keelec

Still Waiting, I would guess that you still have a minimum of another month to wait for the P3. Your application may be just getting to GZ now, and it takes them a while to process it. People are receiving the P3 packets. ---- Clifford ------

Russia is a large country. Those in western Russia are generally caucasian. However, many of those living in Eastern Russia have very strong oriental traits (yep, you could find a Russian bride that looks like she is Chinese ) As far as discrimination based on Race.... I doubt it very much, at least not for orientals and caucasions. I don't know about middle eastern ethnic groups, or native African populations. Discrimination based on politics (communism), perhaps a little. Or, at least make them do extra checks. What about spys???? Think of all a spy might learn from me about low level nuclear waste cleanup Discrimination based on perceptions of "mail order brides", and perceptions of high immigration numbers... YOU BET!!!! Just plain incompetent management?... Well, we all have answers for that one.

I think it is about time to bring the "discrimination" subject out of the visa issues section and pull it over here. What I see is that countries that have high numbers of "mail order brides", and lots of "dating services" experience the most difficult immigration policies. However, if one looks at general immigration profiles to the USA, one finds that the numbers coming from China, Russia, Ukraine really only amount for a minority of the immigrants to the USA.

Security checks are supposed to be done at NVC. However, if the Consulate has anything that they find suspicious, they can request a second security check.... (like what happened to me). Often this comes after the P3 / DS-230 is returned to the Consulate (which would be the stage your application is at). Spelling a name slightly different can trigger it, or as in Patrick's case, having 3 women show up at the consulate with similar names. As Don said, typically they are resolved within a few days or a couple of weeks. However, sometimes they can take longer. Mine sat in Moscow for over 8 months before finishing the secrity check. :angry: Good Luck & Best Wishes ----- Clifford --------

FLOG HIM!!!!

Actually, I wouldn't even ask her to change terminals at JFK on her own. The last time I had to change terminals, I arrived at terminal 1, departed at terminal 9. Little did I know that I should have walked counterclockwise to the departure terminal. But, instead I hopped on the convenience bus.... Little did I know that the bus only went to Terminal 5 and then stopped and I had to get off.... Then the next 2 or 3 busses did the same thing Finally after waiting an extra 10-15 minutes, the right bus picked everyone up from Terminal 5 and took us to 9. I think it took about 1/2 hour to get the 100 yards between terminals. Fortunately Delta has a single terminal for international arrivals and domestic departures at JFK... It is surprisingly easy for that monster airport. However, I am hoping to be with Irina for her interview. I think Delta will end up being $500+ more than the lowest priced competitor (2 tickets). However, the times on the other airlines are not very convenient. I have a 5:00 (or so) train to catch from Moscow to Yoshkar-Ola. If I miss it, it will cost me a whole day in Moscow. On the return, I get to Moscow around 8:00 AM. I need a bit of time to get to the airport. Again, I don't want to loose another day because of not being able to schedule the train trip to Moscow and the flight out on the same day. Essentially it saves me 2 days off of work to find a "convenient" flight. (or gives me 2 extra "priceless days" to spend with Irina and her family), plus it saves about $200 in hotel bills. ------ Clifford ------

SAM, I think you should be in line by noon...... 2 days in advance ... What, you haven't been in line since Memorial Day :o :o :o Well, you might as well go home and forget about the whole visa thing :P :P I think this is all new ground for everyone. Who was the last one to get an interview granted, post call center closure? You may be one of the first since they started accepting walk-ins. Hopefully they will have a seperate line for those with appointments, or possibly RFE's (pink and blue slips). Yes, it may seem like you are taking cuts.... That is until you consider the year long wait that you have already endured. Best of Luck with the interview, Clifford

It will be interesting to see what happens. If this is Linda Donahue.... She may not have always fixed everything immediately, but I have heard that she was polite to several of the Candle members who had special needs, and in several occasions went out of her way to help out. But, at the same time, I can't say that the consulate has made much improvement in the visa processing in the last year or so since I started following the visa issues. ----- Clifford -----

I was looking at airline tickets..... I noticed some of the airlines had domestic connecting flights to Laguardia or Newark, and international flights out of JFK. Should one even attempt changing airports, or is it best to just find connecting flights that are all at the same airport? How long does it take to get between airports in the NYC area? Maybe I should just book the flight for Irina and let her figure it out by herself ----- Clifford -----

Ok, I was looking at it again. We have 3 methods of ding multi-colored pips.... 1 - when reach a certain number, loose all pips and start with the new color (top of page) 2 - when reach a certain number, start replacing previous pips with new ones. (middle of page) 3 - keep all previous pips and add lines (see bottom of my page). http://www.geocities.com/clkeele/pips.html I would have to sit down and make some more custom graphics, but now that I have the WWW page made, it shouldn't be too hard to do.

P.J. I made GIFS with 1-10 of each color (see attached). http://www.geocities.com/clkeele/pips.html Down at the bottom, there is a link to download all of them at once. I made them as Opaque on a white background. Do you need them to be transparent? Also, look down where at #10, I gave dual colored (not made into a single GIF yet). Would you prefer it like that so that once a person reaches 10 pips, they never loose any, they just have the colors transformed? I didn't make those into a single graphics, but could do so. Let me know what you want. I also have a slight problem with the sizes of the graphics which got bigger than expected.... You can start working on the code and I can try to shrink or customize the graphics again. ----- Clifford ------

There seem to be two acceptable means of making the video tape: Man wants to stay in USA --> MUST SPEAK & Write Chinese Man goes to China --> Either speak Chinese, or show alternative communication method with the two people together. However, the "second method" is not well stated anywhere. In theory, the visa could still be denied even with the couple together in China showing "communication" What about the fiancee/wife only speaking Spanish

I am not sure of the benefits of a "preventative letter". It will get minimal consideration unless you can put in specifics on why it applies to you, or to Texans in general. I.E. Carl was inappropriately asked to produce a video about language skills... etc.... And then go onto your concerns about the change in policies. Again, it might be a stretch to jump to the conclusion that his experience applies to your case. International travel is expensive, yet I am planning my third trip to see Irina. Going to visit your "Love" is perhaps the best thing you can do to ensure a successful interview. ----- Clifford -----

Something is a bit different with going with the I-130. I have kind of missed some of the steps, but GZ is supposed to go directly to the P4 (no P3) and schedule the interview. A few of the couples in the Candle have gone through the process and should be able to describe the process better. ----- Clifford -----

I might work on a Donkey, But, no Elephants.... They should have become extinct with the Mammoths

There are some threads that, perhaps don't need to be saved for posterity, but they add significantly to the success of the Candle. All the "Welcome Newbie" threads.... Followed by the "Congratulations on Progress" threads. In many senses, they are as important as anything else to the success of the site. I joined a couple of other sites... I posted a couple of messages, and nobody seemed to even notice..... And, thus, I quickly lost interest. One of the things that makes the Candle pleasant is that it welcomes participation from everyone. ---- Clifford -----

http://www.geocities.com/clkeele/pips.html Do I get one :greenblob: Do I get one :redblob: Ok, I just used MegaView, and changed the hue, saturation, RGB colors, and etc. Then it made a yellow line down the right. I dumped it into MGI Photosuite and made the yellow line white.... New Golden boxes. (sorry, I have somewhat crude tools at my disposal, but I can make them do what I want). ----- Clifford ----- I'm impressed! How 'bout silver and bronze? I know you can do it! Just for Dave, I've updated.... Now, Blue, Bronze, Silver, and Golden http://www.geocities.com/clkeele/pips.html P.J. You can download the graphics from the WWW link. Just right click on them and Save-As.... You know the rest. ----- Clifford ------

http://www.geocities.com/clkeele/pips.html Do I get one :greenblob: Do I get one :redblob: Ok, I just used MegaView, and changed the hue, saturation, RGB colors, and etc. Then it made a yellow line down the right. I dumped it into MGI Photosuite and made the yellow line white.... New Golden boxes. (sorry, I have somewhat crude tools at my disposal, but I can make them do what I want). ----- Clifford -----

Hello, Don should be able to give you references on the various FBI namecheck programs, Eagle, Hawk, Condor, .... I forgot which one we fall under. After your application finishes at BCIS (Nebraska, California, Texas, etc), it is forwarded to the National Visa Center in New Hampshire. They then send the application out to a number of agencies (at least that is what they say, but they are very secretive about it). One of the agencies is the FBI for the "namecheck". They take your fiancee's name and birthdate and run it against their database to determine if there have been past visa "issues" with the individual such as overstaying a visa, deportation, etc, as well as checking it for domestic and international crimes that could preclude issuing a visa. In general, the namecheck is supposed to take less than 3 days or so, but if there is a "hit", whether or not it is a false alarm, it can take up to 120 days (or more) to process the case. After the namecheck is complete, the NVC forwards the case to the "Post" (GZ, Moscow, etc). If the Post determines that the namecheck was incomplete, or something seems suspicious about the case, they can ask for a second namecheck. For example, if the maiden name was fouled up, it can force a namecheck. If you are inconsistant with the spelling or the surname of your fiancee/spouse, then it will force a second namecheck. In the case of Li (Patrick's wife), there were several women that showed up on the same day with similar names (it was a common name), so GZ sent in a second (or third) namecheck. It used to be that the namechecks had a limited duration. If no answer was found within a certain number of days, they would go ahead and process the case. Now, the delay can be infinite. Ummm, nobody will tell me why my case was delayed for over 8 months in Moscow, but it was cleared up shortly after I sent a fax to the FBI. ----- Clifford ------

I assume your fiancee was in the military for voluntary service. Many countries have manditory service for men. I can not imagine that the US would exclude all of them from entering the USA. Do not underestimate the information the the INS has about your case. If somehow they can confirm or disprove prior military service, then responding incorrectly would reflect very badly on the application. Don't you also have to list everywhere she has lived including local police records? If you were an American and wrote that you lived at West Point for 2 years, but did not list military service... Hmmm. My vote would be to respond yes, put the times and dates in, and leave it with that. ---- Clifford -----

It has been years since I've been through LAX. If it is anything like JFK, it can be a mess. I would schedule your connecting flight for 2-3 hrs or so.... But, make sure there are alternative flights with the same airline. Most airlines are reluctant to schedule an earlier flight, but are very good about putting you on a later flight if you run into connection delays. ---- Clifford -----

P.J. I am sure you could easily incorporate a suggested "voluntary" membership fee, perhaps $5 / year / person (on a purely voluntary basis). One of the things about purging data..... Say, it takes you 10 hrs to purge old data.... At $20 / hr, that is $200 (or nearly enough to pay for the 256 MB for 4 years). Truthfully, I rarely look up stuff over 6 months in the Candle (except for some of the stuff that have been posted in the FAQ). However, I am also not familiar with the old stuff on the Candle either. For example, the "War Brides" video seemed appropriate to repost (from my HDD) a week ago.... Then, Robert S. mentioned that he had already transcribed the entire program. He gave me the keys to find it "dispicable, I think"..... Perhaps it wouldn't have been a big loss to have deleted that posting, but we would have missed something. Thus, my vote is for the 256 MB. One other thing to keep in mind.... Space will likely be cheaper in the future.... If we can keep the candle up for 2-3 years on 256 MB (or was that 356 MB?), then we may be able to get 1 GB for the same price at that time. One thing to keep in mind.... We have had a lot of posts lately, I wonder if the space usage will go up exponentially like everything else in the world. Space for graphics, resources, and etc would be nice, but it would likely use up too much space too quickly. I am still amazed at how much you can do with the text only posting. ----- Clifford ------

Resp, Now that makes sense.... Ok, Questions 1-4 are from the perspective of the Chinese woman. Thus, Question 6 would be her relatives. Question 7 would be her spouse (thus the American Citizen), and his relatives. (unless, of course, you are either Kim or Mari, in which case the male and female roles get reversed).

For forms, look at my FAQ posting: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index....t=ST&f=1&t=4117 GIV-24 actually is on this page (Family Composition Sheet). http://www.exit.com/~frank/Visa/ Unfortunately, the copies that I see are very messy. Ok, questions 6 & 7 are asking about parents and siblings. They look fairly straight forward, except that there is the typical government redundancy. Oh, I can see.... Does one question only ask about those who have entered the USA? I assume you list everyone on both questions. ----- Clifford -----

Thanks for the reply Carl. I think I finally got it figured out before this post. A lot of time and fustration. I was thinking (yeah, I smell smoke in here too) that people like me (see this post's quote) need specific direction i.e., "Click on the blue and yellow quote icon in the upper right hand corner of the POST" (that you wish to quote). Also how to edit un-needed parts of the quote. I think that the site navigation area would be the ideal location for this info. Hint: It may cut down on posts in other discussion areas on "How do I...". Old dog- new tricks. Next up quote in a quote or how to use underlineing/bold letters? Richard Oh, you are just getting to the "tip of the iceburg" witht the quote stuff and all. The board uses a bunch of HTML - Like commands Basically you add a "open tag" followed by what you want, followed by a slash and part of the tag name. Look at the following (and take out the spaces). [ B ] BOLD [ / B ] [ I ] Italics [ / I ] [ IMG ] HTML Script linking to an image like the Hand [ / IMG ] [ Color = Blue ]See, you can do colors with a similar method too.... [ / color ] Quotes are similar. and you can do a quote without using the quote button, but then you may loose the ability to have who you are quoting appear in the quote header. [ QUOTE ] Let's try a quote [ / Quote ] I hope this turns your brain to mush Now, you can get many of the commands by hitting the buttons on the top of the edit screen and make sure you use the "Close Current Tag" or "Close all Tags" buttons. Have Fun.