Same sex spousal visas & gender-neutral passports

[dan1984]

Congratulations!!!!

[warpedbored]

Congratulations Andelu! Hopefully the rest will go smoothly. I'm looking forward to hearing about the transition to the US and your husband's adjustment to life here.

[HongKong2LA]

Congratulations!!!

[joshvworld]

Congratulations, Andelu. I hope to be following in your footsteps soon. We just got our I-130 approval letter in the mail from the embassy. Filed 10/31. Stamped approved 10/31. Postmarked 11/4. Received 11/9. (I have no clue how it takes a letter 5 days to travel less than 5 miles.)

[warpedbored]

Congratulations, Andelu. I hope to be following in your footsteps soon. We just got our I-130 approval letter in the mail from the embassy. Filed 10/31. Stamped approved 10/31. Postmarked 11/4. Received 11/9. (I have no clue how it takes a letter 5 days to travel less than 5 miles.)

Welcome to CFL Josh. I am assuming that you also have a same sex marriage since you mentioned your husband in another post. As I told Andelu this is totally new ground and the information you share will be of great help to those who follow.

Carl

[Andelu]

Congratulations Andelu! Hopefully the rest will go smoothly. I'm looking forward to hearing about the transition to the US and your husband's adjustment to life here.

I think I will have the tougher adjustment moving back to the States after 11 years living in Shenzhen...

[Andelu]

Congratulations, Andelu. I hope to be following in your footsteps soon. We just got our I-130 approval letter in the mail from the embassy. Filed 10/31. Stamped approved 10/31. Postmarked 11/4. Received 11/9. (I have no clue how it takes a letter 5 days to travel less than 5 miles.)

Congrats! You're on a faster track then we had and I was happy with our 3 weeks or so for the I-130 approval.

[joshvworld]

 

Welcome to CFL Josh. I am assuming that you also have a same sex marriage since you mentioned your husband in another post. As I told Andelu this is totally new ground and the information you share will be of great help to those who follow.

Carl

 

 

 

 

Congrats! You're on a faster track then we had and I was happy with our 3 weeks or so for the I-130 approval.

 

 

Thanks, guys. As best I can tell, the process is the same for any married couple now regardless of gender so it seems like I'm not really charting too much new territory, which is great for me since I have basically followed all the advice I've found on the threads here and it's working so far.

 

I got an e-mail from Guangzhou today telling me to fill out DS-260 and submit a copy of the passport bio page (my husband's I'm assuming) and two passport photos which we'll do later this week.

[warpedbored]

There are issues specific to you. For instance unlike opposite sex couples you don't have the option of marrying in China. A visa would have to be obtained by the Chinese person to come to the US. Any tips you might have could help others. More subtle issues could be confusion from consulate officers unsure of differences.

[joshvworld]

There are issues specific to you. For instance unlike opposite sex couples you don't have the option of marrying in China. A visa would have to be obtained by the Chinese person to come to the US. Any tips you might have could help others. More subtle issues could be confusion from consulate officers unsure of differences.

 

True! I didn't really think about that, but that was actually a benefit as far as I can tell, since we didn't have to get our marriage certificate translated and it gave us a good reason to go on vacation. My husband had gotten a tourist visa for the USA in 2011 when we traveled there together to visit my family and we renewed it pretty easily (no interview or going to the embassy) for when we went to New York last month to get married. We're pretty lucky that he is from Beijing and has a good job so getting the tourist visa wasn't hard at all.

[Randy W]

There is a process to follow for getting your marriage certificate certified for use in China. It involves Dept. of State (state level) certification of the certificate, and then getting THAT certified by your Chinese consulate.

 

This would allow you to use the marriage certificate at the PSB, for visa purposes, and purchase of property. BUT, of course, we have no clue how they're (the Chinese authorities) going to react to a same-sex marriage certificate.

[Andelu]

There is a process to follow for getting your marriage certificate certified for use in China. It involves Dept. of State (state level) certification of the certificate, and then getting THAT certified by your Chinese consulate.

 

This would allow you to use the marriage certificate at the PSB, for visa purposes, and purchase of property. BUT, of course, we have no clue how they're (the Chinese authorities) going to react to a same-sex marriage certificate.

 

China does not recognize its citizens same sex marriages...For property, that is a bonus as we can each own a property in the same city whereas if our marriage had been recognized by the Chinese government we would not have been able to.

 

I am in the process of renewing my residence visa, which expires on the 22nd, and when I selected married on the visa application it created numerous other issues. The visa officer had me fill out another form and select single. Still in the Chinese equivalent of "administrative processing" and hope to find out by the end of the week if my 11th residence permit will be granted. Really ironic that my husband almost has his immigrant visa and I am freaking out about my China visa...hoping I don't have to leave on the 22nd to go into Hong Kong and go tourist/new M visa route for a few months before we move...

[Randy W]

 

There is a process to follow for getting your marriage certificate certified for use in China. It involves Dept. of State (state level) certification of the certificate, and then getting THAT certified by your Chinese consulate.

 

This would allow you to use the marriage certificate at the PSB, for visa purposes, and purchase of property. BUT, of course, we have no clue how they're (the Chinese authorities) going to react to a same-sex marriage certificate.

 

China does not recognize its citizens same sex marriages...For property, that is a bonus as we can each own a property in the same city whereas if our marriage had been recognized by the Chinese government we would not have been able to.

 

I am in the process of renewing my residence visa, which expires on the 22nd, and when I selected married on the visa application it created numerous other issues. The visa officer had me fill out another form and select single. Still in the Chinese equivalent of "administrative processing" and hope to find out by the end of the week if my 11th residence permit will be granted. Really ironic that my husband almost has his immigrant visa and I am freaking out about my China visa...hoping I don't have to leave on the 22nd to go into Hong Kong and go tourist/new M visa route for a few months before we move...

 

 

Thanks for the information there.

 

I applied for my own residence permit on Oct. 2 - it wasn't available until Oct. 24. Previous applications (prior to the new changes as of Sept) only took 1 week to process.

[ShanghaiAmerican]

Congrats to Andelu and I hope Josh's has turned out well too. My Chinese husband and I filed our !-130 in Beijing last week (8.12) after being married in Vancouver, Canada on 7.4.2014. We are now anxiously awaiting approval of the I-130.

[dan1984]

Congrats to Andelu and I hope Josh's has turned out well too. My Chinese husband and I filed our !-130 in Beijing last week (8.12) after being married in Vancouver, Canada on 7.4.2014. We are now anxiously awaiting approval of the I-130.

 

Best of luck!!!