Update on my wife and our separation due to COVID and her Green Card - recent news again [View all]

[AZLD4Candidate]

Last edited Thu Oct 12, 2023, 11:27 PM - Edit history (1)

WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG POST

I know I promised to keep my DU family up on the green card and the bullshit with "legal immigration." I haven't had much to report on this end from China until now. And it's a little bad news and a lot of good news.

1: We are leaving China early. Apparently, teaching economics (which is really capitalist centric in the CIE, AP, and IB) pisses off these jingoistic people so my school trumped up charges against me and I lost my position teaching here. Got pissed, realized the tenor of the times in Winnie the Flu's China where foreigners, specifically Americans, are the bad guys and since the Chinese think economics is all about studying money and not scarcity, resource allocation, standards of living, and trade offs/choices, they complained I wasn't teaching "real economics." Guilty until proven innocent in China (you have to prove you didn't do something rather than they having to prove you did) and since the country is really communitarian and not communal now, I'm out. No biggie. They also breached my contract four times in a month but that's acceptable as the foreigner must abide by the contract but they can break it at will and the foreigner must accept it because "this is China." So I'm out of a job here.

2: When they broke my contract, I started looking for a new job and I found one. . .in Phuket, three miles from Patong Beach. Free, fully paid for apartment where they cover all utilities, American curriculum, real international students from all over the world and not just lots (85% of the 1200 students are from other countries), free laptop, free meals at the school, and 20 minutes from anything on the island I want to do except the airport and waterpark, which is an hour away on the northern tip of Phuket Island. So the only bills my wife and I will have will be phones, sundries, gas for the bike or rental car if we do that, and going out to dinner money if we want to do a real restaurant and not street food (for those who want to go to Thailand, do the street. Same food, cheaper, better, and the ambiance is great). What I lose in salary I get in peace of mind. I have a bad day, we hop on the bike, go to the beach for ice cold coconuts, massages on the beach and the sunset over the Andaman Sea. Also, weed is legal there so I can use that except my drugs for my bipolar disorder if I start feeling an episode coming on.

3: While I have interviews in China in Guangzhou and here in Qingdao today and Monday, I am leaning more and more towards the offer I accepted in Phuket so we are out of here next week. Which is good, because my wife, during the pandemic ran up about 80,000 USD in debt she hid from me and if she default, she loses her social credit score and will never be allowed to leave the country until it's paid off.

What does this all have to do with the green card?

We contacted the NVC since we are waiting for the interview to be scheduled asking if we can do a change of venue from Guangzhou to Bangkok. Their answer is below:

To Whom it Concerns:

We are unable to reassign this case to a different U.S. Embassy/Consulate General without additional information. She is eligible to process in one of the following countries:

Her country of citizenship
Her country of residence (the address and proof of residency must be submitted.)
Her country of last residence if they are currently residing in the United States

The requested country either does not fall into one of the above categories or insufficient proof of eligibility has been furnished to enable processing in that country.

You may resubmit your request with proof of eligibility to the National Visa Center if you wish to process at the requested U.S. Embassy/Consulate General. Possible proof includes the following: a copy of a government issued document such as birth certificate, valid passport, valid work visa, identity card or landed immigrant card. Please submit the sufficient proof using our Public Inquiry Form at https://nvc.state.gov/inquiry.

This petition is currently assigned to process at the U.S. Embassy/Consulate General in GUANGZHOU, CHINA - MAINLAND. If you are unable to provide sufficient proof, as described above, and still wish to gain approval to process her immigrant visa at a different U.S. Embassy/Consulate General, you must direct your request to the U.S. Embassy/Consulate General where you wish the case to be processed.

So no, she can't, but yes she can when we prove she's left China and living in another country. She will be on an O-dependent visa until she finds a job there. She just passed her Chinese early elementary and elementary teacher certification exams so she is fully certified here. We will use a reciprocity service to get it accepted as American teacher certs and she can teach in the US. I'm taking my principal certification exams soon and she will start a master's in elementary education after we're all settled in the US.

Instead of going to AZ, my parents are going to buy us a mother/daughter home and put it in the family trust outright in New Castle. We just pay the insurance, upkeep, bills, and maintain it as it will be bought without a mortgage. When we start working, we build up the funds to outfit it, and then move in. It is a mother/daughter style because my wife has already determined she will keep her green card until she is eligible to become an American citizen and then will do it. Being married to an American with a green card, it's only three years. After she is an American citizen, she can sponsor her parents on an IR5 visa for their green card and we get them out of China so the grandchildren have both grandparents. And her mother has already told us she will be our babysitter (Chinese mothers want grandchildren. Watch Futurama and see how Amy Wong's mother acts. It's not far from the truth).

My father is doing this as his way of apologizing for all the abuse he put me through. Suffering two major heart attacks in five years has really woken him up.

She is still nervous about the social credit score and we're discussing everything, but we have a way out of China and I am 85% mentally and emotionally ready to do it and leave "the world's largest insane asylum" in the dustbin of life memories.

INTROSPECTION ON POLITICS

There has been a huge change in the NVC and immigration even though the laws are still racist as shit written by two racists at the height of McCarthyism. Until the 45 mistake, they dragged their feet and were under orders to, if in doubt, deny. If there is 1% doubt, deny." And I believe certain countries were targeted, China being one of them. Same at the border which is why they were so hostile to everyone at the BP checkpoint Charlie.

Under Biden, it appears they have been told "if there is only 1% sure it's legit, approve and let the embassy do its job. NVC, it's your job to make sure documents look legit and are in order, not to make immigration decisions." And I believe the embassies have been told to not separate Americans from their families longer than they need to be separated.

Even with the 5th go around with our marriage cert, it was approved in three days. I find it funny that it took me ten days to get my spouse visa to return to authoritarian, xenophobic China to her in 2022, but we're going on three, almost four, years to do the same in the land of immigration and freedom.

Things are changing with legal immigration though all we hear about is undocumented immigrants. Those going for document qualification, are put through the ringer and we hear nothing about it. It's like we hear nothing about all the successful flights where nothing happens, but one plane falls out of the sky and it's news worldwide. Doing it legally and getting run through Hell isn't as important as those undocumented.

I always say "I can understand why people just hop the border. It's easier, faster, and people will fight to keep you here." Few people fight to BRING people here unless they make rich people or corporations wealthier or more powerful. A nameless Chinese teacher from the farms of Jiangsu isn't worth fighting to make the changes we need. She doesn't get attention. But the 20-25 million that are here do because of the logistics and costs of finding, processing, and deporting.

We need real, comprehension immigration reform for ALL immigration. Marriage to an American citizen should make a green card automatic the longer the American and the foreign have been married. We had our nine year anniversary last month, the first we were together after three years. We went to a simple hotpot and we were both happy just to spend our anniversary together. Our tenth will be in the US.