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My in-laws were able to apply for and receive visas when our child was born. In fact they were given one year visas. Before they applied, my wife wrote a letter of invitation to them (their invitation letter was of course in Chinese) and a letter to the visa officer (in English), simply stating the reasons for the visit, which they took to the consulate for their interview. From my understanding it is important that the person(s) applying need to show that they are established in China, own home, good income, etc., to illustrate to the officer that they are not a threat to stay in U.S. after arriving. In our letter to the visa officer we stated clearly facts to show that they are established in their home country, mentioning pension, owning home and their son¡¯s good positions. My feeling in providing a letter is to not attempt to be overly clever but rather to be straight forward. My wife wrote the letters and had me look at them to correct and I left them pretty much intact as she had written them, to allow the naturalness of her style to show through. Anyway, hope this may help in some small way¡­good luck.

We live in time. You live in space. We are always at rest. You are always on the move. We are passive. You are aggressive. We like to contemplate. You like to act. We accept the world as it is. You try to change it according to your blueprint. We live in peace with nature. You try to impose your will on her. Religion is our first love. Technology is your passion. We delight to think about the meaning to life. You delight in physics. We believe in silence. You believe in the freedom of speech. We lapse into meditation. You strive to articulate. We marry first, then love. You love first, then marry. Our marriage is the beginning of a love affair. Your marriage is the happy end of a romance. It is an indissoluble bond. It is a contract. Our love is mute. Your love is vocal. We try to conceal it from the world. Your delight is in showing it to others. Self-denial is a secret to our survival. Self-assertiveness is the key to your success. We are taught from the cradle to want less and less. You are urged everyday to want more and more. We glorify austerity and renunciation. You emphasize gracious living and enjoyment. Poverty is to us a badge of spiritual elevation. It is to you a sign of degradation. In the sunset years of our life we renounce the world and prepare for the hereafter. You retire to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Very interesting. May we inquire about the purpose of your trip to XinJiang province? Was it to visit your SO? Not too many visitors visiting XinJiang province back in 2001. That's certainly a very adventurous trip. It was my first trip to China, and it was not to meet my SO. I had studied Asian philosophy under a professor from China and then developed a deep desire to visit China. So in 2001 I took the time to travel to China, and a friend of mine was originally from this village, thus the introduction to the family and the trip to Xinjiang. It was an experience of a lifetime which I shall never forget. The village is quite close to Russia; so many times I was asked if I was Russian. I was surprised when I would walk through the village and everyone would look so intently at me, I do not believe there had been many foreigners in their village. At first It surprised me that the people could tell I was a foreigner when I walked through the village, because when I was outside I wore a ski mask to keep my face warm. I guess my blue eyes stood out, not to mention the western style clothes. I remember one little girl, about six, who walked past me and stared so hard at me. I said hello to her in Chinese and English several times and she just continued to stare as we passed each other. Even when I had walked 100 yards beyond she continued to stare as if she had seen someone from space. Many people came to the host¡¯s home to meet me, chief of police, village doctor and staff and many friends and relatives! One morning I was still sleeping in my room when the door opened and the chief of police entered. He came to wake me to tell me that my breakfast was ready and I should hurry to my host¡¯s home to eat. You might find it interesting, that in this remote village I believe everyone had satellite TV and telephones! As you can see, when I talk of this trip to Xinjiang I tend to go on and on with my recollections. It was a trip, if you will, down memory lane where I was given a clearer glimpse of myself and others. The life in the village was simple and so much slower than my life in Southern California.

Straying off the subject a little.... In December 2001 I traveled to Xinjiang Provence to spend a week at Christmas time in a small northern village, landing at the Urumqi airport at night in the snow. The airport and hotel were an experience into themselves. I spent the night at the airport hotel and was picked up by a driver sent from the village the next morning for my three hour drive to the village. First interesting sight along the highway was traffic signs in Chinese and Arabic. The hotel in the village I stayed at had restrooms with the hole in the floor for the toilet, but no showers and a large communal room for brushing teeth and washing your face (cold water.) I had one shower the week I was in the village and I had to walk about a mile and a half through the snow and 12 Celsius below zero weather to an ¡°old¡± shower house (they had hot water.) My host¡¯s home had no hot water and only one faucet in the kitchen for running water. There was no plumbing or sink in the kitchen; they simply caught the water in a large barrel. Electrical wiring was strung along the concrete walls to where it was needed. The toilet for the neighborhood was a brisk walk for two blocks to a sad looking outhouse. The village had the flu when I arrived and they shared that with me! Then my hosts insisted that I visit their local clinic for attention. The clinic was poor and quite dirty, for doors inside the small building they hung old sheets. In the main room was one bed with a young girl laying there, she was so happy to say hello to me in English! I was taken into the next room where they wanted to give me a shot of some strange looking brown fluid/medicine. Being an adventurous soul I let them shoot me with the strange brown medicine. So the nurse/technician asked me to drop the back of my pants which I did¡­.then to my surprise I heard giggles. When I turned there were about seven people (including children) standing in the doorway watching the American get a shot in the rump! Needless to say, the strange brown stuff made me feel much better. For me the village was like a time warp, going back in time 70 years or so. As simple as life was in the small village I have never met more delightful and hospitable people. I have seldom eaten as good as I did in the small village.

Ok you geeks and nerds out there....check this out I had a Atari 800 which I interfaced to a ATR 8000 box: The ATR-8000 is a CP/M microcomputer add-on device for the 8-bit systems. It features a 4MHz Z80 processor with 64k of RAM. Besides bringing CP/M compatibility to the Atari 8-bit systems, it also enhances the Atari computer operation. The ATR-8000 has ports for attaching a serial or parallel printer for use under the Atari OS, complete with a 48k buffer. The ATR-8000 also enables the use of standard 5 1/4 and 8 inch disk drives under MyDOS, or other disk operating system that support extended drives. An additional option for this unit was the CoPower-88 upgrade, which added an Intel 8088 processor for IBM PC/XT compatibility. I was running lots of CPM based programs through this system....talk about surprised looks on people's faces when you booted up dBase on a Atari 800! My Atari 800 also had 126kb of memory thanks to some cute piggy backing of chips on the motherboard....those were the fun days of computing for sure http://sunittech.com/videos/atr8000.jpg

Wait until you receive the I-797C receipt notice for the I-130 and then send a letter of corrections, along with a copy of the receipt notice, to the service center you are using. Call the USCIS to verify this at 1-800-375-5283 -good luck This is the best advice you have been given so far and should be the quickest way of clearing up the issues. You may even consider stating in the explanation letter that it was the attorney's fault that the information was incorrectly entered.... Good luck and smooth sailing

Hi Folks! Sorry we did not follow up on our original post early concerning the parents application for visitor visa.....but we have been VERY busy with the new addition to our family My wife wrote a letter to GUZ requesting a visa be granted. Her points for the request (taken from our letter): 1. They then can greet our baby¡¯s birth with us here, and help us with taking care of their daughter and grandson. 2. According to Chinese custom, women need to be confined in their first month¡¯s childbirth to avoid permanent health disease. Our father is very good at cooking good Chinese food and our mother has experience in taking care of baby.....So we are in great need of our father and mother to come here to be with us when our baby is born. 3. While they are here, we would also like to take them to visit Florida, Atlanta and of course Nashville TN to let them have a look around America and enjoy American famous country music, beautiful country view, fresh air and life.... 4. And closed with facts about their ties to China, being retired with good pension and home owners...and brothers successful in their professions. When my wife had me edit the letter I did not attempt to polish the letter for English prose but left her Chinese style of expression....to me this sounds more sincere....which it is! Our letter was short and to the point, being four paragraphs on one page. When our parents saw the officer at GUZ his greatest focus was on this letter which he read very carefully. Officer's questions: "What is the purpose for your visit to the U.S.?" - "To visit our daughter, she married an American. They are having a baby and we wish to assist with the new baby." "Where is your daughter's invitation letter?" - Father gives the officer the letter we wrote to GUZ and our invitation letter we sent to parents. The officer then read our letter to GUZ, he spent most of the time in the interview reading this letter very carefully. "You have been to the U.S. before?" - Yes we have been in U.S. in 1998" "You have two sons in China?" - "Yes, one in Shanghai and one in Guangzhou." Then father handed officer family pictures which the officer looked at briefly and smiled. The officer did not request and further documents....then he gave them visas for the visit. It is a blessing having the parents here to help us...as soon as they arrived they took over the kitchen Hope this information is helpful for others.

Our baby will be due late next month. I am applying my parents to come here to visit us and give us a help. We like to know if they have enough time to come here before our baby's birth. 1. How long between making appointment and interview? 2. How long between interview and getting visa? 3. If my parents support themselves to visit us, does it work for them to show their RMB saving account to prove that they have enough money to support themselves? or do they have to show US dollar saving account? Thanks a lot!

Does anyone know the chances of my wife's mother and father obtaining visas from China when my wife has our child? Any thing(s) we could do to enhance the chances? Yes, for those who remember us and our long two year wait to obtain my wife's visa, we are expecting....or I should say my wife is expecting our son this September

I applied for the K-1 visa February 28, 2003....we received the visa April 15, 2005. So that would be 2 years 1.5 months. It was a long wait, but we felt lucky that I was able to travel to China a couple times each year. We also burned up many phone cards and evenings on MSN chatting. It was a long wait, but well worth the effort by both of us.

Our long journey has finally been completed. Some of the oldie's (but goodies) may recall that it took us over two years to receive our K-1 visa. So it came as a complete surprise when we received our green card one week to the day after our interview. Our interview went quite smoothly, even though my dear wife got our address wrong when asked by the officer I had one concern going into the interview....after submitting support documents (umpteen times) I did not believe I would have to justify my ability to support my dear wife again. I left my position a couple months ago so we could travel and get ready to start our own business. The interview appointment letter we received again directed me to bring in support documents...letter from company, etc, etc,etc.... During the interview the officer looked up and asked me if I still work for ........ company. I simply replied no I left my position a couple months ago..... That was it, she never batted an eye or asked why....she proceeded with the rest of the interview and then told us we would have our green card in 2-3 weeks. What surprised me is that she spent the most time looking at our pictures which she added to our file. We did have one laugh during the interview…. She asked if we had any documents where we had joint accounts, and my dear wife handed her copies of bills, bank statements, etc. She asked if should could make a copy of our bills for the records and I told her just keep the original we had already paid the bills. Laopuo sat up and said no she could not keep the original we had not paid the electric bill yet, said I did not know about the bills…sure I know, I am only a man, what do I know. Anyway....from our long trip to success it has been a long and trying ordeal at times....and times of sheer joy when we would overcome an obstacle. May your journeys be quicker, good luck.

Are you bragg'n or complain'n???........ Congratulations!.... 163260[/snapback] Maybe a little of both....spun our head around that we recieved the green card one week after the interview....but it was the first thing that went quickly for us. It took us over two years to recieve the K-1 visa after applying. But that was a good excuse to visit China many times

We got green card within one week just after our interview. Good luck!

Thanks! We waited 4 months to have our I-485 interview. But we notice that some people from CFL only wait 3 months. We can tell you are more lucky than us because we had waited over 2 years for our K-1 visa. Glad to see things are much smoother now. Good luck to you too!!!

Thanks. We are in CA. We filed I-485 in middle of June, wait 4 months to be interviewed. We notice that some people from CFL only wait 3 months to have interview. So you will have interview very soon. Good luck to you!

Thanks! We already made a reminder on our calendar just after we got home from interview.

We passed our AOS interview this morning. It is easy! The officer just asked about questions on the forms, questions on how we know each other, and let us show her original documents, our pictures. We will get our green card within 2 or 3 weeks. The officer told us they just changed their way of doing, mail the green card within 2 or 3 weeks, so no need to stamp it on passport after interview now. Do they do the same in other states? Thank you for the CFL here for everything! Thanks everyone here for any help! Good luck to all!

What questions do they usually ask at I-485 interview? Thanks!

Thank you for your advice.

What will the officer do to the AOS interview if we cannot bring all the items listed on the I-485 interview notice? They will finish the interview, and let us submit the document later? or will reschedule the interview at later time? What will the officer do at interview if petitioner lost job and cannot bring the past 2 months' pay stubs and employer's letter? If petitioner lost job, but having unemployment compensation now, and meets the 125% poverty line, we still must need a joint sponsor? Anyone has such kind of experience or knowledge, please let us know. Thank you!

After recieving your I-797 receipt notice of the I-485, Call the NCSC, 1-800-375-5283 and press 1-2-3 to get the appointment clerk. They will set the appointment up for you. Go to the appointment with documents called for including the receipt notice. After fingerprinting is done, the IO will stamp the receipt notice and hand it back to you. You will receive nothing else until you receive the I-797C appointment notice for I-485 interview. That's how it worked for us. Oh yeah, and ignore any cancellations that might befall you!... 137031[/snapback] I-797 is the receipt notice of I-485, and I-797C is the appointment notice for I-485 interview. As for I-129F (K-1), I-797C is the receipt notice, and I-797 is the approval notice, right?

Biometrics are an interim step. If you believe the notices, AOS processing is suspended until you complete the biometrics, after which you should receive another NOA indicating that biometrics have been completed and processing of the AOS has resumed. You mean they will mail another notice to indicate that biometrics have been completed after the biometrics step is completed. About how long should we receive that NOA after biometrics and prints are done? Thanks!

I have a question. Does anybody know where the Port-of-Entry should send our K1 files after immigration officers keep those files from our fiance when they entered the U.S.? Thanks!

We are just back home from our honeymoon with hundreds of pictures. Her pictures make us out of memory. We both feel so tired and relaxed. Food taste soooooo good at home. I have a question. For AOS interview, what evidences should be shown to the officer? Both husband and wife should go together for the interview? and will be asked questions seperately? What questions should be asked? Thanks!

Yes that is a wonderful sign. My laopuo had gone for her interview on a Friday and told to return Monday for her visa only to be given a notice that we were not receiving our visa and that our case was being sent back to the U.S. Two weeks later laopuo received the same letter from GZ that your wife received asking her to return with her passport to the consulate. The letter did not mention to bring any of the other listed items on the letter, just bring her passport. I called my attorney and asked him what this meant and he told me they would be giving her the visa. He said that as screwed up as they are at times that they would not jerk someone around by asking them to return for no reason. That the officers are aware of the difficulty for many individuals to travel back to GZ. When laopuo returned to GZ a lady at the window was confused and spoke with a couple other people. Finally the lady asked laopuo to leave her passport and return the next day. We thought for sure they would be giving her visa the next day…..but we should have known better. When she returned the next day as instructed they told her she had to be interviewed again and to please return the next day, and then they gave her passport back to her. When she returned the next day she was interviewed by the same officer that interviewed her originally. He then issued her the visa. You should have good results when she returns B) Good luck