billinchina68

Hi I am an expat in China and my Chinese wife was granted her IR1 Visa.We will be coming to America in a few weeks . I was looking over the customs declaration form 6059B which I have filled out before when traveling.When you are just bringing back to the U.S. a few gifts customs isn't a big deal. However, you are required to declare everything you have bought overseas that will stay in America. That pretty much means everything my wife is bringing over since it was all bought in China. Quite a few things for me too. Does this mean we have to provide pages and pages of lists of items and their estimated values. We figure we can group some items together like clothes. I just have this feeling because she is an immigrant she will be scrutinized more. What experiences has anyone had with their foreign spouses and customs. Have they been pulled aside and had bags inspected. Did you have to pay much in duty taxes? I realize older household goods may be exempt but you still need to declare everything. I have actually found in my travels that U.S. customs is stricter and individuals scrutinized more than China which just uses the red/green lane system. Thanks, William

The sample you show above is the exact one we showed them. Apparently there is a conflict with what the Jiangsu authorities are willing to provide and what the U.S. wants. I thought about asking about this issue at the consulate when I file the I-130 since the B.C.is not due at that time anyway. Thanks

Hi, Actually I was planning to as a question about this so I thought I would join in. My wife and I live in Nanjing and will be filing the I130 for her in a few weeks and I know I don't have to file the notarized Birth Cert. now but there may be an issue with her notarized BC. She got one last year. The page with the birth info only has 公证书, (same as front cover) not 出生公证书 . A few months ago we went to the notary office and showed them a redacted copy of a sample notarized birth cert. from 2005 we found on line that had 出生公证书 on it. The employee at the notary office said they don't prepare it that way anymore, now they just show 公证书 at the top of the notarized birth certificate. In English our certificate just says notarial certificate and gives her birth date, birthplace and parents names. However from what I have read at this and other websites the U.S. government wants it to say Notarial Birth Certificate. Has anyone encountered this problem? Thanks.

Thanks for information!

Hi, my name is William and I am new. I am an American teacher in China and have been I am currently working with an attorney on the I-130 for sponsoring my wife. We want to use apartment contract but have a question about translation.The USCIS website says documents need to be fully translated. We have a standard Chinese property company lease which has lots and lots of preprinted terms. Does all that need to be translated or would just the main terms (names address, rent amount, lease term, etc) be ok with U.S. government. I am hoping someone here has had experience using a standard for apartment contract. I'll probably have to pay someone a lot of money for a full line by line translation. Thanks, William