xiaofeizhu

Congratulations on your pink! Best wishes for your future together, and enjoy the rest of your time in China!

I have been looking into joining a organization called Asian Women in Business (AWIB) and I am wondering if any of your wives (or you, if you are a wife), belong to this organization. I think it would look good on my resume, but if anyone has first hand experience I would like to know about it. Supposedly, the networking is good and there are conferences where Asian business women can get together and exchange contacts and tips, etc. Anyone?

This is the exact same problem that we had with the LA consulate. People said it shows up in the paper, but honestly, I haven't seen a thing, and here in Hawaii, we just do not have the luxury of finding airline tickes on a dime without paying through our you know where. So, when we had a family reunion in Vegas, we booked a one day trip to LA, and just did it there. My hubby was mad as a hot tamale when he got there because he said that the people there were rude and mean (I was listening, and yes, they were). He said they were acting like they were better than the "other Chinese people" (read, the people who were on the other side of the glass). All in all, a bad experience. However, we had to do it. Anyway, we applied for the passport and then we had to pay $150 to have a proxy send it (Able Tours, located within the consulate building) because we could not wait one month (the time it takes to get it). Looks like the consulates across the country have this problem. If your wife's passport still has some time left, I would wait it out and see. For us, my hubby's passport was up and we waited for almost a year and they did not come. The dates on the consulates websites were for last year and we just could not wait for them any longer. If you cannot wait it out, then I would try to tie it into a vacation so that at least you have another reason to go to the consulate. Best of luck. Please update us if you hear any news because I would like it for further reference for later on. In the future, we will try to plan trips to China within 6 months of his passport expiring so that we can just do it there, where it takes like 4 days. lol.

Congratulations on your call in letter! I am glad that you didn't have to wait very long to go from blue to pink!! Best wishes and soon we will be able to welcome you, and your wife, home!

@dnoblett and credzba,thanks for the heads up. I guess all there is to do is to wait, just like always lol. Thanks guys!

We got the one year extension on Friday, July 16; they received the I-175 on July 12. Did your letter ask you to send in (if you haven't already) your proof that you are a bona fide couple? We sent all of this in with the application, so we are assuming that we don't have to do anything. Is this a correct assumption?

LOL LOL LOL Ahhh, the price we pay for living in "paradise". I guess things are getting pretty desparate here, though. I just bought a new car and the original offer on my trade in was $7,000 (it had a huge dent on the side from where I was hit-and-run at UHH and according to the sales man, "the dog hair would be impossible to get out" hello, can you say vaccum cleaner). I told them I would not spend more than $10,500 on a new car and they ended up giving me over $9,000 for the trade in to satisfy my requirments. The blue book value on my car in excellent condition (i.e. no dog hair or hit-and-run evidence) is around $10,000. Now is a good time to buy whatever you can afford, IMHO. LOL. As for the gas, we are at $3.43. It goes up and down a cent almost every other day, haha. When I was in Vegas last month, it was $2.8something. The cost of fruit is out of hand here. Incidentally, my hubby just paid $8 for a white pineapple. He was completely ripped off by his "friend" in Kalapana. Haha. Reminds me of the time I paid 30 yuan for 1 jin of grapes in Beijing. PS the GE tax sucks. I sometimes tell my customers who can take a joke, 'we don't have sales tax in Hawaii'. Oh well.

Welcome to CFL! I also DCFed in China, so when you do get to your DCF next year, I am willing to answer any questions that I can for you. As to your situation, I am sure others will come along with better suggestions. The things I can think of are: 1. Do you have any pics from your meeting in Feb 2009? That would probably help to show you met physically and have known each other for 2 years (it will be two years next year since you first physically met) 2. I never had e-mails, but I imagine even those type of "try msn" e-mails would be good for just showing that you have been in contact with each other 3. You still have some time to gather more evidence. Take pictures, and do anything you can to gather other evidence. Other things that I did while in China include adding my hubby to my credit union account. I know many people have problems with this without their spouse/fiance being present, but if you have a CU account in the states, they might be willing to let you add her. For me, my CU told me to have the form signed by me, and my husband, then notarize the signatures. See if they are willing to do this for you, too. Try to get affidavits from people who know you and can attest to your relationship. This is good and I included two because I didn't have many types of evidence like joint ownership of assets other than the credit union account, which had a balance of like $53. Maybe if your employer knows that your fiance is living with you they would be willing to provide an affidavit stating that know you have been living together since _____. My hubby and I took literally thousands of pics during our time together before we DCFed. Obviously, we did not include this many pics, but we did pick some in different places and different times, with mutual friends, family, etc. Other than that, make sure that you have evidence to establish your domicile. Good luck, and I am sure others will have better ideas!

We are waiting too. It was accepted today, so we will see when the cash is cashed, hopefully soon. What service center are you guys using? We are Cali.

Sent it out today, guaranteed delivery by July 12, at 3:00pm. Does anyone know how long it should take before he gets the extension? What about the biometrics and eventually, the 10 year gc? Thanks everyone!

Ugh. I just lost my entire post. Stupid Stupid Stupid. I will try to recreate what I was writing about...hope I remember it all... Sorry I just saw your post today! My husband and I had no problems with our Japanese paperwork when we went through GUZ. We DCF'ed in Beijing. We were married in Kyoto at the 下京区区役所. Since my hubby is Chinese and I am American, we obviously don't/didn't have a koseki. For our marriage certificate, we got a 受理証明書、婚姻届 from the ward office where we registered. They give them out for like 300 yen or something, so we had like a whole bunch of them (I think we ordered 10, lol). We had a few of them translated at the American consulate in Osaka because they have a nice form that you just fill in the blanks (like name, citizenship, birthdate, filing date, etc.) Then they put a nice translation certification on the back, so we had three pages all together. If you have the certificate of acceptance in Japanese only, of course, you could just do the translation yourself. Since your wife has a koseki, I am going on the assumption that she is Japanese (please correct me if I am wrong). As dnoblett mentioned, we went through hell and back to get the police certificate. When we were in Beijing, they kept giving us excuses and all kinds of BS. It seemed like Japanese citizens were getting them done, though, because we overheard several conversations about it. Even still, I would try to see if she can get one already. If worse comes to worse, a girl with a lot of similar circumstances, Vanessa, went through the same thing, and her hubby ended up going to Japan to get the police cert himself since he still had time left on his student visa. Her link about that is here: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...st&p=388454 As for the birth certificate, I am sure you could get something similar to the 受理証明書, just explain to the ward office what you need it for. All the other documents I translated myself and we had no problems with them. The types of documents we had were college certificates of the Japanese language courses we took together (to show that we could communicate in Japanese), an affidavit from a Japanese friend who attested to our ability to speak in Japanese, etc. I would definitely reccommend the DCF route. You shouldn't have any problems with the documents, just make sure you have everything translated. Best of luck, and let me know if I can help you with anything! *****edit***** Ok, looking at your posts, I think your wife is actually Chinese, right? So the only thing would be the marriage certificate. Does this mean you have a koseki? I am slightly confused, but hope my info helps anyway.

Thanks guys. Randy, be careful! Although this new car will be used mostly by me, my hubby has been known to detour and run amok when borrowing my car. He may end up in China, then you'd really have something to worry about! Dnoblett, will do. I will go to the post office first thing tomorrow and have delivery confirmation and certification.

Hey all, My hubby's conditional residence expires on July 23, this year. I have not sent out the I-751 yet because we decided to purchase a new car, so we wanted that to be included as evidence. We are getting the title tomorrow. Everything is ready to go, I just need to include the info for the car, so everything should be ready to send out on Friday. I will go to the post office first thing Friday morning, and plan to go the fastest route with confirmation, etc. I figure it will physically arrive there on either Saturday or Monday (to the Cali service center). I noticed that most people get their extension letter about two weeks later. I know I am being paranoid, but as long as it gets there before the 23rd, there should be no issues, right? If they are extremely busy and do not look at our petition until after the 23rd, we are still ok, right? You guys know me, by now...I always have some kind of paranoid thought flying in my mind somewhere. Has anyone else out there waited until this late in the game?

Hi there, I am not sure if you saw my post for what my hubby and I did for our domicile requirement, so I decided to copy it here for you to read and use as you see fit (or for what applies to your situation) Also, you are a LPR, so number 2 won't apply, but I think many of the others can apply to your situation. Best of luck!

Congratulations on the gc arrival. Now you guys can travel and do all those fun things without worry for the next two years. Just don't lose the gc like my hubby did!

Very cute story. That's one of the sad parts of their English improving. (I know, I know, shoot me, I should be glad my hubby's English is getting better). Their little accents and funny way of making sentences or saying words goes to waste. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Thank ya Erika...it was with joy that I saw you and your husband's success. Oh the fun we had while you were waiting and workin' your way through the process. I'll put up a new timeline as things unfold. tsap seui Hehe...good times, good times. I know it will all go well. Can't wait to see your new timeline with: Date - PINK!!

Tsap~ It's been a long road for you, and I can only wish you my sincere best wishes for your new path. I hope that everything goes smoothly. You deserve it the most. Keep us updated!

OHHHHH Now I can rightfully congratulate you for the CG! Congratulations!!

Congratulations! Best wishes for the next step in your lives together!

Our proposed place of residence was my mom and dads house. It worked well enough for us, but like I said, they never asked for our domicile stuff. I guess it depends who you have and what the other circumstances of your case are. Maybe others can chime in who have DCFed about the extent of their domicile issues in the interview.

Hi, I DCFed in China after being abroad for 3 years (two in Japan, one in China). In order to prove domicile, I included the following items: 1. Joint checking with my husband at the credit union (I know others have had problems with getting their spouse on the account when they are not in the US, but my CU had me fill out and notarize my signature and send the form back) 2. Voting stubs for my absentee voting I did while in Japan 3. Taxes for each year that I was overseas (showing I filed taxes even if I was abroad, also joint filing for the years I was married to my husband) 4. Acceptance letter to my local community college for me and hubby for the ESL program 5. I copied my drivers license because it showed that I had renewed it during the time I was living overseas 6. Had some mail that was sent to my parent's house (credit card bills, letters, etc) to show that I was receiving mail somewhere in the US 7. My credit union also wrote a nice letter for me stating that I was a member of good standing with a current account with withdrawls and deposits regularly occuring (ie, it was not just a stagnant account) When my husband interviewed, domicile never came up. They did not ask for proof of my domicile even though I had it all ready for my hubby to give. I did have a joint sponsor, but that is because we were in Japan/China as students and not as employees (even though we did work). If you have enough money or other assets, I would probably forgoe the sponsor because as it has been mentioned, it is a huge financial burden on someone else. JMHO.

Congratulations! Best wishes for your future together!

Congratulations! I was just about to post something on your other thread, but I realized that was yesterday! This is today! Yay for PINK!! Best wishes for your new beginning!

Congratulations and best wishes! Fill us in when you have a moment!