TD Visa in China

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kiamchoo

Registered Users (C)
I'm going to work in the US on a TN visa next month and would like to bring my wife (Chinese national) with me. I've read several informative posts about getting a TD visa, and it seems like it's not easy to get one for a Chinese national in China. I'd like to ask if there are people who have successfully done it? What kind of documentation should we provide?

Thanks in advance!
 
My wife applied for a TD visa at US consulate in Beijing in Jan 2008 but was issued a B2 visa. Although I was never told the reason why they issued B2 instead of TD, I suspect it's because the US consulars in China are unfamiliar with TD visa since very few people apply for this type of visa in China. The reason my wife successfully obtained a visa is because she has been to US many times in the past for business and she brought a copy of her past US visa with her to the visa appointment. If your wife has never been to US, it can be difficult to convince the consular the non-immigrant intent. If she's unable to obtain a TD visa, you can start the Canadian permanent residence application for her. It'll be A LOT easier to come to US from Canada when she becomes a landed immigrant of Canada. It took us 2.5 months from the time we filed for Canadian PR application to receive the immigrant visa. Hope this helps. Good luck.
 
Thanks

Thanks for the info. We might go the Canadian PR route if the TD doesn't work out. 2.5 months sounds fast!

I looked at the PR app form, and have been putting off applying because I don't have all the info they need on hand with me in Beijing, e.g., record of landing permanent residence number.

The Canadian consulate in Beijing is really terrible. When my wife applied for a tourist visa in '07, they rejected her -- twice. We were married by then.
 
The Canadian PR route may take up to 6 months, could be problematic when you have already started your job in the US after the petition is filed.

Ask your wife to bring the "Visa Issuance Procedures Notes" (attached) with her when she goes to the US consulate to apply for the TD visa.

Important sections to show the visa officer:

page 6 of 9

a. ".....Dependents do not have to be citizens of Mexico or Canada."

Page 7 of 9

e. "TD visa can be issued in non-Canadian or non-Mexican passports. The Canadian or Mexican reciprocity schedules are based upon the TN status holder's nationality, should be followed regardless of the dependent's actual nationality."

My wife will be going through the same process in the next few months, if she is turned down the TD in China, I may let her apply a tourist visa to go to Mexico and apply there, where the US consulate is more familiar with TD visa.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Unsane, Page 5, clause c of your doc is especially interesting. It seems like the right way to go about it is for me to go with my wife together to the embassy; I would get a TN visa, which then confers the derivative TD visa on my wife. I was originally planning for my wife to go there alone with my job offer letter, but that probably makes her look more like the hundreds of individual applications that they receive everyday.

There was an earlier thread in which the poster got himself a TN and his wife a TD in vietnam.

The clause in question is:

"One instance in which a Canadian would apply for a TN visa: a Canadian
without TN status, who resides in a third country with a non-Canadian
spouse or family member, and who is planning to enter the United States
as a NAFTA professional with his family member(s), will need a TN visa in
order to confer derivative TD status on his or her dependents. In such
cases, the Canadian citizen could not wait to have his or her case
adjudicated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at a port of
entry (POE), since the non-Canadian dependent(s) would require a visa to
board a flight and to apply for entry into the United States."
 
I don't believe clause C would apply to you as you do NOT reside in a third country with a non-Canadian spouse, your current residency is Canada, not China.

Interestingly, according to clause e in page 7, it shouldn't cost anything to get a TD visa, although it's not an option in China as you need to pay the fee (same amount as H4 applicants) in order to set up the appointment.

The key is to educate the visa officer who may not be familiar with the TN/TD process.
 
I do actually live in China...have been here for over 5 years. So I guess Clause c applies for me.
 
In that case, yes, you'll need a TN visa from US consulate in China if you want both you and your wife to arrive at US together. This is a very rare case and I'm sure the US consulate in China don't know much about TN visa. I suggest you go to US first, get your TN and then your wife can apply for TD. Unsane's suggestion is right. Make sure your wife takes all the documents with her and educate the consular about TD visa. You'll have to educate your wife on this first and then she'll have to convince the consular.

It is normal for Canadian consular to reject a tourist visa when the applicant is married to a Canadian citizen. It's the same in US. When the applicant is married to a Canadian citizen, an immigrant intent is estabilished. The applicant can no longer be considered for nonimmigrant visa.

My suggestion still remains. Once you are settled in US, file the Canadian PR application right away. My wife got her Canadian immigrant visa and entered Canada without any problem while I was working in US.
 
jk is correct in describing the difficulty of getting a TD without you having TN. Even Cdn residents who have a foreign spouse have to get their TN first and then apply for TD.

The best couse is for you to come to US, get your TN, and then send a copy of it to her for her consular TD, after which she comes to US. I do not believe it is as difficult as some say for TDs to be issued at consulates outside Canada. The experience of one person (superjk) on this site is falsely skewing that expectation.

Going the Cdn PR route is a waste, without first trying to get TD.
 
nelsona said:
The experience of one person (superjk) on this site is falsely skewing that expectation.
Click to expand...

My experience wasn't too bad. My wife got a B2 visa instead of TD in China, and she joined me in US on B2 without any problem. It was someone else on this forum whose spouse got rejected at least twice for TD visa in China. What I am trying to say is that try for TD first but if that does not work out (i.e. rejected more than twice for having immigrant intent), make sure to have a backup plan, and one of the backup plans is to apply for Canadian PR. I don't want to mislead anyone. I'm just sharing my experience and hope it will help people.
 
Thanks superjk, unsane and nelsona for your help.

My plan:

Plan A: apply for TD & TN simultaneously. If that doesn't work:

Plan B: have wife apply for TD without my having gotten a TN first.

Plan C: go to US first on TN and then have wife apply for TD in Beijing.

Plan D: Apply for PR for wife while I am in the US.

Will let you guys know what happens.

From calling the US embassy in Beijing twice, I've been told that it's possible for for my wife to obtain her TD without my having a TN first; so I currently have an appointment set up to do that. But that sounds risky since on second thought a TD should derive from an existing TN. :)
 
To apply for her TD visa, what should my wife bring? On the phone, consulate operators said for her to bring our marriage certificate, her passport, my job offer. I'm wondering what else she should bring. Proof of assets in China?
 
- Your Canadian passport
- Your TN petition letter
- Proof of your education (degree or diploma)
- Experience letters if you need them
- Spouse's passport
- Marriage certificate in English

That should be it. No need for proof of assets. Make a photocopy of all of the documents since US embassy will want to keep them. Bascially she needs to bring everything that you need to apply for a TN and proof that you guys are married.
 
kiamchoo said:
To apply for her TD visa, what should my wife bring? On the phone, consulate operators said for her to bring our marriage certificate, her passport, my job offer. I'm wondering what else she should bring. Proof of assets in China?
Click to expand...

She should just cancel the interview and apply for the TD Visa at the same time you apply for your TN in Beijing, or even safer, after you successfully get your TN at POE and started your job in the US.

The consulate operator clearly had no idea about the TN/TD process, you would just be wasting $131.
 
unsane said:
She should just cancel the interview and apply for the TD Visa at the same time you apply for your TN in Beijing, or even safer, after you successfully get your TN at POE and started your job in the US.

The consulate operator clearly had no idea about the TN/TD process, you would just be wasting $131.
Click to expand...

I agree with you. The consulate operator in China doesn't really deal with TN/TD cases very often. They could be mixed up with other types of work visa. However, if the poster really wants to try it, then sure. Please let us know how it goes after the appointment.
 
Success

Update: my wife and I have successfully obtained our TN/TD visas, both valid for 3 years.

The advice of a consulate staff whom I contacted by fax was to ignore the telephone operators (most of whom asked me to set up a TD appointment for my wife only) and set up a simultaneous appointment for TN and TD. That worked.

Unsane, thanks for supplying your pdf doc. I showed it to the person when handing in my forms, and it helped explain clearly why we were applying for the TN and the TD at the same time.

Hope my case helps other people in the future.
 
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