birdman2010

Found out today that a site we used in the past for visa applications no longer serves Utah (freechinavisa.org). Their service fee is currently only $15 per visa, which is very much lower than others I've found. But sadly they no longer serve Utah like I say.

My wife is from China, and our two kids will be traveling with us. So we need three visas total.

So far for for the D.C. region the lowest service fee I've found is about $50 (uschinavisa.com). Do you know of any lower cost options, for the D.C. embassy region (which includes Utah & several other states)?

Region map: http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/zmzlljs/t84229.htm

Thanks,

Jonathan

My wife, son, and I will be traveling to Guangxi province in China in April. We have a car seat that we can drop into a stroller. I was thinking of not taking a car seat or stroller for our 6 & 1/2 month old for the following reasons:

1. While walking down the street in cities such as Nanning or Beihai the streets are often in such a state of disrepair & are so uneven that the use of a stroller would be difficult if not impossible. Also often when walking on smaller streets you have to go on and off the sidewalk again and again. The sidewalks are frequently blocked in various places and then you have to go out on the street, and then back again.

2. Sometimes the only type of "taxi" that is findable is a motorbike taxi. We have had experiences where no regular taxis were available, but there were plenty of motorbike taxies.

3. We have a short layover in Beijing on our way down, perhaps a bit too short. And we may have to move quickly, off the arriving airplane, and through checkpoints to get to the new plane.

4. Hiking or walking through parks such as Liang Feng Jiang Forest Park or parks with a lot of stairs such as Qingxiu Mountain.

5. If we make it to Yiling Cave near Nanning or even Guilin a stroller won't be of much use in a cave (first place) or on a boat (second).

Have you traveled to China with a kid younger than one year? How did you carry your kid around and what was your experience?

It's true that a car seat is safer and easier to use in a stroller - on roads & walkways that aren't severely damaged or blocked. But in Chinese taxis often the seat belts are buried, and there's no seat belts in motorbike taxis.

Maybe we could use a wrap or a sling as an alternative. But if you've had good experiences with strollers or car seats in spite of what I mentioned above let us know also. We're still noobs to the use of a wrap or sling and will be searching for instructions on how to use these. We have two wraps but haven't used them yet. Our son can hold his head up better than before, but he's not quite as stable as a 1 year old yet.

Thanks,

Jonathan

I've been reading other posts about this and have found different answers.

My fiancée is arriving at San Francisco airport. She'll have a laptop that I gave her (shipped from the US to her while she's been in China) and some clothes and books.

Some people have claimed that for the K-1 one should use the "residents" line on question 15 of 6059B.

Some people have said to leave question 15 blank.

Some people claimed we should use the visitors line on question 15.

On the back of 6059B there's places where you have to describe what you're declaring, on the back it says that duty will be assessed on the first $1000 above the exemption.

Today after reading various things on this & other sites, I thought about having her do the following:

Write $200 next to the visitors line.

On the back of the form where you describe the item details, put "laptop - $100, books - $20, clothes $70, shoes $10."

I also thought about just putting $100 on the visitors line, and not mentioning the laptop on the form.

Have you arrived at SFO (San Francisco airport) on a K-1 and what did you put on 6059B question 15 on the front, and the back?

Some people have theorized that because it's a K1 that we can use the residents line. But others have said use the visitors line. If we use the residents line there's a $1000 exemption. For visitors it's only $100, so putting $200 would go over the $100 exemption for visitors. I also thought about putting 0 on the visitors line and putting nothing on the back. So we need some help with this one.

Lastly & separately, what about bringing cooked peanuts in the shell? I told her about the fruit sniffing dogs, but I've mainly seen them at LAX so far.

Welcome to China! Hopefully you will recover most of the red envelope at your wedding! Has a dowry price been suggested yet? Hopefully the exchange rate doesn't drop too much lower before your wedding.

I think a couple of cows should cover it.

Well, I did grow up in the Mormon Church then left it, but that's another story. However I remember being shown a film, Johnny Lingo, where the guy paid 8 cows for a woman that other people though wasn't that attractive.

Then after the 8 cow payment & the wedding she looked rather beautiful.

I asked my fiancée how much cows costs the last time I was there & she said they were expensive (an unrelated conversation which may now be more prescient).

The reverse dowry price in my case is about 10,000 RMB, in addition to the $500 I red enveloped in February. So maybe about $2,000 total, although I was told that the February red envelope was separate (but normal).

Anyway it doesn't seem too far out of time I suppose for a high quality lady who worked as an English teacher for 7 years and has a college degree. But it does feel a bit strange thinking about it in these terms. Oh well, welcome to China apparently in more ways that one.

On QQ when she said "I want to tell you a little bit about Zhuang culture" I thought she was about to tell me about some ritual or ceremony. "Yes, tell me. Oh you mean your mother asked for a reverse dowry - and how much is common for where you live?"

I guess that's what I get for having Guangxi embroidered balls all over my living room now.

Oh, apparently there's a reverse dowry tradition in China, maybe more so in the rural areas.

My fiancée is Zhuang. I wish they would have given me a little more warning. I already did one red envelope back in February. But in any case it's normal for them there apparently. I did tell her that it's also normal in America for the wife's parents to pay for the wedding here. But I think on this point we're going with Zhuang tradition. As for the wedding we'll probably rent a Unitarian church hall for not a lot of money. We'll save our pennies for other stuff, except for the reverse dowry as noted. But as per some news reports about Beijing maybe I'm getting off easy.

Hi,

One thing I haven't seen is whether my fiancée has to get a permit from the Chinese authorities to leave the country, with regard to her trip to come marry me on her K-1 visa.

I haven't seen any notes about this anywhere, but I wanted to ask. We're less than three weeks away now from her scheduled flight date.

Hi. Our K-1 visa was approved ok. She should be coming in two or three weeks. I know that sometimes the interviews can be hard, but her's was easy. I did preload the I-129F with a lot of stuff though. And the interviewer did want to see photos from my recent second visit.

Now we have a new question about her college transcripts and diploma. She wants to study to be a Chinese language teacher in the US. She is already an English teacher in China, but she didn't learn English from native English speakers. So she still needs to learn more.

She heard from a friend that it may be good to have her transcripts & diploma translated at the prefecture-level city (地级市) notary/translation office that is over her smaller hometown before she comes - translated into English by the government notary-translation office there.

It's true that for her birth certificate she had to go the prefecture-level city (地级市) to get it translated into English for the visa interview in Guangzhou. However, it's my understanding that for college transcripts and college diplomas, when they are to be used in the USA with US based colleges and universities, such institutions usually want transcripts translated by American-based certified translators here.

So my thought is that a new trip to the 地级市 (prefecture city) would be a waste of time for the transcripts and diploma translations, because universities & colleges in the USA won't accept such translations in any case. The colleges & universities here will still want the original Chinese documents to be translated by an American-based translation & evaluation service. Yes or no?

Thanks.

For my wife's interview, we weren't bothered much at all but I am a pretty big guy and had on my 'unfriendly' face :-) I accompanied my wife up to 4th Floor Security.

To answer your questions:

1. You have to show up the day before (the day on your interview letter) at 12:30 for document intake. There will be people there much earlier. The order they actually take people once you are inside the consulate is not first-come firs serve so the general advice is there is no reason to stand in line for multiple hours. Unless you get there by 10 AM or so, you will be in the back of the line so most recommend 11:45-12:00. The next day they start letting people in at 7:30. Again 6:45 to 7:00 is early enough. My wife was in the consulate by 8:00 AM. Again it is not first-come first-serve so being first in line is not that important.

2. You line outside the consulate on the left side (first 3-5 lines), the rest are for non-immigrant visa's. Consulate security (Chinese but in uniform with American flags) checks the beneficiary's passport and interview letter and gives you a green card. Proceed up the escalators on the left as you enter the building up to the fourth floor. Another line forms where security is again checking passport/letter/card. Once they are through there they are in the consulate. There is airport style security past there. No cell phones allowed but they can check it there or my wife just gave her cell phone to me.

Thanks very much. So for a spouse visa it's the left side. What about K-1 (fiancée)? Since K-1 is treated in some ways as an immigrant visa I don't know if the K-1s line up outside with the spouse visa people, or in the line that's also for tourist & student visas.

Ok thanks. Here's some additional questions:

1. How early to arrive on the interview day (for 7:30AM interview start - is 7AM ok or 6:30)?

If a person arrives at 7:30 sharp, presumably behind the mass of people already there, does that mean you'll have a later interview in the day (having to wait a long time on the 5th floor)? Is it really first come first served for the huge crowd that shows up before 7:30?

2. Is there a consulate employee either outside the building or on the first floor who directs people? Or is there just an escalator inside that leads one eventually to the 5th floor? If there is someone on the 1st floor, what are they wearing so they can be identified by legitimate interviewees?

Is there a gauntlet of hounders (aggressive salesmen) and people who ask "can I help? can I help?" when a person tries to reach the 5th floor at Tian Yu Garden (Phase II), 5th Floor 136-142 Lin He Zhong Lu, Guangzhou?

On the 5th floor itself of the building are there such people, or are they kept off the 5th floor?

When my fiancée went to the Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel to have her medical done there were such people there hanging around outside asking if they could help. She ignored them and spoke to as few people as possible. Is there a similar situation and gauntlet at Tian Yu, and how does one reach and speak to a real employee of the consulate, on the document intake day, and the next day for the interview?

Here's relevant quotes from

http://photos.state.gov/libraries/guangzhou/47024/IV/Pkt%204%20Lt%20_With%20Chn_%20Aug%2010.pdf

WARNING: The U.S. Consulate General does not endorse or have a “special relationship” with any individual or business that offers advice or assistance with the visa process. No one can guarantee the issuance of a visa to you. The only U.S. consular office is located on the 5th floor at Tianyu. All U.S. government forms are free. Beware: Many visa applicants lose money or are permanently barred from the United States as a result of misleading information and fraudulent applications provided by visa consultants.

郑重声明：美国领事馆不认同并且不与任何个人或签证咨询机构存在“特殊关系”。没有人能够保证您的签证获得批准。美国驻广州领事部唯一的办公地点位于天誉花园二期五楼，所有美国政府提供的表格均是免费的。请注意，许多申请人由于使用了咨询机构提供的错误指引和虚假文件而导致金钱的损失或被永久地拒绝进入美国

Thanks for the replies.

How many days do you think she needs to be in Guangzhou, for the medical, vaccination (if she has them), document intake, and interview?

"Minimum days," and "more relaxed number of days to make sure we get everything done?"

For Guangzhou, I'd like to confirm the following (for K-1):

When in Guangzhou:

My fiancée goes to the Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel first.

They give her some vaccinations, and they give her some papers showing what they did.

She takes the papers generated by the Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel clinic to the medical exam at Guangzhou United Family Clinic.

A doctor at the Guangzhou United Family Clinic fills out the VACCINATION DOCUMENTATION WORKSHEET, based on the papers generated by the Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel.

Are appointments necessary for visits to Health Care Center of Guangdong International Travel and the Guangzhou United Family Clinic ?

Does she need to phone both clinics beforehand?

My fiancée has three certified copies of her birth certificate. For the interview I advised that she copy one of the certified copies, give the non-certified copy the day before the interview (during document intake at Guangzhou), and then take one certified copy with her during the interview the next day. That way they can ask to look at the certified copy if they want during the interview, and after everything's over she'll still have three certified copies.

Does this sound reasonable and have others done this? I want her to have as many certified copies as possible to bring with her to the US.

As a follow up I printed them double sided. The whole package is still pretty thick, but the double sided printing helped. Also I used a 7 point font, landscape, and columns.

Hi,

I have been examining how best to deal with printing logs from QQ. How have you submitted them?

Here's what I've found:

QQ exports as an MHT file. It's possible to use Internet Explorer to load the file, and then to copy and paste all of the logs from IE to something like Microsoft Word.

If I do this, and if I reduce the font size to even something really small like 5, with four columns across in landscape mode, the resulting number of pages comes out to be about 500.

QQ also allows an export of the chat history to text. If I do it as text, import it into Word, set the number of columns to 6, and the font size to 6, that reduces the number of pages to about 100. However in the text-only mode all of the fun emoticons and graphics we used during our chats is lost. The text export just shows [emoticon] for where either of us put an emoticon.

For the text mode I was thinking of causing all occurrences of the word "Duration" to be highlighted, as that may be one way to call out when we ended a webcam chat session.

So how have you submitted your QQ chat logs? Did you cut them down & just submit small excerpts, or did you hand or a ream or two of printed pages in Guangzhou?

Do you think not having the fun and happy emoticon graphics in there is a disadvantage? I suppose I could do both: have small excerpts of the happy fun emoticon laden version, and the more complete full text version.

Our interview may be coming within about 2 months.

Thanks for all the info. I'm sure it will be useful for others also.

Come to find out having her father come in helped get past the blockage. So her certificate is now being properly translated and notarized at the appropriate office.

Thanks again...

You probably have already seen this...

http://photos.state....0-Aug_%2010.pdf

and my Fiancee tells me that the mandarin version is a little different. It would seem to me that if your fiancee could get a local notary to pull the information out of the Hukuo book she would be in good shape. I have to imagine that the people at GUZ have seen every manner of "official document"

Darnell will set us straight shortly I'm sure. Hao la?

Xie xie ni. I shall try to convey this to her.

Can there be a delay between getting the official translation/notary of the documents and when the were issued?

To get the notary-translation stuff done she has to make a trip to Chongzuo which is an hour away from Fusui. Fusui issued the police & non-married certificate, and tomorrow they hopefully will issue the birth (with the help of her father coming in). But I did see the notes in the PDF about secondary evidence if they won't issue a birth certificate. But I'm wondering about advising that she hold off on going to the Chongzuo notary-translation office until she has everything she needs from Fusui.

She was thinking about going to Chongzuo with two out of the three. But I may tell her to consider waiting to go to Chongzuo until she has everything she needs from Fusui - but that may not be until July when she has another break from work for summer break. Or if they don't like having a big delay between when certificates are issued and when people show up to have then translated & notarized, then it could be good for her to go go Chongzuo, and then again in July when we can deal with the birth certificate issues.

p.s. As an addendum I found out that she has her hukou book as given to her by her parents. An officer in Fusui told her that there was something not ok about it. Tomorrow she will go with her father to town to see if they can resolve the problem. They live in the countryside about an hour out of town.

But I'm curious to know if a translation of the relevant pages from the hukou book itself, regardless of whether a particular government officer in Fusui thinks it's ok or not, if a notarized translation from the relevant office in Chongzuo should still be ok?

I know this is somewhat common question. My fiancée is having trouble in Fusui (outside of Nanning) getting a copy of her birth certificate. I found posts about the hukuo book and the hukuo office. But I was curious for Guangzhou, if the following can also suffice for a birth certificate:

"get the parents to make a sworn statement, then notarize it, then translate it"

I found this statement in another post. But have you heard of this working for Guangzhou?

Tomorrow she will ask her friends to help her, but today she already went to some offices in Fusui to ask.

She has her police certificate, non-married certificate, but not the birth certificate.

She also needs to next go to Chongzuo to get translated notarized copies. Does she need three or four copies of each document, or just of the birth certificate (if we can get one)?

Is the hukuo book kept by families ever in their houses, or should it reside at a government office?

As per http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1493.html

it doesn't appear that permanent residents can bring spouses nor fiancees.

A friend who's a permanent resident has asked if he could bring his girlfriend from Nepal.

Here are the options I know of:

1. Wait until my friend is a citizen, and then have him do a K-1 or K-3.

2. Have my friend's girlfriend come on a student visa, marry here, have her continue her schooling until my friend can be a citizen. When he becomes a citizen have her return to Nepal. Have my friend then apply for a K-3 visa for her.

Maybe option 2 would allow them to be together sooner, but I'm a little concerned about the so-called "visa fraud" issue of having them marry while she's here on a student visa. Would having her return to Nepal when a.) he becomes a citizen and when he b.) simultaneously files a K-3 visa app. alleviate the "visa fraud" issue?

In other words if she returns to Nepal when they actually file the K-3 visa app would that help get over the fact that they married while she came on a student visa?

Thanks.

My fiancée is thinking of quitting her full time job before the consulate interview in Guangzhou. I've advised that she keep her full time job until the K-1 visa is approved.

However she could teach part time if she resigns from her full time teaching job in July. So she would still be working, but a.) her address would change, and b.) she would be self employed.

Well, what do you think? Do you think it would be best for her to keep her currently regular full time job until the visa is actually approved, or would it hurt the application if she a.) changes jobs so that she becomes her own employer, and b.) changes her address.

I have four more days of vacation left to use before September. After September I get a fresh 10 days (if they renew my contract, which I think they will since they like me).

I thought about going back in June, because we'd like to see each other, and secondarily because it would help with the K-1. But I've thought about saving the vacation time to use for attending the interview in Guangzhou. I've heard that if there's an issue the men can go in the afternoon and speak to someone. Or if there's not an issue, showing up helps with the process in any case - from what I've heard or read.

But in any case, what do you recommend?

Yes of course we'd like to see each other again before five or six months pass. I'll submit the I-129F within the next week. But saving my vacation time to use for Guangzhou, or using it in June, and then letting her go to Guangzhou alone, these are the two options at hand. Or if I get a new contract, then using part of the new 10 days I'll get in September. So going in June with my current 4 days, and assuming that the interview won't be until I get another 10 days of leave to use in any case.

I plan to file by March 1st.

Limit the photos to 18 or 27 and print them 9 to a page on plain paper. Having 200 photos won't help you as much as actually building a bona fide relationship and excellent interview preparation will. Trying to baffle them with BS will not help you. Be reasonable. Select the photos so each has either both of you, both of you and other family members or you with other family members. Most should be just the two of you. Not too many taken the same day.

Hi.

This is what I decided to do this evening:

To have 12 images printed on 4x5.3 photo paper, and the rest I'll print myself on my printer (down to 115 now - smaller size as seems appropriate). I'll mount the 12 4x5.3 prints in photo pages and attach the rest like normal pages. I'll clip off any 3 ring binder holes on the left side of the photo pages as the USCIS doesn't use any side holes.

With this method I have a core group of photos proving initial contact via photo style prints, and the rest on regular paper with captions.

Also we did have several family dinners - at least 3 as shown in the photos.

I was planning on sending a lot more photos than is normally required - perhaps around 200.

They were taken with a digital camera, but I had it in 4:3 aspect ratio mode. So the image size if printed would be around 4x5.3 unaltered instead of 4x6.

Well, I could print them on regular or photo paper with my printer. But I could also crop them all or add some borders and have a photo place print them all as 4x6 prints, and then mount the prints on photo pages for 4x6 prints (using either the 2 or 3 prints per page type).

I've been reading that I-129F packages are reassembled into a top-punched ACCO fastener style format. So, if I use the 4x6 photo pages, the top punch machine is going to punch holes in my photos.

Well, perhaps I'll print the photos on photo paper, so that I can arrange them better and include text descriptions under each photo.

But I could still do the 4x6 print option and put them into photo pages.

I know that ~200 is way more than is normally suggested. But in this case I feel it's important to have more than the usual.

The technically easiest thing for me to do would be to print them all as 4x5.3 inch prints using an online service that has that print size, and to put them into the 4x6 photo sheets, and to put everything in a large 3 ring binder with all the chat logs and forms. I know the USCIS will reorganize everything - perhaps with the 2 hole top punch method.

It would take longer for me to manually set the photos onto each printed page of about 33 pages and to add captions, print each page & ensure each looks good. But I'll do whatever seems best.

Well, let me know what you recommend.

My trip to China was very successful. The replies after Shenzhen's were not read by me before my going on the trip FYI. So now I'm back.

We both had a very positive experience. I gave her a ring and we plan to move forward.

I also have many very good photos. I plan to include quite a few more than the usual number of photos in the petition.

While not going into great detail I will say that I believe we are more suited to each other and our paths converge in a more happy way.

Her family was incredibly gracious. I met her parents and her extended family, and we visited many parks where we could quietly walk, sit, and talk.

I did tell her about the Ukraine experience and how I felt my temporary pursuit of that whole deal was a mistake, and that it was also a mistake to temporarily stop my communication with her. But the Ukraine thing ended in October. And I picked up my contact with the Chinese woman again in late December.

The lady in China was incredibly affectionate and fun. So I plan to now do all I can to prepare a good petition, and to possibly return in May for another visit.

On the way over I met in passing a man who's been doing a spouse visa and he shared that it takes a lot longer for such visas. Maybe you had a different experience.

Well, in any case, if you have comments on what size of photos to include in the petition let me know. 4x6 or 3x5. I'll probably do 4x6, and like I said I'll include many more than is required because of the reputation of the consulate involved, and because of the other issues I mentioned. We have some very good stories to share via our pictures.

To those who shared advise previously you should know that I was fully open about the previous situation with my lady in China. My lady in China has a lot to offer. A stable & service oriented woman who likes helping others & teaching. An incredibly gentle and gracious family from a small farming town. A bubbly nature and a love for life. And her family was impressed by me. What more do you want? So we'll press on.