daveblax

We are researching different phone plans for when we head back to America next week. Anyone have good advice about which phone plan is the best/cheapest for two people? We are trying to save money in every way possible. We are leaning toward China Moble at the moment.

We have found cheaper tickets and avoided the Japan route. We got really lucky and found a great deal using google flights. 2 tickets from Shanghai to NY for a little over 10k rmb. Thanks for the feedback guys

My residence permit expires on July 31st. I want to work at a great summer time job in Beijing until the middle of August. Would it be possible for me to obtain a tourist visa while I am in Beijing?

Thanks for the input guys! You are correct, the wife is always right, even when they are wrong. About the airport in Tokyo. My wife called the japanese embassy in China, and was told that we could not stay overnight in the airport, and that we would be forced to take an expensive taxi and buy a hotel room in Tokyo. This doesn't seem right. Are you sure we can stay in the airport all night? This would save us a lot of money on our plane tickets.

My wife has her passport and visa in hand. We are getting ready for our move to America, but we need to settle a few disagreements first. 1. My wife already received her first round of vaccinations, but still hasn't gone back for her final vaccination shot. Some Chinese wives she has spoken to in some QQ groups say that the second vaccine is unnecessary. I say better safe than sorry. Does she need this final vaccine before leaving China, or can she get it in America. 2. Also, we are looking for the cheapest possible flight back to NY for this summer. All of the cheapest flights have overnight layovers in Tokyo. My wife thinks that she is not allowed in Japan and will get sent back to China. I disagree. Can we buy this ticket with nothing to worry about?

The visa has been issued! I have been impatient as hell, but we finally got our answer. We are so thankful for all of your help! We seriously could not have figured all of this out without this forum. Thank you!!!!!

Is there any way to speed up Administrative Processing? When I check online, they will always update the status updated date Status Updated Date: 04-Jun-2014 But it will always say "Administrative Processing" Why is this taking so long??? What is the longest they have held someone's passport after an acceptance pending document submission?

Thanks Randy. We have all of our documents in order and will send everything to Guangzhou tomorrow. I really hope they will process everything quickly. I have already registered for my graduate classes, starting in late August. Do you think I have anything to be worried about? Also, my residence permit ends July 31st. Does anyone know if I can get a tourist visa here in China? Do I need to make a Hong Kong run if I want to stay in China in August?

Hey guys, my co-sponsor wants to know, when we submit all of the documents they requested and their personal information, what will the embassy do with it when they are down checking it? Send it back to us? Keep it for their records? Throw it out?

Did you pay any fees at the CITIC bank? How long after you submitted your documents at the CITIC bank did it take for you to hear an answer? Congrats!

I think you are right that it is better for me to send them what I have. I think they made a mistake, but I can't be 100% sure Thanks again

The possible downside I see is, I don't have all of this residency evidence. I don't have lease/ mortgage statements, or utility bills from the US. I also have very little money in my American bank account. My wife offered to show my American bank statement before, but they didn't even look at it. My wife specifically asked who they were referring to when she received this pink notice, and they said our co-sponsor. She even went back to double check when I asked her to. I don't understand why they wouldn't write co-sponsor on the form instead of checking the petitioner box.

Thanks guys! I think faxing some of these documents over might be easier for my co-sponsor. I have another question about my preliminary acceptance. On the white preliminary acceptance letter, it says they need an I-864A form from my co-sponsor's husband. On the pink paper, it says "The consulate has insufficient information about the residency of the following people marked with X." The box, or the person, they marked with the X is the petitioner, which would be me. But when my wife asked them about this, they said that they need this information, including bank statements, utility bills, mortgage statements, and driver's license from our co-sponsor, not me. So why did they mark the petitioner box? Well, there is no box for co-sponsor on the form. Shouldn't they have written this in? My wife had and offered up my domicile information, including my bank statements and drivers license, but they didn't need it or look at it. Should I submit my domicile information as well, just to be safe? Since I am pretty sure they made a mistake, I don't want any more delays because of this discrepancy.

Is it possible for us to open our own PO Box in China somewhere?

Thanks Randy Our co-sponsor needs to send us additional information to support their I-864. They don't feel comfortable sending this personal information to China, which is why their original I-864 form was sent directly to the consulate in Guangzhou. They can't send this additional information directly to Guangzhou because we need to send these documents, along with my wife's passport, to Guangzhou using the CITIC bank document delivery service. What is the safest way for our co-sponsor to send these documents to us? They would feel more comfortable sending the documents to a major post office, where we can pick them up. Is it possible to set up a PO box at one of these post offices in China? How can they send us these documents in the safest and fastest way possible?

Also, after we send these documents, along with my wife's passport, to the consulate through CITIC bank,how long do you think we will have to wait for out the actual visa? We want to leave sometime in July, or August the latest.

Our interview was scheduled for 8:50. My wife was not able to go inside until 9:10ish, and I waited outside. Inside, they took her police, marraige, and birth certificates. They also took the I-864 I filled out and my 2013 and 2012 tax return copies. Everything else we brought, including all my domicile information and evidence of relationship documents were not looked at. My wife was asked around 7 questions, about half English, half Chinese. Some questions included: Where/how did you meet? What language do you speak at home? What's your job? Where will you work in America? Where will your husband work? My wife was preliminarily approved. She received a white and pink form. What they need is our co-sponsor's husband to fill out an I-864A and they need proof of US residency of our co-sponsor. Since our co-sponsor is not family, I hate asking them for all of this. They already helped us so much. Do you guys think it would be OK to find a new co-sponsor at this point, and send a whole new I-864 instead? Let me know what you think.

Thanks! I am following your advice. I have another question as I am getting ready for the interview. I have a large percentage of my money in my Chinese bank still. If I print out my income statements from this bank for my I-864, it will be in Chinese. Do I need to get the income statements translated to English and notarized?

So my Grandma is writing her letter for me. I was wondering if someone here could critique it before she sends it to us. Included in this letter is a copy of her driver's licence. Do you think it is a problem that she is not our co-sponsor? Our co-sponsor is a close friend to our family. To U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, I, ____ _____ _______, am _____ ____ ____’s grandmother. I fully support ____ _____’s marriage with _____ ____. I am writing this letter to state that I will help support my grandson and his wife when they arrive in the United States. I will let them stay in my house in New York, located at _______________________ (USA). They can stay in this house when they arrive in the United States, and I will help provide anything _______ and his wife need. Sincerely, ______

My wife and I are both working on her resume for her visa interview in a few weeks. In the instructions, it says that she needs to include a work plan explaining where she will seek employment after immigrating. She wants to work as a pre-school teacher or a Chinese teacher in the US. Should I be more specific than that? We are not sure where exactly she will look for work and we don't know which schools she will apply to. We will live in NY for the first several months while I finish up my master's degree, and we might move down south after I graduate. I guess my question is, how specific should we be in her work plan? How important is the resume to the visa officers? Also, to help claim domicile, I will provide my graduate school registration papers for the upcoming fall semester. Do you think this is enough? We are not 100% sure where we will stay in NY. There is a chance we will stay at a place my Grandma has in NYC. Would it help if my grandma wrote a letter stating that she will provide a place for us to stay and help support us when we immigrate to the USA? I realize I just asked a lot of questions. Any feedback would help. We wouldn't have gotten this far without this forum and I really appreciate it.

Thanks guys!

I have copies of the tax forms I filled out that I sent to the IRS. Is this good enough? For some reason, I thought I needed an official transcript copy from the IRS. Is this not so? I have been waiting for the transcripts to be mailed to my address in China, and it is taking longer than anticipated. Thanks again guys.

I am still waiting for my tax returns from the IRS and it has been almost 4 months. I have tried to access my tax transcripts online, but it is not working for me. My co-sponsor has included her past 3 tax returns with the I-864. Does this mean I don't need to show mine as well? Would my wife's visa be automatically denied without my last 3 years tax returns? I feel like time is running out and I am feeling stressed about this.

You are right, I am going back to grad school this fall. I will have another deferral and when the deferral ends, I will go back to my income based repayment plan, so my payments right now are really small. It is just that I am looking at the big picture and my debt is really overwhelming. I am not sure how I will ever pay it off making a teachers salary, and at the same time possibly buy a house and start a family.

My wife's English is very good in my opinion. Her speaking and listening is much better than her reading and writing. She is only 23, and graduated two years ago with her Bachelor's degree. She studied music education and has all of the Chinese teaching papers. She is currently working as a pre-school teacher. Her goal is to be a teacher in the US. She would love to be either a Mandarin teacher or work in a pre-school. Do you know what kind of additional education would this would require? I will have a discuss with her nursing and other career options. Randy, thanks for the advice on carrying more than 10,000 with you into the US. I thought I read somewhere that I needed to pay additional taxes on it, but I must of read it wrong.