Onbelay007

Oh, one other thing I forgot to mention. We had sent an email to GUZ explaining that we were not allowed to request the NL police certificate and they must do so on our behalf. They responded that they would do so. I made sure to print this email and have my wife take it to her interview. Sure enough, during the interview the officer said, "we have a problem. You didn't give us the NL police certificate." My wife explained that they already have it and a bit of back and forth argument. Finally, my wife showed them the email they sent us explaining that they would collect the police certificate. So the officer dug around some more, talked to colleagues, and came back. "Yes ma'am, you are correct. We do indeed already have the police certificate." Be prepared

Hi everybody, Yesterday was a great day as my wife passed her interview and the visa should be here in a week or so! It feels so good to have this weight lifted off our shoulders. Since I learned most of the process and documentation needed from this website, I thought it appropriate to share our success story with a few tips/lessons learned. Sorry, this will be a long one... Background: I married my Chinese wife in 2009 while we were both expats working in Netherlands. A year later our daughter was born. We had initially decided that we wanted to move to the US so we started the immigration process in Amsterdam. After the I-130 stage but before the interview, we changed our minds. Our company had announced a new focus on China so many job opportunities arose in Shanghai (we both work in the same company). Now, about 3 years after moving to China (my wife had been living in Europe for 8 years), we have decided this time we are indeed ready to move to the US and settle down. Immigration process: We filed the I-130 in Beijing on March 21st and were quite surprised that the notification of approval came within 10 business days. For the I-130, I had brought 50 photos, our international marriage certificate from NL (original is in English among a few other languages), my daughter's birth certificate as well as consolar report of birth abroad. Document collecting: We thought this would be pretty straightforward but it proved to be a bit of a pain in the ass. First was my taxes. While living abroad I knew I had to file taxes and I knew that all my income would be excluded under the foreign income exclusion. So when I tried to efile, I was frustrated that turbotax would not let me file as married because my wife didn't have a SSN. Also, there was no point for me in the ITIN as her income would also be completely excluded so not tax benefit. I filed as single for my tax purposes just to get it filed and I did this for three years. Oops. When I joined this forum I realized this could create a problem so two months ago I filed the 1040X. The only correction was the check box from single to married-filing separately. The IRS still hasn't processed the correction and I'm not sure they even will bother since it doesn't affect money owed to them or money owed to me. But I wanted to have that for the GUZ to clearly show I'm married. Next were the police certificates. My wife was having a heck of a time with the police in Shantou (her Hukou) as they wanted to state that she had no police record in their district, rather than all of China. Luckily, she has a good friend who happens to work in the police dept there and she was able to pull a few strings to get that handled. I need to buy this lady some flowers! Additionally, my wife had previously lived in Belgium, France, and Netherlands. Luckily, we had police reports in 2010 from our previous immigration efforts for Belgium in France (both countries she hadn't lived in since 2005). However, we found out that even though the police certificates were issued years AFTER she left those countries, they couldn't be used since they were issued in 2010. Apparently even these expire after one year. So we had to again request police certificates. So Belgium and France were basically stating that, yep, we didn't make a mistake on the previous report. She really didn't have a police record! Irritating but we were pleasantly surprised that they arrived in China about two weeks after requesting them. We also learned that we could not request one from NL. The embassy in Guangzhou must to so on behalf of us. The translations also proved to be a bit complicated as every agency was accustomed to translating Chinese to English but not French to English. My wife spent quite some time asking around who could translate and also certify/notorize the Belgium/France police certificates. For the I-864 I had enough assets to qualify as meeting the threshold (I don't have a job lined up in the US yet). However, I learned from this website it is always a good idea to have a joint sponsor so I asked my sister to be my wife's sponsor (my sister makes a very comfortable salary). And this paid off as they did indeed ask my wife for a joint sponsor so I'm very happy we were proactive on this. Now, my biggest worry, domicle. I was very nervous about this so I tried as much as possible to provide overkill. I have a daughter and another kid due in less than two months so I really, really did not want to be forced to move back to the US and first find a job. I provided many documents with my parents address: my US bank account, child's college fund, 2 US credit cards, mutual fund account, IRA account, etc. I also had my parents write a letter stating we would live with them temporarily while looking for new jobs when returning to the US. I also had a few emails with my companies recruiters in the US stating our intention to relocate to the US. OK, on to the interview.... I waited with my wife in the long lines outside at 7am. We finally get to the front where the CGI-Stanley girls were putting barcoded stickers on the passport. My wife wasn't paying attention but I immediately noticed the girl put a different person's sticker on my wife's passport. I immediately told the girl (in Chinese) that she made a mistake but she ignored me. I again kept telling her it was wrong and explained again that it was not my wife's name. I even pointed to her master sheet's with all the names and showed her the correct one. "This is my wife" I showed her. She was a bit flustered and I think a bit embarrassed that a foreigner was correcting her mistake. Anyway, my wife went to her document intake and interview. She had provided a few originals such as our international marriage certificate and consular report of birth abroad for our kid. I stressed to her that we needed these back. They took them and said she would get them back before her interview. Later they called her back to collect these originals. She was smart and before just stuffing them in her bag she double-checked the documents. Sure enough, they weren't ours. They mistakenly had given her documents for someone else. A second mistake! Be sure to double check everything! Other than that, the interview was a breeze and they didn't ask her for half of the things we had ready at hand (including her resume). My wife was in at 7 and done by 10, though they did give her priority since she was pregnant. So we'll have the visa within a week or so! However, we can't move back right away as my wife is too far along in her pregnancy so we'll have to have our baby in Shanghai and do another Consular Report of Birth Abroad and make sure we enter the US by December 21, as that is the day the visa will expire. I told my wife, as long as I'm back before Xmas I'll be happy so now it's a must. It's been quite a journey with loads of documents and I'm so happy it's now done. One additional tip: do not get all worked up about possible ways to be denied a visa. It's important to know the key items that can cause this but I was really concerned with domicile and spent far too much time on various internet forums regarding failing due to domicile, which was completely unnecessary since it was out of my hands and most of the crap I was reading were about other countries domicile issues and not China. In the end it was a breeze. That's all I can think of right now. A big thanks to the community!! Steve

Do any of these sites offer video hosting? Just short video clips? I've been living in China for 2 years now with my wife and our daughter (just over 2 years old). My wife's parents live with us and take care of our kid while we are at work. We will move to the US in the next year or so (whenever we get the visa) and it will be very difficult for my wife's parents, as they are quite attached to my daughter. Not only would I want to share picures regularly, but I was wondering if any of these sites also could host short video clips.

My first experience living with my Chinese wife was actually in Netherlands as we both lived and worked there for a few years. I remember after getting to feel much more comfortable sleeping with her that I decided to teach her about the "Dutch Oven". Afterall, we were living in NL. So I first explained the traditional dutch oven to her when we were in bed and then explained, and demonstrated, the other Dutch Oven. That's when I really learned how cool my wife was as she wasn't exactly mad but was annoyed, yet laughing like crazy.

Yes. IRS won't care but I want to leave no reason for the immigration officers to doubt our status. So I'll spend a few hours this weekend amending my filing status. Better safe than sorry.

We've done a handful of long-haul flights with our daughter. When she was less than a year old we did actually bring a small carseat on the airplane and had her in her own seat. Those flights were very smooth. As she got a little bit older we stopped with the car seat but still would pay for her own seat as I'm sure she would be miserable (as with us parents and fellow passengers nearby) if she was to fly as a lap baby on a long-haul flight. One cool piece of advice I could give to parents regarding flying happend by accident. Just two months ago we flew from Shanghai to Chicago, which is a 14 hour flight. We were late in the boarding process so when we got to our seats we found there was no overhead space available for our luggage. Our 2 year old daughter had her own seat though. Our carry on was backpacks so we piled them up under her seat, added some blankets, jackets, and pillows and basically built a bed for her by placing enough items between her seat and the seat in front of her. She was able to sleep like and angel on that makeshift bed!

To clarify, are the tax forms more important for the I-130 application or for the immigration interview itself? I have the appointment to file I-130 next week so no time to fix my tax issue. If it is an important doc for the GUZ interview, then I definitely have time to get everything squared away with a refile to change my status. These GUZ horror stories kinda make me wish I just would have followed through the process in Amsterdam....

First post and I really wish I would have discovered this site MUCH earlier... Quick background: I met my Chinese wife when I was living in Chicago and she in Netherlands, as we work for the same MNC. My wife is a Chinese citizen but had been living in Europe for 5 years or so. We got along well, started dating and making several visits (me to NL and China, and her to US). in 2008 I found a job in Amsterdam within our company so made the move and we lived together ever since. In 2009 we were legally married in NL, and had a church ceremony wedding in Hong Kong. In 2010 our daughter was born and is now a US citizen via Consular Report of Birth Abroad. In 2010 we filed the 1-130 in Amsterdam and it was accepted. We received all the paper work and were informed to schedule an interview with the immigration officer. At that time, our company announced major investments in China, which meant job opportunities for us so we decided not to continue with the immigration process and moved to China instead (job market in US wasn't so good anyway). We've now been in Shanghai for 2 years living together and are ready to start the I-130 process again as we're ready to move to the US, with baby number 2 on the way Taxes: I was a good US citizen and filed my taxes each year. Since 2009 I have only had foreign-earned income that is less than the $92k threshold, so it's always qualified to be exclued. No taxes owed to US gov't and none owned to me. However, after we were married I filed as "Single" for tax purposes as for married it required a SSN which my wife doesn't have. Any status I used wouldn't matter because I have no US income and my foreign income is definitely lower than the threshold. Looking through these threads I think technically filing as "single" was not right. Although no impact on taxes owed or paid I'm worried that this stupid little technicallity may create a problem doing the process in China as opposed to when we started it in Amsterdam. Would a simple letter explaining my rationale for using "single" be sufficient? I understand the "single" might create an issue for bonafide marriage but I have loads of other evidence to prove it is real. And I did file my US taxes honestly and faithfully, but maybe not technically correct when I read more on this forum. Appreciate your comments. Steve