jwdoetsch

With regards to the birth certificate http://www.uscis.gov/about-us/find-uscis-office/international-offices/china-guangzhou-field-office states the beneficiary's passport AND birth certificate must be filed While http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/i-130-petition-for-alien-relative.html states its either the passport OR birth certificate that gets filed initially... Which is to be believed? I've emailed the USCIS Guangzhou field office about this and will post my findings if I receive a reply.

Thanks Randy. I complete an I-864 and my co-sponsor completes an I-864A, correct? Everybody on forums mentions that the co-sponsor completes an I-864 but I can only assume they're wrong and that the co-sponsor should actually complete the I-864A according to the I-864A filing instructions: http://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/files/form/i-864ainstr.pdf Any idea if the the spouse of the co-sponsor need to also file an I-864A? I think they file jointly on their taxes, but I don't know for certain. I can't find any answers to this, but have found some posts eluding to it...

Howdy, Please note, I am doing DCF in Guangzhou. I feel bad posting a thread every day, but I honestly don't know what to do when my searched turn up nothing or conflicting answers for some specific questions. But please know that I've been researching these questions for over a day and am still coming up short on answers. They're pretty brief questions, so here it goes: The Guangzhou Consulate website says to also bring the beneficiary's passport when filing the I-130, or if you don't have it you should bring the birth certificate. Is this true in practice? By beneficiary doesn't have a passport yet, but will have one before the interview... My father will need to cosponsor the beneficiary. I have a few questions regarding this:My father also lives with my mother in the household, but my mother doesn't provide any income. Is it necessary for my mother to fill out an I-864A?It's okay to have a co-sponsor when filing DCF, right?My father isn't going to be asked to be present at the time of filing nor interviewed, right?The household size would be 4 on both my father's and I's I-864, right? We intend to live in my parent's home (my father, mother, myself, my wife).I'm concerned that my girlfriend's hukou city (Changyuan, Henan which is near Xinxiang and I guess technically "belongs" to Xinxiang) isn't going to have a clue with regards to translating the necessary documents. I've read that the translations need to be done at, at least, a city-level notary. Changyuan is like a county. We are going to need to go to the designated notary in Zhengzhou to get our marriage certificate(s) translated, could this office also translate the rest of the documents we get from her Hukou city?I've heard from some Chinese friends that they received two marriage booklets and that is their marriage license. Exactly, what document(s) is/are received after registration of the marriage?Finally, I've read the filing guide on the Guangzhou embassy website and also the FAQ that states: I've read a bunch of reports of people's experiences submitting their I-130 petition and they included a bunch of evidence with it. So, in practice, is it necessary and/or helpful to submit as much evidence as you can at the time of petition filing? Thanks a ton, guys... All the best, Jake

Thanks for your info guys, based on the links you provided and the embassy sites themselves, we'll have to use the Guangzhou Field Office. It's a bummer though because Beijing is a 3 hour G-train ride and Guangzhou is 7-hours. The cost difference is tremendous. http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/cis.html : http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/uscis.html :

Also, tsap seui, did they hand-write the letters and then sign them? Did you submit the originals or copies?

Hey all, I've been researching all night but haven't been able to successfully able to put the pieces together regarding paying fees at the time of filing the I-130 in Guangzhou. I also need to go to Beijing to notarize a Marriageability Affidavit so this question is probably also relevant to that as well. The Guangzhou Consulate website says that payments must be made at the time of filing either by cash or credit card. Is there like a cashier in the Consulate? Where do you go to pay? I've read about CITIC, but I'm confused as to what its purpose is in payment processing. Thanks for your help, all, you're all amazing. It's great how you've all been through the process already but stick around to answer naive questions from all us newbies. Peace, Jake

Thanks for all that, it's really useful! On the Guangzhou Consulate I-130 filing FAQ webpage it says: "Q: Am I required to present information or documents regarding the issues of domicile, affidavits of support and/or medical examinations when filing my I-130 petition with the Guangzhou Field Office? A: No, information and/or documents regarding domicile, affidavits of support and medical examinations are not required for the Guangzhou Field Office to process your I-130 petition. There are, however, issues that the Department of State will address in determining your family member’s eligibility for an immigrant visa. For further information, please visit the Department of State visa website." Any idea what's up with that? What if we just have everything ready at the time of filing? Does it hurt to include all of it at that time? Thanks a ton!

Randy, thank you so much... we've been losing sleep over this stuff, I've been reading too much crap... I've been using the search functions on CFL and VJ and for every topic I search it's an endless rabbit hole of information (both good and bad). Thanks for your advice, we're going to try with what we have and what we can easily include, all we can do is our best and try. Thanks, man, it's just what we needed to hear

Hey all, My girlfriend and I have been cohabitating for a few years in China and we're planning to get married in the middle of January, and then shortly after file an I-130 in Guangzhou. Of course, we need to provide evidence of our "bona fide marriage" but we are going to be married like a week before we submit the I-130 in Guangzhou. All the evidence we have is really just evidence of our relationship (pictures spanning three years, airline tickets, my passport exit/entry stamps, my residence permits and visas, copies of my most recent contracts, etc...), we don't have any stuff showing joint assets or anything like that. I was planning on getting affidavits from two of my coworkers here in China and my current employer, but after researching around I've found that the affidavits that they'd write would need to be notarized (i'm assuming that they'd need to be notarized by the US Embassy or Consulate). But we live in Henan and it isn't practical or really possible to ask them to travel with us to the Embassy in order to affirm/notarize their documents. I guess my question is: how screwed are we? -Jake

Thanks for the info! We're currently living together in China to do DCF, so that changes the process a bit. But the problem is that I can't find the Marriageability Affidavit on the Beijing Embassy's website, only on the Guangzhou website and the Guangzhou form is Guanzhou-specific. So I need to figure out how or where to get the proper Beijing Embassy form

Hey China folks! I'm planning to marry my girlfriend next month in China to facilitate the filing of our DCF I-130, but I'm stumped on the Marriageability Affidavit. The Guangzhou Consulate has the Marriageability Affidavit form available from their website, but Beijing doesn't have a form available. The Guangzhou form has Guangzhou's address and stuff on it (you can see it here: http://photos.state....saffidavit.doc ) so I'm thinking "do they even do Marriageability Affidavit notarizations in Beijing?" If yes, what form would I use to do it? Also, I've read that the Embassy and Consulate don't do translations... I'm going to need to go to the Chinese Notary that serves my girlfriends Hukou region, the same notary that's going to need to translate her birth record and police background history, right? They'll be able to translate my Marriageability Affidavit, right? Who here has been through this process in Beijing? How did you go about it? Where did you get the Marriageability Affidavit translated? Thanks a ton, guys and gals! Peace, Jake edit: Did you have to "register your marriage" with the embassy or anything like that? When you finally arrived back in the US did you have to go to the state courthouse to register or get a state marriage license? I'm very confused on these points...

Thanks a ton, Randy! Man, that was fast... Regarding domicile, as far as I understand it's outlined in the I-864 that the sponsor needs to show intent to reestablish domicile. Any idea how the co-sponsor figures into that? My co-sponsor has an established domicile and my domicile is actually going to be the same (it's where all my bills and stuff are registered with now anyways) when I return... Any idea on the denial rate for DCF applicants compared with K-1 applicants? What about turn-around time? Are our changes of approval less if we wait a week between getting married and then filing the I-130 in Guangzhou instead of like waiting a month? What I mean to ask is does the length of time you've been legally married in China factor in to their decision? We aren't planning to have a wedding ceremony, would that really affect anything (I'd imagine it just means we won't have wedding banquet photos to serve as additional evidence...) ? And finally, does anyone have any incite into the turnaround time for DCFs in Guangzhou these days? How long is DCF taking recently?

Hey all! I'm sitting here with my fiancée trying to work out which immigration route we want to take: get married in China and then DCF an I130, or apply for a K-1 visa. We're currently cohabitating together in China, I've been working here for the past two and a half years. I've got some specific questions I was hoping you guys could shed light on, I've been doing research for two weeks and there are still some things I can't get straight: Is it necessary to live in America while applying for the K-1 visa? Please note, I have already secured my father as a co-sponsor. I've been filing taxes while working abroad here in China anyway. Have any of you successfully applied for a K-1 Visa while living abroad in China? If we chose to go the DCF route instead of the K-1 visa route, then how suspicious is it if we were to get married in China without a ceremony and do the DCF like two weeks later? We've been together for the past two and a half years and have photo evidence to prove it (us together, us together with her family, etc..) but we're worried that the consulate would suspect fraud if we were to just apply right after we get married in China. (By the way, we aren't planning on having any sort of ceremony yet, just get the marriage license) Regarding supporting evidence: would it be good to include my contracts as evidence of my presence in China? What about affidavits from my employers stating the nature and duration of my work in China? What about affidavits from coworkers on the nature of our cohabitation together? Or affidavits from security guards for our building? What about domicile? I've read that it's going to be necessary to show domicile regardless of which option I choose, just because I'm filing abroad. I have my US bank account, US credit card, and student loans that I'm paying down... I also have a valid driver's license and am registered to vote in my county. Would this be enough?Thanks a bunch, guys and gals!