No, these aren't interstate freeways, these are the numbers of one of the many forms that Onions and I needed to fill out for the Department of Homeland Security to begin to apply for the immigration process for his hopefully, eventual citizenship. So, this will part of the documentation of the process as it goes along.
About a month ago, we contacted my high school friend, who is also an immigration lawyer in Seattle. We explained to her our situation and it's nice to hear from her, that things appear, for us to be fairly straightforward. We signed a contract to work with her, and her firm, and the process began.
She sent us a link to fill out forms and questionnaires on her website and to upload documents. The forms included historical and biographical information from both of us. This was fairly straightforward except when it came to the fact that Onions must reveal he's a member of the Chinese Communist Party when the form asked, "have you ever been affiliated with or a member or a political party." So, it turns out that we had to write an additional statement explaining that being a member of the party in China, at this point, is an honor and that it gave him a leg up in getting a job in Beijing. By getting a job in Beijing, his employer would be able to sponsor him for a Beijing residence permit. Only with a residence permit, would he be able to purchase real estate and get his services (medical and children's education) in Beijing. So, by explaining that being in party is an honor not everyone is entitled to (you have to be a top university student to apply and then get accepted) and from that he obtained direct personal benefit that it only made sense for him to join. Plus we stated explicitly that he was never involved in any political activity.
These questionnaires also asked about former residences and family information as well as work history. Turns out that my forms were much more difficult and challenging to fill out considering that I have moved around so much in the past five years. My forms were full and all these different addresses and employers. Once these were filled out (it took over a week to get them all correct as Onions had to go back and ask his parents their birthdays and stuff, HA!) and for the forms to look right.
At the same time, we had to submit a lot of documentation. For instance, we had to submit copies of our passports (makes sense), Onions current visa, our marriage certificate, my most recent tax forms, my employment contract to make sure I have income, his birth certificate and my birth certificate. We're not done yet. We had to submit documents that verify our lives together, for instance a document from the utility company that has both our names on it, we had to get onto the same phone plan (we finally are both on AT&T and have internet at home, woohoo) and lots of pictures from friends with dates, names and locations. Then we also had to send copies of selected plane tickets from different trips to verify that we traveled together as well as a letter from each of us explaining how we met and what we love about each other.
Not done yet. Onions had to get an official medical report from a DHS approved doctor. The doctor had to verify that he had all his shots, and so we had to have him go get shots. It turns out that Onions also had to go get a chest XRay to confirm he doesn't have TB. Once that was all confirmed and we had documentation, we were able to get a sealed medical report from the doctor to submit.
Then the office in Seattle send down these forms with our information on it to us and we spent a half hour signing and dating many copies of these forms. I had to also sign an affidavit of support stating that I would support him for 10 years even if we divorce. Onions also signed documents for a temporary work visa as well as an application for a travel document.
We sent this all in with the medical report, a passport photo of me, six of Onions and two checks, totally around $1,500 to the Department of Homeland Security back to Seattle. Hopefully, we have dotted all the proverbial i's and crossed those t's correctly that everything can be submitted and the process can begin. His tourist visa expires in early December and for about six weeks, he's going to be in limbo before his work certificate comes into effect. It was made abundantly clear that he can't travel outside the country until all the paperwork goes through.
Cross your fingers that things go smoothly and that no major world event happens for the US to radically change the immigration process in the next year. And let's hope that we've done everything correctly. More news to come when it happens, but hopefully it will be good news in early to mid-January. It might not be until February with all the holidays and the fact that we are filing in San Francisco, which is a notoriously busy office and has longer wait times to handle the mass of applications.
About a month ago, we contacted my high school friend, who is also an immigration lawyer in Seattle. We explained to her our situation and it's nice to hear from her, that things appear, for us to be fairly straightforward. We signed a contract to work with her, and her firm, and the process began.
She sent us a link to fill out forms and questionnaires on her website and to upload documents. The forms included historical and biographical information from both of us. This was fairly straightforward except when it came to the fact that Onions must reveal he's a member of the Chinese Communist Party when the form asked, "have you ever been affiliated with or a member or a political party." So, it turns out that we had to write an additional statement explaining that being a member of the party in China, at this point, is an honor and that it gave him a leg up in getting a job in Beijing. By getting a job in Beijing, his employer would be able to sponsor him for a Beijing residence permit. Only with a residence permit, would he be able to purchase real estate and get his services (medical and children's education) in Beijing. So, by explaining that being in party is an honor not everyone is entitled to (you have to be a top university student to apply and then get accepted) and from that he obtained direct personal benefit that it only made sense for him to join. Plus we stated explicitly that he was never involved in any political activity.
These questionnaires also asked about former residences and family information as well as work history. Turns out that my forms were much more difficult and challenging to fill out considering that I have moved around so much in the past five years. My forms were full and all these different addresses and employers. Once these were filled out (it took over a week to get them all correct as Onions had to go back and ask his parents their birthdays and stuff, HA!) and for the forms to look right.
At the same time, we had to submit a lot of documentation. For instance, we had to submit copies of our passports (makes sense), Onions current visa, our marriage certificate, my most recent tax forms, my employment contract to make sure I have income, his birth certificate and my birth certificate. We're not done yet. We had to submit documents that verify our lives together, for instance a document from the utility company that has both our names on it, we had to get onto the same phone plan (we finally are both on AT&T and have internet at home, woohoo) and lots of pictures from friends with dates, names and locations. Then we also had to send copies of selected plane tickets from different trips to verify that we traveled together as well as a letter from each of us explaining how we met and what we love about each other.
Not done yet. Onions had to get an official medical report from a DHS approved doctor. The doctor had to verify that he had all his shots, and so we had to have him go get shots. It turns out that Onions also had to go get a chest XRay to confirm he doesn't have TB. Once that was all confirmed and we had documentation, we were able to get a sealed medical report from the doctor to submit.
Then the office in Seattle send down these forms with our information on it to us and we spent a half hour signing and dating many copies of these forms. I had to also sign an affidavit of support stating that I would support him for 10 years even if we divorce. Onions also signed documents for a temporary work visa as well as an application for a travel document.
We sent this all in with the medical report, a passport photo of me, six of Onions and two checks, totally around $1,500 to the Department of Homeland Security back to Seattle. Hopefully, we have dotted all the proverbial i's and crossed those t's correctly that everything can be submitted and the process can begin. His tourist visa expires in early December and for about six weeks, he's going to be in limbo before his work certificate comes into effect. It was made abundantly clear that he can't travel outside the country until all the paperwork goes through.
Cross your fingers that things go smoothly and that no major world event happens for the US to radically change the immigration process in the next year. And let's hope that we've done everything correctly. More news to come when it happens, but hopefully it will be good news in early to mid-January. It might not be until February with all the holidays and the fact that we are filing in San Francisco, which is a notoriously busy office and has longer wait times to handle the mass of applications.