Beachey

My wife is pregnant too. The good thing, it is almost guaranteed we will get a visa and not to worry too much about a denial. We do have an issue with the medical check up. It is required to get a chest X-Ray. We do not want the X-Ray because of possible radiation to the unborn baby. Was told the X-Ray was ok but we don't trust the medical opinion.. One of my friends just came CR-1 with his wife a few weeks ago. She is about five months pregnant. I know they waived some of the medical due to the pregnancy. I am not sure about the X-Ray. I know they were going to the ISOS Clinic in Beijing. That clinic used to do the medical for Guangzhou as well, if convenient, I might try to get the medical done there.

My wife's CR-1 visa was limited by the medical report. The medical report expires 180 days after it was done. The main reason you want to do the medical as close to the interview as possible. If you are approved the day of the interview and you do the medical a few days before interview you should have close to six months to enter the US. The police report is good for a year and could possibly determine the visa expiration date, normally this does not come into play as the medical will expire before the police report.

Actually everyone I know (4 couples though all DCF) who has interviewed in the last 6 months has been notified by email and told to download forms. They might still be following up by EMS but the email may be the only notice you get.

I think it is quite possible this office in Pudong is nothing more that.

If you are feeling adventurous, you can take: The Airport Express Subway Line to Dongzhimen ---> Line 2 to Xuanwumen --> Line 4 to Beijing South Railway Station. The Airport Express if I remember right is 35 RMB, the rest of the line will be less than 10 RMB. Once you are at Beijing South you can take the Bullet Train to Tianjin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beijing%E2%80%93Tianjin_Intercity_Rail It likely would be much faster than a bus which looks like it is 2.5 hours. The bullet train is only a half hour. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/05/Beijing-Subway_en.png/742px-Beijing-Subway_en.png

As a suggestion, you can purchase DVD's of movies cheap in China, usually less than 10 RMB. The DVD's are usually available at the same time as first run movies in the theatre. Wait a week or so to get the copies that don't have a person getting up to leave and blocking the screen. :-) Most movies older thn that are also available as DVD, as a bonus they usually have Chinese subtitles with English or vice versa. It is how a lot of Chinese learn English. Sending your SO 100 RMB a month and you can watch as many movies as you like.

Friend pointed this out to me: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/02/white-person-asian-person.html Based upon this Pew Research:http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2012/02/16/the-rise-of-intermarriage/2/ White/Asian Couples have the highest combined income among all racial combinations. My first thought is the Asian propensity to work hard and earn money together with the advantage of being white in America might account for some of this. Or this could be an example of " Correlation does not imply causation". Any other thoughts?

The only 'birth certificate' my wife ever got was a white book that gave her date of birth, her parents names, and their dates of birth. This information all came from her hukou. My wife changed her hukou from her hometown after college so she was no longer on her father's hukou. I am pretty sure she got her passport just using her hukou with no birth certificate as she got the passport shortly after we started dating and before I started looking into all the immigration details. Still, you are right, unless her parents are willing to give her the hukou she will not be able to get a passport and she will also not be able to get married in China without the hukou. Depends on how much she wants to defy her parents but she might be able to get a duplicate hukou but she would still need to go back to her hometown. And depending on how big it is, it might not be possible to do that without her parents finding out anyway. Ultimately, you will need to win over her parents if your relationship will work.

This thread covers the basics: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?/topic/40985-deciding-whether-to-get-us-citizenship-for-wife/

Unless it has gone up, it was $405 payable in USD or RMB. You pay at document turn in on the first day.

just curious...how come you get interview so quick in just about 3 months since u filed i-130? an immigration lawyer here in nyc file i-130 for me in dec. 4 2011 and so far i just recieived an confirmation letter back saying that they recieved my i-130 application. and my lawyer told me the whole process for the interview takes at least 9 months. so just curious as to y you are so lucky and got an interview in just 3 months? The OP filed DCF which is a different process for those living abroad versus you having to file in the the US. The 9 months your lawyer quoted you is typical. What is interesting is I know three couples interviewing last week and this week who filed DCF in July and August of last year. Their wait was very long for DCF. My wife interviewed 4 months after our initial DCF petition. The OP will have an interview in just over 2 months which is about the quickest I have seen. Congratulations and Good Luck MN2!

Two of the three years of tax returns we submitted were from TurboTax. We submitted the PDF pages as printed, no signature. As long as they look legit, no signature required. I would have to relook at the I-864 but I think your (orginal) signature there states that the submitted tax information is legitimate. My W-2 and paystubs were all printed from an Intranet site at work. Again, as long as they look legit you sould be OK.

I filed a State Return (AZ) last year at the same time I filed the Federal Return with the W-7. AZ ended up asking me to refile again once I received the actual ITIN. The good news was once i had the ITIN I could file elctronic. All States are different so New York may handle it differently but I would file as Randy recommended so you are credited as filing on time. Luckily I owed on both so I wasn't worried about getting my refund.

I think if you file the I-751 early as in within the 90 days prior to 2 year expire, you should be able to apply for new DL using the 1 year extension letter, and then renew later using the 10 year card. Dan I agree but that means my wife will have to renew her license two more times than I will ever have to and every 10 years after sans citizenship.

My wife's ID Card in Arizona (issued by the DMV) expires when her two-year green card does. Yep may have remembered posts about AZ DL on VJ wrong. However NY tends to set expiration at 8 years from birth day, or 3 years for a learners permit, you get what you pay for in NY, pay for an 8 year DL, you get an 8 year DL AZ Driver's Licenses expire when you turn 60 and are cheap. I think I paid the same amount that I did to get my NYS driver's license renewed which I think used to be only five years but it sounds like it is eight now. What I don't know is what will happen in the six months to a year it takes to remove conditions on the green card. I would think they will only renew her ID (or hopefully at that point driver's license) for a year and then we will have to renew again once she has a 10 year green card.

My wife's ID Card in Arizona (issued by the DMV) expires when her two-year green card does.

The technical name for that is "Secured Credit Card" I did that for my wife and after 8 months we applied for a non secure credit card and she was approved! Before any of that, we couldnt find a single place that would give her a credit card, now the offers are spamming my mailbox!! I did the same thing. I have a checking account that is associated with my mortgage that I basically don't use. I had to add my wife to the account as a joint holder but then they allowed her to apply for a $500 secured credit card in her name only. My name is not on the credit card account at all. We did end up having to give them a copy of her SS Card as the number was so new they questioned whether it was real. Once they approved the card they pulled the money. I also added my wife to most of my credit cards as an approved user. (Though I am keeping the cards :-) ) I am not sure this is going to do anything. I will pull my wife's credit report in a few months and see what it shows.

If you are not already aware, your will want to delay your wife's entry into the US until after 11/15/2012 which will trigger the issuance of the 10 year green card versus a 2 year conditional. If you are just filing now, you likely will not get approval much before then anyway.

Have you had someone ask in one of the bigger pharmacies. I would be surprised if a Wal-Mart in China had them as all drugs from OTC to antibiotics can be bought without a prescription at these drug stores. You might be able to buy one straight from a hospital. Your biggest issue is they might want you to skip the test and just give you an antibiotic to kill the infection in case you have it.

When I took in my wife's passport to the consulate in Shenyang, the consular officer told me he could not notarize it since she was not there. What they did was a Certificate of Acknowledgement which is legally different though accomplishes the same thing. They charged me $50 which is their standard fee for notarization. I sent it in with the W-7 and we got the ITIN.

EAD - Employment Authorization Document - normally this is not very useful as it typically is only valid as long as the I-94 so it is difficult to get a job with. However it is a valid employment authorization so it entitles the new immigrant to a SSN which is what you are worried about. I was not aware it appears you are eligible for the SSN based upon the K-1 visa alone.

Did you file for EAD? Once it is granted you should be able to get a SSN. If you really need to file before you have SSN for her then you have to file for an ITIN. SInce she is here, getting a copy of her passport notarized should be relatively simple. That is all you need for the W-7.

I will give you one BIG warning. NEVER file as single when you are married, you have two options, Married Joint filing, or Married fileing seprate. I have seen the consulate question this, then deny a visa thinking non bonafide relationship http://candleforlove...-denial-letter/ Dan brings up a complicating issue. The consulate is going to want to see your tax return for 2011 when your wife interviews this year since it almost certainly will be after April 15. So not filing until she is here is likely not an option. You are going to need to figure out how to get her ITIN.

i have a question about the dna test...do i do it when they request or can we do it ahead of time? i will be flying back when the baby is born, so i would like to do everything all at once. can i go to any hospital and get the test done or does it need to be one of those "approve" list of hospital by the embassy? thx in advance. Assuming your child is born before the interview, the consulate will request this if in their mind there is any question as to your parentage when you file the CRBA. I would not worry about it up until you file the CRBA. I mentioned it more to point out that I would not use the pregnancy as your 'guarantee' on your's wife's visa approval. I would continue to build the best case you can using all other available evidence. If your wife is still pregnant when she interviews, they will not request a DNA test before the baby is born.

I would probably submit a change online just to avoid confusion. What you want to ensure is the green card is sent to the right place. Going forward, you do have to keep the green card holder(s) address correct as well as yours since you are a I-864 sponsor.