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Ok, I have been thru the process and on Monday my wonderful wife received her approval for her visa. We had a very easy interview. We were married in April 2009. Our case was fairly easy except for the fact that I brought another women from Vietnam about 5 years ago. My wife and I made it thru the process and now I would like to pass along some advice. Contact an attorney named Marc Ellis. Normally I am the type of person that would not hire an attorney for this. My thinking is this is just some forms to fill out and a process to follow. The problem is this process in China is so much more than that. The consulate there wants to find reasons to FAIL FAIL FAIL you. Mr. Ellis lives in Vietnam and travels to the consulate there often. Mr. Ellis stays in the Yang's hotel and has an assistant there named Eunice. Mr. Ellis did shed some light on somethings I did not realize personal to my case. Before I heard about Mr. Ellis I interviewed many attorneys face to face and over the phone. I decided on an attorney in California when someone told me about Mr. Ellis. I was somewhat reluctant since Mr. Ellis did not live in the USA. I came to realize this was to my advantage. I work all hours of the night and weekends. Mr. Ellis is always available during thise hours. Any other attorney is basically 9 to 5. On thise evenings or weekends when I had questions I just picked up my phone and called him and always got the answers I needed. The fact that Mr. Ellis is there fighting to problems of this consulate face to face is also to our advantage. I was not able to be at the interview but my wife stayed in the Yang's hotel, the same place that Eunice lives. She met up with my wife (who was fully prepaired but so nervous she could not sleep of focus) went over everything with her, she helped my wife prepair everything and spent several days helping her get ready. Before my wife went to Guangzhou I told her to give Eunice a couple hundred $$ because I knew she would help her a lot. My wife thought I was nuts for wasting so much money. After my wife had her interview she gave Eunice the money and tole me it was the best money she spent. Just the fact that someone with so much experience is there helping with the things you may not realize is money well spent. Today I was talking to my wife and there is another girl going to her interview in 12 hours. I live in Tampa and this girls husband lives in Florida somewhere. My wife is helping her with her paperwork and found so many mistakes. They also did the electronic process and this girl does not have and financial documents or does not have the I-864. Her husband hired an immigration attorney and spent $7,000.00. This idiot does not even know to tell his client what paperwork his wife needs at her interview. My wife and Eunice are helping them get everything ready at the last hour. I know this post is rambling a bit but if this helps anyone it's good. The price Mr. Ellis charges is well worth the service you will get as well as the piece of mind. You wife will also releived of some of the stress when she gets there and someone with their experience is helping them thru the process.

I spoke with Marc Ellis tonight, he is in Vietnam at this time but somehow the calls go to him still... lol Anyway he answered many questions for me and gave some advise. He recomended we meet with a counterpart of his in GUZ to look over our papers and see if there is anything I should address. What do you think? How much use is it to get help 2-3 days before the interview? I think I have most everything covered but he suggested a few changes and thinks the meeting would help. I like Mr Ellis he was very very nice and I never felt like I was bothering him. Robert

Hi. Someone came to me today with an NOIR letter from CSC. It had sat 20 months. That is fast in my experience. Some observations, the Service Center adjudicator seemed to take the consular officer's observations at face value, even the silly ones. So maybe this case is an anomaly. Or maybe CSC is speeding up on CR-1/IR-1's. From what I can see, K-1's are still a black hole. If it is speeding up, it may be because some USCIS adjudicators may merely be accepting the consulate's conclusions as "legally sufficient" and sending out an NOIR letter, no matter how legally insufficient, or even downright silly, the consulate's conclusions may have been.

I spoke to both attorneys for a good while. They both are smart and seem to know what they are talking about. Mr Roth is the attorney collecting horror stories. They both have very different approaches for their clients. Last friday I went to Mr. Roths website and clicked on the "SET UP CONFERENCE" section. It had different dates and times for the conference. It also let me pick the free consult ot the paid option. I chose the free option. I call him at the day and time and was immediatly connected to him. As for both attorneys, they both have completly different approaches to filing paperwork and both ways make clear sense. Both reasons to do something or not to do something also make sense. The problem is they are both completly different. I am just looking for opinions. I will explain both conversations and you can see haw they think different. Marc Ellis - I spoke to him about 10 days ago and he was in Vietnam and the phone call was very poor connection. We were disconnected several times. We finally gave up. I did get to talk to him for a while though and he was very helpful. He did not sugarcoat anything. He told me I may have some bumps in the road due to my previous marriage based on a K1 visa. He did say I will be able to overcome it. We talked about front loading the application. He advises this so we do not give GUZ the opportunity to say they found something new previously not known before and than they can deny the visa. This makes sense. I would also agree with this. I also asked him about us going to Hong Kong to get married and he thinks this is great. He thinks taking GUZ out of the picture completly is the best way to go. He did advise not to let HK know our reason for going to HK. If they know we went there to avoid GUZ, HK can send the app to GUZ or just deny it. This advise also makes good sense. He really seems to know what he is talking about and he really knows the problems at GUZ. John Roth - I spoke to him for about 40 minutes in great detail about my case. He thinks I will have no problem about my past k1 visa marriage. I have a life long history of only dating asian ladies and this will not hurt my visa. I also think what he says makes sense. I can prove this history. I spoke to him about front loading the application. He advises against this. His reasons also make sense. This is the second he and Marc are different. He feels that if you give USCIS to many things to look at here in the USA, they have a chance to RFE. Also he said they are experts and giving to much info is just asking for trouble. It gives them the chance to keep digging. Some how when he explains this I also agree. So now I agree with both sides and I am starting to get confussed. The third issue is about getting married in Hong Kong. He strongly advises against this. He feels that this is something that people have just started doing to try and get around GUZ and he says there is not much evidence to support this yet. This makes sense to me. He says that it is consulate shopping and it is not allowed. If they think this than they WILL deny the visa and make us start over in GUZ. He says unless there is VERY strong evidence to go to HK and get married forget it. He says strong evidence would be that most of her family live in HK or either of us live there. He says it is just not normal for 2 people to go to HK and have a civil marriage alone especially when it is the girls first marriage. Most people would want to be married at home with friends and family. This makes sense. Most people would not go to HK unless there is something they are trying to avoid. So now I am even more confussed. These are 2 very professional attorneys with a lot of experience and both are giving completly different advise. I do believe Mr. Roth is very sincere about his quest to change the way things are done in GUZ. I spoke to him for a while about this and he really is doing this like PRO BONO. He is taking his own time to do this. I really don't think he is customer shopping here by doing this. When I spoke to him he had his next appointment and told me to take some time and think about what I want to do. He also told me to call back with any other questions. He did NOT try to sign me up or sell me his services in any way. He did just return from GUZ. I guess after getting 2 different opinions I am just trying to see what other people think. JS

In this article by Marc Ellis (http://www.ilw.com/articles/2004,0429-ellis.shtm) he mentions this: "The doctrine of non-reviewability of consular decisions is statutory and found in the Immigration and Nationality Act." I've looked all over the INA, and I can't find it. Does anyone know where this is stated in the INA? Thanks

Hello All My fiancee got a White today. They decided to give her a white for a non bonafide relationship? What can I do? They ask her what is my favorite food, which type of music i like, what year I brought my car, etc. What can do I do now? Joe