James

This has probably been addressed many times before but ... my projection for K3 would have an interview in Auguest ... while my projection for CR-1 would have an interview in October ... which do you think we'll get? Both cases are at Guangzhou now ... but Guangzhou hasn't contacted us about combining the cases or anything.

My wife is still in China. I got a book called "Grammar for the TOEFL" to prepare her for the Test of English as a Foreign Language which she may have to take in order to enter college here. (I've heard conflicting reports on whether she will have to.) Online I found a list of common TOEFL vocabulary words. So each day I make up a list of 10 to 20 vocabulary words either from the grammar book or the online list, and have her write a sentence using each. Then I type in some of the grammar exercises. She does the lesson and I correct it and send it back to her. It seems to be helping a lot. Of course, this is a directed approach for someone looking to go to school -- she needs a lot of academic vocabulary. For every day work life, one needs something more conversational. I would probably try an English conversation at a college, and watching lots of movies with the closed captioning enabled. My wife also watches a lot of movies that way at night and almost every day she tries out a new slang expression on me. She may not remember it a week later, but at least she will have been exposed to it and be more likely to remember it if she hears someone use it in the future.

Do you all think nursing school is a good idea? My wife can speak English and I am teaching her more every day. I am trying to get her up to speed to enter an American university, and we are thinking nursing school. Some hospitals will pay your tuition if you agree to work for them for a couple of years after graduation. At this point I can't think of a downside, except that it will take a lot of work to get to the needed English proficiency, and the nursing program will be pretty demanding. But she wants to do it, so I am encouraging her.

What was it like? I will have to check that out. I grew up in the Church of Christ, so I know the territory, but I do not go to church anymore.

Count me in on the street gang. Clarksville here. Has anybody been to a Chinese church in Nashville? It is Baptist, I think. I'm not Baptist but I suppose it's a good way to meet Chinese people.

Can you give more details of what Atlanta's Chinatown is like?

I'm for it. As we were talking about earlier (Robert suggested it) we could meet in St. Louis. Of course Trigg and I could be selfish and suggest Nashville ... but I think St. Louis would be about the most central.

I would attend a St. Louis meet-up.

That is the shortest P-4 to interview I have ever seen ...

Is this for sure the right set of guidelines to look under? This seems to pertain to "emergency" travel.

So would that mean we could go back to China and live and work for an extended period, while still "holding her place" in the U.S.?

What if your spouse comes here but then later you want to go back to China to stay/live? Does anyone know the visa considerations? Would your spouse be able to return to the USA? Does the Chinese spouse have to spend a certain amount of time in the states in order to keep the green card active? Just wondering.

For people dealing with China, if you're married, I still would advise sending in the application for K3 ... because even though CR-1s are getting approved much faster than K3s at the USCIS service centers, the CR-1 takes much longer at the NVC stage. So the time savings is not as great as you would think. And then if you should have any problem or tie-up in the CR-1 case, such as an RFE, then the K3 case could surpass it. The K3 is like an insurance policy.

Called DOS today. P3 entered in system 5/12/05.

We sent ours in on April 19. Yesterday Guangzhou called my wife to ask a question about her form. I haven't called DOS yet to see if it is entered, but I bet it is.