mari

Hi to all of you, it's been a very long time since I don't enter the site and I see such great changes. I will always feel grateful to all of you who helped me and gave such great advice on how to deal with the visa process. So many things have happened since then, but we are fine and my husband has been a US citizen for quite some time. My situation now is that after 6 years of my husband arriving to USA he's worried for his parents as his older brother moved to Europe to live, so now there's no one to take care of them when they get older. He visits them once a year but that will not be enough in the future. So we have thought of inviting them to visit us with the hope that maybe they will decide to live with us after we apply for the corresponding visa. Of course they will go back and wait until all is done. Our big concern is that once they arrive to USA on a tourist visa, how can they get medical treatment if something happened to them? Is there any special medical insurance we can buy for them? Thanks!

Thank you Carl, I will never forget how much help we got from you and others at Candle. Like when we recorded that video of us together before the interview took place. It was a life saver! You guys really have a very informative site for the chinese/american families. God bless!

May 21st at 9:00 AM, federal courthouse at San Juan, Puerto Rico: my dear husband finally became a US. citizen. There were 36 people from 10 countries, from Chile to China. We're so glad it's all over, even though Qisheng has some mixed feelings concerning going back to China and having to get a tourist visa. We've discussed about this before, and the judge also said some key words: you will never lose what brought you to this day, your culture , where you come from and what you are. Wise!

We got the appointment notice for the oath ceremony: thursday 21 at 8:00 AM, two weeks after the interview. We're happy, happy...

Thanks guys, Qisheng passed! The appointment was at 9:00AM, we were there at 8:30, there were less than 20 people waiting for interview. Some people got there after us and were called before us, so we figured that each officer must have specific people assigned to them. Around 11:30AM I decided to go to my work so I grabbed a taxi and asked him to call me as soon as he finished. The call finally got in at 1:30PM. He said he was so hungry he could not remember the questions asked. One thing that surprised me was that the officer questioned him about me not being there. He explained that I was there during all morning but it took so long that I had to go back to the office. As I recall there's no place in the appointment notice which required that I accompany him. In fact, I'm almost sure that he had seen me because I noticed each time they opened the door and called somebody, they took a good look to everyone sitting in the room. And here's a good one: the night before I insisted my hubby that we should go through the N-400 application so I asked all questions to him. The officer also asked everything, and I mean everything, all pages of it, then when the time came to say what our address was, he said: "Apt 1402, I think".... You think??? That means you are not sure where you live at? Then Qisheng said that he was a little anxious so that's why he said that. The thing is, that Qisheng has never cared about what apartment number we got! Especially because when we receive our mail we write down a box number. At the end, he asked for our 2008 income tax return, which I had included in the folder, and any other documentation applicable, and told him he will receive a notice for the ceremony which would take at the most 4 months to arrive. I got two questions: 1- does it really takes that long? and 2-do they get the passport automatically on the day of the ceremony or do they have to pass through the same process as any other citizen applying for a passport for the first time? Again, thanks to all for your support.

Thanks Carl, you've always been so supportive. Hope you and Bing are doing well. I will post tomorrow the results. Take care.

Thanks! I think I'm starting to be a little anxious too as it's later than 1:00AM and still awake.

Well, we're finally at the end of it, Qisheng's appointment is May 7 at 9:00 AM. We've been going through the 100 questions many times and he knows them all. Tonight before going to bed he mentioned he was beginning to feel nervous. I hope he does well, I will be there waiting for him to come out and give me the good news. Will let you know.

Wow, that's great Mike. I hope Qisheng get his before summer. Thanks for the good advice. You know, when he went for his fiancee visa interview at GZ the Vo wanted to deny his visa. He was so ignorant that did not believed that we could speak to each other in english because his mother language was chinese and mine spanish. The things was that we were so prepared by the friends at Candle that at the end he admitted he had to give a pink slip.

So we're almost ready to go, it's unbelievable that we're now in this stage. How long will it take them to process our application? We will be filing to Vermont which some years ago was the fastest procressing center but not anymore. In these past days I've been making copies of all the documentation we have, again.... Anyway I'm so happy we will soon finish all this nightmare. Hope all you have happy holidays and may you and your families receive many blessings in the year to come.

March 22, 2006 is the date, I've always been confused with the "permanent resident" term because in my mind that "permanent" status was really a "temporary status" until you remove conditions. Anyway, we're filing cause it's already 90 days before the 3 year term. Kim, I'm so glad to hear from you. It's unbelievable Joseph will now be 5 years old.

Thanks for your answers. I wonder if it will be OK to send the same evidence I sent for the removal of conditions, as we haven't filed a new income tax return yet (I sent the 2007 one) and the only additional piece of evidence I can add are the tickets we bought for a cruise ship leaving on January 4th. I'm planning to send the paperwork on new year's week. BTW Mike, where did you filed your N-400? I think they approved it damn fast.

We're getting ready to file the N-400 but I got a concern with the question regarding how many trips and for how many days my husband had been out of US since becoming a lawful permanent resident. What's the purpose of it? The longest time he's been out is 43 days he spent in China with his parents last year. Just want to make sure that everything's OK before sending it. And BTW he became a resident on March 22, 2005. As I understand, we can file anytime after December 22, 2008, is this right?

We did not received the NOA because they messed up our mailing address and as the apartment # was missing a number, it never got to us; neither the biometrics appointment. Calling their 800 number just delayed our case. It was not until we went to the Dept of Homeland Security and got an infopass that we knew what happened. At the time almost 2 months have passed since the date he was scheduled for biometrics. They stamped his passport extending his residency and work authorization for one year. I think you should contact the Beijing embassy to see if they could stamp her passport after they check her I-751 status. Important to get the biometrics done before leaving to Beijing as one member said. I think that once you send it and receive the NOA you can try showing up where they do the biometrics and explain your situation and see if they can do it that same day. I'm sure they will be able to help you, as they did with us. Good luck.

I'm not sure if this is the right name, but I know it's close. As I recall she was the consular affairs officer or had a similar position at the Department of State. She helped us to get the interview faster once the name check hell was over. Now I have a close friend who needs help, she's pregnant and due on the first week of January. Her husband is from Costa Rica and went for interview on November 4th at the consulate there, was approved but afterwards received a call from the consulate saying that a name check must be done before he could get his visa. I would like to suggest her to write to this woman but I've lost her e-mail address. Does anyone have it?