Hi everyone,

I have 4 questions concerning my application on behalf of my wife for a CR-1 visa. I appreciate any help that anyone can give regarding these questions.

1. We applied earlier for a fiancee visa for my wife (before we were married, obviously), but later decided to get married and apply for a marriage visa instead. We are planning on canceling the fiancee visa application, but cannot do so yet, as the Guangzhou consulate is currently on vacation for the Chinese national holiday. On the I-130, question 16, it asks the following (Checkboxes represented by a capital X):

Has your relative ever been under immigration proceedings?
X No X Yes Where _________ When _________
X Removal X Exclusion/Deportation X Recission X Judicial Proceedings

What should I put for this? Does our previous application for a fiancee visa for her count as "immigration proceedings?" If yes, what would you recommend I put for "Where" and "When?" How about the second line? Do I need to check any of those options?

2. Question 21: we are currently living together in an apartment in which we have been living since September, 2005. What should I put under "To:", as we are still living there right now? Will "Present Time" suffice?

3. We got married in China (she is a Chinese citizen). If anyone reading this got married in China, could you clarify for me what we need for our application in terms of our marriage certificate? We mentioned to the officer at the Marriage Registration Office that we would be applying for the visa, and he did the paperwork necessary to get a notarized notice officially stating that we are married, but he did not translate our actual marriage certificates. He said that the notarized notice is enough. Can anyone here corroborate this for me?

4. I assume that my mom will be sponsoring us later on. (We will need a sponsor later on, correct? I don't have much money of my own right now…) It's possible, however, that it will be my dad (my parents are divorced and live in separate states). As we don't know where we're moving yet, I plan on putting my mom's address as the location where my wife intends to live on moving to the U.S. (question 18). If I do this, and later my dad is the one who sponsors me, will that create any difficulties later on in the process? Would it be best to determine right now, before I submit the form, which of my parents will be sponsoring us later?

That's it, everyone. I know that's a lot of questions; I will greatly appreciate anyone who can offer me advice on any of them. Thanks a lot!

hoby,

1. petitioning and applying for a visa is not being under immigration proceedings.

4. put current plans on forms that you are submitting now, make updates as may be necessary at appropriate opportunities

Yodrak

Thanks a lot, Yodrak! I appreciate the help. Good to know that applying for a visa does not count as being under immigration proceedings.

Are you filing your I-130 locally?

Yes, I am a resident in China, so I'll be filing it through the Shanghai consulate, which will then send it on to Beijing. Why, does that make a difference for one of my questions?

No, no difference. I was just checking that you'd be filing there since you've posted to the IR/CR forum. We also have a Direct Consular Filing forum here.

You can confirm your China specific questions at a forum called Candle For Love. And for your address question, that is how I answered it. I also agree with Yodrak's answers to the other Qs.

Best luck with your case!

Thanks a lot! To be honest, I hadn't noticed the DCF forum, which is why I posted it here instead. I just checked out Candle For Love—it looks great. I'll be sure to post my question there.