SeanC

Thank you, especially Randy and Barfus, for your many replies to my questions and uncertainties throughout this process. I started on candle for love 23 months ago asking about the basics of getting the I-130 done to get my pregnant wife to the US, and now my family is finally here, arrived last week, my wife and 15 month old daughter. They are jet-lagged but happy. Still a lot to be done too... find a place to live, get social security numbers, get them enrolled for insurance. But that brutal parts are done. Thanks, candleforlove!

I arleady thought of this. I would be willing to pay 150 extra per bag, but the problem is that because of COVID, its looking like I cannot go to help my wife travel. She will be traveling alone with the baby, and she will not be able to handle extra luggage by herself. I understand on the stateside we can plan ahead for porters to help move luggage through US customers, but that Chinese airports do not offer this service.

Remarkably, I got an email today telling me the passport and visa packet have been mailed. It only took 3 days from the interview to complete processing. My wife will receive it on Monday. So now I have a decision to make... wait until the first week of July to travel, or bring her here around the end of this month and face paper work and additional fees two years from now. @Randy, what is a white book? We were married in Hong Kong, so thats the marriage cert we have. I don't know anything about a white book. Also, while I'm on here, I'd like to ask y'all how you ship all your belongings home. I have asked around a lot and friends of mine couldn't find a way that didn't cost thousands of dollars, so they only brought what they could fit in a few suit cases. Is there a reasonable way to ship 15-20 medium sized boxes, or just forget about it and buy new stuff?

GZ consulate has been pretty good through all this. The CRBA interview was scheduled quickly, the passport came back in less than 3 weeks (I waited longer than that for my own in the US recently), and the visa interview was scheduled at the earliest end of the time frame. So I think her visa will come soon.

The interview as a breeze, in fact. They asked her whether she had ever visited the US, what my job is, and why our daughter doesn't need a visa. She was approved, and now we just have to wait for her to receive her visa in the mail. So this is new to me... the length of marriage depends on how long we were married before she reaches port of entry, NOT on when she is awarded the visa? Are you saying I can avoid the $680 fee two years down the road for removal of conditions if I wait until our second anniversary? Because that will be in early July. I was expecting her to be able to come here by mid-June, but it might be worth saving that much money to wait a few weeks longer.

I'm so glad this hell is almost over. But really its not, its a CR-1 visa so there is still more to do until two years after she arrives. I mean, come on! But at least she and my kid will be here.

The consulate instructions tell me to "schedule my interview" at ustraveldocs.com. This is confusing, because my interview is already scheduled. I followed the prompts requesting my wife's passport info and mailing information to receive the passport after the interview. It gave me a confirmation page to print and take to the interview. But that's it. The dashboard doesn't show that anything has actually happened. Is this all I need to do at this affiliate's website?

How'd you know she will interview in Guangzhou? They scheduled my daughter's CRBA really fast. I heard back in a few days after my request, they scheduled it for the following week, and the passport and cert came two weeks later. Covid doesn't seem to have slowed it down much, but maybe that has changed since last summer. We shall see.

Update: Turns out there was nothing wrong with my DS-260 form, they said over the phone that it was just a strangely worded note that did not require any changes to the form. The only problem was that I was ineligible for the 864EZ form. I have no idea why, because I meet all the stated criteria, but I've filled out the long form and submitted it, so I hope I am on my way to scheduling an interview for my wife.

Thanks. I'm moving forward on the 864 long form, but it won't let me change anything on the DS-260, so I'm trying to contact them to get it changed. I'm probably not the only one that wishes they would state their questions more clearly.

Situation: My wife is a Chinese national living in China with our infant daughter, who last year received her CRBA cert and a US passport. My wife's I-130 was approved in September. I submitted all the visa application files yesterday. I received these notes from the NVC today (fast, right?): ------------------ Question 1: DS-260: The petition you have filed does not allow derivative status for family members. This means that any spouse, unmarried child under age 21, or parent will require his or her own petition to immigrate. This seems to imply that I should submit an I-130 for our daughter. But this doesn't make sense to me because she is a US citizen. The only thing I can guess triggered this response is that on the DS-260 application, where it asks whether our daughter will immigrate with her mother, I chose "Yes." I have tried to change it to "No," but it won't let me change the response now. I contacted the NVC to clarify the problem, but as of now, I am not certain, and don't know how to remedy it. ------------------ Question 2: I-864: Sean does not qualify to use Form I-864EZ. Please visit https://www.uscis.gov/i-864 to complete a Form I-864 to replace this. FINANCIAL SPONSORSHIP RESPONSIBILITIES: Financial sponsors, joint sponsors, and applicants should be aware of responsibilities when signing an I-864 and the consequences for a sponsored immigrant's acceptance of federal means-tested public benefits. For more information visit https://nvc.state.gov/aos. The review note says I am not eligible for the I-864EZ. However, from answering these three questions, the EZ form should be sufficient. The possible reasons for this rejection that I can guess may be the DS-260 answers detailed above, or possibly the way I answer the household question: I list a dependent with a household size of three, despite our daughter not technically being an immigrant. Maybe that is triggering the ineligibility? ------------------ I hope someone has some knowledge they can offer. Thank you very much.

I forgot to reply and say thank you for all the great advice. Some of these things I had already figured out, but y'all filled in some gaps in my understanding of this (kind of) complex issue. The only remaining issue for me is whether I can get stimulus checks for the two of them. Thank you again very much.

Apologies if this is too far off topic, but I thought it might be relevant to other users here. This is the first tax year I have had a child. My wife has not yet received her visa. My infant daughter has a US passport. Neither have a social security number or ITIN yet. Is it beneficial or even possible to file jointly? If I file individually, should I or am I able to claim my wife as a dependent? Am I able to claim my daughter as a dependent without a social security number? Thank you for any input from anyone who has experience with this.

How do you find all this stuff? I looked all over, including the State Department website and couldn't find this info. Drives me nuts. The DS-5507 form I already knew, but I searched for over an hour for what the Federal government standardizes for notarization and no clear info anywhere.

I won't be able to attend the CRBA interview. The instructions tell me to fill out a DS-5507 affidavit of physical presence, residence, parentage or support form. The snag i'm running into is that I can't find anything that tells me how and where to get it acceptably notarized. I'm not sure what the Guangzhou embassy wants. Please help!