joshvworld

I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Leeden Hotel. We're staying here now. It's only 2 blocks from the consulate and it's really nice. The room is very clean and modern. We got a good deal on ctrip for only ~550 a night and even had a package sent to us and it was waiting for us when we arrived. Definitely worth considering.

Thanks Andelu. When you put it that way it's probably best to just get the medical when we get back and just stay in Guangzhou over the weekend for a Monday interview so we're not rushed to go to America before my contract is up in August. Assuming of course we're fortunate enough to not take more than 6 months for the CCP issue. My residence permit is valid until next December so that wouldn't be a huge deal just another of the many petty annoyances the consulate has seen fit to impose on us.

Thanks for the clarification, warpedbored. I know it seems early, but I am anticipating the extra processing time for my husband's CCP membership.

Thanks for your helpful advice, Randy. I haven't actually scheduled an interview yet and it may not become an issue if the dates are released far enough in advance, but at the moment it seems like no one is updating anything on the website (probably because everyone's on vacation for xmas/new year) so I only asked out of an abundance of caution. If it turns out to be unworkable, we'll just go to Guangzhou whenever we can get an appointment after our vacation. We don't plan on moving until sometime after August 2014 anyway, so we're not on a tight deadline. We're not capriciously buying tickets without visas or treating it like dinner plans.

Our vacation isn't in the United States so the timing of the interview is irrelevant. Even if it were, he has a valid tourist visa so that's not really the point. The worst case scenario would be that we have to either stay in Guangzhou for a few more days or go back later, neither of which are a big setback or a dealbreaker. I was just asking if it was possible to change the interview date after setting it to avoid that. So does anyone have any relevant advice to the question I originally asked?

OK, so here's the situation. My husband and I are going on vacation from February 5-19 and then flying back to Guangzhou on the evening of the 19th. We are really hoping to get an interview on the 20th. It's not a holiday in the U.S. or China so it should be fairly easy to get that date if we keep logging in obsessively to check the calendar of available dates. We've already been told by the consulate to schedule an interview. The problem is the medical. He can't do the medical until we've scheduled the appointment but we probably won't be able to schedule the appointment until the last week of January or first week of February or even after we leave for vacation so we possibly won't have time to do the medical for the interview (assuming they keep releasing interview dates at their current [ridiculously slow] pace). The latest date available at the moment is only January 15. Is it possible to schedule an interview, get the medical, then change the date of the interview? Does anyone have experience rescheuling their interview on the ustraveldocs website? I know there's no guarantee we'll get the date we want, but like I mentioned above, it seems reasonable that we very well could if we keep logging in regularly to check if they've released new dates. And if it's not possible to schedule, do the medical, then change the date, is it otherwise possible to go to the interview without the medical and do it when we get back to Beijing and expeditiously send the results to Guangzhou?

Hi David, I recently filed my I-130 form at the Beijing Embassy and here are some things I wish I had known. First of all, as long as you have the required documents with you, don't worry. I was really worked up thinking that something might go wrong, but it was actually incredibly straightforward. My petition was approved the same day and I was notified by e-mail about a week later with the next steps. Here's what I submitted: I-130 G-325A for each of us Copy of every page in my current passport. I read somewhere that they wanted this but I got a really strange look from the lady behind the counter and she handed back every page except for the bio page and the current residence permit. Copy of my old passport's bio page and my last residence permit since I recently renewed my passport and visa and the new one wasn't six months old yet. Copy of my husband's passport bio page. 1 passport-sized photo for each of us. Copy of our marriage certificate. Photos of the evolution of our relationship and our trips abroad (I wrote the places and dates on them), along with flight and hotel receipts. I also brought all the originals of everything so the person could verify that they were real copies. I'd brought a card I'd sent him on Valentine's Day when I was on vacation in the U.S. and some wedding congratulations cards from our friends along with some e-mails we'd sent each other, but she said no thanks to all of them. I also didn't have any affidavits from friends and family, but that didn't seem to be a problem either. Maybe because I gave them about 50 pictures of us together. I also didn't do a G-1145, but the lady gave me one and told me to fill it out and she put it on top of my application for me. Don't get too nervous. There's a copier right behind the person taking your paperwork. If they need more copies, they will make them there. I ended up shredding about 50 unneeded pages afterwards. Also, don't arrive more than 5 minutes early. They will not let you inside before that and you will have to stand outside in the cold. Don't stand behind the Chinese visa applicants, just go to the front of the queue and tell them you have an appointment to file your I-130 petition. Good luck! Josh

My husband and I are planning to move back to the U.S. together next summer after my contract with my company is up and I will be looking for a job then. While we have enough money and assets to satisfy the I-864 requirements, it is all in China, which I understand means that none of it will count. Would it be advisable to send the required amount in cash (~$60K) to my bank account in America? My thinking on this is that since they will require bank statements for the past year, that it would look like we are just borrowing the money to make it look like we actually have it. Also, my husband has most of our money invested here and is hesitant to send it to America where it will be earning little to nothing idling in my bank account. I have a cosponsor that more than clears the poverty threshold for her own and our household, so am I worrying for nothing or will my lack of assets and an offer of employment in the U.S. cripple our chances?

True! I didn't really think about that, but that was actually a benefit as far as I can tell, since we didn't have to get our marriage certificate translated and it gave us a good reason to go on vacation. My husband had gotten a tourist visa for the USA in 2011 when we traveled there together to visit my family and we renewed it pretty easily (no interview or going to the embassy) for when we went to New York last month to get married. We're pretty lucky that he is from Beijing and has a good job so getting the tourist visa wasn't hard at all.

Thanks, guys. As best I can tell, the process is the same for any married couple now regardless of gender so it seems like I'm not really charting too much new territory, which is great for me since I have basically followed all the advice I've found on the threads here and it's working so far. I got an e-mail from Guangzhou today telling me to fill out DS-260 and submit a copy of the passport bio page (my husband's I'm assuming) and two passport photos which we'll do later this week.

Congratulations, Andelu. I hope to be following in your footsteps soon. We just got our I-130 approval letter in the mail from the embassy. Filed 10/31. Stamped approved 10/31. Postmarked 11/4. Received 11/9. (I have no clue how it takes a letter 5 days to travel less than 5 miles.)

I DCF'd my I-130 petition for my husband yesterday in Beijing. The lady behind the counter did, indeed, require six months of proof of residence. Since I got both my passport and visa renewed in July, she asked for my old passport with my old residence permit (which I'd brought along with a copy of the bio page and my last visa). She verified that the copy was real and handed back my old passport and that was that.