US Immigration from Hong Kong

Hi there,

I was born in China pre-1996 without a birth certificate, moved to Hong Kong when I was 2 yo. Going to apply for a spouse visa, and I have already tried to get my notarial birth certificate in China but I was told they are not be able to give me becauae I did not have all the documents they requested for.

Someone told me they have successfully used a statement from a local attorney in China who documented all the communications with local authorities and proved their attempts to obtain the notarial birth certificate for his client.

I am going to do the same thing. But the tricky part is I have discrepancies of information on the hukou cancellation and my HKID.

One of the characters of my name on the hukuo cancellation is different from my other documents (we assumed it was because when my grandfather registered me at police station, people there wrote down another character which has the same pinyin).

Then when I moved to Hong Kong, people at the border mistakenly wrote my birth month wrong. So my date of birth on the hukuo cancellation is different from my HKID.

Anyone has similar experience and how did you explain these discrepancies?

Many thanks!

I filed I-130 for my children a while ago. but no decision yet. USCIS website said "6 months until case decision"

In the petition i uploaded the marriage certificate. I filed the petition in July 2022.

I married my wife in Hong Kong in 2012.

But i divorced with her today. The divorce is still in process, and the marriage certificate became invalid. HK government took back the marriage certificate.

So does my divorce affect my I-130 petitions for my children? because i provided marriage certificate, but it became invalid.

What should i do? Do i need to call USCIS? or provide other document?

Hi All,

We just received our DQ and wondered if anyone had updates on how long HK is taking "DQ --> Interview Scheduled"

Any hints here?

Thanks much!!!

Hi Canadian VJ members,

I have to renew my Canadian passport from the U.S. in the next 3-4 months. Has anyone renewed theirs from the U.S.? I wanted to see how you got your photos taken. I couldn't find anywhere in my city that takes Canadian passport photos, and I read that you can't do it by yourself because you need a professional photographer/studio to sign on the back of the photos.

I'm currently in Hong Kong for travelling and I wonder if I should just take mine from here. Will there be a problem when the photo studio address is in Hong Kong but I mail the application from the U.S.?

I sent this question to Canadian Consulate as well as the canada.ca website but no reply. Thanks in advance for anyone who can share their experience.

Hi everyone,

For the 3-year rule "the applicant has been married to and living in a valid marital union with the same U.S. citizen spouse for all three years":

- Does it allow if I (LPR) travel outside the country but my spouse (US citizen) doesn't come with me during those short vacations? We're talking about 1-2 weeks each time.

- For the supporting evidence, e.g. Joint bank account - does it need to be from day 1 of the 3-year period? We only changed our bank accounts to joint accounts maybe a year after I got my GC and moved to US. But we have filed tax jointly ever since I had my GC.