darren.s.small

Thanks guys. Let me give you a bit more information. She was in the US on a 2-year conditional resident card and we had gone through the interview to have the conditional status removed. She had a letter extending her 2-year card for 1 more year and we were waiting for the 10-year card to arrive in the mail. We do still have a residence in the US. When we left for China Nov 2017 we had all of our mail forwarded to my father's address and we didn't want anything important to just sit there in the mailbox with nobody to check it. At that time I didn't realize that any federal documents would not be forwarded but returned instead so I'm afraid that there's a good chance that her 10-year green card arrived and was returned because of the forwarding instructions. This is why I'm not sure how to proceed now that we wish to return to the US. What my wife has right now is her expired 2-year card and a one-year extension letter which has also expired by this time.

We had been living in the states but moved back to China almost a year ago. During that time my wife's US green card expired. Now we have decided to move back to the US again. Is it any easier to get a green card when you have had one previously or would it be easier for her to get a 10-year visa or something and go through the process of getting another green card after we are back in the states? Thanks in advance.

Great! Thanks a lot. The B-2 visa sounds like it will work perfectly. I appreciate the help!

My wife and I have been living in the US now for about a year after going through the process of getting her a visa. We previously lived in China. Now she is pregnant with our second child (our first was born in China) and she would like for her mother to come to the US from China to be with her during her pregnancy. I'm sure this is a common thing but I just don't know where to start with that kind of visa process. Could someone point me in the right direction? Thanks, Darren

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Your friend holds a passport from what country? Thanks again for the useful information. My friend, like me, was also an American passport holder. The only difference was that his wife had a Tianjin hukou and my wife has a hukou from Inner Mongolia. My wife is currently working with the PSB to see if there is anything we can do to not have to travel to her home town before we leave the country but it's looking like that may be the easiest route.

Sorry to respond with the obvious here - but, what did they say when you asked? You need to work with the PSB on this - we can't tell you what they're going to say. Thanks for your response. I actually haven't asked them yet. I wanted to see if anyone had been in a similar situation and see what the pros and cons might be or to see if it was even possible. But again, I suppose that's a question the PSB could probably answer for me. I have read through the other thread that you sent me a link to and I see that the Travel Document and the Exit Visa are indeed two different documents but I'm still not clear as to the difference. From as far as I can tell the Travel Document can be good for a period of time but the Exit Visa is usually only good for exiting China one time. Is that correct?

I'm in a similar situation. My wife (Chinese) and I (American) have just had a son and we got his American passport from the embassy in Beijing. My wife has just received her immigrant visa so now we want to go back to the US with our son. My friend who was in a situation just went to the local PSB here in Tianjin and they were able to issue him a "Travel Document" in about a week. That's what we were planning on doing but learned today that the local Tianjin PSB won't issue him the travel document but instead told us that we have to go to Inner Mongolia because that's where my wife's 户口 (hukou) is. Is it possible to get an exit visa instead? And if so would it be easier that having to go all the way to Inner Mongolia to apply for it?

I'm not certain. But since they asked for payment before the interview they must be able to accept payment on the spot. I was surprised that it was the first thing that they asked for because when I had my interview in Beijing when I filed the I-130 petition payment was the last thing they asked for. I'd like to pay for it beforehand but I wasn't able to figure out how to do it. When I look at my Dashboard it just shows "fee payment" as $0 so when I click on it it takes me to this page for more information about fee payments and at the bottom of the page it does say something about Immigrant Visa Interview appointments in Guangzhou but it makes no mention of how to make the payment. Can it be made at the CITIC bank that I have listed as my document delivery point?

Oh, yeah, thanks. I'm aware of this, actually. I have a good friend who just when through that process. Fortunately, it looked much simpler that the immigration visa process for my wife as been so far.

Mick, yeah, I've heard from a friend who did it just a couple years ago that it was 6 months then as well so I'm assuming that it still is. The baby is due in May so theoretically it might be possible to get everything done first, and that was our plan initially. But I've realized it would take a lot of pressure off if we just have it here first. Randy, that's great to hear! I'm glad that the calendar isn't just limited due to our situation. That's quite a relief. So, we should be able to wait to book our appointment until about 6 months or so before when we'd like to go to the US. Thanks!

My wife and I had our appointment on October 23rd in Guangzhou for the immigration interview. We had everything we were supposed to have all organized nicely. At the interview I had to wait outside with our bags because you aren't allowed to take any bags in and I forgot to give her my bank card to pay for the interview fee and the interviewer informed us that we would have to book an appointment for another date and come back to Guangzhou from Tianjin again because of this very simple-to-solve problem. I was quite upset by this and felt they were very unreasonable because we have a baby on the way and we will probably not be able to immigrate to the US before the baby is born now. So, we are now planning to have the baby here in Tianjin instead and then immigrate with the baby after is it born. But since we already had one appointment that didn't work out as planned we would now like to book an appointment for another interview at a later date but the only dates that are available for us to book are within the next 3 weeks. We are hesitant to schedule an interview during that time for two reasons. First, we feel that if we get the visa now it doesn't leave us enough time to get to the US before the baby is born and would rather just have the baby here. Second, we have booked and paid for a vacation in the Philippines starting November 18th and are worried that she wouldn't her her passport back in time. (The first reason is much more significant than the second) What I'd like to do is either be able to delay the interview to allow time for us to have the baby here or get some kind of extension. But, like I said previously, the only dates that are available for this interview are within the next few weeks and that just doesn't work. This is probably because they already accepted her health exam papers and opened the case. I'm not sure who to contact regarding this and I don't know what my next step should be. I'd really appreciate some advice! Thank you, Darren S. Small

Great! Thanks for the advice and the useful links. I think I've read these before but there's so much info in there that's it's nice to have all of those threads together. Yeah, I'm filing at the DHS office in Beijing. Isn't that at the embassy? I was just reading in the first post about who qualifies to DHS and someone in there said that I have to have filed my taxes in the US every year weather I owed anything or not. Since I haven't had any income in the US for the past.... quite a while. I figured it wasn't that necessary to file because my income in China has been under the limit where I'd have to pay any taxes. Is this going to be an issue?

Just an update on my specific situation: I've been living in China for about 5 years now and I recently got married here and I'm working on filling out the I-130 to petition for my wife to be able to immigrate to America so we can move back to the US. While filling out the form I had a couple questions that weren't really covered on the instructions page. First quesion: Question 21 on the form says, "If filing for your husband/wife, give last address at which you lived together." We are now married and currently living together at this address so for the date should I type the word "present" in or write the same date as the date I'm filling out the form? Second question: Question C.2. on the form asks for her address. Should this be the address of her parents where she was living before moving in with me or should it be our current address? Thanks in advance for any advice you guys are able to give. -Darren

Yeah! Actually, I did feel that earthquake. It was just after 3am and I was going to try to remember to look online to see if it was really an earthquake.

Are there ever any marriage licence problems or anything that come up getting married abroad and then moving back to the US?

I was in Beijing for about a year but I've been living in Tianjin coming up on 4 years now. Thanks for the advice, guys. I was looking down the wrong path. I'll look into filing a DCF and get this ball rolling.

Hey guys, here's the situation. I'm an American citizen and I've been living in China for about 5 years now and one of the major reasons I've stayed the last couple of years is that I'm in a relationship with my girlfriend whom I am planning to propose to within the next moth or so. (Ring in hand) I'm ready to move back to the US but I'm not leaving without her. I'm not sure what the best strategy is. I know that if I were living in the US a K1 visa would work perfectly but since I currently reside in China will I be able to petition for a K1 visa from here? If not is there a better option that I should persue? Thanks in advance for any advice on this matter. Darren

I realize this topic is getting kind of old now but the process (for a UC citizen) of renewing your passport while in China isn't very complicated. I've been in China for almost 5 years and I just got a new passport a couple of months ago. A couple things you need to make sure you do beforehand: Make an appointment at the embassy (I went to Beijing) http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/passports.html, make sure you take the correct size of pictures with the correct background color, and expect to have to wait 1 or 2 weeks for your new passport. All of the details can be found on the embassy's website which I've posted a link to. I hope this helps.