Oct 22 P3, Feb 22 P4, Mar 9 interview

[rogerluli]

Hello to all from a newbie,

 

I only discovered this website on 2/19 and have been reading intensely since. I have not been as involved as most people because I hired an attorney to handle our K-1.But realizing that my SOs interview was at hand I have been studying up to decide if it was important to be in GZ for her. She lives in GZ and I have been to visit her 3 times. My attorney's reply to my question of was it important for me to be there for the interview was, "You do not need to go to China for Lu Li's interview. I do not expect any problems with her interview. I am very excited for both of you that the interview is scheduled soon. Your case is going well." My SO agrees completely with this. She has complete confidence that she will get the visa although her English is limited and my Chinese consists of about 5 words. My SO tells me that she knows women who had NO or very little English who passed the interview (no their boyfriends did not know Chinese either).

 

I realize that conventional wisdom is that it is important for the petitioner to be outside waiting. If I am wrong I know I will have to eat my hat (can I have it in a hot pot please). And I will then have to rush to GZ to see what can be done.

 

I am extremely impressed by the quality of the posts and general organization here. But the best part is that everyone seems so caring and ready to share their knowledge with others. So before I eat the hat I take it off to all of you. Thank You, Roger

[warpedbored]

Welcome to CFL Roger. The subject of whether or not it is important to be at the interview has been hotly debated here. I am in the camp that if it is at all possible for you to be there short of losing your job go. No it isn't a sure fire way of ensuring the visa but it makes dealing with a blue slip afterwords a lot easier. I also believe it makes an impression on the VO as to the seriousness of the commitment. Good luck.

[lele]

Roger,

 

I asked a similar question about 3 months ago.

 

And the answer that I got went something like this:

 

Given that *if* I went now (I was just there in January, and left 1 day after the P4 arrived at the end of the month), I would have to flunk all of my classes at my university, piss off my advisor, and likely irritate my entire research program, or withdraw for at least 6 months, I thought that the costs were too high. However, we talked about this together.

 

This is the decision that we both agree with.

 

However, if things do not go well, it will greatly depress us, and we will try our best.

 

What we have agreed upon is that if things do not work well by the time my term is over, I will take a leave of absence for as long as it takes (6 months, 1 year, forever, etc.) and I will go to China, and we will start our life together. This would be a great blow to us both, as we find what I am studying to be important, but she is important to me too, as she is my family. Who knows, in the field that I do my work in, and in the field that she is interested in too, there are many opportunities in China and other places in SE Asia. The future will work out.

 

Now, I hope that this does not need to occur, but since I am ready to do what I will for my family (she and I and her parents and my parents) to finally find peace, I am prepared for anything.

 

I can only hope great thoughts, and know that she will do an amazing job (although she has never studied English, she already is far better than most of the Chinese students who arrive as graduate students at my university are, when they first arrive), and that is all that matters to me. She will just tell the truth, and if they can not believe that we are for real, then either they are missing something, or the system is far more antiquated that even I believe. If they really do outright reject her, we both agree that coming to the US may not be what we want to do for our lives, or that some person has a serious vendetta to take out, of which we have no knowledge!

 

What is important is that you try your hardest, and weigh your options. How much does she matter to you, and how important is sticking around here going to be for you?

 

In the case of being there, it may not help (there are some who have been there, and written that they still got blue/yellow slipped). However, it is *likely* to help, at least a little bit, in the case of a rejection...

 

For us, we are hopeful too that everything will be well in less than 1 week when she has her interview, and that we will hence be able to see each other in 2 weeks time (without having to wait any more...4 trips together there, although long in time, still feels way too long to be apart...)!!!!!!!!!

 

Good Luck, and follow your heart on this one!

[rogerluli]

Of course when the petitioner is present and the SO gets the visa they are likely to believe that it helped or made a big difference. We will never know the truth. But since some couples get "blue slipped" anyway we decided to go with my attorney's advice because her batting average is 1.000. Does the attorney know something I don't ? Is there anyone out there who used an attorney and got a denial ?

 

With us it was a matter of having a really nice honeymoon or rushing to GZ to wait together and see what happens. I realize that I am playing the odds on this and if a denial is issued I will be on the next plane to GZ to do everything I can to get my SO here.

 

Thanks for all the good wishes