DaveE111

I still get a laugh when I think about my wife's first few months here. She has been here one year next month. some of the things she found weird:

1. No real visible security at the mall or banks.

2. 24 hour major stores

3. No deposit or withdrawal slips

4. You can get your money back when you return something.

5. Internet shopping (yes she now has it mastered).

6. Military discounts

7. Limitless refills on drinks at restaurants

8. People don't care about your middle name on documents.

9. American teenagers and their freedom

10. Even poor people have a car

11. Black Friday shopping adventure

12. What kids wear to school, (we have two high school daughters)

13. Shooting sports (she now has two rifles and is getting quite good)

14. Lack of public transportation, (we have no busses or taxi's where we live)

Last but not least, never ending ED commercials. She asked me who Ed was. When I told her, it was the first time I had seen a filipina blush.

Mw wife said her interview was like that. The CO didn't look at any of the pictures etc. He did hold up a picture that I had submitted with the initial package and asked her if the picture was of me.

Quick and painless she says.

Non citizen spouse will not hurt your clearance. Poly tip - Don't lie lol

The I-90 form is used to replace a lost green card. You fill out the form, enclose a check for $450.00, and wait about 4 months. It will be very helpful if you have your alien number and immigration classification for the I-90 form.

China's new rich are increasingly taking advantage of loopholes in American visa law to have their babies in the United States. Parents believe these so called "anchor babies" will have greater economic and educational advantages, but many are just beginning to see the problems that come with their status as well.

By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

BEIJING – The question of children born of illegal immigrants - so-called “anchor babies” - was re-injected back into America’s national discourse late last year when a U.S. study found that an estimated 340,000 of 4.3 million babies born in the United States in 2008 – or every 1 in 15 - had an illegal-immigrant parent.

While much of the debate – and a healthy dose of vitriol – was focused on immigrants of Hispanic background, stories of upper-class Chinese women flying to the United States in style and staying at private clinics to have their babies to take advantage of citizenship laws soon began to appear in the news cycle.

With them, a new breed of anchor baby was born, and their very existence changed the dynamics of the controversy completely.

While Hispanic anchor babies might be stereotypically viewed as coming from poverty and consequently destined to be heavily reliant on government social services, the parents of Chinese anchor babies were wealthy Chinese who legally paid their own way to the United States, freely spent money at American stores, and generally intended to return back to China soon after giving birth.

Just how many Chinese mothers have come over to the United States remains unclear. One report, though, cited an agency that claims it has helped over 600 mothers travel to the U.S. to have their children in the last five years.

The motivations of these families are far-ranging: from a desire to provide better educational and travel opportunities to their children in an increasingly competitive and international job market, to a clever way to skirt China’s one-child policy, to a desire to one day enjoy the American lifestyle and all the benefits – both social and economic – that entails.

Whatever their motivation, the machinations behind the process were always clear: for approximately $15,000, Chinese mothers were navigated through the process of applying for an American visa, including how to fill out forms and how to approach interviews given at American embassies by visa officers.

Once in America – mostly in cities on the West Coast but sometimes U.S. territories like Saipan - the mothers were given two months of prenatal care and a month of medical support post-birth. Throughout the three months, the mothers were given room and board and scheduled activities such as shopping trips at local malls or walks around the clinic for exercise.

Though many of these clinics operate without a proper business license, throughout their time in the U.S., the women were safe in knowing that everything they had done from the initial visa process that gained them entry to the United States to later applying for citizenship for their newborn was legal and fully protected under current U.S. law.

Both the 14th Amendment and State Department rules that don’t regulate pregnant foreign visitors ensured that.

Dual passports, double headaches

Fast-forward to today, and it would seem that the trend of pregnant Chinese women traveling to the United States to give birth has not abated. Yet, on the heels of such reports comes a new story from the Chinese newspaper, Economic Observer, that details the consequences that many of these mothers returning to China with their American children now face.

Perhaps the most immediate problem for families is the fact that China does not allow dual citizenship. Absent then of documents like a Chinese passport, birth certificate or a hukou – the infamous resident permit that allows Chinese citizens to legally live and work in a city – these children are foreigners in the eyes of the government and subsequently subjected to higher school tuitions and limited access to national health care.

Some parents have attempted to game the system by conning the Chinese government into issuing their children passports. Still others have paid for fake birth certificates and hukous that allow them to at least enroll their children in the local schools they desire without facing the additional fees required of foreign children.

However, with such steps come additional risks and concerns.

With dual passports, comes the greater chance of getting caught by both Chinese and American authorities while travelling between the two countries. U.S. law stipulates that in most cases, dual nationals must use a U.S. passport to enter and leave the United States. However, to leave China on an American passport would expose a child’s dual nationality and in essence negate their ill-gotten Chinese citizenship.

In order to circumvent these legal landmines then, Chinese families often must apply for a visa to a second country or a region like Hong Kong, where they transit through using their Chinese passports to enter and then fly onwards from there to the United States on their American passports.

Finally, Chinese babies born in America will eventually find themselves subjected to the same civic responsibilities that other citizens must face: taxes. After they turn 15 years old, Chinese anchor babies will be expected to pay state and federal taxes. While the consequences of not paying taxes vary from state to state, it is clear that the benefits that they would be entitled to had they paid would not be fully afforded to them.

Also of particular interest to Chinese families of anchor babies is that while their children will one day be able to sponsor their the parents American citizenship when the children turn 21, it will be a difficult case to make to immigration officers about their suitability if their offspring have not paid any taxes into the system.

Whether the State Department decides to amend this loophole or whether the experience of this first generation of Chinese anchor babies proves troublesome enough to deter people remains to be seen. However, it should be comforting – perhaps coldly so to some – to Americans to know that despite all the news one reads almost daily about China gaining on the United States in a variety of measurables, U.S. citizenship still remains a hotly desired status symbol for much of China’s privileged and economically mobile class.

Each state has different requirements. We live in Georgia and my wife needed her green card for drivers license. I really thought she could get it with just the EAD but it didn't work. I went to three different licensing centers and they wouldn't let her get the license.

Social security card was a must also, as well as proof of residency in Georgia. I thought that the mailing address on the NOA's would be proof of residency, but it had to be something like joint bank statement, or utility bill with address.

She has her final road test tomorrow lol.

Good luck

Here is a lady that posted today that was sent home without a visa because her husband filed as single instead of married.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/314713-irs-2010-filed-single-ground-for-refusalcan-someone-pls-help-me-fix-it/

We got married four days after arrival on a K1. The next week she applied for her social security card in her married name,(showed the marriage license with the name change and marriage certificate). Here in Georgia they would not allow her to get a drivers license until she got her green card.

The problem is that you start out denied and have to convince the CO otherwise. "Tourist Visa is a non-immigrant visa. The hurdle to obtaining a tourist visa is the legal presumption that everybody that applies for it is an intending immigrant who has made a conscious choice to live in the United States."

The embassy in Manila (the one I try to deal with) specifically tells you that submitted additional documents will not help the visa applicant. "The following documents are not considered helpful:

(1) In general, affidavits of financial support will be of little value to an applicant (exception: a student visa application must have an affidavit of financial support). The affidavit of support is a requirement only for immigrant visas. The interviewing officer is less concerned about how the applicant will be supported during his/her stay in the United States than in whether s/he has reasons to return home.

(2) Letters of invitation (except for business travel).

(3) Purchase of airline ticket. This should not be made until a visa has been issued and the applicant is in receipt of the passport with the visa in it.

You do not have any requirement to adopt the child. The decision is a personal one only.

My step daugter had the same thing. She exceeded whatever the size of the red mark is for her TB tine test. At POE she was told to contact the local health department. We did all that and the health department put her on medication, (Isoniazid), for nine months. Every month she would go to the health department for a blood test and her next months pills.

When we applied for AOS, we provided the form from the local health department with our package. It was not a I693, but it was a boiler plate form they use for employee physicals. Basically stated that my step daughter was being treated by them, and what the start and completion dates of the treatment were.

Never got an RFE and it never came up at the AOS interview.

Were I you, I would get whatever form your local health department uses, and write a stort statement as to why you cannot provide a I-693.

Good luck.

New update says they busted the guy. Not for buying the food, but for selling it for 50 cents on the dollar.

My wife told the interviewer we would marry as soon as possible. The interviewer just laughed. She was asked the same question at POE Detroit and the Immigration guy just said "awesome".

Be prepared, and print on the best paper possible. Make your documents neat and organized. We had about 20 pounds of documents. That said, every interview is different, and I think they have a good idea of the relationship prior to the interview.

For us, not a single document or photo was examined, (other than ID). The interviewer swore us in, and asked the mandatory questions from the form and removed the I-94 from my wife's passport. Then she asked my wifes mother and fathers name, and my step daughter her birth date.

Interview done - approved.

Good luck

Dave

Conventional wisdom says do not buy tickets until the visa is her hand. That being said, I defied conventional wisdom and learned the hard way.

I went to the Philippines after interview approval and allowed two weeks for her visa. My plan was we would all fly back together. Her visa arrived the day after I got back to the states.

Are her CFO requirements complete? She has to get that little sticker in her passport after the visa is issued.

You pay your money and you take your chances/

Yep, they are making my hair turn gray. Wife had a license from the Philippines, but elected to get a learners permit in Georgia to practice. We have a 16 year old daughter practicing, and my step daugher from the Philippines will be 15 next month and ready to get her learners permit on her birthday. Wife does really well, but I have to remind her that stop signs are not optional,(even if no one is coming the other way).

Actually, my wife thinks we drive fast in the states. Being from Las Pinas in Manila, life is a perpetual traffic jam. Here we cruise along at 80 mph on the freeway with very little traffic.

Can't take any electronics into the Embassy. However my wife carried all of her documents in a laptop bag, (of course there was no laptop computer in it, just the documents).

My wife hand carried the NBI clearance back to the Embassy and turned it in. Her visa was delivered about two weeks later.

It is both funny and heart wrenching to see the lengths couples go through for status checks during this process. I assume it is because we feel so helpless once our packages are submitted. Looking for "touches", "comparing filing dates", "looking at Igors list", etc etc etc. Lol, mine was going on the USCIS website and entering case numbers lower than ours; then watching for status changes. When I would see approvals on cases just a few hundred numbers lower than ours I would start to get excited.

Yes you must submit an NBI clearance on any name you have used. This includes previous married names. My wife had to submit NBI clearance on her previous married name, and another NBI clearance for a spelling error on her birth certificate.

AKA = also known as.

Copy of the I94 for the AOS package. They will take the original at the interview.

It is possible to AOS without interview. From what I have read, it is common at the California Service Center. Everyone I know however, had interviews. We did.

It is not complicated at all. You just go and have fingerprints done and they do all the rest. The upgrade to a Top was just sign a form giving them permission to access what they wanted and they did the work. Most of what they need to do can be done online. They may or may not check out as thorough as they can. Mine they never went to visit my friends or neighbors at all but they did talk to one former employer.

My friend I was wrong in saying he was denied. He eventually did get his Top but it took a year as they were backlogged and he missed out on that promotion at that time. Since then he has done very well. I was also doing mine at the same time and the backlog was there but they upgraded mine anyway automatically until they found something to pull it if they did but he was not allowed to be automatically upgraded as he had been in country for less then 5 years and at that time it was required to do at the least a cursory check in his former country but that backlog made that tough.

By all means do not despair of going for any job that requires a clearance. Let them do the work but I will say now that some jobs that require but not all require you to take a lie detector exam at times. I hate the things myself and found the game they play with them boring. The machines actually do not tell if you are lying or not but the head games and stuff they did break many so understand this may be a unwanted intrusion. As for myself anyone I think that has been interviewed from a country for a visa that is a high fraud country and were successful can go through a polygraph easily.

I don't know how long it has been since you have had an updated clearance, but in the more than 40 continuous years I have had a clearance, it has never been "get the finger prints and let them do the rest". Google SF-86 and you will see what it takes to get a civil service/US government contractor/military security clearance. I go through it every five years.

Nope - same timing as everyone else. At the time of my filing last year, K1s were running a lot faster than currently. My timeline was virtually identical to everyone else who filed at the approximate same time. I believe they are required to run your background check whether you hold a current background check/security clearance or not.

I do feel fortunate though. I sent in my K1 package with VSC on January 27th 2010 and my fiancee and daughter arrived here in July. Today it takes longer than that to get a NOA2. Next year, who knows.

I need help. My husband got approved last week, he went and picked up his visa. They didn't tell him not to open the packet that supposed to stay close until he gets here. Well, he opened it thinking it was just returned documents. I know you'll say it's written on it. THAT'S WHAT I SAID TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. I'm mad and sad and don't know what to do right now. I don't know if they'll cancel his visa or make us go through th whole thnig again, or just make him go back so they can reseal it. of course tomorrow is Memorial Day and the consulate will be closed.I can't wait till then. anyone who was in the same situation and can tell me what will happen? thanks!

Usually you have to take it back to the consulate and they will reseal it.

Some states apparently do not permit a middle name change without a court order. Sometimes USCIS won't allow the change if it isn't legal in the state in which you are applying.

Georgia is pretty good about that. When we got our marriage licence the clerk asked if my fiancee (at the time), wanted to change her middle name. The changed name on the marriage license serves the same function as a court order for the name change after marriage. At the AOS interview, the interviewer got hung up on the middle name issue. We saw her writing something in red but she never told us what she was doing. I am sure she was changing the middle name back to her birth cert middle name. In any case, USCIS didn't give us any hassle about correcting the card. Just takes forever.