owenkrout

Being a Manufacturing Engineer, I agree with you entirely. However, I actually saw a government web site that stated that this was the process that they followed. No wonder they are so far behind.

I agree entirely. If your not familiar with GZ, just stay on the island. There are several good hotels on the island. I would definately say use the hospital there on the island. Clean and efficient. If you can't go a day or two early, then try to get the physical done before she goes to GZ. Just in case anything causes a delay.

I didn't post in the other thread, but GZ does do all the other visa types besides K CR and IR. Many of those that you saw rejected and that took it so well were probably applications for student, business or tourist visas. There was someone at the exit asking everyone what kind of visa they applied for and if it was granted or not when my wife was interviewed. There was only one K visa denied in that group. The rest were mostly student and a few business.

I would recommend getting married in China. One of the biggest factors is that it would allow your bride's relatives to attend the wedding which is an even bigger factor in China than it is in America. Believe me, regardless of what she tells you, it would really mean alot to your bride. Besides, it was a great experience! Personally, I am glad that I spent the two years in China. I understand my wife much better now that I understand her culture better. Yes it is hard finding a job in the US again, but overall it is worth it. A point that I see many Americans missing in this process is that they don't understand just how different the Chinese culture really is. You can read all you want about it, but you don't really learn until you live in it for an extended period. Just my opinion.

Personally, my impression at this point is that I don't care for OF and I have found him to be offensive. That being said, I still would not say that he has gone to the point yet where I would be in favor of censoring him. Being one of the moderators, I could have done so if I felt that he deserved it. I do want to take the opportunity to state that one of the strong points of this forum is that we can exchange views and still remain civilized about it. That is we have set a higher standard for ourselves. We can disagree without being offensive or crude. Having to resort to crude language or to insults is only an indication of one's inability to communicate effectively in a civilized manner. If one can't manage it, then this is not the forum for them. Let us show respect for each other. If you can't do that then please leave the forum and find one of the other venues which fits your style. They abound on the internet.

The wording of this indicates that he called on his guanxi network and that he probably did spread some money about in the right places. That is how things really get done in China. Also repaying him directly would be an insult. Just do him a big favor some day in return and more importantly, treat his daughter well.

Way to go, Tom! I know exactly what you mean about the "I'm in charge" attitude going a long way in dealing with people in this process. I can also envoke that attitude and it was what finally cut through the crap and got the interview with Richard Adams. I have also seen it work with Chinese officials and at the Shenyang consulate. Sometimes you just have to refuse to accept "no" for an answer.

Whoa! I didn't mean to start a fight! Seriously though, OF is entitled to his opinions, but I think of Yan as my daughter and I found it somewhat offensive. She is more than property and I am not looking to just marry her off to someone who will take her off my hands. She has told me that she is not considering marriage until she is in her late 20's. She is the one who wanted to take the cooking school training and I intervened over her mother's objections and told her I would pay for it if she would work hard at it. Her mother's objection was basically that it was a man's job and that women didn't become cooks. Yan had a problem at first with the huge woks but I encouraged her to tough it out and she called the other day to talk to me and was proud that she can now handle the woks without problem. Thanks for all the positive inputs that I did get. I am sure that she could get a job easily once she is here. The problem is getting her here. I have found Chinese eateries that have sponsored people on work visas but they stick to their own relatives. Understandable as ever Chinese immigrant has a passle of relatives back home that are eager to come to America also. I know from experience, my wife has several who are eager to come herself. I'll see if I can find out anything about Las Vegas and Reno. I would worry about her in that environment and away from home, but at least she would not have to wait 5+ years to come to the US. I have contacts in higher ed and can get her admitted to an intensive English program with no problem. They even agreed to do the testing for skill level after she arrives. The problem is that they said since her mother is a permanent resident and since she has already been denied a tourist visa, it is almost certain that the consulate would deny a student visa as well.

A long shot, but what the heck? My step-daughter (22 years old) just finished her training as a cook in Shenyang. Government certificates and all. My wife is now after me to find a Chinese restaraunt that needs a genuine Chinese cook and is willing to sponsor a work visa. More authentic than the Mexican staff that they usually have!

For anyone who may have tried to send an e-mail to me and did not get a reply, I was not ignoring you. The recent trend of using real sounding names on the return addresses of spam has forced me to get pretty heavy handed on the filters and on the delete button. Mail forwarded from Candle tends to end up in the Junk mail folder. Best way is to use the PM feature. BTW since it was mentioned in another thread and since so many people are new to the board since then, the titles on my signature were bestowed by Mick back in the days that I was directly battling with both the Shenyang and Guangzhou Consulates. Humor was a big way of overcoming the stress that many of us were going through. I remember someone dubbing Eric as the King of Candle back then also.

Currently I am scheduled to make the trip back on August 29th. My mother has had some heart problems in the last few weeks and as a result, I got a lot more serious about looking for a job here. The truth is that it has benefited my parents a lot to have us living with them. I have been working my butt off taking care of things around the house that have not been getting done in the last couple of years. My two brothers have commented on it even. They come down most weekends and try to work on things then, but it is hard to keep up with it that way. I had already figured that two more years in China and then I would have to come back home anyway due to their advancing ages. I have made the first cuts on a job with the Kansas Board of Education and with a plant just across the Nebraska border that manufactures the high quality animal foods and packages them under other companies brand names. Also have an application in with Vatterott College in Kansas City for a General Education instructor. Next year I could get into the program for alternative certification in Kansas, but I would have to teach for two years in the Kansas City districts. Not great places to teach. Having taught in higher ed up to now, I didn't have to be certified, just qualified. I may ask for another month before returning to see how my mother is getting along. Since the first three weeks at our school are taken up by military training and you don't actually teach anyway and since I am the oldest son, I think that they will go along with me on it.

One thing that you should have already done since you are married is to register her as your wife with the US Consulate that covers her official residence. If you haven't, then you need to do that immediately. Simply moving away from the trouble-maker will take care of the immediate problem since the different government units are not very good at communicating with each other. Something that the central government is trying to take steps to correct. If the government still harrasses her then you still need to China and go to the appropriate Consulate. Once there, you can go inside by just showing your passport. Once inside, explain the situation and talk them into at least intervening with the Chinese government. They can even issue a special pass that says she is summoned for an interview. (Shenyang issued one once for my wife so they could discuss some of the paperwork problems directly with her) By Chinese law, as the wife of a US citizen she is supposed to have the same rights and priviliges that her husband has while in China. Unfortunately, sometimes even actual American citizens of Chinese descent are not granted the same privilages as "Western looking" Americans. If you get any apathy or resistance from the Consulate, go to your Senator's local office personally and complain loudly about the government not taking the necessary action to save the life of your child, who would be an American citizen.

You have to be one of the old-timers to remember that! Reminds me of just how tame life in rural Kansas is compared to my two years in Dalian and Shenyang. Still think it was a good idea.

When shipping with a freight company they don't care about the weight. They go by the cubic meter. When using the post or someone like UPS they go by size and weight. The freight companies seem to run just over $300 per cubic meter. I would be really interested in knowing who she used if she got a $75 rate!

Ours was a very similar case and my wife's interview went very smoothly. Her English was at a low level and she tended to "lock-up" when pressed to use it with a native speaker. My Chinese is indeed pitiful. I manage to get the gist of the conversation if they are speaking standard Putonghua and if they don't go to quickly, but when I try to speak I get gales of laughter or blank stares. English and Chinese are both very difficult languages to learn. Chinese is very difficult to learn to read and write, but simpler in grammer. English is easier to read and write due to the alphabetic characters, but the grammer is more complex and the vocabulary is the largest of any language.

The Shenyang Consulate told me that you had to have an actual street address listed even if it were tacked onto a mailbox address. According to them it was required for the security checks. Failure to do so would delay the processing. That was over three years ago though...

JonInDenver may have set the record. They were married in the airport immediately after she cleared immigration and customs!

Until they are married he will not be losing any face. He will be doing his job admirably by preventing dilution of the race. Feelings run very strong in China against unmarried women who consort with foreigners. Even my wife gets insults directed at her occassionally about being with a foreign devil. Mick, I imagine you can confirm that it happened with your wife also.

My original advice becomes even more important at this point. Go back to China and register a legal marriage to her. Once that is done, she is not subject to the one child policy. The one child policy doesn't apply across the board. The areas that are strictest on it are the larger cities. Peasants are allowed to have a second child if the first is not a son. Some areas simply don't enforce the rule very closely. People often employ ploys to get around the rules. Officials are paid off, or children are not registered. Sometimes children are simply not registered with the government. Sometimes children are registered under the name of another family member who has no children. Sometimes families move and register multiple children each under different provinces or cities. Ethnic minorities are not bound by the one child policy. Foreigners are not bound by it. Not just speculating here, I know of more than one family that has used one of these ploys to get around the rule. One person that I know of has five girls and still intends to try to have a boy. Two of the girls managed to get a college education. Also officially not possible. Another immediate ploy to keep her and the child safe from the government unit that wants to enforce the policy is to have her move in with other relatives in a different city or preferably a different province and in a city that is more lax in enforcement of the National Governments decrees. Government is actually not as centralized in China as it is in the US. Cities and even provinces don't cooperate with each other very well at all. The best solution is to as immediately as possible get yourself back and register a marriage.

Actually, the card everyone is saying that they got is the International Health Organization card. I got one in the US from my doctor to show what vaccinations I had before leaving for China. The Shaiman Clinic does issue this along with the other papers. The form that some people are getting duped into paying extra for is a certification that you are free of SARS. Not necessary for the US. Even the IHO form is optional, but it might save her having to get a second, unnecessary round of vaccination shots.

Several terms used for husband and wife. My wife prefers JungFu for husband and CheZa (sp?) for wife.

Another thing "Chinese" that my wife had never seen before.

It was passing on a blind curve, on a hill, at night, with no lights, on a narrow secondary road, while driving at break-neck speed that was really thrilling.

The white slip was the old procedure back when no visas were being issued. The waits varied, but typically were about 5-6 months. Some people waited even longer. The new procedure is that visas are normally issued the afternoon of the interview or the next morning. Don't make any serious commitments, like non-refundable tickets, that cannot be changed easily though based on that. Sometimes GZ will require some further information and that can cause delays. There have even been delays of several days due to things like the printer breaking down. You just don't know for sure until the day of the interview.

My wife also had never heard of it.