It's About That Time Again!

Wow... I can't believe two years has flown by already!

Hu Yue just got mail from US Immigration informing her that her conditional residency is going to expire at the beginning of the year. Does anyone have any good suggestions on an area online to hand hold us through the filing process to remove the conditions from her Green Card? I think we need to complete an I-171 form or something like that. I know there's a bunch of things we need to do (notes from friends and relatives and stuff). Just thought I'd start here and see what you guys suggest.

-Paul

Hello Premington and congrates on your progress in the process.

I would highly recommend candleforlove website. They have one forum "AOS and Immigration Challenges". The AOS (Adjustment of Status) is what you are looking for. I just looked today and there was a post a few minutes old about about the I-171, There were also 50 members online..
I used the Direct Consulate Filing DCF and this website was helpful through the whole process.
Goodluck,
Bob H.

Paul:
We did this earlier this year. Pretty simple. Just follow the instructions and fill out the form and attach supportive documents.( IRS 1040 joint return, car titles showing joint ownership, joint bank account, etc.--pretty simple stuff). We got three people to write letters showing that we are in love and living together. Then took photo of us together in front of our house , showing the house number and holding the current newspaper ( to document the place and a time line). We had our congressman's staff look over the docs to make sure all was in order.
We traced the procedure with the case number; All went well and on time.

GOOD LUCK
Steve ( Kilnman)

P.S. All they ( Immigration) want to know is are you still married and living together.

Thanks for the reply, guys!

Yeah... Actually, I learned it's the I-751 form I need to complete. Hopped online and read it over and it does, in fact, look very simple (thank God!). I had this fear it was going to be like going through the visa process all over again. <groan!>

Steve and anyone else whose been through this: What's the interview process like? I've heard mixed things. Some I hear don't get interviewed, others do and it's more like a formality. One nightmare report I read stated the husband and wife were seperated and questioned in different rooms by different people, asked many questions, including sex positions and frequency, trying to see if there were inconsistencies between their answers. OMG! It sounded like a police interrogation! I hope we don't experience that!

Asking your Congressman's office to go over the documents is a good idea. When we first filed for her Green Card, I drove from Rochester to the Buffalo USCIS field office and made an appointment to have them go over everything with us before we send everything in. Worked out great... They located two small issues that might have caused problems. All-in-all, that filing went swimmingly!

I'd like to hope this one will to. Like any filing with USCIS, it always makes me very nervous, even though I know we have facts, truth, and legality all on our side.

-Paul

Paul:
We were lucky. My wife ( or we) did not have to go for an interview. If your Case that you two are still married and living together is good enough with sound supportive evididence, then I feel you also will not have to be interviewed. Again, I suggest taking a photo of you two showing a local newspaper , highlighting the headlines so agents can see it. of a very recent issue plus you two in front of your dwelling . Just a photo of you two together does not support a time line. Such photo could have been taken 1 or 2 years ago, for example.

As I have been informed by others, all the CIS agents are interested in is if you are still married and living together.
Apparently many get married,then separate / divorce soon so the "immigrant" can gain residence status in the USA. What a bummer! But people do that; such corrupts the system and makes it hard for us hosest guys.
GOOD LUCK---Good things will happen to Good guys.

We are presently in Nanning , China, enjoying my wife's very fine family and staying in our new condo.

Steve(kilnman)

Would they not accept a date stamped photo as part of a timeline Steve? But your holding a recent newspaper is contrete....

Hi Paul, The Candle site is a good site. Another site to check out would be VisaJourney. They are both good sites and they both have been around for a while. VisaJourney does not pertain exclusively to China/ USA immigration issues. The Candle site does. Your bid for a permanent Visa ( 10 years) will probably be successful if you two can show a legitmate, on going relationship ( marriage). There are many suggestion of different type of proofs. Some examples have been given and some others may be: joint accounts, banking , electric, gas, credit cards. Medical and insurance accounts showing each other as being benificiaries. Joint ownership on property. Also other evidence that you have been living a life together in the states. Vacations , social events, family events, holidays and other events, etc. I wish you all luck.

Danny

What you are describing is the level of financial interdependance that is expected of any husband and wife.....I had to supply all of that documentation after being turned down the Canada Immigration for Yuping's first application....However we had a sixty day window to submit further information........Funny that information was never asked for int he original package. And it was somewhat challenging to have everything ready here even before she moved here. But we did it..and she is now here and in her second year here.

Danming:
You can program a date in your camera to present what ever you want. But it would be hard to FAKE a newspaper headline / date as this could be research. Anyway, this is just my thought; Good luck !

Steve(kilnman)

Yes I know this and perhaps that was a good reason to hold up a newspaper....

Trust me fellas, I can alter a digital file and it's contents to make a photograph say any date you want. Advantages of having availability to good software.

Go with the newspaper. I'd even say go with a nationally recognized one such as USA Today or the WSJ. You'd be hard pressed to find any way to fake those.

Best of luck to you Paul. Fortunately Lihua was granted her 10 year IR1 when she got here so no AOS for us so I can't give you recommendations on the filing.

E

The Newpaper I used was good timing; The headline in BIG letters was " New Orleans wins Superbowl"! Easy to read and easy to connect timeline. Maybe you could use: ( hopefully) something like --( GOP back in control)--from the Nov. 3 newspaper.

Steve(kilnman)

Now Steve, you know we are not supposed to mention any politics. Although, that suggested headline for Nov. 3 would be awesome news. I guess I will find out while in China during the elections. I will keep my eye to the online news for results.

Snyder

Well, I just had to stick in a little , Snyder !!

I too will be at the edge of my seat by the computer by 6 0r 7 AM Nov 3 , Nanning time

Wish I could get FOX news--live

Steve(kilnman)

See Steve, ain't it nice to have friends?

Just for you from a friend.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

BTW, please read your PM. I sent you a request.

Snyder

Thanks for the replies, Guys...

I made an account on I think it was the Candle site... It was based in England, I believe... And they deleted my account. Apparently you have to maintain a posting quota and I'm interested in "trolling" more than posting, so they blew away my account. Oh well...

I've started requesting affidavits. I'm a bit at a deficit with some of the information. My cars and house are in my name, not my wife's. I don't have a will. Our bank refused to add my wife on my primary account that I've had with them for 20 years after they said they would. When they learned she was Chinese, the bank manager refused, so I refused to ever have her do business with them. So she has her own account in both our names... Only her paycheck goes in that account. I pay for everything out of my account and unfortunately that doesn't have her name. So we do have an account together, but it only contains her pay, not mine.

So I plan on getting a half-dozen or so affidavits, then I can pull together life insurance, health insurance, doctor's bills, gas and electric bills, phone bills, tax returns, all in both our names. I'm sure there are other things I can pull together I'm not thinking of at the moment. Of course there are tons of family pictures and trips to Cape Cod and other travel we've done, but I can't prove any dates and they're vacations... They're not showing us at our home.

I actually do have pics of us in our front yard from spring 2009 and 2010, but can't prove the date. We have a georgous Japanese maple in the front yard and it blooms vibrant pink-white flowers each spring for one week. We get pics of each other there each year. Also, when her sister, husband, and niece visited in 2009, we all posed in the front yard for a family group shot.

But, as Steve pointed out, with no way to prove the dates of the pictures, I'm not sure if it's even worth submitting them with the filing. I didn't think of holding a paper up for the pics at the time. The LAST thing on my mind was Immigration <YUK!>.

I guess affidavits from friends, family, and our neighbor will be our primary submission and we'll submit other artifacts and cross our fingers. We do have a true, legal marriage, so I guess I should just trust that will ultimately produce an approval after USCIS does whatever they feel they need to do. There's no digging they can do that will uncover fraud with us simply because there is none.

-Paul

We had generic wills made up...I think I downloaded it from the Microsoft site....I had one signed by Yuping and then had signed one by me.....Also had some Powers of Attorney signed and sent in....You might want to consider assignment of beneficiary to pension plans, insurance policies and other items of financial matter.
I submitted simple generic forms with our application. that is because even simple forms can be changed...even wills can be changed later on....
I also submitted emails from family and friends with Yuping's name or reference to her in them...
I did place everything in a binder complete with and index and title page so that anyone looking through it could find anything they wanted too....

But I can sense that immigration and all the documentation required in the USA is a far more complex effort than in Canada with twists, curves and other dilemmas along the way.

I was stunned to see read that your bank would not allow you to add your wife onto your account.
I had no problems that way in Canada.....

Anyways take care and good luck....

Any affidavits should be notarized by a lawyer at least.

Paul, does your wife's paycheck stubs have you all's address on it? If so then a couple of those over the last two years may be a good source of proof. Other things like doctor's bills, notices, credit cards. If she has any ESL info addressed to your home. Her driver's license. Magazines or newspapers. Anything that shows an on going live-together relationship should help you guys, I would think.

As far as the joint bank account I am not sure but I thought the that topic came up on the old forum. I thought social security numbers were part of the issue.

As far as the interview I have heard of different scenario's. Sometimes it is not needed, sometime it is. I had a co-worker that described a similar interveiw like you mentioned. It was very intimidating. But his wife did get her GC.

The candle website is US based. It does not require constant logging in or posting as far as I know. Perhaps they require that you have done at least a minium of log ins or posts. So that they don't carry on their rolls people who log in once and never returns. You still should be able to read most of the post . The VJ one has a lot of members. They maybe able to give specify info on the USCIS center in NY. (Maybe)

Good Luck
Danny

Hi Danny, et. al.,

Yes, Hu Yue's paychecks have our address on them, as well as the corporate letters announcing her merit increases, both of which I'll submit with the paychecks.

The issue with my bank refusing her an account had to do with her not having her green card. Corporate said it's okay... Not a problem. When I went in to put her on my account, the bank manager refused her. I told him the corporate office told me it's okay and he didn't care. I called corporate and they looked into it and called me back and said, in fact, it really isn't a problem and to tell the manager. I did, he still refused... Back to corporate who then said they'd call me back. When they did the person on the other end sounded like they were reading me a legal statement that basically said the policy of the bank is that it is not a voilation of bank policy to allow her an account without her green card, but it's at the discretion of the bank manager, which was totally contradictory, in my opinion. I was really angry... I had this all cleared and made multiple calls BEFORE she came to America.

It was the old forum that suggested we go to HSBC... They were great and gave her an account within 45 minutes of entering the bank. problem solved.

The Social Security boondoggle was a totally different headache.

I forget which Chinese forum I was on... It was UK based, I'm almost 100% sure. I wasn't impressed with the forced participation in order to keep an account, but I guess I understand it.

I'll just get all the affidavits I can, gather everything I can think of, and file in November, then cross my fingers. Hopefully everything will turn out alright. Can't wait until this is all over...

Thanks for all the replies, Fellas... I'll keep ya'll posted!

-Paul