Nervous

[rw86347]

I am starting to get so nervous. I am not a detail oriented person. What if I have forgotten something?! What if somehow we screw something up. My wife was turned down twice for a tourist visa twice. I don't think she could take another rejection.

 

Everyone keeps talking about proof of our relationship. We live together. Tonight I took pictures of my wife, my sister inlaw (who lives with us) me and our dog of the couch. I figure I will put that with the other 12 months of pics.

 

I would love to take a video, but doubt I will be allowed to take in a phone/mp3/camera to play it on.

 

What did other DCF do?

 

Should I be nervous? It looks like few DCF have issues.

 

Does anyone have organization suggestions?

[Kyle]

First, don't get bogged down by all of the "what ifs".

 

Simply do your best and trust that it is enough.

 

I posted this in another thread, but this is what I submitted with my I-130 application while in Beijing:

 

http://uschinak1.com/forums/index.php?s=&a...st&p=520652

 

Here is what we took to the interview:

 

http://uschinak1.com/forums/index.php?s=&a...st&p=536147

 

In fact, the whole thread (second link) was about our time in Guangzhou. There's a lot of information there that may be helpful to you (that was the intention). Feel free to ask questions if you have them.

 

There is no use worrying over what you didn't previously submit (which at this point you can't do anything about - I'm just assuming). Prepare well for the interview and present a rock solid case and you should be fine.

 

One thing you should note is that a "blue" slip isn't an outright rejection - that is what the white slips are for (although they do happen, I've seen only a handful of instances, especially for those who have busted their tail preparing). Hang in there - you guys can do it.

 

No, she won't be able to take in your electronic equipment during the time of her interview. She'll have to check those before entering and pick them up when she leaves.

 

I will say for others who are just starting the process, that front-loading (turning in more than the bare minimum with your petition - relationship evidence such as pictures, EOR letters, etc) your initial application seems to be very beneficial to those who do so. It was for us. Try not to worry although a little of that is normal, because hey, let's face it, this is an exciting, new, but stressful time. Just do what you can do and do it well.

Edited May 6, 2010 by Kyle (see edit history)

[dnoblett]

Note being turned down for a NON-Immigrant tourist visa will have NO barring on the interview for an IMMIGRANT visa. So do not sweat that one.

[Kyle]

Dan beat me to the punch. I was going to say the same thing. The B-2 visas are a non issue in my opinion.

[rw86347]

Dan beat me to the punch. I was going to say the same thing. The B-2 visas are a non issue in my opinion.

 

 

My wife's moral is low. She feels like the US gov just doesn't like her. I keep telling her lots of people get turned down for B-1 visas.

[dnoblett]

Dan beat me to the punch. I was going to say the same thing. The B-2 visas are a non issue in my opinion.

 

 

My wife's moral is low. She feels like the US gov just doesn't like her. I keep telling her lots of people get turned down for B-1 visas.

Correct, and if she is married to you at the time you attempted to apply for a B-2 visitors visa, in many cases this is an automatic deny.

 

The Non-Immigrant visa unit suspects that the B-2 will be misused to immigrate rather than visit. B-2 is for Visit, CR-1 or IR-1 is for immigrations. Using a B-2 to immigrate is visa fraud, people do it, and the non immigrant unit knows this.

 

Marriage to a US citizen, tends to demonstrate immigrations-intent, so B-2 tends to get denied because of this.

[rw86347]

I was pissed over it! When I went to talk to them they said I needed to file for a green card.

 

I said "you mean you want me to quit my job and move back to the states so that my wife can meet my parents? "

 

They said yep

[Kyle]

My wife got two B-2's after we were married. Her first visa was prior to being wed. This seems to be the issue that a lot of people run into. With Jingjing's first B-2 she came to the States and left according to the conditions to her visa. I think this put her in a "good faith" scenario for future visits. IF, if she didn't get a B-2 visa before our wedding, I seriously doubt she would have received any of them. Thankfully, from my understanding B-2 denials have nothing to do when filing for an immigrant visa. Yes, it is frustrating, but you have to look at it from their perspective. They don't know you or your wife. Of course, you know your wife will return to China with you, but really I suspect there are those who abuse this and ultimately choose not to return. Basically the bad apples screw it up for the rest of us.

 

EDIT:

 

changed green card to visa

Edited May 7, 2010 by Kyle (see edit history)

[shenzhen]

My wife got two B-2's after we were married. Her first visa was prior to being wed. This seems to be the issue that a lot of people run into. With Jingjing's first B-2 she came to the States and left according to the conditions to her visa. I think this put her in a "good faith" scenario for future visits. IF, if she didn't get a B-2 visa before our wedding, I seriously doubt she would have received any of them. Thankfully, from my understanding B-2 denials have nothing to do when filing for an immigrant visa. Yes, it is frustrating, but you have to look at it from their perspective. They don't know you or your wife. Of course, you know your wife will return to China with you, but really I suspect there are those who abuse this and ultimately choose not to return. Basically the bad apples screw it up for the rest of us.

 

EDIT:

 

changed green card to visa

I agree with what you said about the bad apples but it would seem they could still look at the total situation and make a good judgement. In my case I had been here for an expat assignment with a USA company for 2 years and had a contract clearly showing my end date in China far off into the future. Clearly there was intent for us to come back to China but we got the same response when we tried for the visitor's visa.

 

European expat, however, have no problem getting a vistor's visa for their Chinese spouses.

[rw86347]

Wow you had the exact same experience!

 

We took contracts, bank statements everything to show we would come back. After 5 seconds they said and I quote "I have a bad feeling about you". 1-800 psychics!

[xiaofeizhu]

First, take a deep breath

 

I was a DCF case as well. My husband was denied a B2 visa when we were in Japan (we were already married when he first tried to apply for the visa).

 

In the beginning, I did not frontload my application as many people talk about. I had no idea the dept of what should be included with the intial I-130.

 

However, we did not encounter problems when we went to interview. DCF couples, in general, do not get scrutinized as much as others.

 

Take a breath and do not worry, you've done the best you can and I am sure it will be fine.

 

Good luck!

[rw86347]

First, take a deep breath

 

Take a breath and do not worry, you've done the best you can and I am sure it will be fine.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Actually I had my lawyer take care of it. I was too afraid I would screw things up!

[vpr]

First, take a deep breath

 

Take a breath and do not worry, you've done the best you can and I am sure it will be fine.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Actually I had my lawyer take care of it. I was too afraid I would screw things up!

 

First off, as many others have said already, you need to relax. You're not even doing the interview...SHE is. Your nerves are only going to intensify hers. The more nervous SHE is, the more likely she will to make a mistake. You need to reassure her, comfort her, and make sure she is properly prepared.

 

As I was told by members of this forum, DCF'ers need to focus more on showing domicile and financial stability. You're in China, and married (how long?), so proving the relationship I don't think is the biggest hurdle (unless it's been a short time since marriage). It seems to me that if you are filling out side of China, you should focus on how you communicate, and proving that it's a real relationship. If you're filling inside China, you need to prove you haven't given up US Domicile, and have the financial (co-sponsor?) means to support your household.

 

We prepared for about 5 months, researched for over a year... In the end, the interview was only about 2 minuets max. The VO only requested to see our pictures even when my wife offered to show them other things. She was told each time 'No, I don't need to see them.' In the end it's a bit frustrating that you spend so much time preparing things to have them ignored, but you can't let that get to you. The preparing and document gathering will help the both of you formulate YOUR relationship in your minds...at least it did for us.

 

In the end we felt preparing everything was MORE stressful than the actual interview. Confidence in yourselves I believe is important. Make sure you go over your "timeline" with her - the only real question my wife was asked was "When did you meet your fianc¨¦?" and questions about who people were in our pictures, why we didn't have wedding pictures with family (we plan on having a large celebration in the US), and where we were/what were the objects of the picture (Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan with her Mom for example). That was basically it...

 

In Beijing, we tried to give them our EOR letter and it was handed right back to us. We took loads of pictures and they only accepted 3 pictures. So we didn't really "front load" anything, only because they didn't accept much.

 

Once you're there, you'll find that they don't really have the time to spend a lot of time on each person. Simple cases seem to pass as long as you have prepared everything and the numbers look good. One thing that kept coming up during our interview were 2009 taxes... Make sure you have your 2009 taxes and your co-sponsors (if you have one) 2009 taxes. If you don't have transcripts (ordered from the IRS) make sure you have the 2009 W2s, too. These were requested during our interview too.

 

In closing, relax, be there for her, and prepare her for possible situations that may arise. If you think something may cause a red flag, or a question to be posed, make sure she can answer that question. My wife and I spent more time going over our case and thinking about possible red flags and responses then studying the list of 100 questions floating around. We went over the basics of that too.

 

Anyways, good luck, Kyle's information was a huge help to my wife and I (thank you Kyle!) and I used his records as a mold for ours.