Hello from China

[spinalinterior 0]

Hello everyone!

I am a USC and my wife is from China.

We currently live together in China and were married

in Japan, where we met. We have been married for almost one year.

I am coming to this forum to meet people who are going through similar things

as we are and as a place to ask advice and help in clarifying this whole process, which

we are starting.

Sadly, we had our first shock yesterday when my wife went to the embassy for her B2-Non-Immigrant

Visa interview. We would like to just take a short vacation to the US for her to meet my family, so

thought (and through email correspondence with the USCIS, confirmed) that the B2 would be the best as a simple

visa to take a short vacation. She did not pass the interview.

From today, I have vowed to find out as much about this process as possible and to help better understand

what we will go through. Of course, in the future, we want to live and work in the US, so immigration will

be in our future, but for now, we just wanted to travel. Specifically, I will want to clarify where we should

go from here (continue along the B2 path or change, etc.).

We are at a loss as how to proceed.

I'm not sure whether to post my questions here in the introduction section or under a different topic. I think

I will use a different topic, as that might be more applicable.

Anyway, we sincerely hope to talk to others who are going through or have went through similar difficulties and to

learn from everyone and keep our heads up in this process.

Nice to meet you all.

[Moonandstar 6]

We were denied a tourist visa too.

All i wanted was to go visit my grandfather (who i had lived with most of my life) who's 90 and was in the hospital with full-pneumonia at the time.

It's a hard thing to get here in China, and i remember the day my fiancee was denied, i just laughed. It was a ###### joke, that she couldn't prove she'd return, and how the VO just flipped through our papers, and spent the most time trying to figure out what a word (typo) i had crossed out on my invitation letter was.

After that i felt it would be a waste of money to try and continue that process. Besides, realistically you only have a handful of trys for a B1/2 visa before they just pretty much figure your a regular, and start denying you just because all the other interviewers denied you. (So Ive been told)

After that, we made up our minds about what to do. And concluded that the best option was to go for the visa that best described our situation. Besides, can't prove non-immigrant intent? Well my counter to that is let's start proving immigrant intent!

In hindsight, there really isn't a visa that looks exactly like what we were trying to do, with that B1 visa being so damn difficult to get, but i think your best bet is to go CR-1 and be done with it, so long as you two think that within the next year or so, you both would be ready to spend most of your time in the US (Green Card only allows your wife to be out of the US for 6 moths at a time, then you usually need a good reason for why you were out for so long.)

[spinalinterior 0]

Moonandstar,

Thank you for the reply. I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you and your fiancee went through and I felt the same way you did about it being a joke. It felt like a dream. It just wasn't real. From our perspective there was no reason why she shouldn't have been granted the tourist visa.

We understand what you said about the "handful of tries," but are going to attempt the B2 visa once more and will bring more proof about household, work, finances and so forth. I had my wife tell me the questions they asked and I took note. We are still not sure why she was refused, but imagine it has something to do with us only being here in China for about 6 months (coming from Japan). Perhaps, that short time displays "weak ties" to her home, and my present place of contracted employment, China. They didn't even look at the paperwork she brought from her company, confirming her employment.

Your comment on starting the immigrant process is something that we thought hard about last night and this morning, as well. Since it will happen in the future, we should start getting things in order to make the step.

The CR-1 seems be be nicely outlined here: cr-1.

I need to check about once the CR-1 is issued, must we be in the US? For how long? and so forth. Also (and I will check into this in the coming days), is the K3 Visa something that is not being used anymore? The "spouse visa" is shifting or has shifted to the CR-1/IR visa, yes?

So, yes, at this point, we will try once again to get the B2 visa (hopefully in time for Christmas), and, if that fails or even after that, will start the process of CR-1. How long did the CR-1 process take for you and your fiancee from start to finish? Also, if you know of any better web resources that the one I posted here, please let me know.

Finally, I checked and it is possible for me, a US citizen, to speak directly with a CO regarding specific cases. I might take this leap and get their advice/feedback, too.

Thank you!

[Moonandstar 6]

1. Yea, we were considering applying again for a tourist visa, but in the end it just didnt seem worth it to spend the money and the trip to BJ to have another crapshot. What letter did they give her when she was denied? not being able to prove she'd return? Yea, you'll need something very 'official' to convince them. Dont expect them to piece together your evidence. That bit about them considering the "totality of the circumstances" is a load of #######. Either have a be-all-end-all ready or be ready to be denied.

2. How is your wife's English? This is another big factor in B1 visas, as was the case with mine. If she isn't very prompt and understands what they say the first time they say it, they'll likely ask to see everything she has, as was my fiancee's interview. If that happens, you lose the edge, and they'll just start flipping through the papers without a care in the world.

3. No, k-3 is gone as far as i know. Besides, it was more costly and much more trouble than a CR1. Any information you see that it is faster is old.

4.Check my timeline for a timeframe. Bear in mind we went K-1, which is for unmarried couples. The VJ guides are pretty exhaustive too.

[Moonandstar 6]

1. Yea, we were considering applying again for a tourist visa, but in the end it just didnt seem worth it to spend the money and the trip to BJ to have another crapshot. What letter did they give her when she was denied? not being able to prove she'd return? Yea, you'll need something very 'official' to convince them. Dont expect them to piece together your evidence. That bit about them considering the "totality of the circumstances" is a load of #######. Either have a be-all-end-all ready or be ready to be denied.

2. How is your wife's English? This is another big factor in B1 visas, as was the case with mine. If she isn't very prompt and understands what they say the first time they say it, they'll likely ask to see everything she has, as was my fiancee's interview. If that happens, you lose the edge, and they'll just start flipping through the papers without a care in the world.

3. No, k-3 is gone as far as i know. Besides, it was more costly and much more trouble than a CR1. Any information you see that it is faster is old.

4.Check my timeline for a timeframe. Bear in mind we went K-1, which is for unmarried couples. The VJ guides are pretty exhaustive too.

Oh yea, and since with CR-1, at the NVC level you can opt in for e-processing- could beat my timeline by about a good 2 months with that, depending on USCIS processing speed.

Edited July 23, 2010 by Moonandstar

[Darnell 8,478]

B-2 visas from China are really hard to get .

The Visa Officer, initially presumes (Because he/she has a Federal Regulation to follow, ordering him to presume) that any Visa Applicant has Immigrant Intent.

There's no way to drop that first presumption.

Many ppl are naive about this, thinking 'its just a trip to visit family' ...

And that sucks, loads, this initial presumption.

The only way to overcome this presumption is to show 'strong ties to China' - have those documented, prior to interview day. There's a list of what to prep, what to show on each US Embassy/Consulate website in the Tourist Visa Section - did you review this list prior to interview day? If not, I hope a kind Visa Officer was able to tell her what they expect to see. Also, if not, then you have a chance to find the list, review the list, prep items from the list to prepare a 'file of evidence', as well.

Sorry she got bitten by this, but it is what it is. IMO, she still has some hope to get the Tourist Visa, but she must be fully prepped, as well.

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Going forward, since yer IN CHINA, married already, with a residence in China longer than 6 months - you might want to investigate filing the I-130 petition via 'Direct Consular Filing' - have a look at the GUIDES section here (train yer eyes up, click on 'Guides' ) - the process is fully outlined there. A DCF'd I-130 takes between 4 to 5 months IN CHINA.

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Suggest you forget about any K-3 - The K-3 is effectively 'dead', as the I-130 and I-129F usually travel together from USCIS to NVC, and NVC administratively closes the I-129F petition, thereby nixing any K-3 for future, and then ya run with NVC Processing with the I-864/DS-230 .

Some 'light' reading? :

Comparison on K-3 vs CR-1 - http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/204324-wondering-if-i-made-a-mistake-marrying-in-us/page__view__findpost__p__3060767

K-3 administratively closed - http://www.visajourney.com/news/2010/02/07/department-of-state-to-close-k-3-visas-if-i-129f-and-i-130-petitions-approved-and-received-together/

---

Good Luck !

Edited July 23, 2010 by Darnell

[O & C 3]

Hello, Welcome to V.J... Enjoy your journey.

[spinalinterior 0]

I would just like to say thank you to the WONDERFUL and EXTREMELY HELPFUL and uplifting responses that I've gotten from this thread. I will be flying back to the US alone tomorrow to see my family, but will give ALL of the links and comments another slow read later tonight and hopefully post another reply soon. It warms us to be able to feel some kind of community with people who have went through and are going through these processes. I will reply in more detail later.

[Darnell 8,478]

Hey - any news? How's the reading list coming along?

[spinalinterior 0]

Hey - any news? How's the reading list coming along?

OK. Back to the board, back in China, tomorrow, back to work.

We're excited (and nervous) to get this CR-1 ball rolling.

I'll read everything this week and will probably have loads of questions.

[Darnell 8,478]

Sure ! No worries !