Ned Brickley

On Fri, 25 Mar 2005 15:14:03 +0000, donahso
<member2686@british_expats.com> wrote:

    >GZ is probably the worst consulate for visa processing. Well, may Mambai
    >is top of the heap, but GZ is no less than a strong second. If you SO
    >will be in Australia long enough you certainly want her to interview
    >there. She will need to get her birth cert, police cert and single cert
    >from her houkou, but a family member can do that for her.

You aren't kidding about GZ being at the bottom of the heap. My wife
and I went through a year of agony due to their complete stupidity.
(glad my family knows a Senator or 2)

First they couldn't figure out how to mail the documents she needed to
fill out once the NVC sent her file to them. [1]

Then, once she gets everything done and sent back to them, the police
shut down their shiny new call/appointment center for over charging
people. Once that gets fixed I send them an email asking when the
tentative date may be for her interview. The response I received sent
me through the roof. [2]

She was finally interviewed in late October and I was there the day
after Thanksgiving to bring her home. We are now living happily ever
after. :)

1) The lack of communication is amazing. Once I found out the NVC had
sent the file over I contacted the consulate and asked what the status
was. They replied they were sending out the packet my wife had to fill
out. Two weeks goes by and my wife hasn't received the packet yet. I
email the consulate again asking "WTF, over?" and they replied that
the mailing address was no good and the packet had been returned.

Considering I had been sending letters and presents to that address
for a year, and my lawyer had also sent my wife some documents to the
same address with no issues, to say I was annoyed was putting it
mildly.

The Consulate then asked me to send my wife's address to them in
Chinese. I can't read Chinese. My wife was able to send me the
characters and I copied them into their web form. [3]

Another two weeks and nothing. Again I email them with a "WTF over?"
message and this time they replied that the address was munged by
their web form and they couldn't read the message. Could I fax them a
copy?? [4]

My wife was able to do this and she received her packet a week later.

2) When I asked when my wife could expect her appointment letter the
reply went something like "We'll get to it in a few months" The verbal
explosion when I read this was heard 4 offices down at the place I
work.

3) I wasn't to surprised that they couldn't read the chinese
characters, but I had a small hope their web designer and IT group had
made arrangements to handle the character set. A forlorn hope it turns
out.

4) My wife was able to handle that one.

And so ends the my story of dealing with the consulate in GZ.

--
Ned

donahso

Timing would certainly be a cause for concern. I know of a few Chinese students in Canada who had to wait for all of the special clearances to finish up. One of the members on Candle is an Aussie and he said it takes a month between the time a marriage license is filed until the marriage can be held. Lastly, if her student visa ends before the interview in Sydney, it would be sent to GZ for processing.

Still, being able to DCF in Australia would jump start the process over a K-1, and certainly over a US filed I-130. All of the service center and NVC stuff would be handled in Sydney - much faster, no doubt. If I were going through a visa process today with my Chinese wife and had the same circumstances as the OP, I'd jump on it. The worst case would be Sydney refusing the DCF and the petition would go back to the US service center - roughly the same timeline for I-130 and K-1. Second worst case would be everything but the interview would be done in Sydney - still faster by months. Best case would be a full DCF process in Sydney in 3 ~ 6 months. I don't see any downside.

cbaudelaire

Thanks, that definitely makes sense. The thing is, that i wouldn't want to pursue this until i have a better idea of whether it will work. Traveling to Australia to marry is not something either of us can do until late summer at the earliest. And if it ends up that we end up with one of the worse case scenarios, it would mean wasting several months beginning the petition process at the service center in the US. Additionally, my schedule will make it difficult for me to make it to Australia without serious planning ahead... something i don't mind doing, if the DCF process really will work.

I'm definitely interested in DCF, and i hope i'm not sounding like i'm resisting the idea! It's just that given the circumstances, the worst case scenario you mention would waste us several months (due to not starting the process until after we get married in the summer, which would also change the status of her being a spouse instead of a fiancee, which in turn might make the entire process longer), and my rearranging my schedule for a trip to Australia in the summer or fall.

I guess i'm just really hoping to learn more about this, with her being a Chinese citizen, and me not residing there. I have read a report of a US citizen being able to do this being a non-resident of australia, but that was with an Australian citizen spouse.

Thanks again for all of the feedback. Still looking into this a bit, and hopefully i can proceed with the best option for us once i understand everything a bit more thoroughly!

meauxna

It did take me awhile to get my head around it too, because there's less info available. I am sooooo glad we stuck through it to find the info that worked best for us as a family.
Sounds to me as if you'd benefit from sketching out a timeline for starters... ie: she's not in Australia right now? and then make a rough plan based on how long things take ie: marriage application-->license. Also how long her visa status will be valid for. Apologies for the world's worst sentance there...

Then, using the info from the DCF Guide, call/contact Sydney (not the pay-per-minute number but get through to the Visa Unit) and give them The Question, with all particulars included.
My husband is a UK citizen, I'm US, and he was living in Greece. We successfully filed through Athens. I could give you many examples of third-country filings, but not this morning

I don't see the same worst-case that you do. If you get permission to file, I don't think the rug will be yanked out from under you in the middle. Certainly no more than a K1 process might. In a DCF, the Consul has been given special permission to adjudicate I-130s, which is normally the job of USCIS. That is really the unique part of this type of case--where the petition is filed. So, if your request to DCF is refused (while you are still in the US) you are still not married and can go forward as planned. (I would still ask if she can interview for K1 there).

donahso's point about having enough legal stay to weather the security checks is the Big Unknown. I suppose the question becomes: would she rather wait that out in China or Australia? If you've visited the candleforlove site, surely you've seen how difficult the Chinese Consulates can be... and 'normal' K1 timelines do not apply. There are a few China/US couples on visajourney who are really complaining (and a memorable one from here, IIRC) about the year+ wait when going through China. So factor in that a K1 via China may not be all that swift as you've stated here too.

It's totally crazy, I know. Believe me, everyone here has had some strange timeline experience. Keep bouncing your ideas around.. the people here have information that never gets written down until someone asks the right question

cbaudelaire

Thanks for the advice. I spoke with my fiancee, and her visa is only good until next February. Assuming we get married in August in Australia (the earliest i think we can do it), that might give enough time for a DCF, but there is always the possibility of unexpected delays. Whether I pursue a DCF or a K1 through Sydney, i'm a bit worried that she'd have to leave before finishing it up. Would the application process continue in GZ? that sounds like potential for some serious complications. It seems GZ has a hard time as it is.

The timeline i'm looking at is:

-fiancee arrives in Australia in May
-earliest we could get married (according to my vacation schedule) is August
-earliest fiancee can leave Australia is mid-December.
-latest fiancee can leave Australia is mid-February.

I'm starting to consider the possibility of me living in China in December with her, and dealing with a spouse visa process in China. That way we won't be in a rush, since we will be together. But i need to think about that option a bit

Thanks again for all of the input. i sent an email to the Australian embassy. I will try to reach them by phone sometime this week.