fluffyballs

I would suggest having your wife apply for a B2 visa.To be honest, I don't think her chances of obtaining it are going to be great, but it's not impossible. The biggest issue for her to overcome will be the presumption that she'll come in on a B2 with the intent of adjusting status, being married to an American. Contrary to popular belief it's actually not illegal to travel to the US specifically for the reason of giving birth, provided one has sufficient funds to pay for the medical care. FYI I130s are now taking 14-16 months. Maybe on a K1 she'd be able to arrive in the US within 8 months, but that option is no longer available and would have its own issues anyways. I do agree with Randy that you may be overstating the benefits of being born on US soil. However..... I can understand SeanC and think it's an awful situation, but it is what it is with the 5-year travel ban. I would have been beyond miserable had I not been able to witness the birth of my daughter alongside my wife, and been there to support her during those first few difficult post-birth months (as well as spending time with the baby...). And the medical care my wife received in a middle-of-the-road hospital here in the US was far better than the care her sister received when she gave birth at the "best" hospital in her city (a T3/4 city fwiw). Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't, or isn't on good terms with them. I don't think this is a given.

I used a free phone app to scan the pages and they looked pretty bad. I didn't have any issues. As long as everything is legible, I'd probably opt for doing what is fastest - in this case - sending in the docs asap. AOS processing times are really long now and I wouldn't want to delay the process even more.

Nope, the translation inside the notatorial certificate is sufficient - at least it was for me.

Awesome - let us know how it goes.

If it gets approved you should be fine. I would be surprised if you don't get an RFE for the missing white book. I'm almost 100% sure a photocopy needs to be included with the I130.

Not to add any additional pressure but I absolutely would haul ass to get this done. USCIS has decided to close all international field offices by the end of March 2020, with the bulk of them shuttering by the end of January 2020. They've already closed Manila, Moscow, and one of the Mexico offices. Once a cut-off date is set, all new petitions will be forwarded to the Chicago lock box. My guess is that an application with a pending RFE would get forwarded to one of the USCIS service centers in the US, which would significantly lengthen the process and create more opportunities for USCIS to screw up or lose your paperwork. Yes, you will need the white book. Someone just recently posted a similar topic - getting RFE'd during AOS after submitting only the medical certificate: http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/49893-rfe-for-birth-cert-after-biometrics-while-in-the-us-on-travel-visa/ Any chance some $$$ might persuade her father to change course? Just a thought ...

I'm not judging, just genuinely curious - what's keeping you from leaving her? Do you really think things would be even worse if you were on your own? Obviously bickering, getting fed up with each other, and the occasional blow up are unavoidable even in healthy couples, but spitting is just straight up mental instability.

Yep, stepping out of that elevator at the consulate is like stepping into a little piece of China, but in Chicago. What are the odds that the staff person was, in fact, just ordinary by Chinese standards and the last year and a half of visiting American doctors and hospitals made mama a little soft? Believe me if this was a shopkeeper or taxi driver or even government bureaucrat in China my wife would have no problems telling them to get bent. But best not to risk it when it come to our daughter's travel document haha. Let's just say the phone call ended with the employee angrily hanging up the phone after my wife asked how we could renounce our daughter's citizenship.

My wife ended up calling the consulate in Chicago and spoke to an (incredibly rude) employee regarding our daughter's travel. Turns out she will indeed need the travel card, which isn't a total shock since I got a bunch of feedback from you guys. We have an appointment set up for the day after labor day, so we'll drive down and combine it with a family visit/vacation (my parents live in Chicago).

Thanks all. I think we have enough ammunition to begin the process next week. I'll post an update in case someone finds themselves in a similar situation in the future.

Sorry to hear of the trouble you're having. I'm a newcomer to this board so I don't know what you've posted before, but hopefully things end up working out one way or another. If there's any advice you can offer, it'd be much appreciated for a "greenhorn" like me Welcome!. This has been going on for 12 years. Hell I have suffered so much abuse that it has just become a normal way of life. I hope you have better luck than I have! Nice to hear from someone new. Come on back and let us hear from you! We're going on two years (plus many years of "dating" before) and it's been a great two years with an 11 month old baby. If there's one thing I learned, it's to nip problem relationships in the bud, immediately. Learned that in college after I dragged on a relationship for like 18 months after I should've ended it, but didn't because I was too scared to tell her to GTFO. What a ******* waste of time, and for reasons far less sever than abuse. Never again.

Thanks Randy. My wife has done the HK-Shenzhen border run several times when we used to meet up in Hong Kong years back. I think our plan is as follows: 1. Give the tourist L-visa a shot. Maybe the officer will make an exception, or just not care and grant it. This would be great. Fortunately, we'll find out quickly and the visa agency will also have their input as they deal with these cases often. 2. Consider whether to go to the consulate in Chicago to get the travel document + renounce Chinese citizenship during the trip + get an L-visa for the next trip. 3. Screw it and just go to HK. Hopefully my MIL can get a US tourist visa going forward which makes traveling to China much less necessary. The inability to use the US consulate on a travel document may be the deal breaker for my wife. Obviously it's unlikely that we'd need to use it, but these days it's better to be safe than sorry.

Thanks Greg - can you just clarify the part I bolded? Does this mean that the child would not have the ability to use the embassy on a tourist L-visa (even though she has a US passport)? But she will on a travel document? This is really important for us. I think we are going to give it a shot, and be ready to take a trip to the Chicago consulate in early September if we get rejected. There's also the option of going to Hong Kong as well although that is somewhat of a hassle for my wife who is traveling on a mainland Chinese passport. Oddly enough, last night my wife found this: http://www.china-embassy.org/chn/lszj/qz/t1234521.htm , which, as she understands it, agrees with my earlier thinking. Glad I asked around before diving in!

Fortunately my parents live in Chicago so we can make the 6-hour drive down from MN and hang out at my parents' place for a few nights. Cost isn't an issue but this is really one huge f****g hassle that is irritating us the more we dig into it. According to the visa service I used last year, she actually "should" be okay for an L-visa if we can show that my wife is a legal resident of the US. She did have her combo EAD/AP card before our daughter's birth, and has her green card now, which may be enough. I'm going to call them again tomorrow to verify this. This agrees with the Chinese consulate's LA webpage: http://losangeles.china-consulate.org/eng/visa/chinavisa/t1448668.htm Thanks a lot Greg! We'll bring diapers, medicine, and milk powder from the US. We're planning on 4 weeks, so I think one large suit case for our baby (well, she'll be around 13 months when we travel...) should be enough. I believe the plane has a 3-3-3 seat configuration on the 787 so we'll pay the extra $500-600 to get a guaranteed row to ourselves.

Are you referring to the Chinese consulate in the US? Our daughter was born in the US and has a US passport - that should be sufficient to show citizenship when I mail in the application, right? I was hoping to be able to use a visa service for her like I did with my own L-visa to avoid taking a trip to Chicago .... Edit: I see now that minors require a copy of their birth certificate, copy of parents' passport pages, and proof of status in the US of my wife (copy of the green card, I suppose). My wife was not issued her green card until after the birth, but I don't see them asking for proof of status when the baby was born. Uh, no! They will not recognize her American citizenship by the Chinese Nationality Law - she would be required to travel on travel permits. ​ "Settled" is interpreted as meaning "has a green card, effective at the time of birth". They can give you a hard time - just be prepared. Yes, going through a visa service would be fine as long as you provide the needed information. See Greg.D.'s post here - http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/49770-travel-document/?p=640830 The green card will have the "Resident since" (or Date of Admission) information - you won't have any trouble. Thanks Randy. The only wrinkle I see in our scenario is that my wife's green card "Resident since" date is well after our daughter's birthday. She was here on authorized stay and gave birth while we were waiting for our green card interview. My wife wants our daughter to have absolutely nothing to do with Chinese citizenship hence the preference for the L visa. She's paranoid there will be issues entering (or even worse, exiting) China. I appreciate the thread that you sent me, but man did it make my head spin. Glad I'm a few beers in on a day off from work. If this whole visa process goes astray and we can't get things wrapped up in time, my wife's aunt has HK residency and we're thinking it may just be easier for all of us to meet in HK at her place. But we'll give it a shot.

Are you referring to the Chinese consulate in the US? Our daughter was born in the US and has a US passport - that should be sufficient to show citizenship when I mail in the application, right? I was hoping to be able to use a visa service for her like I did with my own L-visa to avoid taking a trip to Chicago .... Edit: I see now that minors require a copy of their birth certificate, copy of parents' passport pages, and proof of status in the US of my wife (copy of the green card, I suppose). My wife was not issued her green card until after the birth, but I don't see them asking for proof of status when the baby was born.

My wife and I are planning on taking a trip to China later this year so the in-laws can meet our 11-month old daughter for the first time. Our daughter will be around 13 months old when we travel. I have a 10-year L (tourist visa). In the future we plan to stay anywhere from 2-4 weeks. Would an L visa be appropriate for a small child? Any other China-specific related tips for traveling with a (approximately) 1-year old kid?

Sorry to hear of the trouble you're having. I'm a newcomer to this board so I don't know what you've posted before, but hopefully things end up working out one way or another. If there's any advice you can offer, it'd be much appreciated for a "greenhorn" like me

Great point, and even better if you can get as much of this in writing as possible. One other (hail mary) option may be to try to call USCIS, plead your case, and ask for emergency advance parole. It's pretty difficult to get, and not sure if they'd even consider it given the missing docs, but at this point it's worth a few phone calls IMO. Call USCIS, speak to a T2 officer, and try to get an Infopass appointment at your local field office.

This will result in her I-485 getting denied as she doesn't have AP yet. A real tough situation. She may run into issues with CBP upon re-entry if they can see the (theoretically cancelled) I-485, and even if they let her in, she may have possible issues with USCIS regarding intent if they file the I485 a second time on a B1/B2, since it's pretty damn clear what they are up to. I'd do anything possible to get the document from within the US. Exhaust all possible options before having her go get it. Otherwise, you're probably looking at going the CR1 road down the future.... That was the problem We did not apply for Advance Parole since we did not plan to leave the country at all, and we do not want to abandon our application. too costly and timely. ThanksThat was the problem We did not apply for Advance Parole since we did not plan to leave the country at all, and we do not want to abandon our application. too costly and timely. Thanks We will try from here somehow, but again it's tough and 80 days time seems long, but it's not. If anyone else can't give an idea that's great too! If it makes you feel any better, I don't think it would've mattered in this situation. AP takes 6-8 months now, and even if it were faster, I'm not sure they'd process it anyways until all her documentation were complete. For all future readers - there is no additional charge for AP and it's a very short form - apply!! Especially with the I-485 processing times averaging 11-13 months, and up to 18-24 months in the busiest field offices. Sorry for the situation you're in. We also adjusted from a B2 visa but fortunately my mother-in-law was able to get all the documents at the local gov't office. If I we're in you're position I'd speak to a good and very reputable attorney or immigration consultant, ideally in your wife's hometown. The lawyer that multinational firms and rich Chinese people use. At the very least to get their input. Even if it's costly, you're probably going to be getting the real thing and will spend less than having to buy her a plane ticket and pay to refile the application. Now is not the time to be farting around with one-man WeChat operations and shady middlemen. Best of luck, and hopefully someone offers a better solution. One final thing: I'm not sure the 80 day time period on the B2 is really relevant anymore as she has a pending I485 and is authorized to stay in the US until USCIS adjudicates her application. Her B2 is probably as good as gone, now that she has shown intent to permanently stay in the US and may have issues with CBP upon re-entry. Did USCIS give a deadline?

This will result in her I-485 getting denied as she doesn't have AP yet. A real tough situation. She may run into issues with CBP upon re-entry if they can see the (theoretically cancelled) I-485, and even if they let her in, she may have possible issues with USCIS regarding intent if they file the I485 a second time on a B1/B2, since it's pretty damn clear what they are up to. I'd do anything possible to get the document from within the US. Exhaust all possible options before having her go get it. Otherwise, you're probably looking at going the CR1 road down the future....

My wife's English isn't the greatest - she's very conversational and has no issues talking about work, travel, raising kids, etc. but if you ask her about more complicated topics like "corporate espionage" she won't know where to begin. Before our AOS interview she basically spent two weeks cramming the I-485/I-130 forms, made flashcards for words she didn't know, had me constantly "practice" interview her, and so on. All while raising our 8 month old baby at the time. Turns out that was enough to fly though the interview without an interpreter without any issues.

Congratulations! Check both of the USCIS sites (the DHS one and the egov one). It should say "Case was Approved" or "Card in Production" depending on how fast things move along. We were told at the interview that we'd be approved and an hour later the online statuses were updated.

Not true. They can adjust from B1 or B2 status. There are people waiting over 8 months for advance parole. It's insane how much the process has slowed down. Be sure to check the current I-485 processing times.... most offices are around 1 year for the I-485, with some of the busier offices (eg Seattle, SF, NY) taking 18-24 months to complete AOS due to the massive interview backlog.

Is there a minimum amount of time you must live in China on a resident permit (like the US green card)?