bamaguy_77

@Jiangsexpat: My priorities are in order, I haven't went out and started having kids..k? I have told her about the fact that things are tight...I didn't figure you needed a transcript of my discussions with her. I'm not sitting on my ass expecting a handout, I'm trying to avoid it. She sees tons of people doing it, she's a citizen and wonders why we need to hold off on kids when the lady in front of us has two carts full of food and whips out that ebt card as we look at our cart and wonder do we need all of this. I didn't plan to get laid off, so don't go the "get your prioities in order"route with me. I wanted to know if my "we can't take aid honey, we will have to pay it back route" was valid. Her Chinese friend had a kid, paid nothing, and has been telling my wife we could do the same. I have two part time jobs, no insurance, and have started taking some classes in spare time. I suffer from Crohn's and since my layoff have lost insurance. I did not try to get medicaid, or disability. The COBRA payments were near $1000, so that was a no go. I am making due with what i have. I stopped all meds and am sucking it up. While I work on "getting my priorities in order" work on getting your head out of your rear,watching your mouth, and being less of a douche. @Everyone else: Thanks for the helpful replies and sorry for my rant.

Well here it is...my wife keeps wanting to have a kid, and despite not having enougjh money, my being laid off, and her not having a job, she thinks it would be the perfect time to pop out one... She says we can just get government aid...welfare...wic...etc. I don't agree with that whole thought process, plus I seem to recall something during the 8 years from beginning paperwork until citizenship on some form that says we agree not to apply for such aid for "x" amount of years. I told her this, now she is asking what form and how long before she can jump on the welfare train... This is so stupid... Does anyone know if there is a restriction on this kind of aid?

My wife is getting ready to go visit her family and of course I need to send gifts with her. She wants me to pick it out, but complains (and complains is a nice word) about anything. She doesn't want money to give them, and with me loosing my job in January and having to pay insurance out of pocket, I really don't have much to spare. Everything I find is either made in China or they can find cheaper there. Last time she had me buy a few hundred dollars worth of chocolate, personally I found spending that kind of money on something that will be pooped out later kind of silly. I thought about a nice pair of watches, I really don't know. Does anyone have good gift ideas for Chinese inlaws?

sorry for having to be a pest. My wife got her invitation letter. Her father did not put her passport number or birthdate on it. I found some sample letters that had this on it. Do we need another letter? She is going for a 120 day visa and now screaming at me and calling me stupid for not having this info on the letter her father sent. She wants it mailed tomorrow because if we mail it friday they might be in a bad mood and deny her visa:.. I told her they aren't going to deny it whether it comes to them on a monday or tuesday

I am not the one making it complicated. When it is listed like that on the required item list of the visa agency, I guess I just figure it's correct. I do not have an agency picked out yet. I can't remember what I used before. I don't do this stuff for a living, I haven't been to China in 6 years, last time she went she wasn't a citizen like she is now. I took what that list said as being true. I had no knowledge of all other options available. I think it was mychinavisa.com, it said to get a postmarked letter of invitation with copy of id and a photocopy of round trip plane ticket. Sorry I'm so ignorant.

when i went before, the max tourist visa was 90 days. She wants to stay 4 months...what is the best way to go about that since the visa requires a round trip tcket and is 90 days?

I kind of figured they understood Chinese there, sorry if I came across as being that stupid. All of the sample letters i saw were in English, I just wanted to be sure that wasn't because they needed one that way.

really? I did not know email would work. The visa agency said it had to be postmaked and include proof of residence. I am so dang confused. What exactly will i need from them and does anyone have a good sample letter? Also does the letter need to be english or chinese? They only speak chinese, did not know if it would need certified translation.

i did not remember having to do this the last time i went to china years ago. She wanted to visit soon, purchase a ticket and all. Do we now have to wait for her parents to write a letter and send copies of their id's and crap? It takes forever to get anything from china now. Could we maybe just write a letter ourselves? Seems stupid to have things messed up like this now. She will be staying with them.

So I'm looking up requirements for chinese visitor visa for my wife, apparently you now need an invitation letter? Wtf? Does this mean we have to get her parents to mail her a letter before she goes, and what visa agency do you reccomend?

Yes she is a citizen, and she did not plan to enter China with a Chinese passport. I was just curious if she ever wanted to move back to China, would she have had to immigrate back to China or what. She isn't planning to, just one of those things that pop in my head and I wonder, "how WOULD that work?". Thanks dnoblett, glad to hear they won't loose it. Hate to have to go back and have them pull a gun on her in Atlanta again. Yep, pull a gun on a little 100lb woman. She had been in that morning, we had been given the customary search and they had been through her purse. She had taken her interview and passed, and was scheduled to come back the same day for a swearing in. She came back, was going through the customary search when one of the guards noticed a small can of pepper spray in her purse and unholsters his gun. Mind you, that same can was in her purse the first time. He starts yelling and threatening to call the police on her as the two other guards looked on. He then yells at her to go back to her vehicle and leave it there. She forgot it was in there, and I honestly had forgotten myself as I got it for her years ago when she asked for it.

My wife is going to apply for her U.S. passport and aside from being terrified of the geniuses in the paperwork process loosing her original naturalization certificate, I had another thought pop in my head. To apply for her visa to visit China, she has to turn her old passport in to the Chinese embassy if I understand correctly, something to do with renouncing her Chinese citizenship. What would happen if she should for some reason ever decide to leave the U.S. and move back to China permanently? As far as I know, this would never happen, but I just wonder about these things.

The night before the test, my wife was studying. She'd kind of messed around studying, but had crammed it all in here and there over the last month. I happened to be looking up stuff do with the time between the interview and the time you get sworn in. I didn't know if it was going to require another trip to Atlanta or not. I ran across a bunch of information relating to name changes and the fact that it would require being sworn in at a much later date. She wanted the space taken out of her first name, and so had applied for a name change. I was NOT looking forward to missing more work, driving in that traffic, etc. We went to her test the following day. She passed it (just like I told her she would) and came back to tell me that the lady (after she looked at my wife's birth certificate and asked if she wanted the name to match the birth certificat) had just scratched through her name and wrote it in like she wanted it on the first part where it asks for FIRST NAME at the top of the form and then scratched through the part in the name change box. The lady asked how far we drove and my wife told her 5 to 6 hours one way. She got handed her paper to go come back at 1:30pm the same day (July 10th) to get sworn in. My wife said they had her write one sentence and asked her about 5 questions. It only took 8 years. The thing that kind of irritates me is we spent over $1000 for her greencard ( the application fee and biometrics fees), then paid around $700-800 (forgot exactly) for the citizen ship test. They took her greencard back and didn't even give us a coupon for a burger at McDonalds. They should give credit or a gift card in return, at least a small one. For some reason, the more I think about that part it irritates me, lol. I wasn't sure how many people knew/know, but apparently changing your name on that form can add 10 months or so in some cases between the test and ceremony. I hear it is best to leave the name change alone, then later apply for a name change like one would usually do (not sure of that process).

So I get to make the 4 hour drive to Atlanta for my wife's test on the 10th. I swear I wish they had closer "local" offices. I hate travelling to big cities, she always wants me to find interesting places to go, and I usually can't come up with anything. I had a question or two about the interview/test: She got the study packet thing, and has totally memorized it front to back. Is everything she needs to know in that? I've seen some of the study guides available for purchase, and they're huge. The swearing in ceremony, will that be held in Atlanta too, and will it be on the same day?

And finally she insists I am wrong and I may be about the below topic: When it says How many times have you been married? That should = 1 ? When it says how many times has your spouse been married, that also should = 1? Assuming this is the only marriage both of us have been in, and it is. We should write one time for both of us being married right? Just asking, as I am wrong sometimes and nothing sucks more than a returned form from USCIS...well maybe a denial sucks more, but returned form is way up the "this sucks" scale. Plus if I am right I can print it out and frame it.