Muscley_Love

Wife has a contract with an employer in China (a major U.S. company, but the Chinese branch.. IE, "Company name" China) that upon fulfilling one year of work she will be entitled to collecting a bonus which equates to the sum of about 15 thousand USD. Problem is, our timeline requires that we enter the States around mid September at the very latest. Then when she gets the green card in hand she is considering coming back to China and finishing up on the 4-5 months remaining on her current work contract... before coming to the U.S. to find me. The safe bet for her to avoid Customs determining she's abandoned her green card is to just skip out on the 15 grand and plant anchor in the States. But in terms of the bonus $$$, it'd be a shame to have to do that. Just for the record, when we were applying for the green card she didn't have her current job, this bonus thing only came out with her being promoted. So it's not that we planned bad, it's more like something good and unexpected that would be a shame to miss out on. Do you think this will entail problems with Customs at the border?

I'm from the South, but neither of our skills work well in small towns. So that means bigger (ie, at least medium sized) cities. Any of the 3 big cities in Texas, of course Atlanta or Florida as well. They all have their pro's - Either having hospitals that need Chinese translators (both of us). She already works in a big American company though, so choosing a place is probably going to be more about education infrastructure, livable conditions of a city/community... Also Texas (and Atlanta) have new developing tech hubs as well, which might offer opportunities for my skill set. That being said I'm researching every day and also going to look a bit into every region in the U.S. because I'm not a picky guy.

As I posted at least 4 questions regarding different stages of the entire DCF process and received invaluable help, I just wanted to report back the results of my wife's interview yesterday. It was a quick (and seamless) success! That being said, I'd like to add a few details to benefit future applicants. Firstly, follow all the guides on this website about the application materials, it's all relevant. Secondly, don't get too hung up about how to fill out the i-864 form (like I did) and if you're unsure about the N/A or Nones, it seems blanks suffice as well (my joint sponsor left blanks for all things that didn't apply, just as you would on a tax form) and it was fine. Also, the MEDICAL. This is the part of the process that seems the most "uncertain" because it is entirely up to the hospital you're doing the checkup at. In the case of the Guangzhou medical place, my wife (foolishly) postponed filling out the 2 required forms, and did it just 4 days prior to her Green card interview. The hospital was very professional with their response, and got back in a day, informing my wife that she needs to HIGH TAIL it to Guangzhou and get that check done the next day. Next day results were not possible for us, we had to wait 2 days, so thank goodness they were so speedy with their response. We lucked out in that regard, but for others here, make sure those hospital forms are filled in in a timely matter so save yoruself rebooking plane tickets and hotel reservations... If you've put your entire wife's application together, still make sure that she at least takes care of that hospital booking. LOL. As for the interview - I had 3 years' of recent tax forms, and my joint sponsor only had 1 year's worth of tax filings. The interviewer asked "only one year?" with regard to this, but didn't raise much of an issue with it. She still had to answer interview questions mind you, but all the questions about our future employability or plans she was already prepped for answering. Ah, one last thing - my feeling from this interview is the same as another user on this board, who reported "by the time of the interview, the interviewer has proably already decided whether they are going to pass you or not" This was my feeling when asking my wife about the whole thing. Half of our proof (relationship, domicile, resumes) wasn't asked for. This could be due to the fact that we submitted tons of high quality proof (IE, overloading our application in the i-130 step) regarding our long relationship, the affadadits and other things.

You're going to need a notarized copy of a birth certificate for her (or that white book) for the interview in Guangzhou.

Yes - Either NRA (Non-resident alien) or 000000000 is acceptable for SSN. You can use the Form 4852, Substitute for Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement to report wages Alrighty, so I'm going to bounce back to a question I posed earlier in that case. What is the best way to do taxes as a young person living in China, whose spouse doesn't have an SSN and has never filed US taxes (like, obviously!) I want to do the quickest thing possible here so I can set up an interview date with no worries weighing down on me. This forum says that all we need is proof that we filed for the interview, but what is that "proof" that we filed? is that a printout from tax software, that says we e-filed? (If so, then that means i should go the software route, instead of mailing the forms in and waiting, right?) Another question is that I was going through the Turbo Tax free option online (I found out I don't qualify for free, i gotta purchase deluxe according to my situtation, the website now tells me...) - but when I was using it, the software seemed sort of inflexible. They need an SSN from my spouse, and info on how she filed her tax forms as well. Well, I got past the SSN part. (left it blank for the time being) also I chose to file as "married, filing separately" in order to skip past the requirement of having to provide her SSN that she obviously doesn't have at the time being. I'm in a tangle of questions here I feel like.

Alrighty. I just checked and noticed that the current form is available for Year 2017, but you can also access prior years. Should go through the IRS website and access the forms from prior years? The address field is for correspondence, so in that case it'd be mailing address that I use here (In Chin-ar) right? The 1040 EZ has a field for W-2 form information too. So do you think I have to do that as well? Also I'm just not sure about some of the fields... Would software like turbo tax be a better idea for me to use? It may help explain things better, but I worry it might not be flexible in some areas (like, entering 000000000 for my spouse's social security number since she doesn't have one)

Alright guys, I have nearly acquired nearly EVERYTHING needed for the final interview in Guangzhou!! The co-sponsorship i-864 from my relative came in the mail last week (took a month!) along with the photocopies of the last year's most recent tax forms, etc.... The only thing I need to complete now is get my taxes in order. I need to back-file. I've been in China for 6 years and never made enough money to merit filing... I was a student here for 5 years, did some part time jobs (from teaching centers, which sent me pay stubs, and deducted tax) but also I never made more than 50K RMB per year. Anyway, which forms are relevant to my filing needs? I need some very generic advice here, and possibly some additional pointers if you are familiar with those forms and feel like there's possible points of confusion I'd run into... For those past years I'd need to file single, and for this past year I'd need to do a married but separate file (since we're married but my wife has a job in China, not america, doesn't even have an SSN?)

The question might come up as to how you were able to support yourself. Right... In my case, I had a scholarship for all of those years. Covered tuition, books, living, and paid me monthly. Applied for it for both of those degrees. No way in H E dobule hockeysticks I would have considered doing either of them without that.

*Announcers voice* Another save, by dnoblett! If you were an NHL goalie you'd be an iron wall I'm sure. Gosh, I was fine up until the point until I second guessed myself. When looking over the checklist from the Consulate (link at bottom) and in the row "affidaits of support" on the left side, I encountered very annoying and vague language " (2) Form I-864a signed by the relevant member of household if the petitioner jointly filed taxes". That was just confusing, didn't seem applicable to me at all but I extrapalated it to my joint-sponsor who did file taxes jointly and then started hyper ventalating. (not really, but you get the idea) Yeah, I had no idea what "relevant" meant because there was no context provided. Thank you a lot. My search queries didn't take me to that particular page you posted. It was a godsend. I'm saying "thank you" a bit too much lately.

2 Questions- 1- I just got a family member to cosponsor my spouse on the i-864 form, but my family member filed taxes jointly for the previous year. Does that mean that my family member's spouse also needs to fill out an i-864 since the taxes were filed jointly? 2 - I didn't have a paying job for the previous 6 years in China since I was on a student visa (for a Master's, then a PHD). What kind of proof is useful for proving I made below taxable income, which I would have to file if I checked that box on the i-864? Thanks everybody!

Thank you so much!

So I have a question for people who can remember the time they were scheduling the interview in Guangzhou - I'm looking at the calendar right now and see quite a few open dates for December. However I'm still waiting on getting an I-864 sent over here from a relative in America, and this calendar is a bit worrisome. Basically, it has a lot of days for December open but January and February say "unavailable" and are un-clickable. I"m not sure if this is just because those dates haven't opened yet, if the website is just coded very poorly, or if the office is closed during that time, or all the appointments were taken or what. When you were scheduling, were future months available/ clickable on this interface? Does it appear that January and February are all booked? Here's an attachment for what I am seeing just for reference: http://imageshack.com/a/img924/5120/NKIoxg.jpg

Well, my lovely beneficiary did get a US Visa before - but I went through the website and made a whole new account for her (She kept insisting she didn't remember if she used that website before or not, and my continuous prodding was getting on her nerves) I set the account up with all the relevant information from the e-mail and everything else they asked. But got that error. Later after I realized there's really no way to get through, I pressed her to find her old account. She did so and updated the information as the system suggests, but she gets the same error too. My "Contact US" inquiry has finally directed me to this form, which I filled out and am waiting for a response from. https://china.usembassy-china.org.cn/visas/immigrant-visas/contact-us/immigrant-visa-unit-question/

Yeah, I get what the case number is supposed to be. The problem is when I put it in, it doesn't work. There's something funky with the website.... We are filing through Guangzhou, and chose the option "all immigrant visas" since we're going through the field office here, then CR-1... We've filled out all the fields, including the profile page where you put the name, priority date, case number (GUZ number) went through all the other pages, and later on we even selected a Citic bank in our city.... But on the very next page, page 8, where the final step is to re-enter your case number (the GUZ number again) it says "ID not found" The service desk sent us an automated email saying they reactivated our case number, but that didn't do any good.

*Bump* Anybody have a clue about this one?

According to the USCIS website, it takes on average less than 1 month to process I-130 petitions in Guangzhou. See: https://egov.uscis.gov/cris/ptIntlIntro.do We filed our petition in Beijing nearly 3 weeks ago, but we haven't heard anything yet either. The website says it take on average 1.4 weeks to process in Beijing. By the way, Muscley_Love, did the UCSIC take your G-1145 form? They didn't take ours, they said it's not necessary. Would they inform us by email once the petition is approved? (I have seen people on the forum saying they have received "letter in the mail". I'm a little confused about what to expect.) I filed with Guangzhou, and they took my G-1145. My spouse and I were notified through e=mail. If you haven't been notified yet, like I was when I posted here, keep on chuggin'. It'll come...

I just wanted to follow up and say, I waited 3 weeks for the email to say that the documents were all accepted. = ) Thanks everybody for your responses! To anybody checking these pages later, keep in mind that its normal to wait 3 weeks, and it might take even longer (like some people suggested!)

I just wanted to list what I did as a follow up in case anybody else encounters this question. My biggest gripe with these sites are that people never come back to post "what worked" for them after they attempted the process. So, considering my question about whether I should list my Master's and PHD programs here as employment (similar to how we do in the States when doing taxes, or filling out other forms) I listed both of those in china as part of my employment history leading up to my current job in China. So if you have any similar questions, you can be sure that doing as I have done should not be problematic in any way.

On step 8 of scheduling the pickup for Citic bank, using the travel docs website... When I'm entering the ID number sent to me from Guangzhou after our i-130, the website pops up with a message saying "The Case ID that you have entered cannot be found" I emailed the support at usatraveldocs dot com email address they leave for troubleshooting, and i got a semi-automated reply back. It appears they tried to do something - "We understand that you would like to schedule your interview appointment. Please note that your Case ID has been reactivated. Please type the Case ID in step 8 manually if needed, or refresh the web page in Step 8 of the scheduling procedures." However when trying again, I still get the same stinkin' ole error. Whatever they did didn't work. HOW on earth did everybody else get past this whole ID case number problem when scheduling a pickup with Citic? Not going to say "nightmare" just yet but right now it's definitely more like a pain in the neck... ---------------------------------------------- *edit* I noticed that on the left side of the screen, it says "First Available Appointment Is Tuesday October 10, 2017. " Does that mean I have to wait until that date, until I can schedule the passport/ DS-260/ passport copies/ 2 photos/ cover letter package pickup?

Any idea how long the processing time for the i-130 is supposed to be? I submitted it to Guangzhou on August 17. Filled out the form where they are supposed to email or contact me but I haven't heard back yet. It's been 12 days and it's going to be two weeks by Thursday.

The i-130 is 12 pages long, but at least 2 or 3 of them at the end are not really applicable in all cases. How has the i-130 increased?

On the i-130 where you list all previous employment, does being a student count? My first reaction was no, but I saw this suggestion given on immihelp or nola or one of those other help sites... In hindsight, I know that whenever filing taxes, I"ve often used "student" in the employment category too. It's a pretty common thing. So when looking back to my past five years here, should I include my time that I was enrolled in a local university degree program? i.e., employer, XYZ University, position: Student

Thank you for the info / confirmation!

Oops, I meant in Romanized alphabet. And the pinyin of 北京 is Beijing, that is pretty much globally recognizable in English. That being said, so the addresses should be typed in Chinese characters then, yeah? And Pinyin for Chinese names? Thanks a lot for the info! Pinyin = phonetic = romanized spelling - it is Chinese, not English. ONLY use Chinese characters where requested to do so. Yep, that's pretty much what I said. So it looks like we're both pretty clear on that then. Thanks for the attention to my post!

Oops, I meant in Romanized alphabet. And the pinyin of 北京 is Beijing, that is pretty much globally recognizable in English. That being said, so the addresses should be typed in Chinese characters then, yeah? And Pinyin for Chinese names? Thanks a lot for the info!