PJ

Probably need about 3 weeks advance notice. Sorry, you know how airfare is. Uhh, maybe I could suggest some dates once I go home and stuff. I need to look online to see how much airfare costs these days. Actually I've been wanting to head back to Oregon, take my wife to Multnomah falls and Seaside and stuff.

HEY! Do me a favor someone and please once a date is picked, message me. I'm hoping maybe you guys could plan it a few weeks before the actual date. I've been looking for an excuse to head back out to the rainy city. I was born and lived in Portland for the first 17 years of my life. I actually have vacation time, Candy's here, so I couldn't think of a better point in life to go. P.J.

Everyone, I would like to address a major concern. I received several emails complaining about arguments that stemmed from the Lassitude Lounge and I am writing to address those. I do not know what happened. I do not have time to be involved and to micromanage every discussion that goes on. Believe it or not, I do have a job and I do have to work. However, when I am getting accusations of intimidation, I do have to get involved. First, the issue of posting people's email. This is not permitted, other than your own email, and this is advised against as well. Is there still an instance of someone's email posted on any discussion thread? I would hope this would have been deleted by now. If it is still on Candle, I am asking the community to let me know and I will delete it immediately and apologize to the person's email who was posted. Second, the Lassitude Lounge. I had concerns about the RR a while back, and we eventually had to delete it. I am starting to think perhaps Candle is not a place for full-out political / random debate. This will be reviewed this evening when I get home. I am at work and do not have time to deal with this right now. Thanks, P.J.

My wife got a full-page K1 visa with photo inside her passport. It definitely has her photo. I seem to recall it was very colorful and fancy looking. I'll check later. P.J.

Yahoo! Towers. We played tons of Yahoo! Towers together. We'd team up against other pairs. http://games.yahoo.com/yt I had finally achieved 1800 points and orange status right before Candy came over. Since then we really haven't played. P.J.

Hey all, Uhh, well ever since my fiancee (now wife) has been in the States and we first filed the AOS paperwork, I haven't been quite as on-the-ball as I usually am. At any rate, I was just looking through the NOA for the I-485 (AOS), and I realized it says "Customers can schedule an appointment to visit an Application Support Center at a convenient time for collection of digital photgraph, signature, and fingerprints." OOPS! All this time I've been waiting for them to call us and tell us when to do the fingerprints and stuff. So I'm gonna call tomorrow, but I'm wondering, is this going to delay our stuff? Here in tampa there's already a horrendous long wait for the AOS (they're working on June 2003 right now). Geez, I must be losing it... can't believe I didn't read through the NOA more clearly ... P.J.

Uhh so "China Post" is a bank? I thought this was the post office. Shows what I know. You mentioned that the Agricultural bank would send her over to China Post. So if you send it, you don't send it to a specific Western Union then? You just "send it"? P.J.

Hi All, I noticed that the pickup locations for Western Union in China seem to be either: 1. China Post or 2. Agricultural Bank of China If we send money to my wife's family and specify a pickup location of Agricultural Bank of China, do they have to have an account there? Has anyone who has done this before know about this? I did research all the old posts about sending money and didn't find an answer to this. Thanks, P.J.

Hi all, Okay, for the lucky people in Washington, it seems there is a chinese version of the Driver's Permit manual: http://www.dol.wa.gov/ds/chinese.htm I'm wondering, for those of us in different states, are the concepts close enough? I know all the detailed laws (like how much PIP insurance you need) differs from state-to-state, but wouldn't the general concepts like a 4-way stop be the same? Has anyone tried using these to help their spouse? Uhh, also, does anyone know if I can get the Florida Driver's guide in Chinese? Couldn't find one, and the DMV said they only did English and one other language (bet y'all will never guess what it is ...) P.J.

Hello, I support this completely and as you know I am very much in favor of free and open speech (both in this forum and across forums) as long as it does not violate anyone's privacy or cause any harm. I have been following some of the recent stories. From my humble perspective, #1 is a huge problem. It's just completely wrong to set expectations with a white slip and a time to come get the visa, and then change the rules. #2 ... about clearing customs, I don't think this is anything the U.S. government can control. This has to do with the chinese government, and any country is going to have a delay in import/exports at any port. Honestly I cringe to think about what sort of delays would come up if they were to try to implement transmission of electronic copies. Trust me, I've been in technology long enough. If this were to come about, I could see a lot more delays. Think about how many times you've called customer service for your cable or your cell phone bill and they've said "we can't do anything, our computers are down" ... #3 and #4 are good points. P.J.

King, Thank you for your very informative post. I know exactly which one you are talking about. You know, there's not a really clear entrance / checkpoint to the US consulate. It's sorta this "fuzzy" area. My wife (fiancee at the time) and I went toward the consulate and we were stopped by one of those "consultant reps" and I thought they were like a consulate guard or US consulate employee or something. Wish the consulate had a more clear entrance/checkpoint. Did anyone else who has been there get that feeling ... you didn't know where the road ended and the outside business ended and the consulate started? P.J.

Hi All, I am going to be flying to China soon on business, and I'll be bringing my wife with me. Fortunately we recently received her Advance Parole documetns. A few questions about AP. My wife got her AP documents ... they sent 2 forms. It's actually the same form in duplicate, both with her photo. However, there's no instructions with it. 1) Anyone know how long she can travel out of the country for? 2) Can we fly into HK and cross over to the mainland? Unfortunately she does not have a hong kong visa and she holds a PRC passport. Thanks, P.J.

If it's your employer's insurance, then make sure you add her immediately after you get married or as soon as possible. The "qualifiying events" Long Strider described usually have a very limited window within the date of the qualifying event (I think it was a month on my company's plan) outside their usual enrollment periods to make a change to your policy.

Alex, I am so sad to hear about your case. Whenever I think about it, I feel angry, it is incredibly unjust. To me it seems really unfair to not disclose the source and nature of this 3rd party correspondence. It seems like you definitely should have a right to know, and a right to challenge whatever accusation was made. I read that there is some country out there that has the following right for someone accused of doing something wrong ... it goes as follows ... "to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him" I wish I could remember which country and where it came from. Oh yeah, now I remember. It's part of the U.S. Constitution. Sometimes in all the hurry to chase down suspicions, I wish GZ would remember things like this. Our prayers are with you and SO. P.J.

Dan, Did you ever get your case resolved? I haven't been around Candle much lately, but I was really upset to hear that they were giving you problems with your case (especially in light of the fact that obviously there's no communication barrier, you speak Chinese fluently right)? If your fiancee ever needs to talk to anyone, or if there is anything we can do to help, my wife speaks fluent Taishan (I'm assuming you mean Taishan in Guangdong?) P.J.

I'll be darned ... I missed the 2001 superbowl (I think the year the Patriots won). because I was in China. That's pretty cool.

Hehe, good ol' Blenz. That's where I waited while Candy was doing her interview. Their internet connection was SOOO slow, it drove me nuts. I met an interesting fellow, probably in his 20s, was basically backpacking through China without speaking any Chinese and only a few tour book guides. I guess he had done that through other countries as well ... that sounded like quite an adventure. P.J.

Hi All, Well, I started a new job, and I'll be traveling to Shenzhen on business. It's great ... I ended up getting an awesome offer, plus I'll get to travel to China. Sure wish I would have had this position when my wife was waiting for her K1 interview, but oh well. So we're trying to get AP for my wife. That seems to be taking a little, but our turn's coming up soon. Quick question ... I know that citizens of PRC like my wife need to get a visa from their place of birth (Taishan in my wife's case) to go to Hong Kong. But when she and I travel to Shenzhen for my job ... can we fly into Hong Kong? How does that work? Obviously, she's not going to be able to go to Taishan to get a Hong Kong visa first if we're flying from the US into HK. Does anyone know? Thanks, P.J.

Hi All, I've received numerous emails over the past few weeks about people having problems logging onto Candle intermittently. I made some fixes to some internal application settings. If you had problems in the past (Alex I know you contacted me, and others as well), please document if you have any problems going forward. Thanks, P.J.

Alex, It sounds like you're covered on Item #1 - the hukou. This is just an inconvenience, should be easy enough to get from the government office. That is, quite ridiculous. I am trying to figure out what they are trying to prove with this. Are you certain they didn't mean a picture of YOU and YOUR Significant Other together holding a current newspaper, and then bring in the newspaper. I have heard of that on rare occasion, when they don't believe the date on the photos you submitted as evidence of relationship(since of course you can set it to whatever you like). They usually make that request when they don't believe you've met within the past 2 years per requirement of the fiancee visa application. But what would a photo of your SO and her ex-husband in China holding a newspaper prove? That he can afford to buy a newspaper? Also, what if they weren't on wonderful terms? That seems like an insane request ... are you certain this is what they are asking for?! I know that you no longer have to get permission to get married from your employer in China anymore (please see this article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-paci...ic/3153582.stm) I would assume that the same is true, you wouldn't need an employer's permission to get divorced. By the way, are you K1 or K3? I'm really sorry to hear about those unexpected obstacles, but I'm sure you will get it resolved, please let us know if we can help. P.J.

LOL on my way out to my wife's interview I had a long layover at LAX as well and I met Hulk Hogan in the airport there and got an autograph. I have tried to explain the WWF/WWE concept to my wife, but it's a bit bizarre and hard to describe.

PS Please don't worry about me ... it actually worked out WONDERFULLY. I got laid off at the beginning of September, wife had her interview October. They were kind enough to give me a great severance package, came back and got a wonderful new job that I really enjoy.

I bought non-refundable tickets when I went to Candy's interview. Originally I had planned on being there for only a week since that is all my job would allow. However, thanks to a little layoff I ended up having a lot of time on my hands and changed my outbound flight so I could spend more time (3 weeks+) with her before the interview getting ready. It cost me $100 to change non-refundable tickets on Delta, going Tampa->LA->GZ I heard the fees for changing the return flight were similar. P.J.

1. The EAD probably won't come for a long time. 2. I believe the banks (at least mine) needs a State ID card, and one that matches the name on the Social Security card (I put her married name on this one). I'd really rather not go to the Chinese consulate and get her passport reissued, I've never heard of anyone doing this and it sounds risky. P.J.

Hi All, Need some help. My wife came here on a K1, we got married shortly thereafter. Filed the AOS according to Eric's AOS checklist (thanks, Eric!) Applied for and received a Social Security card in her married name. We went to get an ID card from the Florida DMV (you know, the ones that look like a Driver's License but are not for operating a vehicle). However, the people at the DMV would only issue a ID in her maiden name, even though we took her passport, the social security card (in married name), and marriage certificate. They said we need to get a new I-94 in her married name. How are we supposed to get that?! I thought you only get an I-94 upon entering the US! I really need to get her an ID in the married name so it matches her Social Security card .. anyone been through this before? Thanks, P.J.