PapaJJ

Just got it today, luckily we booked our flight for the 13th and not the 10th as these were our 2 choices. They did say we could get it on the 7th but we knew they would blow it so we gave em a few extra days, and they barely pulled it off(Friday afternoon now). I was preparing to go postal on them They only have her Chinese name on the papers, no English name or US passport number but they insist it will work. Only way to find out is try, thanks for the help Xiaozhu!!

7rmb, 27 minutes, it was crowded but not sardine style when we did it a few weeks ago. I had some big bags as well as a stroller and had no issues with finding a place for us to sit, even on the way back.

Thanks everyone, it's good to have the CFL family to share stories with.

Wow! That would appear to be an incompetent Entry/Exit Bureau, who basically refused to issue the document in her correct name. You could always just try on your departure date, since you have gathered the necessary documents. But then you risk getting turned away at the last minute, so hopefully, your tickets can be changed if need be. One more approach might me to go ahead and get her a Chinese passport, IF you can get the name to match the one they gave her. I don't know if your consulate is nearby, but you might check with them as to what to do. This is what GUZ has to say http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/new_baby/birth_registration.html Incompetent government officials, no way, not in China

Thanks for the info! When we applied for the exit document the only name we put on the application was her Chinese name, but all the copies we gave them (Chinese birth certificate, US passport) have her English name. So let's just hope they can figure it out and get it right. We already booked our flight for the 13th(we used he English name for her ticket), and if I get turned away by Chinese immigration at the airport I will be one super unhappy camper. Hey, I love China, but right now I'm ready to go home

From my understanding the exit visa is a seperate document, not attached to her US passport. The Chinese name we used is Chen Ai ³Â°®, it's not in any way even close to a phonetic spelling of her English name. Even though Chen Ai is not a name used on any of her identity documents, they insited we give them a Chinese name. So I don't know how we're supposed go through Chinese immigration with this exit visa with one name and then her passport/birth certificate with another name?

Sorry folks, now I have another question. Today we went to apply for our daughter to get an exit visa(or something like it) They took all the documents and told us to come get it in a week. Now, on our daughter's chinese birth cert. her US passport, and her consulate report of birth abroad, her name is in English (she has no chinese HuKou »§¿Ú£©But today they made us use a Chinese name for this exit visa. So how exactly will we go about this when we're leaving China from the airport in a few weeks? I assume we need to check in for our flight with her US passport, then we go though Chinese immigration with this exit visa...? and then once we arrive in the US we use her US passport to cross immigration there? Does anybody here know about this issue, because we're getting confused.

Let's start from the begining. Document intake was on Tue. the 24th, however since we heard that Mon. is the worst day to do the health check we decided to head to Guangzhou on Thu. afternoon. We flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, then took the metro to shamian where we stayed Thu. night. We decided to stay at the Victory Hotel which was fine, 460rmb/night for the business suite room, the room was nice enough, but the location was the best part of this hotel, I would recommend this hotel for the night before health checks. First, shamian is a very nice area for walking, and since we have a 6 month old daughter who loves going on walks this area was perfect. Second, the clinic where health test and vaccinations are done is only a 2 minute walk from the hotel. So my wife went at 8am on Fri. for the health check, she also had to get 4 vaccinations, she was done by 9am. Then we just needed to go back in at 2pm to get the results, this was not a problem since the hotel let us check out at 2. Now we had a weekend to kill, so we headed out to my wife's auntie's house which is just on the outskirts of town. Last year they bought a new home, and even though they are still living at their old home we decided we would stay in the new home. The house was nice enough, but not much to do in this area, and there was one major problem, mosquitoes. We had originally planned to stay there until Tue. am and head directly to the consulate for document intake from there, but the mosquitoes were feasting on our daughter (not us) and we could not accept it. We actually took turns staying awake at night to keep them away from our sweet baby. Anyway, that got old and on Mon. am we headed back into the city. We booked a room at the JianGuo Hotel for 585rmb/night, the hotel was very nice, great room on the 25th floor with a floor to ceiling window, soft bed, and great location 5 minutes walk from the consulate, oh yeah they also had discovery channel, which after 4 years in China with nothing but CCTV9, discovery was awesome. If you want a nice hotel, near the consulate and can't afford the Westin, this is a great option. For food we mostly went down memory lane, ate hot dogs and meatballs from Ikea, and a few other places that we knew from our time in Shanghai, and from our first few months living together in Shenzhen, 7-11 fish balls, spicy as we could make em! Now on to the visa stuff, Tue. my wife went in for document intake. She got in line about 12:10 and when me and our daughter walked past 15 minutes later she was still about the last one in line, so it seems most people get there quite early. Document intake seems pretty straight forward, they take the required documents, notarized birth, marriage, and police cert. and also the I-864 and tax returns from me and my father who is our joint sponsor. They did not take any other relationship evidence, or even the letters that I had attached with my I-864. They ask a few questions, all in Chinese, one of them was "are you a CCP member?" My wife answered no since she is not, and she did have the documentation from the local CCP office proving that she is not a member. Of course as we planned she kept all her CCP documents in her folder and was only going to show them if needed. Then she went off to pay the fees, get fingerprints, and also she mentioned to them that she had a 6 month old daughter who she was breastfeeding and so they gave her the EXPEDITE stamp on her appointment letter, that allowed her to be one of the first ones to get an interview the next day. So, now it's Wed. the BIG day is here. She headed off for her buffet breakfast at about 6:30 (the hotel gave us 1 free breakfast with the room, which was fine since I am not a breakfast guy) and then off to the consulate just after 7. Same process as the day before to get in, and once in she said she was maybe the 10th person to get an interview, and with how many windows they have that means she didn't have to wait at all. Her interviewing officer was a younger white guy, who she said she was very happy to get after reading about who is good and who is bad from usa.bbs. They had a greeting, and he asked if she could speak English, she said yes (her English is great) then a few simple questions which as expected she cannot remember. She does remember him asking about when she would go to the US and if she was ready to go, she said she will go as soon as she gets the visa and she was ready. He also asked if she is a CCP member, again no. Then he looked over the financial documents, and checked his papers that have the 125% poverty guidelines, he then asked her to wait and went in the back. She said she stood there for about 20 minutes before he came back, then he told her with a sad face, I'm sorry but I cannot give you the visa. He had the blue slip in his hand at this point, and my wife confused, asked why? He said because my fathers income was not enough, it should be about 32,000, she said no, that's wrong it's not that much. He said because my father needs to support 5 people.... wait... what? Now she knows something is wrong, and since she knows how much time I spent researching all the rules and regulations regarding the support issue she knows it must be the visa officer who is wrong. She tries to explain to him that my father is sponsoring her, not her husband and daughter who are Americans (although I would love to get some nice paychecks from the old man, haha). He again goes into the back leaving her standing there twiddling her thumbs and comes back with the same answer, and just says the rules are tricky. Now he starts writing on the blue slip while she continues to try and reason with him. Then, I don't know what happens here, nor does my wife (maybe she blacked out?) but he starts talking about something, I think my wife just didn't understand what he said until the last few words... "that's why I'm giving you a visa" HUH, oh, ok, thank you. That's the end, she got the pink slip and started running for the door (not really, but almost) then she went to the post counter and told them to send to her auntie in Guangzhou. She was back at the hotel before 10, maybe 9:30, I can't remember now. Then she told me the whole story, I was happy, she was still nervous and thinking she will get a blue slip in the mail. Later that day we came back to Wuhan and waited. Visa arrived at her auntie's house on Friday afternoon via EMS, then she sent in on to us. It arrived here in Wuhan today, Sunday. Now that it is officially in our hands we are preparing to head out. Tomorrow we will get the exit permission for our daughter, which I hope will not take too long. Then clear out our house, (throw everything out the 6th floor window or light a match?) and move to the states. Were thinking sometime in late June, but not 100% sure yet. Now a few things, I want to thank everyone here at CFL for their help, would be lost without it. If I'm not too busy in my life in the US I will try to continue to linger and share the knowledge I have gained. Also for those of you who just read this entire post, I'm sorry for any mistakes, or if I have any incomplete thoughts stuck in there, I'm just too lazy to proofread it.

My wife had no records at all of any vaccinations she has had. They gave her 4 shots, Td (Tetanus), Variclla, MMR, and Influenza(Flu shot). Luckily, they didn't give her 14, that would be intense.

I think if you do it at the Guangzhou United Family Clinic they will bus you somewhere else for vaccinations, most likely the Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel. But I'm not 100% sure on this?

My wife went to The Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel and it only took 1 hour for everything. We decided to come to Guangzhou on Thursday afternoon so she could do the health test on Friday. She went at 8am and was done by 9, then just had to wait till 2pm to pick up the results. She also had to have several vaccinations when she went. From what they said at the hospital and what I heard here, Monday is the day most people do it and therefore it takes much much longer. We stayed one night at the Victory Hotel which is a 2 minute walk from the clinic where the health test was done, worked out great. If you do it on Monday I assume it will take much longer, but I'm sure they can still get it all done in one day.

Congrats, now you guys need to find something new to worry about My wife has document intake tmw, we are sweating it out in the hotel right now Best wishes to you both!!!

Congrats to you 3! 57 days is very fast, I hope ours can also go this fast! My wife is working on her statement as we speak, guess she should make sure to be clear about her views of CCP and her lack of any type of involvement.

May 24th for us too!

That is fast! We sent P3 back on April 19th, I wonder if ours will be coming soon as well.

Just sent P3 back to GUZ today, we wanted to send it sooner but ended up filling out about 10 ds-230 forms until we got one that was good enough. So now we just need to make sure we get all the documents needed for the interview, hopefully before the interview I'll keep everyone updated when news happens!

Right, that's what I noticed from many interview questions other members posted here, although I'm sure they sometimes ask "were you ever CCP?" Thanks for your good wishes xiaozhu, I also hope she doesn't face this question.

ooops, double post

The CCP office said that they will not, under any circumstances, give her a letter stating she is no longer a member. They did say they will give her some sort of record of her CCP status and she tried to explain to me what this was but I'm lost. I think she will try to get this next week so maybe I can explain it then. I also hope they will not ask at the interview, but if they do I would like to be prepared. From the reading I did on this CCP issue it seems they will ask for a letter written by my wife explaining her involvement with CCP, as well as an official letter stating that she is no longer a member? So if this letter is needed, how would she go about getting it?

Well the DS-230 asks if you are a member of the communist party, it doesn't ask if you ever were a member. This was the reason we wanted to make sure she was out of the CCP before sending P3 back to GUZ. Again, if they ask if she ever was she will be honest, we are expecting this and will be fine with blue. Thanks for the tip about the exit visa as well. We already have contacted the local PSB office about this and they said that we would need to exit within 6 months of getting this visa, so we decided it's best to wait on it.

Thanks for the welcome, and the input. My wife spoke to the local CCP office yesterday and they said that she is no longer in their system. Anyway, we had always planned to be honest throughout the entire process, and we are going to GUZ looking for blue. Although, I have heard of cases where the question is never asked, that would be a bonus for us. Regarding my I-864 and domicile issue, I'm not sure if we will go to Hawaii or Colorado yet. We would like to go to Hawaii and live with my sister who has been to China, and also travelled with me and my wife in Bali, Indonesia, but nobody there will hire me until I have a for sure date when I would arrive. My brother who lives in Colorado owns several businesses and 6 or 8 houses that he rents out, and has offered to write a letter stating that I will work for him and rent one of his homes. I had also thought of going back to the states before the interview, however I would struggle to leave my 5 month old daughter and my wife for too long.

Hi all! I've been lurking here for a few years but for some reason never was able to create an account, until today. Anyway, I'll fill you in on my story. Came to China in 2007, met my folks in Hong Kong and then we travelled around southern China (Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunan, and Sichuan) for about two months. Met my wife in late April 2007 in Lijiang, we spent a few days getting to know each other and then parted. Before leaving China 2 weeks later I went back to meet her in Shenzhen where she was living at the time. Over the next year we spent a few months travelling together, both in China and elsewhere in SE Asia. In 2008 we moved to Shanghai together, spent about a year and a half there and then moved to my wife's hometown of Wuhan. We got married in March 2009, and ou daughter was born on Nov. 24th 2010. I went to submit the I-130 petition in Beijing on Feb. 15th 2011, and we got the P3 from Guangzhou just a few days ago. We have been trying to tie up all the loose ends before we send P3 back to GUZ. A few issues we have are, 1. My wife joined the CCP as everyone told her it would be good for her future, and even though she stopped paying the dues in 2007 they still try to claim she is a member. In fact she has been battling with the local CCP office to get the official letter from them stating she is no longer a member, they have made it as hard as possible for her and have tried their best to convince her not to quit. Anyway, she is actually at the CCP office right now trying for the 5th time to get the official letter, I'll update this later. 2. As is common for DCFers, the I-864 is our other big obstacle. My father will be our co-sponsor, he is retired and although he has enough income from 2010 and will continue to have that much for the rest of his life, his 08 and 09 income was a little less. I think it was still above the 125% for those years but I haven't got the official answer from him yet. I think these are the two biggest issues for us right now. Feel free to give me your opinion if you have any suggestions. Here is what I included with my I-130 1. I-130 2. Copy of my birth cert. 3. Copy of my passport bio page and residence permit 4. Notarized copy of our marriage cert. with English translation 5. G-325A for me 6. Passport photo of me 7. G-325A for my wife 8. Passport photo of my wife 9. Notarized copy of my wife's birth cert. with English translation 10. Affidavit written by my parents affirming their knowledge of our relationship 11. Affidavit written by my wife's best friend affirming her knowledge of our relationship (her letter was very sweet) 12. Copy of our daughter's birth cert. 13. Photos, titled and dated of us together and with each others families 14. EOR letter 15. Copies of passport pages from both of our passports with visas and exit/entry stamps from when we travelled together 16. Screenshots from my email account showing emails from my wife.