Interview.........passed!!

[phxcapital]

I know it is a little late, but I wanted to add our interview experience for others. As all the information on CFL has greatly assisted us in our journey, I want to post our experience to add to the wealth of information already on CFL.

 

Her interview was scheduled in late March for May 9th and I found out by calling the State Dept. Visa "hotline". I generally called twice a week to get an update and to check for an interview date. There was an issue with GUZ continuing to try to send me the P-4 after we had faxed, called and emailed GUZ to change this. This was fixed by GUZ being proactive and calling my SO to get a mailing address to send the P-4. The P-4 was received about 1 week later. I have to say I was a surprised GUZ took the lead to solve the problem of her not having the P-4 as I had not contacted them directly. I had discussed the issue with someone at the State Dept. Visa center 2 days prior to GUZ contacting my SO. So maybe GUZ does keep up on the petitioners' contacting the Visa center. After this, she then proceeded to complete the medical exam, pay the visa fee and organize the documents she had.

 

Prior to the interview I used the list of items (listed here on CFL) needed at the interview and made a 3-ring binder with plastic full page sized "envelopes" (for ease of giving the VO the information he requested) with all the information, photos and documents.

 

I arrived in Beijing on April 30th to meet my SO and the next day we took the express train to Dezhou, then a 1.5 hour drive to the family house in Shandong province to visit family for a week. On May 8th we flew from Jinan to Guangzhou.

 

On the interview day we arrived around 6:20 am waited until 7:45am or so (as we were near the rear of the line) to enter the consulate complex. There were 6 different lines formed when we arrived. She went on upto the 5th floor to await her interview and I waited on the 4th floor in the wannabe Starbucks cafe that wanted to charge 25RMB for pint of bottled water. She waited about 2.5 hours for her name to be called to start the interview. She mentioned that it was very crowded in the interview waiting area and some people had to stand for long times as their were not enough seats.

 

Prior to the interview I had coached her to appear confident, and if possible appear (as she was understandably nervous) happy. The interview went something like this:

 

My SO walks up to the "booth" with a big smile and says ni hao and asks if he can speak pu tong hua. He answers not very well and asks if she can speak English, which she replys, not very well. All this happens with some laughter and smiles on both sides. It was decided to proceed using pu tong hua without an interpreter.

 

Q. Have you ever been to the US?

A. No, but if you agree I will be able to go.

This was meet with much laughter by both and greatly relaxed the VO and my SO. The rest of the interview was very relaxed from this point on.

 

Q. How did you meet?

A. We meet in Beijing while he (me) was on a business trip to China.

 

Q. When did you meet?

A. Just before chun jie (Spring Festival), end of January 2005

 

At some point the VO sees my SO has my passport and asks to see it. After looking through the pages he asks the following two questions:

 

Q. Has he (me) ever been to Japan?

A. No.

 

Q. Has he ever been to South Korea?

A. No.

(I was surprised at these two questions, but you can never know what the VO will ask. It pays to very well prepared)

 

VO: Can I see your photos together?

She hands him our 8 pages of photos and he begins to look through them. Sees a photo of our engagement dinner and asks who the people are in the photo and she begins to name the people. The VO is impressed that my father travelled to China to meet my SO.

 

The VO then asked for and began to review the required documents. At the end of his review the VO said, I agree, you can go to the US. This was met with laughter from both.

 

The interview only took 3 minutes from beginning to end. I my opinion, her attitude (confident & happy appearance) made a huge difference (along with our detailed preparation) in the interview and most likely influenced the result in our favor.

 

We picked up the visa 2 days later at the post office and flew back to Jinan that afternoon. The take-off of our flight out of Guangzhou was turbulent as we took off in a T-storm and hit a downdraft for about 5 seconds    (which was 5 seconds too long). Spent a few days with family and relatives in Shandong saying goodbye which is always difficult. We then took the train to Beijing with parents and some family to pack her things in Beijing.

 

We left Beijing on the 17th on NW through Tokyo and arrived in Portland at 7:30am on the 17th. Went through POE in Portland with no issues with the officer asking only a few questions, mostly directed at me. She made sure to remind us that we have 90 days to marry and then gave my SO the I-94.

 

All-in-all, for us the only difficult item in this process for us was the 11 month wait from beginning to (organizing the documents) to end (her arrival here in the States).

 

Hope this information will help someone and I will be posting more as we go through the AOS "experience" in the next several months.

 

Thank you all for your participation in sharing your experiences which assisted us greatly in our journey.

 

Jason & Jian Jian

216911[/snapback]

Congrats on your interview. Where in Shandong is your SO from. My SO is from Weihai City, We were also there in Guz the same time you were. I arrived on the 9th and left on 16th. Again Congrats

 

Carl & Haixia

216917[/snapback]

She is from the Dezhou area (NW'ern Shandong province), between Dezhou and Jinan about 30 min drive to the Yellow River. If I remember correctly Weihai City is out on the Shandong penisula, the eastern edge.

 

Nice to know other people from Shandong on CFL.

[ameriken]

Great review, and I give it two thumbs up!

 

An interesting observation: you mentioned that the VO saw your passport. I had heard that if all possible, have something visible, like a photo, the American SO's passport, or something else that will catch the VO's eye. Jie had a picture of us both on the front cover of her evidence book, and also had my passport visible, laid out in plain view for the VO to see. The VO's eye did catch the picture and the passport. Could be helpful....just a subliminal thang !

Edited May 22, 2006 by ameriken (see edit history)

[Guest ShaQuaNew]

CONGRATULATIONS!

[frank1538]

Nicely done. Congratulations.

[SmilingAsia]

Certainly, with your father attending the engagement dinner in China had to impress the VO.  First time I've ever heard of a USC parent's involvement, as yours did.

216916[/snapback]

In scam cases, there are more USC parent's involvement, especially the Chinese American parent.

[izus]

WOOO-HOOOO!!

 

CONGRATS

 

 

[Jali]

Always good to hear

[Guest pushbrk]

Certainly, with your father attending the engagement dinner in China had to impress the VO.  First time I've ever heard of a USC parent's involvement, as yours did.

216916[/snapback]

In scam cases, there are more USC parent's involvement, especially the Chinese American parent.

217267[/snapback]

You seem to be referring to scam cases where the USC and/or their family are involved in the scam. I don't think we get many USC members here that are willing participants in scams. That would explain why we don't see this. I think it would be great if you have the time and inclination to educate us more about how these scams work.