Slam Dunk Interview

[johnxiaoying]

The dreaded interview for my wife was a slam dunk, I think due to being overly prepared with about 15 pounds of photos, emails, letters, documents, etc. and my wife promptly displaying my passport. One year with CFL had us overly prepared, having read of Carl & Bing and others blue slips and difficulties the past year. We had a tape speaking English prepared, I had email addresses for Congressional offices, legal wording for open record requests, etc, everything I could find if we had any difficulties.

 

We had practiced about 150 interview questions for the last two months and the actual interview boiled down to about 6 questions in two minutes time, after my wife had stood waiting for about 4 hours. The interviewer was a pretty caucasian woman who asked the questions in Chinese, my wife responding in English.

 

Many of the other women being interviewed made remarks about the large amount of evidence my wife had. Some of their interviews lasted 15 - 20 minutes and they had little 1" or less stacks of supporting documents.

 

The questions my wife was asked were:

 

When did you meet your husband?

Have you been married before?

Do you have any children?

Does your husband have any children?

Does your husbands son live with your husband?

Your husband is here now?

 

The only document the interviewer asked for was the I-134 form.

 

Some comments on Guanghou:

We stayed at the Victory hotel.......watch out when taking a shower, suddenly I was hit with boiling water, I knocked down the shower curtain getting out. Then there was nothing but cold water. The hotel apologized and said this was an ongoing problem with some of the rooms. My wife had negotiated (haggled till they gave in) with the hotel and received two complimentary breakfasts for each nights stay. Getting a start on the day with a fairly good western breakfast saved me in Guangzhou.

 

Now I am in the outback (Guilin) wondering how long the cheese and crackers and jerky will last. Especially after seeing the cages of chickens, ducks, pigeons, and fat Garfield looking cats at the Guangzhou market I have less and less appetite for the local eats.

 

We ate at the Moon Carol Cafe and they had very good food at what I considered reasonable prices. I had a fish fillet and shrimp for about 40 renminbi. I mistakenly ordered a coke without checking the price and was charged 28 renminbi for a 12 oz can, about $3.25.

 

We had lunch at Lucy's which caters to westerners, down the street from the White Swan. I mistakenly ordered the chicken basket. It was cooked in the most god-awful batter and grease, damn near died of heart burn. If you eat at Lucy's try something else. If you want fried chicken find a KFC.

 

Good luck to all those with upcoming interviews. My advice, go overly prepared and shorten the interview.

[John & Hai Yan]

CONGRATULATIONS JOHN & XIAOYING!

 

Best wishes in your new life together.

 

Thanks for sharing the interview.

[frank1538]

Chalk one up for the good guys. Congrats.

[hank]

CONGRATS! Now you two can move on to celebrating the rest of your lives together!

 

Quick question. Does the VO simply review to I-134 form, or do they also keep it for their records?

[bandj]

Congrats - thats how they are suppose to go!

[ndjarrett]

Yet more good news. Congrats!

[bald guy]

Congratulations John & XiaoYing!

[johnxiaoying]

Does the VO simply review to I-134 form, or do they also keep it for their records?

The consulate kept one copy of the I-134.

[ed and ying]

Good luck !!

[tonado]

Great news. Congrats.

[mlspyl]

John & Xiao Ying:

 

 

Congratulations and thanks for the information !!! The long wait is over. Best of luck !!!!

 

 

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Mark