Hello, I need all your help here. I am a chinese lady with an american husband. I was interviewed at the begining of June this year. I was granted visa first ,but when I was ready to leave and asked visa officer if my visa is 10 years( I got married for 2 years), He said it is 10 years visa, but asked me if I am communist. I was very honest and told him " no, I quitted . Visa officer asked me to show him a formal letter from my employer about quitting, but I didnt take it with me, then He took back my red slip and told me he is sorry and he couldn't give me visa at that time. I was asked to fill out a questionnaire about communist and mail the formal er letter about quitting from my employer. I mailed them to consulate in the middle of June. A month later I got consulate letter said they must run a routine security name check on me, which usually takes 2 months. Right now 3 months later, I was still told my case is in the process of name check. even though my husband wrote senator, white house, state of department.

Is there anybody know how long this name check will take?? or what else I can do to expedite my case. I am married to my husband over 2 years now, but we are still apart.

Thank you

I don't have any answers for you but all I can say is I think it's a bit stupid that we're still trying to keep out communists, especially from authoritarian dictatorships like China. I mean, don't you sort of HAVE to be a communist to get by there?

The vast majority of Chinese are not members of the communist party only 5% of the population are members. Being a member is a major problem with the immigration people, they tend to be classified ineligible to immigrate or even to get a visa. I asked this of my fiance way before we began the K1 visa to make very clear that this would cause us a big-big problem. My fiance was in the army and also worked for the post office for 9 years, but never joined the party.

This is a very tough nut to crack.

Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act reads:

(a) Classes of Aliens Ineligible for Visas or Admission.-Except as otherwise provided in this Act, aliens who are inadmissible under the following paragraphs are ineligible to receive visas and ineligible to be admitted to the United States:

(3) Security and related grounds.-

(D) Immigrant membership in totalitarian party.-

(i) In general.-Any immigrant who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate thereof), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible.

(ii) Exception for involuntary membership.- Clause (i) shall not apply to an alien because of membership or affiliation if the alien establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer when applying for a visa (or to the satisfaction of the Attorney General when applying for admission) that the membership or affiliation is or was involuntary, or is or was solely when under 16 years of age, by operation of law, or for purposes of obtaining employment, food rations, or other essentials of living and whether necessary for such purposes.

(iii) Exception for past membership.-Clause (i) shall not apply to an alien because of membership or affiliation if the alien establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer when applying for a visa (or to the satisfaction of the Attorney General when applying for admission) that-

(I) the membership or affiliation terminated at least-

(a) 2 years before the date of such application, or

(B ) 5 years before the date of such application, in the case of an alien whose membership or affiliation was with the party controlling the government of a foreign state that is a totalitarian dictatorship as of such date, and

(II) the alien is not a threat to the security of the United States.

(iv) Exception for close family members.-The Attorney General may, in the Attorney General's discretion, waive the application of clause (i) in the case of an immigrant who is the parent, spouse, son, daughter, brother, or sister of a citizen of the United States or a spouse, son, or daughter of an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence for humanitarian purposes, to assure family unity, or when it is otherwise in the public interest if the immigrant is not a threat to the security of the United States.


http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/ineligib...ities_1364.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_China

That's very interesting; I didn't know that. My first boyfriend in high school was from one of the former iron curtain countries where communist party membership was required. It clearly didn't pose a problem for his family in immigrating to the United States but I'm guessing exceptions are made for countries where you have to join...I dunno.



Ah....yeah, this is why they got let in.




Yikes...well, to the OP I say good luck.

You are on AP. Its a very common practice to put the men from Muslim countries on it. I don't know all of the details but from what I understand they are doing name checks against different databases. Also, from what I have heard, sometimes one of the checks are completed before another one, and by the time that one is complete the first one has expired and they have to do it again.

Have you called the Department of State for the status? Sometimes they don't give you any info, but sometimes they are very helpful.

Good luck.

Name checks can vary in length and depending if you have any more security checks going at the same time. When you are in security checks or name checks NO ONE can expedite the processing since it has to deal with national security. As Morocco4ever forever mentioned that sometimes some checks cleared before others do and then have to be restarted until all checks come back as cleared. I would call the DOS and ask for any updates from an operator. They may only say your case is in AP which is what happened in our case until the embassy recontacted my husband for him to come back they were ready to process him again.

DOS
202 663 1225
Press options 1,0,4,3,0
Need to have your case number, persons names and your spouse DOB.

Good luck,
Mary

thanks for your answers. As far as I known, here most chinese have to join the communist not because they believe of communist or take it as relegion , and they do it just for their jobs or promising future. I were asked to join it to keep my job few years ago. I also were told many chinese lied about communist membership and they got visa without any problem. Some even admited to their membership in front of visa officer and also got visa. Some were unlucky and like me were told to be name check again. I feel very angry about THIS It is unfair. Do you know here after everyone knew the reason why i was rejected and they laught at me and think I am stupid enough They think I should never have told the US government the truth. Now I also found honesty people usually are being punished.

Well we can understand the frustration Paula, but well once you tell them they have to go by the law no matter what. If some people did tell them and still they got the visa, then I believe the visa officer can lose his job if the authorities come to know about this. Its just that the law in the books is what they have to follow no matter what..

Lying to the Immigration would have to be about the craziest thing to do in my opinion. Maybe they know nothing and you will get away with a lie, but maybe they already know something, in this case you would have some pretty severe consequences.

I know this is rough, believe me I know, but once they finish the security checks it will all be over, and you can rest easy that there are no secrets that have to be hidden from the immigration from here forward.

I did some more research into the percentage of population of China who are members of the CPC and the number is more like 5.4%

70.8 million remembers, http://en.chinabroadcast.cn/811/2006/03/02/191@57107.htm (Propaganda arm of Government so may be a bit exaggerated)
1.3129 billion, total population of China. http://www.cpirc.org.cn/en/eindex.htm

So doing the math (70.8x100)/1312.9 = 5.4%

All I can say is wait for the security check. And hang in there.

All,

One good reason for having a consultation with an immigration attorney at the start, particularly an immigration attorney who is familiar with the consulate where the visa application will be processed, is to discuss the little details and learn what to say, how to say it, and what not to say.

As we see here, seemingly small splinters can cause large infections if they get under the skin.

Yodrak

Do I need apply for waiver? I asked this question to US consulate in China, but they ingored my question.

Your not even at the point to consider a waiver. Just hang back a little and see what happens with the security checks.

I don't think Yodrak's suggestion is a bad idea though, if you could at least consult with one. Finding one that understands the communist party might be a bit tough, but if he doesn't have experience in that area I wouldn't bother with him/her.

Have you researched this question at the Candle For Love group?

Great place to look!

A few posts I found on this:

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18900
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=14090
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18592
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...f=7&t=10946 (Master list pointing to many posts on Communism.)

http://candleforlove.com/