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?

That's exactly what I dread, especially with chinese officers at China. So we"ll postpone that trip to visit his parents until he gets the green card.

Carl, thanks for your reply. I know I can always get a wise answer from my old friends at Candle. To be on the safe side I prefer that he stay until he gets the card. This because the officer at Homeland Sec. told us that she thinks that he will not get an answer until around March or April, because it seems he's going through a security check now. An it seems that we will have to go for another interview. Life has been good, Qisheng and me have been married for 3.5 years and have a stable marriage. He and my daughter have got along well, which is great considering that she's 20 years old and have never been and easy child. The only problem is that he has not been able to keep a stable job because of the language barrier. Even though Puerto Rico is a territory of USA and english is a mandatory subject in schools, and most of the textbooks are written in english, many people are not able to speak it fluently, so I noticed they rather have a spanish speaking employee in their companies. Qisheng has been studying a lot but has not got to the point yet where he could have a full conversation in spanish. He have had two jobs, one where he resigned because the working conditions were terrible, and a professional services contract that lasted less than one year because the company had to cut expenses. On top of that we had to cancel an option to buy a commercial space for a fast food restaurant in a medical office building because the offices had been selling very slow. Now we're negotiating other options but to rent a space. Hopefully we would get something soon, because Qisheng is not very happy staying at home every day. He helps a lot around the house and goes to the gym every day, but you can imagine knowing the chinese mentality how he feels not being able to provide for the family. I have always been an optimistic person, and have the motto "today you cry, tomorrow you act". So I withdrew some money from my savings plan at the bank to provide for the months to come, and where lucky enough to get a call from the university where I used to teach accounting and was offered a class (after 4 years of not hearing from them). So can't complain. As you can imagine I have not much spare time left to visit Candle but once in a while I spend some moments late at night. I'm very glad that things have gone well for you and Bing, you deserved the best also. Take care.

We're still waiting for Qisheng's removal of conditions approval, last week we went to the US Homeland Sec. office and got a new stamp in his passport renewed last month in SF. They explained that the stamp is good for travelling and working, but..... I'm afraid that if he goes to China the chinese officers at the airport give trouble to him as he has not a "green card". The consulate officer at SF questioned about the stamp and had to consult with another officer before agreeing to process the passport renewal. If this happens in USA, imagine what could happen in China. He was planning to visit his family for the chinese new year but now I asked him to wait until he get his permanent green card. I feel terrible about this, but I will feel worst if later he can't leave China. Can anybody give me some light on the subject?

Unbelievable: VSC processing time for I-751 as of February 15, 2008: working on applications received by March 2007. VSC processing time for I-751 as of March 15, 2008: working on applications received by February 2, 2007. Way to go....... (he, he)

It's always nice to hear from you all too, and to get your advice and support. I will try to do a walk-in at the Immigration office if I still get the same message at the website on Monday. Then I"ll try the biometrics office, I remember last time we went, there were few people and the guys working there were very nice. BTW, I also found out today that the case # that is written in the money order sent is not the same number to be used when you try finding the case status online, so there's two EAD #'s for my hubbie. Today I was mad to myself for not insisting more and calling more frequently, but I guess it was because all the time I kept hearing that it was taking them a long time to process these cases. You guys take care, and thanks for your answers.

On Dec. 26 I sent all our paperwork to Vermont, money order was cashed on Jan 10 but no receipt received as of today, one day before my husband's green card expire. Last time we call was around 3 or 4 weeks ago where the customer service rep told us to call today if no correspondence was received from USCIS. OK, today I called and the woman informed me that they did sent the receipt notice and also we had missed the biometrics appointment; this because the address used by them was missing our apartment #. Missing the biometrics can cause our case to be denied!!! So why in the world the rep did not tell us this when we call 4 weeks ago?? The woman today said I should get an Infopass appointment. I tried to get one and the message received was: At this time, there are no information appointments available for the office in your area. Please try back again later. Can somebody explain me what this mean? Come back again one month later and let's see if there is an available appointment in the next year? They should not be charging us so much money ($545 ) for such a poor service. What do they think we are? I'm really pissed, for the past 6 years I have been doing all they want to get to bring my love one home: taking photos together, videos together, printing love letters, filling out forms, paying them money, waiting for a name check that took forever, etc, etc. I'm just sick and tired of all this, show us some respect please.......... Any way, the woman gave me the case #, tried rearranging the mailing address in a way that will work and said she was going to try to get a new biometrics appointment. Also suggested that I get a box at my local post office. All these because the person who sent the receipt did not have enough gray matter to include the apt # in the letter sent. Sorry, I just needed to let the fumes out. Hope this can be of help to any of you who are going through the same. Think of all possible calamities before sending your application, and never trust what they tell you, call over and over again until you get the answer you expect.

We're still waiting for the NOA, money order was cashed on 1-9-2008. The check has a number on the top but it isn't readable at all. It seems to contain two lines, the first one looks as it is the EAD # and the second seems to have info about the date deposited. Some days ago I called their customer service number and the woman would not talk to me if my husband was not in the call. It's frustrating...........

Thanks for the info, I can try that!

My biggest concern is if we can receive the NOA 1 before the green card expires. We sent the paperwork 3 months before it expires but VSC can take up to 15 weeks to send NOA1. We're planning a trip on Memorial Day which requires us to apply for a tourist visa for husband and now I'm afraid to do all the spending and effort and at the end cancel everything because we still don't have that document.

We sent all paperwork to remove conditions on December 26 to VSC, USCIS site as of January 15, 2008 states they're processing applications from March 2007 . As of yesterday (6 weeks later) we haven't got any news from Vermont. Called the customer service phone, a message says that the receipt can take up to 15 weeks, wow!!!! Personally I don't beliebe the BS that they got a higher volume because of the increased fees. What will happen when my hubbie's green card expires and there's still not a receipt showing that conditional status has been extended. Only evidence I got is a copy of the cashed money order, will this be good? This is really frustrating, when will the nightmare end????