "all" potential evidence available at the time and not allow/ask for anything additional during the interview?

My wife is also scheduled for April 14 at 12:30pm (probably for document intake with the interview on the 15th) according to an email from GUZ. Still waiting for the actual P4 to arrive in the mail.

With regards to #7, read up on I-864 information, both threads here and on the form itself. Some of your questions are answered word for word on the actual documents. Without knowing your financial situation in great detail but knowing that you have been in China for two years I would have to assume that you will almost certainly need a joint sponsor. The lawyer who suggested mentioning that you are getting married or even dating seems to be under the impression that your fiancee is going for a tourist visa, which are seldom issued to spouses/significant others of American Citizens (they assume your significant other is planning to stay in the US with you). Keeping your marriage secret when you're going for a Relative visa based on being married wouldn't make much sense. Be careful about planning things too tightly. You can get through the process and overcome your issues but it takes time. If you DCF a CR1 in June soon after you are married and meet no hiccups, no delays, no blue slips, and everything going flawlessly, you'd probably still be cutting your November goal pretty close.

I filed DCF in Beijing on December 7, 2010. The first contact we received was P3 from Guz January 31. My NOA saying that the application had been forwarded to Guz actually arrived February 1, one day after my P3! This is because as Kyle said, the packets from Guz are sent EMS while the NOA is send standard mail, which from my [limited] experience means it has about a 50% chance of ever making it there at all. Dec 7 2010 - DCF in Beijing Jan 31 2011 - P3 Arrived Feb 1 2011 - NOA Arrived Feb 9 2011 - P3 documents sent back to Guz Waiting on P4 For me, it was 55 days from DCF to first contact, including weekends, New Year's Day, and Christmas. Another poster here on CFL (James in Jinan) DCF'd on the same day as I and received his NOA mid-January and P3 a few days before we did. Being his NOA arrived in a more timely fashion it was 39-40 days to first contact for him, and about 48 days to P3.

I don't have W2's, employment letters, direct deposits, etc. David because I have been living in China for two years. My current employment (ESL teacher in China...) is also not going to continue. For these reasons I have a joint sponsor, and do have all of his pay stubs, W2's, etc. My 2010 tax return would prove nothing - I'm probably below half the poverty level. If the VO has any idea what a University ESL teacher makes in China they will be aware of this. I'm just concerned that the VO is in a bad mood and demands my 2010 return just because they can. I opted to file my 2010 return just to play it safe. My wife had her passport notarized, we mailed that along with the ITIN application materials, and I thought I was in the clear until today Beijing called me and told me that they will be sending it all back to me, as I am filing my return Married Filing Separately and the ITIN is only for joint returns (I must have misunderstood when I called asking about it before...). I explained my reasoning for filing to the rep who called me about sending my return back and she said that as long as the interview was before April 15 or my extension was approved, which she said in almost all certainty would be, I would just use 2009's return as my most recent tax year. Not being able to get a concrete answer on this is driving me bonkers. It could very well be because no concrete answer exists, but not knowing if you have what is required (because what is required is not made entirely clear) is hard to stomach. Randy: I was aiming for transcripts because I thought I read the opposite somewhere in that a transcript carries more weight than a copy of your return. A transcript means you filed and paid taxes on usually a verifiable income source whereas a copy of your return means nothing more than you wrote some numbers on a paper, signed it, photocopied it, and then possibly used it as a liner for the kitty litter box. If a transcript is less useful than a copy of the return I won't worry about a copy of 2010's transcript, but I am still unsure about filing 2010. Are you certain the return does not even need to be accepted/processed? If that is the case I could just use a copy of my now-rejected return that I sent to Beijing? Or I could re-do the return, photocopy it, and mail it to the US (or put it in my desk drawer for that matter)? Or trust the IRS agent about 2009 being alright because my 2010's won't be due yet? Demanding 2010's return in cases with just the single sponsor seems reasonable but it wouldn't make much sense in a case where I freely admit that I did not make near enough money last year to sponsor alone. I'm only providing any tax documentation at all because they ask for it, it does nothing to help our cause. There is no guarantee they will agree with that logic though, I suppose.

GUZ says it's the VO's call at the time of the interview also, ugh. What would you guys do in this situation (other than having seen this coming and not getting yourself into this situation ? My wife doesn't have an ITIN/SSN. Beijing IRS says getting an ITIN often requires up to two months, and going there in person vs sending documents by mail would make no difference for that. The most recent timelines have interviews at 6-10 weeks after mailing back the P3 putting our interview most likely between late March to late April. The IRS rep suggested sending my federal return as well as my wife's ITIN application together to the IRS office in the Beijing Embassy. She said they do not process returns there however and would just review my return and forward it on to Austin, TX. From what I can see these are my options... 1. e-File single. Seems like a terrible idea and a huge red flag for GUZ later. 2. File by mail (I have not found a way to e-file as married without a SSN/ITIN for spouse) and send my federal tax return directly to Austin for the sake of saving time. In the field for spouse's SSN/ITIN I would write something along the lines of "Non Resident Alien" or "N R A - No ITIN at time of filing" or something along those lines. I-864 says a copy of tax returns from your records is alright but I believe I have also read several accounts of them requiring a tax transcript and a copy of the return not being sufficient. If it takes a week for my return to get to Austin, transcripts are available two weeks after filing, and after ordering take about two weeks to arrive, I could potentially have transcripts arriving at my US address in ~5 weeks. I could have someone there scan and email them to me. This would *probably* get me 2010 transcripts in time for the interview (assuming my return without a spousal SSN/ITIN was accepted) and if I can't get the transcripts in time I would still have a copy of the actual return. 3. Take the advice of the IRS rep and send the ITIN app and my return to Beijing. This requires a notarized copy of my wife's passport which would take several days to get. This method would probably guarantee that my return is accepted, but there's no way to know when it would actually be processed. It would take a few days to get the notarized passport document, EMS it to Beijing, they "review it", maybe or maybe not wait for an ITIN to be issued, then forward it to Austin for processing. There's no way to be sure my return would even be filed before our interview and even if so I would think the chances of getting a transcript in time going this route would be very slim. For the interview we could take a copy of the return, a copy of our ITIN application, maybe a copy of the IRS time to file extension approval (didn't get that yet but should be approved, applied last week) and a letter explaining the situation and plead for mercy from the VO. 4. Go with 2007, 2008, and 2009's documents, extension approval, and possibly an explanation letter to the interview. *takes a deep breath to calm down*

We are getting two more, one for GUZ and one for later in the US, the concern is she read somewhere that someone needed four, which would be three more. I love her to death and sometimes two heads are better than one, but ugh Your thoughts on the tax issue were my exact thoughts as well. I contacted GUZ about that also just to try to be sure but have not yet heard a reply.

At the insistence of my wife I contacted GUZ on the issue of whether or not we need another original notarized Birth Certificate and according to them I do in fact need an additional original BC to submit at interview time despite having already submitted one to USCIS in Beijing. By some miracle we have extra copies of the photo she used last summer when getting her BC, so after a phone conversation with her hometown notary this morning, we mailed him a few things and a fee and he's supposedly going to mail us two more Birth Certs and two more Divorce Certs. Now she has a complete lack of faith in my ability to get things right *sigh*. She started to do her own research online now and has stumbled across someone who has said they needed a total of four (4) original notarized Birth Certificate's to go through the process. Assuming the notary comes through (we should know by next week), we would have two BC's in-hand at the time of the interview and one has been previously submitted during the original filing. Can you see any conceivable reason why someone, also a DCF in Beijing (from 2008) would need four? One was given to Beijing and one will be submitted in GZ. I can't see how any more than two would be required here. The third, according to my understanding, is for things state-side after arrival.

My wife and I recently mailed back the required material from Packet 3 and are now waiting for Packet 4. On the checklist of things required on the IV Instruction Packet is her Birth Certificate and Divorce Certificate. When we DCF'd for her CR-1 in Beijing the original notarized translations were requested and kept at the time of submitting the I-130. We have the original notarized Police Certificate, original notarized Marriage Certificate (we got extra copies), and photocopies of the notarized Birth and Divorce Cert's (as well as the original Chinese Divorce Cert book), but we don't have an additional notarized Birth or Divorce Cert beyond what we submitted with the I-130. Do we need to go back to her home town and get additional copies of these for her interview? We had planned to get additional Birth Certificate's later anyway but not until our last visit to the in-laws before heading to the USA which will likely be a month or two after her interview. Also a question about the I-864 and "most recent year's tax returns" - I have found it a nightmare to try to e-file taxes while married to someone who does not have a SSN or ITIN. Getting an ITIN for my wife sounds like it is going to require a trip to Beijing and/or a slow process via postal mail, neither of which are ideal right now and will be avoided if at all possible. I have lived in China for two years and last year simply got a 6-month extension on my taxes so I could qualify for the foreign earned income exclusion. Being that I was still out of the country at the end of 2010 I could file for a 6 month extension for this year also, putting my deadline for filing in October, which would be, God willing, 3-4 months after my wife and I enter the US and she has a SS#. However, the instruction letter that comes with P4 (or at least the pdf link online) states "the most recent year’s tax returns. For example, if the I-864 form was signed in 2008, bring the sponsor’s 2007 tax returns" are required. My I-864 is going to be signed in 2011. Does that make 2010's tax return an absolute requirement even if I would not have otherwise filed 2010 taxes by interview time? I have 2009's returns which I filed last year, as well as a transcript from 2007 and 2008. I have 2008, 2009, and 2010 from my joint sponsor.

Whew, I-130 and materials submitted. In a total bonehead move I didn't double check the passport photos we submitted. We mistakenly used the Chinese size photos rather than 2"x2". The man who accepted the materials commented on them being the incorrect but still accepted them. Two other folks there also applying today did the same thing. I am hoping that him accepting them means that they will suffice but I'm a little worried about it.

Thank you for the reply Dan. In addition to the above I forgot to note that a copy of a "Thank You" card sent to my wife from my mother in response to gifts she sent her, a copy of our train tickets from four trips to visit her family, and a copy of plane tickets from two other instances of our travels. I have read the USCIS website but I'm really dense (or more likely just a little nervous) and recalled a story of someone needing to explicitly state that they were there to visit "DHS" when entering and it didn't register that DHS and USCIS (which has directions on the website) are sort of the same thing in this instance. Four copies of the G-325A because when emailing DHS Beijing about scheduling an appointment they attached an "I-130INFOSHEET" file and the one of the requirements on the checklist states "Form G-325A for both the petitioner and the beneficiary (4 copies for each, must be completed and signed)".

Greetings CFLers! My wife and I married last month and we are headed to Beijing early next week to DCF I-130. Am I forgetting anything vital? Any other feedback or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Additionally, where exactly do I go to DCF? The mailing address for DHS in Beijing is different from the Embassy's address. Do I go to the embassy, and if so which entrance? I have been there once prior to get the marriageability affidavit at the ACS office located upstairs after entering from the east side. Here is what I have in my file to submit: Application Materials- Completed I-130 4x Completed G-325A's for myself 4x Completed G-325A's for my wife Her Notarized Birth Certificate Her Notarized Divorce Decree Our Notarized Marriage Certificate Copy of actual Marriage Certificate Copy of Bio Data from my passport Copy of Bio Data from her passport Copy of my valid Chinese Residence Permit 1x Passport Photo of her 1x Passport Photo of me Supporting Info- -Affidavit from my employer stating that we have lived together since August 2009 and function as a happy couple, etc. in her opinion -Affidavit from a current co-worker briefly outlying similar information as above -Photocopies of old Chinese visa and entry/exit stamps from visit -Screenshots of the two of us having Skype video calls with my family -EOR letter (4-pages) outlying when we met (Sept 2008), how we met (Skype), and how things have evolved. I make mention of our conversation methods, my initial visit to Chine in February of 2009, how we have lived together since August of 2009, taken multiple trips together, visited her family on multiple occasions, etc. In the EOR letter I also mention that her ex-husband has since their divorce also remarried. -Flight Itinerary/etickets/credit card receipts for my three flights to China -Credit card statements with the name and city of the hotel I stayed at (in the city she lived in) during my first visit -Copy of one letter she sent to me via postal mail. Multiple letters I sent to her never arrived. -(23) Emails exchanged between my wife and I spread out between September 2008 to July 2009. 99% of our communication was on Skype but we do not have any logs of that. - Skype screenshot of phone calls made to her and her mother's home when both of us made a trip home (hers to her hometown, mine to to the US) to visit family this summer. -(15) Emails exchanged with my family spread out between Feb 2009 and present day. Some of the emails are addressed to both of us, but most of them are just family asking how the two of us are and me talking about her with family. -(4) Receipts for gifts I purchased for my wife -(2) Copies of e-cards from family congratulating us on our marriage -(40) Pictures of the two of us together spread out between Feb 2009 and present day. In the pictures we can clearly be seen at different points of interest in China (Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xi'an, and others). In a few of the pictures we are together with my wife's family during visits. I have a few small concerns also... Our online relationship and initial meeting occurred well before she got divorced. Virtually no relationship between them existed at the time and they just were putting off going through the process because he was terrified of confronting his family about it. My wife still technically owns the apartment her ex-husband lives in because the bank refuses to let her transfer it into his name until the loan is paid off, the loan won't be paid off for years, and they refuse to allow the loan to be transferred into his name. We have little in the way of showing us as an actual married couple. We've functioned as a couple down to cohabitation for the last 16 months, but there was no formal marriage proposal because we had discussed marriage numerous times and were just waiting for a convenient time to actually do it. We also did not have any form of wedding ceremony because this is her second marriage and she preferred we save the money. Any thoughts at all would be much appreciated!

Greetings CFL! Long time lurker, first time poster My name is David and I am trying to prepare early so I am looking for some advice on a couple of things. First, here's our relationship background: Oct 2008 - Met my fiancee online (Skype). At the time she was going through a divorce. Her husband was aware and agreed that their relationship was over but refused to sign the paperwork as he was too ashamed to face his family who was against their getting married originally. Oct 2008-Feb 2009 - Talked online daily, usually through Skype. Initially it was just just text, and just when both of us were at work (I worked evenings) so she could practice English. Gradually we both started chatting at home also, and then it moved on to audio, then video chats. Feb 2009 - I took a 17 day trip to China and we met for the first time. I planned to actually visit China while I was there also but I ended up spending virtually all of the trip with her in her suburban town as she couldn't get time of of work to travel around with me. Feb-June 2009 - Continued talking daily and started to plan for the future. I would take a teaching job in China beginning in the Fall and she would go wherever I went to be me. I accepted the possibility of living in China forever to be with her and she accepted the possibility of needing to come to the USA to be with me. After a trial period together and me in China for a while we would evaluate the decision and choose a direction. June/July 2009 - Her divorce was finalized. Aug 2009-Present - I moved to China and we've lived together since. Both of us agree our future children would have a better life in the USA and financially it just makes more sense for us to be there. Apparently the year of the tiger is a bad year to get married according to superstition/tradition, so we're holding off on getting married until CNY in Feb 2011. I will DCF shortly after that. I've spent probably hundreds of hours reading dozens of websites trying to do my homework for this, as it's the most important thing in both of our lives to this point. I do have two questions pertaining to my situation that I am hoping you can give me some advice on. 1. Is our relationship starting before her divorce certificate was obtained likely to cause a problem? 2. Creativity was never my strong point and I'm having trouble coming up with what I can use as evidence to front-load our application to prove the bona fide relationship. What Skype dialogue we did have before moving to voice/video calls over the net was not saved. There were no letters or phone calls made from real phones, and the half dozen emails only consisted of things like "My Skype won't work, try msn". There is virtually nothing that proves we had any contact prior to August 2009, and since that time we've lived together so we certainly were not writing each other letters or emails. The suggested materials from the I-130 application for proving a bona fide relationship are pretty much out of the question. We don't own property together, we live together but in housing provided by my employer so there is no joint lease, a joint bank account doesn't seem possible, and we don't have children together yet. Surely this has to be the case for many/most couples in China though, so what do you use? I still have 6 months to work with to prepare anything that could possibly be useful but I am not sure what would be a good idea. At this point I have a print out of my flight itinerary from both trips to China (I don't have the actual tickets) and about 20 pictures together taken over the last year. That doesn't seem like it would prove anything beyond me having a flight reservation to China and that I was physically with this woman for a photo op on a few occasions. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!