Visa Issued - Long'ish

[mchina34]

Hmmmm. Now what to do....

 

We are in Guangdong doing business. We've been here about 3 weeks now. I thought I would update everyone since our interview date (CR-1) was scheduled for August 27th.

 

On the 20th I went in to the offices on Shamian to get some b'ness stuff taken care of and to get my passport cover glued back on for the umpteenth time.

 

While there, I mentioned that my wife had a interview scheduled but we had planned on just ignoring the whole thing. The consulate guys said that might be a bad idea in case we ever changed our minds. They suggested I stop in at the consulate downtown and tell them we were not going to go forward at this time. It seemed like wise advice. So off to the consulate I go.

 

It turns out that the 20th was ACH time too. I arrived too late for that but they let me in about 3:30 anyway. I trundled up to the window to tell them to cancel the whole thing for the time being and see if there was a way to put the process in storage or if it would start over again from scratch if I decided to move back to the USA one of these days.

 

The guy at the window and I talked for about 5 minutes. After shooting the breeze about business, sports and life in general he asked me if I still had all the paperwork. I said I did, my briefcase might as well be a 3 drawer lateral filing cabinet

 

The VO says, why don't you go ahead and do the medical if you have time and send your wife in for her interview anyway, it would look better on the paperwork (why this would be, I can not even imagine) in the future.

 

Well, if you are going to pay for advice (taxes, visa app fee, etc) you might as well take it. I asked my wife to go in for the medical. After recovering from that fight and buynig her a new Montblanc watch, she agreed. So off we go to Shamian Island again the next day to the clinic thing located next to the Victory Hotel. That took about an hour. Taking the former Miss Nokia, 2004 in there was an experience. The doctor who does the immunizations off to the left of the sign-in counter filled in all her paperwork for her and gave her candy out of his pocket (right in front of me!) on 3 separate occasions. LOL! I decided she was in good hands (maybe too good) and wandered off to the Victory Hotel to get a good western breakfast. With a last word to enjoy the breast exam with her new buddy, I hit the street. Remind your SO not to pee before the exam, they need a cup. Before I finished breakfast, Sarha was at the hotel to eat too. We did some shopping and came back to pick up the results at 4pm. Doctor Hot2Trot was not in sight this time so we had to wait 45 minutes this time

 

After that, dinner at Lucy's and back to the hotel.

 

 

On the day of the interview we went over to the consulate to queue up. For those on a medium budget, the Zhongyi Hotel around the corner from the Westin is a good deal. Its a little pocket hotel and has 28 rooms and suites. The suites can be negotiated down to 350 RMB easily and I've had it down to 250 when I stayed there for about 10 days from time to time. Laundry service is slow but everything else is top notch for the price. You can use the Westin Pool and facilities for 20RMB per day, internet is free, Yada^3.

 

Back to the interview. We were inside pretty quick and went up to the fourth floor. Very few women appeared to have "the kitchen sink". Most seemed to have about a 3 inch stack of whatever it is they were carrying. Sarha had nothing but the medicall packet and a three page tax transcript for FY2006. She didn't even bring a purse and as usual handed me her umbrella to hold as soon as we were in out of the sun.

 

So, with her passport, a 3 page transcript for 2006 taxes (Hah!) and her medical packet, off she goes up the escalator. At least my 'briefcase' lost a couple of kilos of crap I drag around because my wife can't file her own nails, much less important papers

 

She stayed up there forever. She went up about 7:45 or 8:00. Tic toc, tic toc. By 12:45, I started thinking I'd missed her and she was back at the hotel. But a K1 girl that my wife had been talking too outside came down with her pink slip and said Sarha was still waiting.

 

About 1pm Sarha came down with her pink slip. The really odd thing was that the VO asked her no questions at all. She sat down and said good morning. The VO looked in the computer and without turning to look at her asked "How's business?" She said it was doing fine. With that, he gives her the pink slip.

 

That was it. If it got any easier, they would have just mailed it to her.

 

Bizarre. And after 2 years, anti-climatic.

 

Now, for those of you sweating bullets over your packages, here's some observations:

 

We filed for CR-1 almost two years ago. This coming Thursday is our second wedding anniversary.

 

I have not paid any income taxes to state or fed for 2 years. On paper, I have negative earnings.

 

For other reasons I won't go into, I showed no assets on the I-864. My gross income is in the millions, but taxable income is less than zero and all the transcripts I submitted state this clearly. The I-864 seems to be a non-issue. I filled it out with ZERO for my income.

 

I've filed my income taxes from China with a Chinese residential address for the FY2005 and 2006. For all intents and purposes, I'm not even a resident in the USA.

 

We never submitted ANY supporting documentation with any of our applications. Not a shred of relationship or financial 'evidence'. I never submitted a pen stroke that wasn't the bare minimum of information they requested on the forms. My wife of two years does not appear on my taxes. I file single. This is mostly because I do my own taxes (I paid for a nice college education, I might as well use it) and (at least with TurboTax) you cannot file (electronically) with your spousal unit without the requisite SSN, which I promise you, she will never get.

 

After handing in her materials in the initial interaction in the consulate, my wife was completely empty handed. She couldn't have even showed the VO my picture in her wallet.

 

I have no explanation for the ease of the process from beginning to end or for all the hoops others have had to jump through. Except for the completely unacceptable length of time the process took, it pretty much went exactly as I expect it ought too. I'm an American citizen, I got married to a foreigner and according to the law, without a good reason not too, the government is obliged to hand her a immigration visa on demand. The process worked.

 

Why so many people have problems, I can't say. And I won't speculate.

 

Some possible things:

 

I go to the consulates in lots of countries a LOT. By the nature of my business, I'm in consulates more often than I'm in grocery stores.

 

I am honest, brutally so, as some of you know and do not appreciate. When something comes out of my mouth, its exactly what I'm thinking. I think that the consulates know that and my file with the government is probably running into the thousands of printed pages. From the "How's business?" comment from the VO, my suspicion is that there was little doubt at the consulates about the validity of my marriage and my ability to pay my own way. At one point in Shanghai I told a Chinese national guard outside the consulate to take his hands off my wife or call an ambulance because one of us was going to need it. He had grabbed her roughly in line and pulled her backwards out of line when we were waiting in the security queue to go talk business. I complained very calmly about that one inside and made it clear that no one deserved to be grabbed like that, much less the family member of a US Citizen. I know for a fact I got notations on my record about that one...

 

My wife is extremely pretty. She was a model for Nokia in her spare time when I met her back in 2004. She's been on billboards all over China. Maybe the VO just liked her as much as the doctor at the clinic?

 

The VO I talked to originally on the 20th did tell me that obtaining and bringing in airline tickets is a waste of time. They pay no attention to them. Entry stamps on the paspport are all they care about. If you give your SO your passport or copies of all the pages, that's enough. That's all I know about from the VO. I didn't ask any real questions, it just came up in the discussion because I said I'd been over on Shamian to get my passport reglued.

 

Anyway, that's it. Now we have to figure out what to do. We have no plans to go to the USA right away. Maybe we'll head to Florida at Christmas to see my father.

 

Good luck to everyone else, more than ever, I think the process is arbitrary to some extent.

 

Oh, one last thing. This is something I don't remember reading about. Besides the medical exam, your SO will receive some paperwork in Chinese with a half page pink slip stapled to it when they pick up the exam results. This gets taken to anoter clinic in Guangzhou where you pay another 10RMB (I think) to get a required (by who I do not know) health certificate booklet about the size of the yellow immunization booklet. This one has the SO's picture in it too. I have absolutely no idea who gets or needs this as it is not in or part of the sealed packages you pick up with your passport/visa from the post office 2 days after the visa interview. Whatever, we'll see if someone asks for it sometime.

 

Good luck everyone.

 

Jim

 

cool...i think this is the first one ever that didn't get asked a single question.

 

and aren't you the same guy that said you weren't going to do the interview?

[warpedbored]

Lance is correct. The I-864 is the law and to qualify you must have either income or assets. I suspect that in the process of showing no income he might have used a lot of assets as tax write offs.

[Randy W]

What we don't know from what he told us is exactly HOW the law was satisfied, but it's doubtful that anyone either broke the law or lied.

 

If I remember correctly, it's the gross income (before deductions) which is the figure used. In any event, the VO apparently knew enough about the business.

[warpedbored]

It's a little different for the self employed. They don't have W-2 forms. They have to prove income differently or show sufficient assets.

 

As a cautionary note I would not recomment that those of you going through the process use Jim's method.

[bosco]

It's a little different for the self employed. They don't have W-2 forms. They have to prove income differently or show sufficient assets.

 

As a cautionary note I would not recomment that those of you going through the process use Jim's method.

 

Us self-employed just provide copies of our tax returns like everyone else.

[warpedbored]

It's a little different for the self employed. They don't have W-2 forms. They have to prove income differently or show sufficient assets.

 

As a cautionary note I would not recomment that those of you going through the process use Jim's method.

 

Us self-employed just provide copies of our tax returns like everyone else.

I see, and on the line in the tax form where it says income from line X on your W-2, what do you put?

[bosco]

It's a little different for the self employed. They don't have W-2 forms. They have to prove income differently or show sufficient assets.

 

As a cautionary note I would not recomment that those of you going through the process use Jim's method.

 

Us self-employed just provide copies of our tax returns like everyone else.

I see, and on the line in the tax form where it says income from line X on your W-2, what do you put?

 

0

[warpedbored]

And by putting in 0 it shows you have 0 income before deductions so you must prove income by other means. I swear Curt you like to argue over anything. I was merely pointing out that showing income for self employed is a little different than folks that work for someone.

Edited September 4, 2007 by warpedbored (see edit history)

[Randy W]

The self-employed don't have 0 income - they have their own little section on their 1040's where they report their income. It shows uo on the gross income, just like everyone else's.

 

I'll bet Jim's gross income was well into 6 or 7 figures - way above the poverty line.

 

I think we've seen more times than just this that having a lot of money makes the interview go a lot smoother.

[mchina34]

oh yeah, jiamandsarah, you are a k1, so you must be going to the US to get married, right? i see you said you might go to florida to visit your father, but make sure you get married too, or you have to redo the process all over as the k1 expires 90 days after she enters the US.

[Randy W]

oh yeah, jiamandsarah, you are a k1, so you must be going to the US to get married, right? i see you said you might go to florida to visit your father, but make sure you get married too, or you have to redo the process all over as the k1 expires 90 days after she enters the US.

 

 

IR-1 (two years after marriage) will get her a 10 yr green card - they have been married almost 10 years

 

Edit - Oops - make that married 2 years

Edited September 5, 2007 by Randy W (see edit history)

[mchina34]

oh yeah, jiamandsarah, you are a k1, so you must be going to the US to get married, right? i see you said you might go to florida to visit your father, but make sure you get married too, or you have to redo the process all over as the k1 expires 90 days after she enters the US.

 

 

IR-1 (two years after marriage) will get her a 10 yr green card - they have been married almost 10 years

 

 

oh shyte...i thought i read k1. nevermind.

[bosco]

And by putting in 0 it shows you have 0 income before deductions so you must prove income by other means. I swear Curt you like to argue over anything. I was merely pointing out that showing income for self employed is a little different than folks that work for someone.

 

It's called a Schedule C Carl.

 

No I'm not arguing about nothing. You provide a copy of your tax return whether you're employed by another or yourself. It's the same. In fact, it's a bit easier because my Schedule C supercedes the need for a letter of employment that the rest of you might need to provide.

 

Your statement said self-employed have to prove income by other means and it just so happens that we don't.

[SirLancelot]

I'm not sure why some have a hard time believing this particular case...

 

He doesn't have to meet a financial guideline, just satisfy the VO...

 

Jim said it in one line: The VO saw the relationship as valid and money not an issue.. SO... WHAT'S THE ISSUE??

 

I don't see any problem and nothing surprises me here...

 

Hi DavidZ. I normally agree with you almost 100% of the time. You also helped me personally when I was going through the I-129F processing, so I appreciate almost every post of yours, but on this issue, I have to disagree--strongly I might add.

 

Jim's wife is applying for a CR-1 visa. She's comes to the US with an immediate green card issued to her once she arrives. There is absolute law required that her sponsor be financially liable. I went back to re-read the instructions part of the I-864 and here are some of the specifics it states:

 

A sponsor completes and signs Form I-864. A sponsor is required to be at least 18 years old and domiciled in the United States, or its territories or possessions (see Step-by-step Instructions for more information on domicile). The petitioning sponsor must sign and complete Form I-864, even if a joint sponsor also submits an I-864 to meet the income requirement.

 

To qualify as a sponsor, you must demonstrate that your income is at least 125 percent of the current Federal poverty guideline for your household size.

 

If your income alone is not sufficient to meet the requirement for your household size, the intending immigrant will be ineligible for an immigrant visa or adjustment of status, unless the requirement can be met using any combination of the following:

 

Income from the intending immigrant, if that income will continue from the same source after immigration, and if the intending immigrant is currently living in your residence.

 

If the intending immigrant is your spouse, his or her income can be counted regardless of current residence, but it must continue from the same source after he or she becomes a lawful permanent resident.

Income from any relatives or dependents living in your household or dependents listed on your most recent Federal tax return who signed a Form I-864A;

 

A joint sponsor whose income and/or assets equal at least 125 percent of the Poverty Guidelines. See question below for more information on joint sponsors.

 

The value of your assets, the assets of any household member who has signed a Form I-864A, or the assets of the intending immigrant;

 

This is pretty clear. I do not believe the use of I-864 or the requirement to meet it is at the discretion of the VO at GUZ. GUZ must ensure the financial sponsor(s) meets the requirement of the I-864.

 

The I-864 is not like the I-134. It's mandatory.

 

Randy wrote:

I'll bet Jim's gross income was well into 6 or 7 figures - way above the poverty line.

 

I think we've seen more times than just this that having a lot of money makes the interview go a lot smoother.

 

Jim declared in his first post that his taxes show ZERO or negative income. He further wrote that he used ZERO assets on the I-864.

 

Again, I submit either Jim is not stating all the facts, the wife didn't convey to Jim what really happened during the interview, or the VO broke the law by allowing Jim's wife a pass.

 

It's possible a VO who may have been impressed with Jim's taxes favored him and or his wife and allowed a pass, but given what Jim submitted and his explicit declaration that on paper he makes nothing, then a VO really is not allowed to grant his wife her visa with the I-864 he submitted.

 

Again, I'm not insisting that Jim doesn't make enough in reality to pass muster for the I-864. But I do suggest that what Jim has declared thus far in his posting does not meet the requirements of what is necessary for the I-864. He either has to show income or assets and he has not done that, according to his own declarations.

 

Is it possible he has a buddy/chum at GUZ which helped him internally? Is it possible he bribed someone at GUZ with his proclaimed inordinate wealth? All possible. I have no idea what the real truth is, except to say that what he's stated so far doesn't hold up to scrutiny and certainly is not a normal case for all to follow.

[warpedbored]

Does your gross income before deductions count toward qualifying you on the I-864? or is it your net income after expenses? The I-864 asks for W-2 forms unless you are self employed. The instructions state

If you checked box 22( B ) (self employed), you should have completed one of the following forms with your federal tax return: Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business), Schedule D (Capital Gains), Schedule E (Suplimental Income or Loss) or Schedule F (Profit or Loss from Farming). You must include each and every Form 1040 Schedule, if any, that you filed with your Federal tax return.

 

The burden of proof is a little higher for self employed. If you work from someone else you need only include a copy of your federal tax return and W-2 showing your gross income. Deductions or expenses have no bearing on whether you qualify or not.

Edited September 5, 2007 by warpedbored (see edit history)