Having already lived in China for 18 months now, I felt it was time to make an appearance at the US Embassy in Beijing to begin filing for Lily's return to the US. We were told by immigration people in the US that we should be able to start the process about six months prior to the fulfillment of Lily's two-year foreign residency requirement (She previously stayed in the US under a J1 visa which requires her to return to China for a period of two years before she can return to the US).

Apparently we were misinformed. I cannot file a petition for Lily's immigration to the US until AFTER she has physically resided in China for an accumulative period of two years. The petition is estimated to take 6 months minimum to be approved, at which point we can then file for her visa and wait a few months longer. Bottom line, we are going to be living in limbo for three years instead of two.