It's blue...wait...yeah it's blue....hang on....it's pink&

[PapaJJ]

Let's start from the begining. Document intake was on Tue. the 24th, however since we heard that Mon. is the worst day to do the health check we decided to head to Guangzhou on Thu. afternoon. We flew from Wuhan to Guangzhou, then took the metro to shamian where we stayed Thu. night. We decided to stay at the Victory Hotel which was fine, 460rmb/night for the business suite room, the room was nice enough, but the location was the best part of this hotel, I would recommend this hotel for the night before health checks. First, shamian is a very nice area for walking, and since we have a 6 month old daughter who loves going on walks this area was perfect. Second, the clinic where health test and vaccinations are done is only a 2 minute walk from the hotel. So my wife went at 8am on Fri. for the health check, she also had to get 4 vaccinations, she was done by 9am. Then we just needed to go back in at 2pm to get the results, this was not a problem since the hotel let us check out at 2.

 

Now we had a weekend to kill, so we headed out to my wife's auntie's house which is just on the outskirts of town. Last year they bought a new home, and even though they are still living at their old home we decided we would stay in the new home. The house was nice enough, but not much to do in this area, and there was one major problem, mosquitoes. We had originally planned to stay there until Tue. am and head directly to the consulate for document intake from there, but the mosquitoes were feasting on our daughter (not us) and we could not accept it. We actually took turns staying awake at night to keep them away from our sweet baby. Anyway, that got old and on Mon. am we headed back into the city. We booked a room at the JianGuo Hotel for 585rmb/night, the hotel was very nice, great room on the 25th floor with a floor to ceiling window, soft bed, and great location 5 minutes walk from the consulate, oh yeah they also had discovery channel, which after 4 years in China with nothing but CCTV9, discovery was awesome. If you want a nice hotel, near the consulate and can't afford the Westin, this is a great option. For food we mostly went down memory lane, ate hot dogs and meatballs from Ikea, and a few other places that we knew from our time in Shanghai, and from our first few months living together in Shenzhen, 7-11 fish balls, spicy as we could make em!

 

Now on to the visa stuff, Tue. my wife went in for document intake. She got in line about 12:10 and when me and our daughter walked past 15 minutes later she was still about the last one in line, so it seems most people get there quite early. Document intake seems pretty straight forward, they take the required documents, notarized birth, marriage, and police cert. and also the I-864 and tax returns from me and my father who is our joint sponsor. They did not take any other relationship evidence, or even the letters that I had attached with my I-864. They ask a few questions, all in Chinese, one of them was "are you a CCP member?" My wife answered no since she is not, and she did have the documentation from the local CCP office proving that she is not a member. Of course as we planned she kept all her CCP documents in her folder and was only going to show them if needed. Then she went off to pay the fees, get fingerprints, and also she mentioned to them that she had a 6 month old daughter who she was breastfeeding and so they gave her the EXPEDITE stamp on her appointment letter, that allowed her to be one of the first ones to get an interview the next day.

 

 

 

So, now it's Wed. the BIG day is here. She headed off for her buffet breakfast at about 6:30 (the hotel gave us 1 free breakfast with the room, which was fine since I am not a breakfast guy) and then off to the consulate just after 7. Same process as the day before to get in, and once in she said she was maybe the 10th person to get an interview, and with how many windows they have that means she didn't have to wait at all. Her interviewing officer was a younger white guy, who she said she was very happy to get after reading about who is good and who is bad from usa.bbs. They had a greeting, and he asked if she could speak English, she said yes (her English is great) then a few simple questions which as expected she cannot remember. She does remember him asking about when she would go to the US and if she was ready to go, she said she will go as soon as she gets the visa and she was ready. He also asked if she is a CCP member, again no. Then he looked over the financial documents, and checked his papers that have the 125% poverty guidelines, he then asked her to wait and went in the back. She said she stood there for about 20 minutes before he came back, then he told her with a sad face, I'm sorry but I cannot give you the visa. He had the blue slip in his hand at this point, and my wife confused, asked why? He said because my fathers income was not enough, it should be about 32,000, she said no, that's wrong it's not that much. He said because my father needs to support 5 people.... wait... what? Now she knows something is wrong, and since she knows how much time I spent researching all the rules and regulations regarding the support issue she knows it must be the visa officer who is wrong. She tries to explain to him that my father is sponsoring her, not her husband and daughter who are Americans (although I would love to get some nice paychecks from the old man, haha). He again goes into the back leaving her standing there twiddling her thumbs and comes back with the same answer, and just says the rules are tricky. Now he starts writing on the blue slip while she continues to try and reason with him. Then, I don't know what happens here, nor does my wife (maybe she blacked out?) but he starts talking about something, I think my wife just didn't understand what he said until the last few words... "that's why I'm giving you a visa" HUH, oh, ok, thank you. That's the end, she got the pink slip and started running for the door (not really, but almost) then she went to the post counter and told them to send to her auntie in Guangzhou. She was back at the hotel before 10, maybe 9:30, I can't remember now. Then she told me the whole story, I was happy, she was still nervous and thinking she will get a blue slip in the mail. Later that day we came back to Wuhan and waited.

 

 

 

Visa arrived at her auntie's house on Friday afternoon via EMS, then she sent in on to us. It arrived here in Wuhan today, Sunday. Now that it is officially in our hands we are preparing to head out. Tomorrow we will get the exit permission for our daughter, which I hope will not take too long. Then clear out our house, (throw everything out the 6th floor window or light a match?) and move to the states. Were thinking sometime in late June, but not 100% sure yet.

 

 

 

Now a few things, I want to thank everyone here at CFL for their help, would be lost without it. If I'm not too busy in my life in the US I will try to continue to linger and share the knowledge I have gained. Also for those of you who just read this entire post, I'm sorry for any mistakes, or if I have any incomplete thoughts stuck in there, I'm just too lazy to proofread it.

[bergamot]

Congratulations. that is wonderful. but it was close ,wasn;t it, if your wife did not speak english.

 

 

[RobertH]

I'm very happy for you good job and good luck with your wife in america

[Mick]

Congrats and best wishes for a great future together. Your post brought back a lot of memories. My wife and I lived in China five years before getting a visa to return to the States back in 2003. We have been to the Victory Hotel many times.

[tsap seui]

Nice story, and very lucky for your wife. I'm happy for all three of you.

 

tsap seui

[Ryan H]

Congrats and thanks for the write up!

[xiaozhu]

Congradulations!! Glad to know that your wife was asked about CCP as the way you expected. It was very tricky. Some people's answer to "Are you a CCP?" is that "No, I am not, but I was." or "No, never."

 

Whatever, Congratulations again.

Edited May 30, 2011 by xiaozhu (see edit history)

[dan_ling]

Congrats, it's just bad your wife had to go through the extra stress at the end of the interview. Good luck to you and your family and have a safe trip back home.

[PapaJJ]

Thanks everyone, it's good to have the CFL family to share stories with.

[Ed&Mandy]

Hi Congrats she did a good job, we had a similar experience, but it was not income level.

[screamneagle]

Congratulations to the three of you! Your wife showed a great deal of courage speaking up to the visa official! Her perseverance paid off! All the best for a bright and wonderful future!

[david_dawei]

Chinese DNA is a double helix of debits and credits; born with accounting in their blood