credzba

Been a few years now guys. Wife is still Chinese citizen. If wife lived together with me for over 5 years in US of A, does wife get spousal benefits for life? Even if she lives in China and is Chinese citizen? Even if I kill-over? We'd like to retire in China, and neither of us has any plans to return to USA unless required for SS benefits for her.

I just wanted to add to this old thread.. My daughter just had a run-in. Went to Walmart, saw some candy that looked good, so sampled one out of the box before buying and decided it was no good. Started to leave the store, and they stopped her an called the police. Charged her with theft for eating 1 candy out of a box, now she has to go to court and fight it. Ridiculous! She is in Sherman if that lawyer son-in-law offer is still available.

Just one more lesson in "Don't mess with a Chinese woman" !

As April 15 approaches, I can only dream, dream, dream .. This year we could only take the standard deduction, but to come to that conclusion took 8-10 hours of work My daughter, doing her taxes for the first time alone, called to ask me "Dad, if the IRS already has all this data, why am i filling out these forms and sending them in?" I had no answer for her.

Probably Dan. All my wife's family have been to visit us, and all got 10 year visas. Getting the visa is the hardest, but just need to show they have good reason to return to China. I don't think they are near as hard to get as they have been in the past.

Wife could petition for her parents... 10 years Then, parent could become citizen .. 3 years Then parent could petition for unmarried children .. another 10 years I think its not a reasonable way to go, but better you have a lawyer say that than "I read it on the internet" or "Credzba said" We have the same discussions, and like you I like my wifes family, but they can get 10 year visa to America, and come visit 6 months at a time way easier than trying for green card or citizenship.

If your guests eat spicy food, sichuan food is very popular. mopo dofu is good, I make mine with lots of ground pork and sichuan peppers. fish in spicy oil .. I forget chinese name is good always if they eat fish. Sometimes instead of whole fish I use fish fillet from costco, that way american can easily eat. spicy fried chicken is great, and very american-ish. you know where chicken is cut in pieces, breaded in some kind of flour.. or mia fen, then boiled in oil with spicy peppers and hua fen kernels .. I don't know the name but its good, and since American are used to chicken nuggets, it is familiar to them, only spicy. If you want to make hot pot, without share the pot, you can make it and put spoon with slots in it. That way people just scoop out what they want to their own plate. si ji dou - green beans with garlic stir fry is good, sometimes i add wood-ear mushroom to this my wife makes zhon zi (sp?) - sweet rice wrapped around meat, then all wrapped in bamboo leaf . these are easy to make ahead, and each american can have their own. dumpling is always good. That is all my favorites Catherine, good luck!

Why not have the baby WITHOUT being married ? Is there some rule that an unmarried child, WITH their own child cannot come on an F1 visa. Just make sure the child is a US citizen so that when the daughter comes on the F1 visa, the child comes because it is already a US citizen. That shouldn't be hard to achieve, just wait until about 3 months pregnant, daughter come visit mom and dad for 6 months, viola. Citizen baby, mama is still unmarried, so can come with F1 visa, and grandchild can come visit g-ma and g-pa ANYTIME because its a US citizen.

I should have known the IRS would cover this case. Thanks, I'll pass on the bad news

My wife had some friends over this weekend, and one lady had an income tax issue. She recently divorced in America, and is currently a permanent resident. To make sure she had enough finances, she cashed in an insurance policy, and sold some business interests in China. She asked me about taxation, and I told her I believe the USA taxes world wide income, and as a LPR she would have to claim the income from the sales on her taxes next year. It is a significant amount of money, so I suggested abandon her green card to avoid taxes. Do any of you know the tax situation with LPR? Would it be a reasonable approach to avoid US taxes? If she wanted to come back to USA, I told her she could get a 10 year visa, and if she ever met an American she wanted to marry, apply for another green card. Would abandoning 1 green card cause issues for a future green card ?

I was watching Chinese women in China, American women in America, and I came to a theory. All women (people?) like to show off their best assets. Women in America tend to be "top heavy", and as a result you see low cut shirts, under-boob, side-boob .. whatever. Women bodies and legs in America tend to be heavier, so they wear clothing that don't show off those parts, loose pants, and dresses. Women in China tend to be limited on the top, but have beautiful legs, and hiney, and as a result you see short skirts, tight pants. The tops in China are much more conservative, because they don't have much to show off on top. Men are ugly everywhere, so pants and shirt to cover as much as possible. Truth is I don't see WHY women like us men.. I am not complaining, but if I was a woman I am pretty sure I'd be lesbian. Of course there are exceptions to this, but in general I think its accurate.

An observation from main "new content page".

I don't intend to make this political, just an observation. I work in Israel, and have a number of close friends there. I also, of course, enjoy China, and have friends and family there. Finally, we live in USA, and have friends/family here. 5 years ago, when i went to Israel, people saw USA as almost a sister country. If I had my own complaints about USA, usually people shrugged, and figured every country had issues. China, and asian people did not exist in Israel that i ever saw. Recently when i visit, and discuss non-work related matter the Israeli / USA relationship does not seem strong. I have friends in Israel who will ask about what Americans think of Israel. The feeling with America seems to be much more tenuous than in the past. I often see asian people visiting for work (maybe vacation, but I think look like work people). The video thanking China is a very nice gesture, but I wonder if something deeper is not involved.

Partially it is our cultural differences once again. When I first "showed interest" in the lady who is now my lovely wife, I did a search to see if I could find any irregularities around the web. I found she had entries on some of the Chinese dating sites. On the Chinese sites she listed her age, height, .. maybe weight, job position, and income. There was no picture on the Chinese site. We don't think this way, but the Chinese see it as perfectly normal to know the salary of potential partners. I guess more important than what they look like.

We bought a house together before my wife was in the USA .. my income / credit history was sufficient, so I am certain your wife not having a credit history wont be an issue. I felt that a good credit rating was important though, like you, so what I did was got a costco membership, with the associated american express card in her name only. I later got a user card on her account, but the important thing is for the card to be in her name for credit reporting. Costco would guarantee her a card, and we use costco anyway, so it worked but anyplace that will guarantee a card without consideration of credit history works. Then, we used that card for everything. It started with a 2,000 credit limit, but within a year or 2 it was up to 10,000 limit (we used it for remodelling the house). Since I always paid it in full, the intrest rate was irrellevent, and don't believe those stories of you have to pay some intrest to get a good credit score. Her score is over 750 now, and she has never paid 1 cent of intrest.