SBB

Note that for men "business casual" can mean anything from "you can wear a sports coat instead of a suit" to "polo shirt and khakis", button down and nice slacks is a good estimate for most places, but you may want to try to inquire further. Also, regarding work-from-home, Google does have contracting agencies hire work-from-home ad-raters in a variety of languages. This might be a good opportunity for a new immigrant looking to do something with their time (pays $12-15/hr on a W-2)

There is actually a rule that states that travel to Canada , Mexico or the Bahamas does not reset the original time permitted in the US. Too many abusers used to do just that so they shut the door.

Really? I thought that only applied to VWP entries, not B1/B2.

All entries on a visa are at the discretion of the officer at the POE. Remember that a B1/B2 visa is for visiting, not living in the US. There is no law or regulation prohibiting them from going to Canada or Mexico for a week to try to reset the clock, but if the border agent thinks they are trying to abuse their visa, they can be turned away. General rule of thumb is that you should spend as much time out of the US as you spend in it.

I didn't pay my in-laws a bride price, and they probably wouldn't have accepted even if I'd offered, but according to my wife, most of it is supposed to come back to the couple either through the wedding or to buy things for the new couple's life together.

Apparently, my father-in-law has already heard about this and is thinking about getting his passport to come and visit at some point, though he's bummed that the Wuhan consulate won't be processing visas until late next year.

I don't have an answer, but I am curious if you or anyone else can elaborate on how one gets an ID or passport without having a birth certificate, since as far as I understand the birth certificate is considered a primary document necessary to get any form of identification—and anything that doesn't require it (like a driver license in the fifty states in the U.S.) still requires other documents that you couldn't get without having a birth certificate in the first place (Social Security card, passport, et cetera).

The Chinese government didn't make a regular practice of issuing birth certificates until well into the 90's. The canonical document of identity in China is the hukou (family register).

Getting the Q visa requires a fair amount of documentation. I needed to bring a copy of my father-in-law's national ID card, a copy of my wife's national ID card, a signed invitation letter, and a copy of our marriage license (untranslated). A copy of the front page of my wife's passport was requested, but proved ultimately unnecessary, and I can't remember if we included my wife's notarial birth certificate or not. Basically you need enough documentation to connect the dots between yourself and your Chinese relative through your spouse. Ultimately, it ended up taking more effort than applying for an L visa since we ended up needed to do most of the same work plus all the family stuff.

My Q2 is good for two-years, multiple entries (of 180 days or less). Based on your description though, the Q1 is the more appropriate visa. The one catch is that for a Q1 (and Q2) you need an invitation letter and documentation from a relative living in China. In other words, your wife can't "sponsor" you unless she is already in China. For my Q2, we went through my father-in-law.

I have a Q2. What are you planning to do that would necessitate a Q1 if you're currently going through the ROC process in the US?

The evidence you have should be enough (did you really not file joint income taxes?). Are you two on the same car insurance policy? You could use that one too.

My fiance is in China and we are in a similar situation. It is very cheap to call them, but an arm and a leg to call us. Also, China mobile wants a huge deposit before allowing international calls Did you have to put down a deposit to allow your mother-in-law to make the initial call before you hang up and caller her back?

One of her brothers has wifi in their apartment but her parents do not, so cell phone only, leaving QQ out of the picture.

I am not aware of any deposit made to their account. They call us on their land line. They have wifi/internet but it's not terribly fast and mostly used for my father-in-law to play beat the landlord online. Occasionally my mother-in-law will send my wife a message on QQ asking her to call, but she's not tech savvy and has trouble with pinyin, so she doesn't do that much.

Is common law different from a regular legal marriage? I thought if we both had goverment identification and we had a simple (but nice, obviously it should be a special day!) wedding in the US, it would still count as being married in the UK. Am I wrong on that?

I have no idea why you couldn't edit your post, I'm still figuring out this website myself.

A common law marriage involves no ceremony and most states do not allow people to contract them . In some US jurisdictions, living together presenting yourself and your significant other in public as married, makes you actually, legally married (a common law marriage entered into in a jurisdiction that recognizes them is just as legally valid as one with a ceremony).

That having been said, in the UK "common law marriage" is frequently used as slang to refer to long-term cohabitating couples, and the UK does have a visa to accommodate people in that situation (the Unmarried Partner Visa) which requires that the applicant "must have been living with their partner in a relationship akin to a marriage or civil partnership for at least two years prior to the date of application."

My wife just pays out of pocket on Skype on the occasion she needs to call her parents as it only costs about 1.1 cents per minute. It's taken us over a year to go through $10 of Skype credit. If her parents need to call her, they just call her cell number and my wife hangs up and calls them back with Skype.

The New York marriage license application also requires listing of ALL marriages under penalty of perjury:

http://www.cityclerk.nyc.gov/html/marriage/license.shtml#required

It is plain as day that previous marriages must have final decrees of dissolution or annulment. It is crystal clear that "marital history" must be fully divulged, not just what you feel like putting down. There will have been not one, not two, but probably multiple state and federal crimes committed by OP in lying on various government applications. Naiive? no way. Criminal? Absolutely.

That's why concealing so much of the true story at the outset is so misleading, and why refusing to answer direct, obvious questions points to deceptive intentions.

It sounds like the OP's "wife" committed the fraud, not the OP.

On there it said excluding traffic violations so I ticked no

If there's the possibility of jail time, it probably doesn't count as a "traffic violation".

Non criminal and non alcohol/drug traffic violations don't hurt you. So don't lie, You have nothing to hide.

If "dangerous driving" is reasonably equivalent to the US charge of "reckless driving" it's actually a somewhat serious offense (in the US it's a misdemeanor, not a traffic infraction.)

What is the first language she spoke? What is the language she grew up speaking and was educated in? My suspicion is that her "native language" is Indonesian. It's certainly not Mandarin.

a letter stating that we are unable to file any tax returns because this year is the first year he's not a dependent.

The only acceptable reason for not filing the tax return is that his earnings were below the filing threshold ($10,000 for a single filer in 2013), not because he was a dependent. To be able to make a convincing case to the IRS, he will have to know how much he made last year. Did he really make $0 in income in 2013? Does he have no savings in interest bearing accounts? Did he do absolutely no paid work for the whole year? If so, I would write my letter to the IRS as such:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I [spouse's name here] did not file a tax return for 2013 as my earnings for the year were [insert amount here], which is below the $10,000 filing limit.

It also may just be easier to file the return anyway to show that he has no income.

Follow this guide: http://www.visajourney.com/content/i130guide2

As long as your information was accurate at the time you sent in the package, you should be fine. Just bring the letter to the interview in case they want to see it.

Bring as much as you want, you just need to declare it on your customs form.

People on F-1 visas marry US citizens all the time; unless there's something very odd about your relationship there shouldn't be any problems.

If you are simultaneously filing the I-130 and I-485 for a marriage based adjustment of status, you send everything to the Chicago Lockbox.

I went to the Houston consulate in person.

What specifically is required to be in one of the invitation letters? And to whom would it be addressed? Does it need to be in English? I assume an email is not good enough and an original signature would be necessary.

The letter we drafted for my father-in-law was in Chinese and basically said the following:

"I [father-in-law's name] (Chinese ID number) am inviting my son-in-law [My name] (passport number) and his wife, my daughter [wife's name] (Chinese ID number), to visit us in [city name] for the period of [insert dates here]. They will be staying at [address of where you're planning to stay].

You can find templates online for this sort of thing. You will need a paper copy with a signature on it, but let's just say that the Chinese consulate won't put much, if any, effort into authenticating it...