evansfan

Getting some conflicting information on Optin for stepdaughter (12). Do I need to send scanned passport photos with her DS 230 application

thanks

Jim

very cool - no 'China DS-260' for now - and that's a good thing.

I LIKE the NVC EP for Guangzhou-bound petitions - just wish there wasn't such a lag in issuing the GZO number (normally done after the case is converted to Electronic Processing).

grrr.

Darnell,

what has been the turnaround in days for the GZO number

thanks

jim

thanks for the info

Section D2 Of the I-130 asks if you have file a petition for this or any other alien are they talking about just the I-130

When does the clock start ticking on the 2 year IMBRA requirement does it start when the NOA 1 is granted or when the actual K1 visa is granted

thanks

Jay

Why is China so slow to get anything done? I realize I have been working on this for like five minutes compared to most and I feel everybody's pain. From my research we are looking at one of the longest Visa process on the globe.

Jim

Everyone has a valid point, plus Guangzhou is by far the busiest US consulate inthe world. More visa applications are processed there then anywhere else

Thanks to everyone for the great advice-Jay

Went to the Baltimore office of USCIS today, to Notarize my I-134 and the case officer informed me that they no longer have Notary Power , anyone else run into this issue-Jay

just be prepared to wait 2 months or so for P3... It's very difficult to track these cases to china since they sit in a warehouse about a month.. so check with DOS in about 6 weeks to see if it's been entered in their computer. Good luck.

Do we check with the consulate in Guangzhou or the NVC number here in the states.

Thanks

Jay

Thanks everyone-

Anya let me know if you learn anything

Yodrak- thanks for the name-I will let her know- I have no idea why she did not initially call the police, but she is now well aware of the gravity of the situation and is taking action. I will let you know what happens-Jay

Thai experts seeking your assistance-please read this thread-Jay

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.ph...mp;#entry581367

I am so sorry for your friend. At the same time, I'm not sure this is the place to seek advice for this situation. I really hope this situation becomes resolved and this man leaves her alone.

you are correct, I meant to write this in the thailand thread, and obviously screwed up-jay

Hi everyone,

First of all, I apologize to the moderator. I choose this subject area for maximum targeting of those with knowledge of Thailand. Here is my story. The events in no way involve my fiancé Yanxia; this involves a very good friend of mine whose advice I have counted on as I negotiated the minefield of long distance relationships.

She is an university educated Thai national with a natural fluency level in English that is very rare, and this skill has assisted her as she climbs the corporate ladder, but at heart she is a simple girl from the country, and that fact has exasperated the situation because she is lacking the guideposts that those of us that have spent our life in an urban environment acquire.

A few years ago she had an American born boyfriend, after she discovered him cheating on her, she unceremoniously moved out and got on with her life. End of story or so she thought. A few weeks ago she bumped into an old shared acquaintance in the hallway of her apartment building, she chatted with her for a few minutes, and continued on her way. The following Sunday, as she was doing laundry, she looked up and her old boyfriend appeared and proceeded to attack her, proclaiming she will never have anyone else, fortunately a neighbor intervened and away he went. Shockingly the police were not called. He made a few more appearances but was not allowed in the building and one time a confrontation with a security guard erupted. My friend was looking for a new apartment. I beseeched her to go to a motel. She was paralyzed into inertia. The idea of a stalker, someone who could not forget after two years was unfathomable to her "why why is he doing this after two years" she would say during our talks. She called me because she was trying to understand him, maybe this was an "American thing" I tried to explain to her that you cannot rationalize a stalker. That all became clear to her one morning when she left for work and noticed him around the building, she has always assumed morning time was safe because he was working, he jumped into a cab and followed her, she realized he was trying to determine her workplace. She smartly went right to the bus station, on the way she arranged a ticket by phone, paid, and ran right on a bus heading for her hometown. She called me Friday night, Thailand time, telling me that her parents are begging her to stay, and I advised her that would be a bad idea, he knew where her family lived and she would be the proverbial sitting duck. I advised her to hide in the concrete jungle of Bangkok. She left Saturday night and arrived early Sunday morning; with my paranoid urging she switched cabs numerous times as she traversed to her friend’s apartment. Sure enough, he arrived Sunday at her families house looking for her, he has lived in the kingdom long enough to speak enough Thai to get by, but they told him nothing useful.

Here is what is being done to buy her a little time:

She will never return to her old apartment

Her new apartment will be rented in a friends name with no bills or documentation linking her to the new place

She will no longer associate with anyone who could remotely be connected to her old boyfriend; luckily she has switched industries so that helps greatly.

Heartbreakingly, she can only contact her family by phone and email, and will not tell them where she lives for at least a few months

Her family will take her stuff from the old apartment back to her village

She will not leave Bangkok

Here are my questions:

1. Does Thailand have the equivalent of the “protective order” an edict by a court barring him from contacting her (a lawyer friend advised her that they did not?)

2. If Thailand does, can she file for the order without giving her whereabouts?

3. If he violates the order will his immigration status be affected? (He is in the kingdom legally)

4. He is an American citizen, is their some American statue we can fall back on if he is arrested for violating another countries protective order.

The situation is very fluid, and she is relying on me, because I have absolutely no contact with the stalker and she trusts me. She feels utterly alone and bewildered. I worked in Thailand for six months and at that time she worked at the US embassy (she will use those contacts very soon), and I met her there. She is a remarkable young woman, bright, talented, with a heart of gold. In the spirit of John Donne, the world will be a poorer place if something happens to her.

I am exploring many different avenues, this board has been so helpful to me, I would be remiss not to make an appeal here, and any advice would be greatly appreciated

Thanks

Jay

Thanks to this board in helping me with some bureaucratic wrangling, the NOA2 has arrived . I want to send a packet to Yanxia as complete as possible. An I-134 question, My annual salary is comfortably above the poverty requirements needed for the I-134. In addition to my employer letter. I want to send a letter from my local bank. The bank is 2 blocks away from my downtown office and I want to avoid the hassle of notarizing my income tax return. The account I have with my bank is only a checking account that is a conduit to mutual funds and retirement accounts administered hither and yon. Will a statement detailing the deposits YTD and the current balance be sufficient. The balance, of course, will be low. Again trying to find a path of least resistance.

As always Thanks,

Jay

The housing market is on a "road to recovery," the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors said Friday...

[...]

"There is still bad news [on home sales}, but the bad news is getting better," said David Lereah, at the real estate trade group's annual convention here.

[...]

With the latest monthly numbers showing existing home sales running at a 6.2 million to 6.3 million pace, Lereah said the market is now at a "sustainable" level of sales. He called the 7-million-unit pace and above, which is where home sales were at their peak in 2005, an "unsustainable frenzy."

[...]

...some markets, notably those which experienced the greatest run-up in home prices and the biggest influx of investor-buyers, could be 12 months to two years away from balance.

Lereah listed several "signs of recovery" in the housing market in addition to the more-sustainable level of home sales: the inventories of new and existing homes for sale is falling, home builders are cutting production, mortgage applications have stabilized, mortgage rates have fallen and remain historically attractive, housing affordability is improving and price declines appear to luring buyers back into the market, he said.

"Do not be afraid of falling prices. It's sales that are important," Lereah said. "We needed prices to fall. We had a balloon and we are deflating it. It got to the point where homes were unaffordable and we reached a breaking point. That's the reason we are in this contraction."

[...]

The national housing numbers don't adequately reflect what is going on in the country, Lereah contends, because there are at least five distinct categories into which local markets may fall today:

1. Nonboom stallers. These cities, such as Detroit and Akron, Ohio, never participated in the real estate boom of this decade and remain stagnant because of local economic issues. These cities represent about 10% of the U.S. real estate market.

2. Nonboom gainers. Areas such as Houston and Dallas also did not participate in the great run-up in prices, and today are showing respectable gains in home prices despite the national numbers. These areas account for about 23% of the market.

3. Boom lite. These cities, of which Atlanta is representative, took part in the boom to some extent and are seeing home-price gains decelerate but not turn negative. About 22% of the U.S. is covered.

4. Average boom. Cities such as New York enjoyed a solid run and have seen some modest price drops this year. But in these areas, which represent about 19% of the country, the correction is almost over.

5. Hot boom. These are the now-famous places where prices soared, investors salivated, speculators jumped in and the party, which seemed like it would never end, has come to a crashing conclusion. These places -- California, Arizona, Nevada, southern Florida and the Washington, D.C. area -- face the biggest correction and the longest recovery period.

[...]

Those hot markets only account for 26% of overall U.S. housing activity, Lereah said. But those markets tend to be the ones the media seizes on to generalize about U.S. housing overall, he said.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Stor...p;siteid=google

David Lereah is a complete fraud and a laughingstock among mainstream economists, please do not make any major investment decisions e.g. buying a house, based on this shill.

We serve a mighty God, in Him ALL things are possible. Congrats, and God Bless !

you mean Mel Gibson

No issue with me. Done actually non confrontational. My girl and I pray multiple times a day together on the phone and are lost at what is going on. I hear 'why must we suffer like this' and I appreciate your post.

Thank you,

wolf

Your welcome and I really hope your fortunes turn around soon-Jay

JAY,

I BELIEVE! I am going to start praying now if it means a quick approval.

Plus elizabeth is already praying for us...that's more bang for your buck.

True true

No atheists in a foxhole or immigration either-so a lil prayer will never hurt-jay

Hey guys I just want to share this miracle!!!! Our petition has been approved today August 15, 2006. We sent the petition on August 1, 2006. And when I checked my mail and also I double check online (website) if it's true!!! And here's the letter!!!

*** DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS E-MAIL ***

The following is the latest information on your case status

Receipt Number:EAC

Application Type: I129F , PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)

Current Status:

This case has been approved. On August 15, 2006, an approval notice was

mailed. If 30 days have passed and you have not received this notice,

you may wish to verify or update your address. To update your address,

please speak to an Immigration Information Officer during business

hours.

If you have questions or concerns about your application or the case

status results listed above, or if you have not received a decision or

advice from USCIS within the projected processing time frame*, please

contact the National Customer Service Center.

National Customer Service Center (800) 375-5283.

*The projected processing time frame can be found on the receipt notice

that you received from the USCIS.

*** Please do not respond to this e-mail message.

Sincerely,

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

Praise God for all this!!!!I can't believe it!!!!

I wasn't going to post this, as you can see earlier I had second thoughts and pulled back, but I will risk becoming an outcast. I just think it is a little insensitive for a quick approval being attributed to divine intervention. I have seen this postulated on a few posts lately. Logically, and my logic may be convoluted , the posters are implying that they have been deemed more worthy then others.

I’m not trying to demean a person’s faith, but I have found this board invaluable in navigating this Byzantine process. As a consequence, I bear witness to expressions of agony, frustration, and bewilderment, by those who have been caught in an unseen bureaucratic vice. I can't imagine what they are thinking when they read a post like this.

To the OP, it may be naive of me to hope you don’t see this as a personal attack it was not meant to be, but unfortunately your post was the one that broke the proverbial camels back. I sincerely congratulate you, and hope you have a bright future. I am writing this as a food for thought, and for those who disagree with me to set me straight

Take care

Jay

well however it happened Cograts!!!!

Hey guys I just want to share this miracle!!!! Our petition has been approved today August 15, 2006. We sent the petition on August 1, 2006. And when I checked my mail and also I double check online (website) if it's true!!! And here's the letter!!!

*** DO NOT RESPOND TO THIS E-MAIL ***

The following is the latest information on your case status

Receipt Number:EAC

Application Type: I129F , PETITION FOR FIANCE(E)

Current Status:

This case has been approved. On August 15, 2006, an approval notice was

mailed. If 30 days have passed and you have not received this notice,

you may wish to verify or update your address. To update your address,

please speak to an Immigration Information Officer during business

hours.

If you have questions or concerns about your application or the case

status results listed above, or if you have not received a decision or

advice from USCIS within the projected processing time frame*, please

contact the National Customer Service Center.

National Customer Service Center (800) 375-5283.

*The projected processing time frame can be found on the receipt notice

that you received from the USCIS.

*** Please do not respond to this e-mail message.

Sincerely,

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)

Praise God for all this!!!!I can't believe it!!!!

It's maple syrup season ?

i'm going to be bluntly honest about the original poster.

Too bad.

you have demonstrated one malicious individual who abuses a system, that individual has not been punished.

tens of thousands of honest people who try to do it the right way are being punished because of one bad apple.

That is what we have fallen to as a society but it's not acceptable, you cannot punish everyone for the acts of an individual and you cannot punish everyone to try to protect one or two random people from doing something stupid. That last part is a direct reference to the high profile case that inspired this law.

The change is immoral, the way this country sometimes over reacts with far reaching consequences to honest citizens trying to make their way in the world and do things the right way is also totally wrong.

bad things sometimes happen to good people for no reason and the government has no business trying to legislate their protection.

Wow, what an incredibly short-sighted viewpoint. I suppose since Murder only occurs to 1 out of 15000 people each year, that the government should just get rid of the laws prohibiting that too? How about Drunk Driving? Robbery? The list goes on and on. If there is one isolated event...no law is needed...I agree. But you have to look at the scale of the number of events, and the impact those events has on people's lives. The circumstances the OP listed are not isolated events...but rather a single sampling in a large number of documented abuses of the prior system. The girls that the "business associate" used got off lucky...many of them wind up physically abused before being kicked to the curb. Being sent back to their home country, often without a pot to piss in, is considered a fantastic outcome compared to how many of them wound up. I'm sorry that adding a measure of "complete disclosure" in order to protect foreign nationals who are literally putting their lives into the hands of these USC's upsets you. But the way I see it...if it's good enough for the Real Estate industry, then it should be good enough for immigration.

It sucks that the USCIS has dropped the ball on implementing the program (DHS failing at something? Surprise Surprise)....but the rationale behind the legislation is both sound and over-due.

It's not just the implementation that was flawed but the law itself. Some parts are good, like the petitioner background checks and the limitations on number of petitions allowed. But the rules for the so-called International Marriage Brokers are just silly and don't accomplish the intended effect. It would have been easier and more effective to just prohibit petitions by all felons (any crime), but felons can hire lawyers and disadvantaged foreign women can't.

I gladly dissagree with you. This law does not have silly IMB laws, silly IMB regulations already existed. This is just a patch to those IMB laws to add buffers and prophylactics to the IMB regulations so that technologies like the internet cannot be abused by making the line of what makes an IMB, and what has to follow IMB rules, a little less blurry than before.

The easy way is not always the right way. Taking away someones freedoms like that because they made one or more of any mistake is absolutely wrong. This law avoids that possibility and leave the decision up to the benneficiary.

Unless you are one of those people who somehow think any incoming foreign national is less intellegent than you are and can't make a sound choice, allowing the benneficiary to make the final choice is adding freedom and libery to both parties.

The only thing that is flawed in this law is it didn't use more simple words for everyone to be able to understand clearly. So the trolls, drive by media, lawyers, and the rest of that scum, are taking parts of it and interperating it on behalf of the more impressionables amongst us and causing an unneed furor that is for nothing more than their own ego boost, or guilty conscience at best.

The real issue, for those of us who respect law and follow it, is the implementation. The real issue, for those of us who may have had a shady past and are trying to make an effort to become better, is also the implementation. The real issue, for those who still live and desire to live a shady life, is IMBRA.

In this post, I agree with almost everything you say, except the media rant, they are an essential part of our democracy, well maybe not TV media I think that the beneficiary should be informed of her potential suitors past, and I certainly believe that most of the women coming here will be able to make an informed decision and if they can't, short of stopping the whole K1 process, the government has done its best. I know that we have hashed this over, but I am troubled by the inference of the law. As far as I know no evidence exists that a foreign bride is any more likely to be abused then a native born bride, and if that is true then the law should apply to all marriages, otherwise we all get tainted with guilt by association to a problem that statistically does not appear out of the norm. I must admit I am troubled by your seeming to judge the worths of one's opinion by the length of time they are a member of the board.

My final thought is for the guy who wants to ban all felons. What an odious idea, this country has been and I hope always remains about second chances, Abe Lincoln was once considered a political failure, now if you are talking violent felons that is a different story.

jay

Hi,

Just in case mine was one of the timeline you happened to look at...

our lawyer had old forms filled up before January 15th (June 14 to be exact), but our application was received by USCIS June 29th.... i think June 15th was the day the new form was posted on the USCIS site....

anyhow.. yup, I've seen some VJers who used the new form and got their IMBRA RFE's anyways... except that maybe, just maybe, some questions were left blank when they filled up the new form that should've been answered??? sometimes the questions leave one wondering how to properly answer them.. N/A???... None???.. leave blank??.... just speculating

and then some who filed in May and gotten their NOA1's early June but not IMBRA RFE's....

That is a good guess, but as I am an obsessive IMBRA researcher that was not the reason, you guessed it I was one of those who used the new form and got a RFE. according to the VSC they were so overwhelmed with returned forms that they simply threw the new ones in with the old ones and RFE'ed everyone. If I can find it we had a thread examining the new form and the RFE to see if some language change was the reason, but alas it was a simple bureaucratic foul-up

Jay

"Frankly my friend, if you have a problem with IMBRA, you have a problem with the vast majority of us here, and you are welcome to leave at any time.”

I find that statement self righteous, and the quintessential example of the "tyranny of the majority." IMBRA has had an enormous impact on all of us and a healthy raucous debate helps this community get a handle on the issues involved and the philosophy behind the law. The linchpin of a free society is free speech and we must tolerate excesses (look at talk radio for gods sake , and in our case trolls, but a self appointed arbiter of what crosses the line is the height of hubris. I will encourage us to tolerate all voices and only condemn those who cross the line with vicious personal attacks.

On the topic in question, my biggest concern is the two year waiting period, it

seems excessive. I will try, and most likely fail , to explain my position. In the digital age relationships that were unfathomable a generation ago our now commonplace; we can find our partner in virtually any portion of the globe. Many of these relationships are nurtured in a world that is even defined as unreal “virtual”. The emotions and commitment are no doubt genuine, but eventually that virtual world must give way to the real word, and the reality of everyday life versus brief jet delivered 2 week encounters can be jarring, my mind flashes to a poor farm girl from a homogenous culture encountering the multi plural cultural reality that is an American city. That is why I love that 90 day window, both parties can get a taste of the path that lies before them, and in most cases the commitment grows stronger, but when it frays they have a chance to step back and re-evaluate. If the strain is too great and one party returns home why should the USC have to wait two more years, especially if a pattern of abuse does not exist, granted the USC will probably not have a foreign fiancée again, but why should that window be closed. One year seems reasonable to me.

In my personal case, I lived in Guangzhou for a year, what an awful place. My GF is at her core Chinese; she wouldn’t even let me kiss her for six months. She has spent her entire adult life in large cities, she is in foreign trade and speaks English fluently, and I have exhausted many hours trying to prepare her, but in my heart I know she will be utterly confused by the her initial American experience

Jay

It does not apply to me, and I hope it never does, but do you need the waiver on your third K1 application or your second, regardless of the 2 year limit. Jay

thats is we are not praying hard enough/ congratulations on your approval