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Zhenshu made it to the US

shyaushu

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shyaushu

shyaushu

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Zhenshu actually made it here on Saturday. It was an extremely happy and rather surreal moment, at least for me. The woman I had only known in the context of China was now here, strolling through the tiny airport in Charleston, West Virginia like a seasoned world traveler. All of that hard work had now become focused like a laser on that moment.

 

Of course, we are both extremely happy and Zhenshu appears to really love our home and West Virginia. "It's so clean here", she offered, thinking of the hub-bub of Shenzhen, I suppose. Starting a new life together like this almost makes it easy to forget the nightmare that the CR-1 visa process was. Almost.

 

I believe our experience shows that even if time is almost running out for the interview, FAXing the Consulate in Guangzhou and having them call your spouse on his/her cell phone can result in their making special arrangements for your spouse to come to the Consulate a day or two early, pick up the undelivered interview letter and P-4 packet, and have a successful interview.

 

Zhenshu and I haven't gotten around to talking about how she managed the short-notice medical exam. We will sometime -- right now we have other fish to fry, as you might imagine :). But she, like most Chinese women, is very resourceful.

 

Transferring a loving relationship from so far away to here is very exciting and great fun! The sense that we are starting out on "the rest of our lives" together is very strong, and very hopeful.

 

My best wishes to all of you who are waiting and writing and hassling for your own visas. Some day soon it will end for you, too.

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Randy W

Randy W

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http://bergoiata.org/gif/Feu4.gif

 

Congratulations !!

 

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http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif

http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif

http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif

http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif

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shyaushu

shyaushu

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How does she like ice storms and snow?

 

Phil

176764[/snapback]

She's not that fond of ice and snow, but since she was most recently living in Beijing she is actually relieved at how "mild" the weather is here. (It's been in the 30's and 40's). The free gas certainly helps (That's a West Virginia thing).

 

Now, we turn our attention to our daughter and getting her visa. She's 23 and perhaps someone(s) can offer a step-by-step outline of how we could get her here. I'm a US citizen, of course, and Zhen is a permanent resident.

 

More questions . . . what do we have to do at this point to get a social security number? Does a "Green Card" come with the CR-1 visa?

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warpedbored

warpedbored

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I'll take a stab at it. If she checked the box on the CR-1 to receive a SSN she will get it in the mail. Otherwise she will have to take her passport and green card to the SSA and aply for one. As for the daughter she can file an I-130 but as a resident alien she gets second preference on a quota system. It can take years. Don pointed out recently though that if she goes ahead and files it now the horse is in the race and if she becomes an american citizen later on she only need notify the USCIS and the petion get first prefernce with no quota. This means it will proceed much like a CR-1 visa with a head start.

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shyaushu

shyaushu

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Now that Zhenshu is here and we have settled down a bit from all the excitement of being in such a new country (for her) and meeting friends and family, we have gotten around to my getting a better understanding of the interview, itself.

 

Here's the new information:

 

The interviewer asked Zhen what I did for a living, and how many years I had been at this job. We had just gone over that on the phone, so that part was easy.

 

He then wanted to see any photos of us, and she showed him my photos of life in China (roast ducks hanging from hooks in the market; old men hauling their improbable burdens on small carts, pictures of people and places from our trip to Tibet, etc.). He looked at these over and over many times and shook his head. "These are really beautiful", he said.

 

There were no photos of the two of us, except for our "wedding photo" (taken before we were married in one of those studios).

 

Finally he wanted to see any letters we had exchanged.

 

This is, I believe, the interesting part. She showed him a letter I had written to her recently, a small part of which I had written in Chinese.

 

"Did your husband write this."

 

"Yes."

 

"His handwriting is better than yours!" he offered and Zhen said to me yesterday "I knew he was joking." (Maybe not) :whistling:

 

He then said, simply, after what was a three or four minute interview, "You pass."

 

I believe the important part is this interviewer, at least, was interested in very personal aspects of our relationship. Zhenshu feels strongly that fact that I had taken the time to learn enough Chinese to write "I love you and I miss you so much", and stuff like that, was "proof" of our relationship. And having photos that showed an obvious interest in China and in Chinese culture were also very important, at least to him.

 

So, I conclude and pass on for others who follow, bring things to your interview that are personal. Things that show who you are as a couple. Things that anyone would look at and think "these are two people in love."

 

My sense is that one or two of these is worth ten pages of telephone payments.

 

It worked for us, at least.

Edited by shyaushu (see edit history)
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