Jump to content

bcco Interview/GUZ experience details

b.c

By b.c,
in Interview Results

Recommended Posts

b.c

b.c

Posted
Posted

I cannot say enough about how amazing this community is at CFL. Here is an attempt to give back to the community. It is long but hopefully worthwhile for many of you. I started this k1 visaprocess with an attorney at the price of almost $2k because it seemed so overwhelming and impossible to do on our own. Thankfully, i found the cfl community a few weeks ago and i feel we owe a lot of our success to you all. the attorney was helpful in some aspects but if i were to do this all over again i would not get an attorney, and no way would i hire the same attorney. i am not gonna trash an attorney on a public forum but i highly recommend that this attorney be avoided (anyone is welcome to send me a private meesage to find out the attorney). I can give many examples and reasons, but perhaps the most unbelievable thing is I noticed the attorney made a very critical error on my I-134 only after I arrived in GUZ. But I noticed it and corrected it and all is well as you will read about below.

 

We arrived in GUZ very late on saturday june 28th. We took taxi to Yangs apartments. after circling the block a couple times without spotting the apartments we gave mr Yang a call. He came out and met us at the OK convenience store at 1am and got us in our room. I must give credit to the Yangs. I would definately recommend them to anyone. Sure, the rooms are not the best and it does lack of some ammenities that westerners might be used to, but all in all its not a bad place at all. I have traveled extensively in China and stayed in mostly 5 star hotels and I got along just fine staying at Yangs. I would compare the room quality to a motel 6 in the states but with a kitchenette, etc. That is a small sacrifice to make to get all the other benefits from staying with the Yangs. the price is very reasonable, you cannot beat the convenience and the location. and their experience and willingness to help is indispensible. In addition to us inconveniencing them with the 1am arrival, he also did many other things for us. He called us the morning of monday june 30th to offer to take us to our medical check (we were already waiting outside the hospital for it to open at that point), he allowed us to come to his office to print out about 10 to 15 copies, which would have cost us over 150rmb locally in or around the consulate. And we again had to bother him one evening to borrow a stapler. He offered to bring it to our room right away. My sincere thanks to the Yangs. They are a wonderful asset to anyone going through this process.

 

Ok, now more specifics about our experience. Again, we arrived very late on sat the 28th. we spent most of the 29th resting and reading through over 2000 pages of msn IM's and several hundred pages of emails. ugh!!! We spent countless hours on this alone and the vo never asked to see any communication. Monday the 30th, we got up very early and went to shamian for the medical. we were first in line when they opened and were able to make it through the medical in about 30 min. we spent the remainder of the day doing more reviewing and organizing of all of our material.

 

At about 2pm on Monday i was still debating about whether to attend ACH or not. But at the urging of my girl i decided to go. And I am glad I did. i know its debated on here about the value of attending ach, and i have read the post guzspeaks about it being a waste of time if you do not have a purpose (which is why i was not wanting to go). But i did have a couple issues that i wanted clarification on if for no other reason than to settle an issue with my fiancee. she had the understanding that i needed my tax returns and w2's notarized and that my letters (eor, etc) needed to be hand-written. I disagreed with both claims. So i went to ach. the process is exactly as has been reported on here many times in the past. Got my number and was eventually called to window #27. he was a young, tall, thin caucasian with dark hair. handed him my info sheet that i filled out. and he proceeded to answer the questions as follows: notarized taxes/w2 are not necessary but it isnt going to hurt to take them along to get notarized if you are already going to get other docs notarized. and he said there is nothing wrong with letters such as eor, etc being typed out. So i was happy to report back to laopo that her gong was correct :lol:

 

And the interesting part is this, after he answered the questions he gave me my info sheet back and told me to have a good day. i thanked him and was preparing to exit and all of a sudden i heard him request me to come back. so i went back and he asked for my info sheet back to he could make notes in his system. i gave him the sheet back and he typed a few things into his computer and then handed the sheet back to me and i left again. so they do make notes of this. After going to ach and this process, i now feel it is beneficial to go to ach as long as you can come up with something of importance to ask and that you are kind, presentable and can find a way to leave a favorable and memorable impression with the vo. I did this by using our argument and disagreement about these issues as a way to interject humor into the conversation with the vo. he seemed to find the humor in it and enjoyed the situation. The worst thing you can do is go to ach and make the vo feel like you are wasting their time or if you give them crap in any way. This is especially important if your SO happens to get the same vo you talked to (see interview details below :P ).

 

then we went back to shamian to get medical results at 4pm. while waiting for the results, i had the pleasure to meet griz and his family there. Such a genuine nice guy and i wish him the best. Got the medical results about 4:30pm and left back to yangs for the night to review more msn im's, only about 1,000 more pages to go at this point :)

 

Woke up about 6:30am on tues july 1st. decided to go down in front of the embassy and get familiar with the situation. got down there about 7am and there was already alot of poeple in line outside. it is exactly like what has been described on here many times in the past. they opened up the building about 7:30am so i decided to walk in the building and experience some of the people go through the proces of going into the 5th floor conulate. exactly as has been described. left the building hung around outside until about 8am. FYI, there was still a small line of people waiting in line outside the building at 8am so it is possible to arrive a little late, but i wouldnt advise it. We spent the rest of the day reviewing more msn chat history and putting finishing touches on organizing our folders and started to do some practicing for the interview. all seems to be coming together good. went to sleep about 10pm.

 

wednesday july 2nd: Interview day!!! It is finally here. Woke up at about 1am wide awake and could not get back to sleep. Not a bad thing because we still have about 500 pages of msn chat history to review. Fiancee slept like a baby all night. took a break from reviewing chat history to check cfl at 5am. saw a recent post from griz, he cant sleep either. but good to see his fiancee is sleeping good too. Women truly are the superior sex. Sorry guys, its true. Ok, at 5:15am i decided i needed some fresh air. oh crap i am in china! no such thing as fresh air. But decided to go outside anyway. at 5:15am there are already some stupid fools lined up outside the embassy. Maybe about 15 people already. Ok, finally got all the chat history done at 6:45am. yes i am a procrastinator, and yes it is a virtue sometimes. left yangs apartment and got in line in front of the embassy about 7:20am. opened building and started letting people inside about 7:40am. we got in the building a little after 8am. the little woman went on her way up to the 5th floor as cool, calm and collected as possible while her nervous wrecked fiance strolled to the coffee shop on the 4th floor. sat with griz and 3 other non-cfl laowai. they started coming down as early as about 9am. lots of blues, some white and thankfully some pinks. it is clear early on that either alot of people were not totally prepared or it was gonna be a rough day. finally the fiancee of a guy at our table came down with a pink at about 9:30am. this helped alot but the heart-rate was still soaring. then i got a text message on my cell phone from my girl at exactly 10:12am. without taking a moment to reflect and think about the info i was about to view could be life-changing and potentially devastating, i opened the message right away. The message: "APPROVED!! The same vo u talked to on monday at ach!!" Words cannot describe what i felt for the next 5 or 10 minutes afterwards so I will not even attempt it. she finally came down from the 5th floor after taking care of the post office details. such a great moment. but shortly afterwards the girl of another guy at our table came down with a blue. they didnt have his previous divorce decrees. and then saw many other blues and a couple whites flow by as we sat and waited on griz's results. then a feeling on guilt began to set in. even though we got the pink that we so much deserved, it was a little hard not to feel guilty about all the other people that were just as deserving and just as prepared or even moreso and that did not get a good result. Tsap seui and others come to mind. my heart really goes out to you people. how you have been able to remain composed and go on each day is a mystery to me and you all need to be commended. It is 11:15am and griz and another guy at our table are still waiting. Man they are really making them sweat it out. but they are hanging in there. better them than me, i would be a total wreck by now. finally at about 11:30am the fiancee of the other guy at our table came down with a pink and griz's fiancee and daughter came down shortly after with big smiles...pinks!!! Congrats to griz and his family.

 

***

 

Interview details from fiancee:

 

me: good morning!

vo: good morning

me: how are u today?

vo: good. and u?

me: I am fine. Here is our passports and my fiance's drivers license. He is waiting me downstairs.

me: and here are letters from my fiance (eor) and his mom (acknowledgement of relationship) to you. thank you!

vo: ok. thank you.

vo: so do you have any pictures?

me: oh yes. we have plenty of pictures. here you are. this is the album i made for each trip (1 folder for each of our 9 previous trips). and here are more pics of my fiance and his family....some pics when his was little, etc.

vo: (went through many of the pictures but did it very fast. did not spend much time looking at any of them in detail.)

vo: ok

vo: where does your fiance live?

me: xxxxx abc st, xxxx, Indiana

vo: so how do u know each other?

me: i met him on US-China business conference. i was a translator for his group.

vo: oh good (nodding his head)

vo: ok. do you have tax returns?

me: yes, here is our financial package. it has form I-134 and tax returns and w2's for last 3 years.

vo: (spent a small amount of time reviewing financials)

vo: ok, where did u learn your english?

me: high school and university

vo: so what does your fiance do?

me: he works for his own companies. one is xxx, another is xxx, and xxx. and i also have the 2007 tax returns for each of the 3 companies.

vo:so what do the companies do?

me: oh, they sell xxx products mainly.

vo: so the products are made in china?

me: they import the xxx from china and sell them in USA. here is a catalog of the products from one of the companies.

vo: oh, can i see it?

vo: (briefly looked through the catalog)

me: very interesting right?

vo: yes, interesting! so your fiance must like to ride motorcycles.

me: hha, yes he loves it very much

me: here are some newspaper reports about my fiance's business's that include his picture.

vo: ok, thank you

vo: so, you are approved!

me: oh, thank you! you are so kind! so happy! thank you so much!

vo: haha, ok. Have a good marriage in USA

me: Yes we will! Thank you so much

vo: Your fiance, he came here on Monday

me: Excuse me? You mean this trip? (So excited and not sure what he is talking about)

vo: Yes, he came here and I talked to him

me: oh, it was you he talked to for ach? We are so lucky! haha. Thank you very much. You are so kind.

me: so have a nice day. Good bye!

vo: You too. Good bye!

 

****

 

According to my fiancee it was very short and sweet. Only about 3 to 5 minutes long. She was very relieved about this because most of the interviews she was watching before her turn were lasting much longer and some turned into interrogation and resulted in some white slips. As you can see by reading the interview, it appears my trip to ach helped, partly because we were lucky enough to get the same vo. And other things to note is that the vo did not request any information about our communication. Similarily, I have had a recent divorce and nothing was ever mentioned or requested about this whatsoever.

 

***

 

Below is our detailed 'kitchen sink'. A 10 folder approach is just what evolved as we were organizing all of our documents. Some of the placements and organization might seem a little weird to some but it seemed to work for us.

 

List of Documents

- Package 1:

- Our passports and copy of passports

- Visa Fee Receipt (CITIC Bank)

- Interview Appointment Letter

- Medical Package with all P4 forms

- Notarized Intent to Marry of Fiance

- Flight tickets for travel to USA after Interview

- Health certificate from medical check and vaccination sheet

Fiance Drivers License

 

- Package 2:

- Fiance letter to VO (EoR and Timeline)

- Fiance's Mom's letter to VO about our relationship

- Fiance letter to explain separation date of previous marriage and living history after divorce

- Fiance's Mom's letter about separation date of previous marriage

- Fiance's Mom's letter about living history after divorce

- Fiance Divorce Decree

- Fiance's ex-wife information

 

- Package 3:

- Fiance I-134 Financial support form

- Fiance tax returns for 2005, 06 and 07

- Fiance W2 for 2005, 06, and 07

- G-28 letter about lawyer representation

- Explanation letter about Fiance's payroll paychecks of his companies

- Employment letter

- Fiance's Paycheck stubs

- Fiance's complete 2007 tax return

 

- Package 4:

-Fiancee text messages and phone calls to Fiance

- Fiance text messages and phone calls to Fiancee

- Engagement ring receipt

 

- Package 5:

- Wire transfer receipts from Fiance to Fiancee

- Flight, hotel and many miscellaneous other receipts from all our trips.

- Proof of payment for flight tickets

- Receipt of gifts from fiance to fiancee and family

- Proof of Fiancee involvement in USCEA business conference in Chengdu, May 2006, where we first met!

- Fiancee's Bachelor degree certificate

- Fiance Itinerary for Nov 2006 and Jan 2007 trip to China

- Fiancee's Hong Kong and Macau Passport

- Namecard badges of both Fiance and Fiancee attending the April 2007 Canton Fair together.

- Fiancee's Drivers License

 

- Package 6:

- Fiance information for applying for Chinese 1 year travel visa

- Product catalog of Fiance's company

- Fiance resume

- Newspaper articles of Fiance and Fiance's companies

- Bank statements for Fiance's companies

- Some of payments for Fiance travel to China are in company bank statements.

- Complete 2007 tax returns for Fiance's companies.

- 2008 Financials for Fiance's companies.

 

- Package 7:

- Fiance Family information sheet

- Fiance personal bank statements

- Fiance Birth certificate

- Fiance photo page of passport

- Information of new house purchase

- Fiance proof of vehicles

- Fiance proof of apartment

- Fiance Social security card

 

- Package 8:

- Photos of each of our 9 trips together

- Fiance old pictures and pics of Fiance's children

- Pictures of Fiance's mother and step-dad

- Newspaper post office pics

-Fiance Vehicle pictures

- Fiance apartment pictures

 

- Package 9:

- Copies of P2, P3 and P4 information

-covers of my brith certificate etc which took of by the nurse in the medical check

 

-package 10:

-MSN chat histories

-E-mails

 

***

 

Ah, as I am done typing this report just now the song 'far away' by nickelback just started playing on my ipod. this has been a favorite song of ours and we just now realized that the 'far away' days are forever behind us. Thanks again to the cfl family.

Link to comment
tsap seui

tsap seui

Posted
Posted (edited)

Great write up Brian, heck I felt like I was sitting back in the coffee shop again, waiting and hoping for the lil' rabbit to come down with a pink slip!! :D And an even greater outcome for your lady's visa!! :P

 

And thanks for your words buddy. Ya know, I relish the success of each of you. I'd be lying if I didn't admit I ache inside for my girlfriend sometimes as I read of the lady's who got a pleasant interview with a nice VO who at least looked at their evidence. My girl couldn't even get my passport, ungodly phone logs, or EOR looked at. :) She could have gone to her interview with 3 or 4 sheets of paper, instead of a double wide, wheeled briefcase we had spent agonizing months to prepare. :lol: It just wasn't meant to be, but we're okay. :)

 

You did good preparing Brian and your lady did an excellnt job. Best wishes for a long and happy marriage and future to you both. ;)

 

tsap seui

Edited by tsap seui (see edit history)
Link to comment
Guest Mike and Lily

Guest Mike and Lily

Posted
Posted

Congratulations again! Excellent stuff and thank you for sharing. Ever little bit helps all of us. Best of luck on the rest of your journey!

David

 

Thanks for the info. Great job. Congratulations! :blink:

Link to comment
Reddragon75

Reddragon75

Posted
Posted

CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH!! I AM VERY HAPPY FOR YOU. THANKS FOR THE DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THE EXPERIENCE. IT WAS VERY INTERESTING AND THE INFORMATION WILL BE USEFUL FOR ME AND MY SO IN THE FUTURE. ESPECIALLY THE LIST OF HOW YOU ORGANIZED EVERYTHING :lol:

 

 

AGAIN CONGRATS!!! :blink:

Link to comment
griz326

griz326

Posted
Posted

Congratulations, Brian! Your Coco is a real Sweetheart. I know she wanted to go get hotpot when you told her you wanted to stick around in the coffee shop. That coffee shop would have been a really dark place if Xiaoyuan and Yawen came down with BLUE and we were alone. Thank you for hanging in with me. :ph34r:

Link to comment
xiaofeizhu

xiaofeizhu

Posted
Posted

Congratulations!! We are going to interview soon, so maybe I'm just emotional but the way you worded your wait, and then the text about getting approved made me CRY!! LOL! Must be the interview hormones. Anyway, thank you for sharing. It really has been helpful to hubby and I to see everyone posting their interview questions. Best of luck with your lao po in the US!!! COngrats again!

Link to comment

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
Go to topic listing
×
×
  • Create New...