Government Bureaucracy

I received a form I-797E from USCIS yesterday. They government wants more documents from me for my I-129F application. I was pretty sure I sent in every piece of documentation they wanted so I was surprised they want more divorce stuff, for both Sindy and me. I looked up my divorce at the court website and found that there was a form that basically said the judgement was filed with the court. After digging around boxes and boxes, I actually found the copy that was sent to me. Whew...

However, after talking to Sindy, she has no idea what the USCIS wants from her side. I think the US government is being lazy and ethnocentric. They're asking for something in the vaguest terms and expect people from other countries to comply with a US-like form. Anyway, I placed a call to USCIS customer service center today. First, their automated menu sucks... like most systems, it doesn't explicitly tell you how to directly reach a live person. After digging through menu after menu, I reached a person who spoke Spanish to me, then hung up. WTF? On the second try, I reached someone speaking English, told her my story, she transferred me to an immigration agent, who basically told me "I dunno." Awesome. He was pretty nice on the phone but was basically zero help. I asked if I should go to a field office in person... he replied, "Sure, but the window agent probably can't help you either." Great.

I think the gist of the conversation was the form has all the info I need, even though we both agree that it doesn't, and the government bureaucracy is too big for me to actually contact the one who made the decision to ask for more info. Sigh... I ended up sending an email to the Guangzhou consulate since they handle all immigrant visas in China. We'll see if anyone answers me.

The helpful guy on the phone at USCIS also suggested I send in the same divorce papers from China (the USCIS already has the original + translation) and write a letter saying that's all we have. I'm pretty sure that won't work and will probably get my case delayed/rejected.

Ugh... I don't want to move to China!