cosmiclobster

On all of Amy's Chinese documents, she has her 2 character first name in one box and family name in the other. But on all of her US documents, we split her first name into first and middle. She was a bit worried about haviing her name "Americanized" by adding the middle name, but it hasn't been a problem, and all of her US ID has her with 3 names. Going back to China, her passport and Chinese ID have her name in Chinese format and coming back to the US, she has her CA ID and Green Card in US format. Her passport has the same 3 names in roman letters so it shouldn't be a problem.

Amy is getting on a plane tomorrow to Shanghai from LAX for $675 RT. Call Grand American Travel at 626 285 8953 They easily beat any price is could find on the net. Good luck!

I dread the day my lao po gets her license! A friend of ours has a new Corvette and when his lao po got her license, he bought her a year old Mazda 3. He was paying $2700 a year. With a first time driver on his policy he now pays are you ready??? SEVEN THOUSAND A YEAR!!!!!!!

Call SEVERAL civil surgeons in your area if possible and call a few that are an hour or two drive from where you live. You could pay under $50 or over $500 from one to the next for what they say is "required", not to mention your Lao Po getting an unnecesssary medical exam, unnecessary tests and treatments and her arm being used as a pincushion. There is a wide variance of what different civil surgeons think is "required". Most of them are not familiar with the fiancee visa process. Do some due dilligence! Good luck!!

Feathers: Glad to see you're making some progress! I would find out where biometrics can be done for your address and take the interview appointment letter to them and see if you are in their system and if they will do her biometrics without an appointment. The local biometrics place in my neighborhood has 6 to 8 people working there and 2 or 3 people getting pics and prints!! They were falling over themselves trying to alleviate the boredom! Nothing to lose by trying and if you don't have the bio's done by interview time, you'll go back to waiting for an appointment and more Muzak!!! Also, I have had letter carriers that would not put anything in your box if your name wasn't on the inside of the box. Where I live now I am still getting mail almost daily for people that lived here a year ago. It all depends on your carrier! Oh, and from what I have seen, I would think it very possible that they could misplace your interview and ask for a second!!!!

Ah yes, the ignorant immigrant card is played and the hand is won again! My lao po brought a half a suitcase full of "snacks" into LAX and her bags were never looked at. But if they did look, I'm sure she would have played the same card!!! Oh, and I would have had to play the dumb lao gong card as I was with her and had no idea that she that much stuff!!! I would have told him to open one of them bags and see if it smelled edible to him!!!

Congrats David!! Nice to see you got through this one. B) Also nice that the two of you were interviewed together - I really freaked out (inside) when the VO told me he would interview my lao po seperately!!!!

I hope David had her read the page on the (I-485?) form where it asks you if you are a spy, terrorist, prostitute etc. I know that Amy wouldn't have understood those questions if she was asked them without preparations, but she did recongnize the form that the VO was reading from, so she smartly said no, no, no, no, no I think it is a required step in the interview process for the interviewer to read those questions to the interviewee. But if it's too late for that, then good luck anyway!!!

geez some people complain about anything!!!! Did they spell her name right? Did they send it to the right address? Is the picture on it really her? You should be happy for the 11 months you got!!! Remember: Our govt = HUTAS = SNAFU

I'd be glad to throw a spear or two, but I think It'd be like throwing a toothpick at a gorilla. Seriously though, it wouldn't hurt to write a group letter pointing out that it takes a year to go through the process in China where most other countries might take half that time. It would also be appropriate to point out that for a country of 1.3 billion people, 1 consulate is not enough, not to mention the hardships caused by people who live far from the 1 consulate. Count me in!

It's obvious that our govt, in it's infinate wisdom, has decided that you are international terrorists and are involved in a plot to take over the world! It's either outright BS or outright incompetence. There are plenty of places to invest $$ without the BS. To answer your original question, I haven't heard of anyone having assets frozen.

Congrats Newman! Member #61 !! You're free from hassle for 10 years!!! It is kinda wierd that they would have you send in the old conditional card and leave you without any card until the new one arrived . . . . Luckily it was only a few weeks!

Congrats!!!! Nice to see that GUZ has streamlined the procedure from P3 to P4!!!! Many months to 6 weeks. Wow!!! Good luck on the interview !!

Are you sure these were cartons of juice and not cartons of glue?!?

SNAFU'S AND HUTAS. That's our gummint hard at work!! Anyone else think it was a bad idea to take a few dozen agencies that could barely handle their own workload and glom them all together into one catch all DHS that is charged with the safety of our entire country?? The right hand still has no idea of what the left hand is doing, only the paperwork got quadrupled!!! Sorry if I'm ranting a little but it's just unbelieveable that with all of the documents they require of us along the way that they could screw up something so fundamental so badly. In their credit, they did get the right continent!!! "And they're doing a heck of a job!!!"

Congrats Jason and Joanna!!!! I predict you will get the Green Card within 1 week! It is a pretty fancy hi tech card, by the way, with her photo, fingerprint, her signature, a bunch of official looking emblems and lazer etching on the front and mag stripe on the back! It has a little green stripe on the back also - I guess they got too many questions about why the green card wasn't a green card!

Hey Frank: Remember that show "This is your life"? *music starts playing* **lights dim** ***quick - someone post a baby picture of Frank and tell us what a good boy he was in school and how he helped his mother***

Frank is indeed a gentleman and all around good guy. Plus, (little known fact) he speaks to his lao po almost exclusively in Chinese!

The link for the book shows the last published date was June 2005. As such, all of the physical info about GUZ is already outdated. If your library has it then it certainly wouldn't hurt to see what's in it.

I don't either but I did see my grandpa's naturalization papers from 1918!! Things may have changed a bit since then . . . . .

Congrats Dave! You apparently had the right "mix" of subservience, lawful request and genuine need.

I don't think it will be a problem unless they decide to go through her entire collection of luggage looking at every little thing inside. But this is JMHO, as have no first hand knowledge one way or another.

Some friends of ours finally got their biometrics notice. Unfortunately, it was scheduled at a time that he would be out of town!! Not wanting to postpone it, he took his wife to show her where the office was and what busses she would have to take to get there. When they looked inside the front door a man asked if they needed help. My friends explained that they had their appt next week and that he would be out of town and he was just showing her where the office was. The guy asked their name and lo and behold, they got their biometrics done on the spot!!! I had to call them a dozen times and wait on hold a half hour each time to get an appointment 4 weeks later because they were fully booked 41 days in advance and someone else just walks in and gets it. Another fine example of our govt's HUTAS!!! Soooo, if you live close to your biometrics location, you might give it a try!!!

Good luck Bill! This "process" can drag the patience out of anyone!!!!

Hi Patrick. Welcome to CFL. My wife is also from Shanghai. I'd give you our phone number so our ladies could talk to each other except that: A. Amy already spends most of her free time on the phone as it is, and B. You would probably kill me as the result of your SO spending all her free time talking to Amy!! If she does want to talk to a fellow Shanghaiese who has already gone through the process, Amy can be reached on a website called 001.com.cn Her handle is coconuthead B)