I-130 question and field report

[Guest pushbrk]

I just got back from Nanning and Marriage to Sherry. What a wonderful experience, except for the iron maiden at the marriage office.

 

Anyway, I'm about to file the I-130 and I have a simple question or two.

 

1. Can I submit the address in Chinese Characters on a separate page instead of the actual form?

 

2. Does the 17 year old step-daughter have an interview or just the wife?

 

Yes, I'm filing separate I-130 forms for each.

 

Here's my field report.

 

Arrival in Nanning was exciting. Sherry and her cadre saw me as I was going to pick up my luggage. She brought along her younger brother, a couple friends and an English speaking man to help with the initial communications. Once checked-in to the hotel, the group met up with Sherry's daughter Tang Wen and a Sister and Brother in-law for dinner. Once I'd eaten my fill, we were whisked off to the photographer for the pictures needed for the wedding certificate, then dropped off at the hotel. Her brother picked up the pictures later.

 

I used the VisaRite Services in NJ for the single certificate. It saved me a trip to GUZ and some expense but even though the Chinese Embassy in New York put their seal of approval on the deal, the iron maiden of Nanning required we get the divorce decree, the secretary of state notarization and the afidavit translated at the Notarial office in Nanning.

 

To get this done in a matter of hours required contacting the bureau chief and although I was somewhat shielded from the process details by Sherry and her brother, I definitely saw some 100 Yuan bills being exchanged as we picked up the papers. This, of course, was in addition to paying the actual notarial fees around the corner at the bank.

 

I was so excited on the second day, third try that we actually had the little books in hand that I forgot all about needing the translation and notarized documents for the I-130. I had to be calmed down quickly when we unexpectedly pulled back into the Notarial office on the way to shop for rings. That went smoothly and we were in and out in about an hour with three notarized tranlated copies of our marriage certificate.

 

There were no rings in my size, so we're doing without for the time being. Warning guys, if you need bigger than a size 10 US ring size, your choices are quite limited. Plenty of good choices for her and much cheaper in China than the US, from what I could see.

 

I know must of the members here are getting married in the States but that was not an acceptable option for us. We had small church ceremony the next day, followed by a traditional Chinese banquet for about 55 people. It was quite a nice place with great service but I don't remember the name of the place. Everything was top notch and the bill was less than 250 USD.

 

We were escorted by Sherry's sister and her husband to Guilin and Yan Shou for a couple days. He's from Guilin. As we were getting into Guilin, I was surprise that he pulled over next to a police car with its lights flashing. I'm thinking we have some trouble. It turns out the policeman was a buddy of his best friend who was also a policeman. We had a police escort to the hotel and from that time forward all the driving was done by one of those two policeman.

 

We were sent on the night boat tour and then picked up to go to a night-club the first night. Then one of the policemen came picked us up at the door to our room and drove us out to where the Li River trip embarks.

 

This whole family closeness thing takes some getting used to for a guy who has been single and living far from his own family for years. I was informed about half way through the six hour boat trip that plans had changed. The sister had packed our stuff in the room, checked us out of the hotel and we were to spend the next night in Yan Shou where the boat docked. I had to just learn to go with the flow and come when summoned but we had a great time.

 

It was tough to leave but good to be home.

[obxtrainman]

Congratulations, welcome home, and welcome aboard

[jim_julian]

Hehehe ... sounds like a bit of a wild ride ... hang on!

 

You can always attach addendum sheets to any US form for item such as an address in Chinese characters. Just state on the form to see the attachment and then clearly reference the form block on the addendum.

 

My Lao Po also has a 17 year old daughter. The daughter will need to interview since, I assume, you are going for a derivative K4 visa. Several things to watch out for:

 

- Does your wife clearly have custody of her daughter? If not there are a number of options but it is something that must be dealt with.

 

- Will the daughter accompany her Mom to the US or is she a "follow to join"? If so you need to know the rules about timing ... for example if she follows she must do so within one year of her mom's K3.

 

The above is based on my understanding of the K1/K2 rules which, in this case, I think are the same for K3/K4.

 

Good luck!

[Guest pushbrk]

Hehehe ... sounds like a bit of a wild ride ... hang on!

 

You can always attach addendum sheets to any US form for item such as an address in Chinese characters.  Just state on the form to see the attachment and then clearly reference the form block on the addendum.

 

My Lao Po also has a 17 year old daughter.  The daughter will need to interview since, I assume, you are going for a derivative K4 visa.  Several things to watch out for:

 

- Does your wife clearly have custody of her daughter?  If not there are a number of options but it is something that must be dealt with.

 

- Will the daughter accompany her Mom to the US or is she a "follow to join"?  If so you need to know the rules about timing ... for example if she follows she must do so within one year of her mom's K3.

 

The above is based on my understanding of the K1/K2 rules which, in this case, I think are the same for K3/K4.

 

Good luck!

174675[/snapback]

Thanks. I haven't decided yet whether to go the K visa route. I might but my question was with reference to CR 1.

[obxtrainman]

Please, read my timeline closely. Don't be fooled by timelines other than your own. I would have most definetly sent in the 129f, after I found out about the K3,if I had it to do over. No matter what the current trend is, only one thing remains constant. Things change constantly.

 

I had looked at the recently current timelines, after I found out a couple of months into this process. At that time it looked like a good bet to follow my old trait of "Not Changng Horses Mid Stream" I had enough time to figure out, that the horse I was on was stumbling hard. The CR1 horse, and the K3 horse have been gaining ground against each other, then only to lose footing again. Back and forth they stumble. At this point I'm convinced I should have gone on to keep that second horse in tow.

[Guest pushbrk]

Please, read my timeline closely.  Don't be fooled by timelines other than your own.  I would have most definetly sent in the 129f, after I found out about the K3,if I had it to do over.  No matter what the current trend is, only one thing remains constant.  Things change constantly.

 

I had looked at the recently current timelines, after I found out a couple of months into this process.  At that time it looked like a good bet to follow my old trait of "Not Changng Horses Mid Stream"  I had enough time to figure out, that the horse I was on was stumbling hard. The CR1 horse, and the K3 horse have been gaining ground against each other, then only to lose footing again. Back and forth they stumble.  At this point I'm convinced I should have gone on to keep that second horse in tow.

174725[/snapback]

Yes, I'm listening. Nevertheless, my question is in the context of the CR 1 for the moment. For a CR 1 does the 17 year old daughter have an interview?

[Guest pushbrk]

My Lao Po also has a 17 year old daughter.  The daughter will need to interview since, I assume, you are going for a derivative K4 visa.  Several things to watch out for:

 

- Does your wife clearly have custody of her daughter?  If not there are a number of options but it is something that must be dealt with.

 

- Will the daughter accompany her Mom to the US or is she a "follow to join"?  If so you need to know the rules about timing ... for example if she follows she must do so within one year of her mom's K3.

 

The above is based on my understanding of the K1/K2 rules which, in this case, I think are the same for K3/K4.

 

Good luck!

174675[/snapback]

Jim answered you here but I will add to it: Our daughter has just turned 16. From GZ I found that if they are 16 and up they will attend the interview by themselves- no parent/step-parent allowed. I have NOT as of yet seen a CR-1/2 interview going through GZ scheduled on/near the same day either.

174920[/snapback]

Other than the inconvenience of different dates, I guess that's no big deal. What do the ask the daughter anyway?