owenkrout

There are currently numerous scams going in China, many with the cooperation of government officials, telling people that they have to have the health card verifying that you are SARS free in order to enter the US. You do not need any such health certificate for the US. There are a few countries that require them, but the US never has and has no plans to require them. The doctor's papers from the physical that the consulate requires are included with the sealed envelope and are all that are necessary.

This is one of the problems that we had that I had about forgotten about. The ring sizing when your sweety is in China is a real headache. I even tried to enlist the help of her brother (who introduced us) since he is working in the US, but we still ended up with an oversized ring. Better than too small. BTW, a good jeweler can My wife is still from the more traditional Chinese culture of not expecting a ring so the rather large diamond was a real thrill to her. She still only wears it occassionally though as she is afraid of someone "mugging" her to steal it. Remember again that she grew up in an era when any display of having more or being of higher status was dangerous.

My wife entered on an IR-1, also through LAX on June 23rd. She received her SSN and her green card on the same day, exactly two weeks after she entered.

I wasn't going to take any chances on confusing the government any further than they already were, so my wife just kept the name on her IR-1 visa and goes by Rose. Legally she has to sign her name as is on her green card, but everyone calls her Rose.

Yeah, it is a ripoff, but it is just part of everyday life in most of the developing world, including China. We had similar bargaining sessions all along the way for papers that my wife and her daughter needed. If they know you need it for immigration to the US then they will jack up the price. In Liaoning, it was usually thinly disguised as "administrative fees" or some other such wording.

There should have been a seperate K-2. You might try pointing out that the daughter was listed on your wife's application.

Right now, you can only change RMB to dollars at the Bank of China. Not all branches can do so, only the main branches, but they can tell you where you will have to go to do it. It is a hassle and different branches seem to have different ideas of what paperwork is required. The Merchants Bank of China tells me that they will "soon" be able to do so also, but they have been saying that for two years. Wiring the dollars to the USA can be done, but is a hassle. Again, only main branches of the Bank of China can do it. There are branches of the Bank of China in New York and San Francisco. I don't know if having an account there makes it any easier to transfer the money. Using them to wire money to China does not help speed up the process. It has taken up to a month for them to credit the funds to the account in China when I used them three years ago to wire the money.

I've also heard of them requesting a picture of the two of you together with the newspaper to prove when you actually met in person.

Don't go along, Mick. Just have her added to your insurance as a licensed driver and let her go out to learn without you. I would say the gals are right, it is better not to learn from an immediate relative. Leads to too many hard feelings if you are as tough as you need to be to teach someone properly. Li's English is excellent, I am sure that she will do just fine.

My wife tells stories of the Chinese version of bigfoot that she claims to have actually seen growing up in Heilongjiang. According to her, covered with long hair. There you go, bigfoots crossing the Bering land bridge!

Current archeological evidence seems to support human presence in the Bering Land Bridge National Park area as early as 9,000 - 13,000 years ago. The pseudo-science claims of only 1800 years ago are, simply put, bunk. The fact of the Native Americans having ancient Asian roots prior to being isolated again and developing seperately is clear, but that was long before "China" existed. Much migration and mixing has occurred all over the world due to climate change, population growth, wars, etc. Modern genetic studies only show that there is actually only minor differences between the groups that we classify as "races" based mainly on inherited physical characteristics.

People should be judged by their behavior not their social standing, but that is often not the case.

The fillable web forms seem like a great idea, but we used that to prepare my step-daughters application and she told me that the interviewing officer (Shenyang consulate) chewed her out for not using the exact forms that they hand out and not filling them out manually. She insists that he said that she and I were stupid when she told him that I helped her to fill them out. (Darn but I was good at fooling the professors in my graduate studies, that 3.997 GPA must have been a fluke!) Having your fiancee/wife fill out a passle of stick-on labels is a great idea. Exactly what we did and it does speed up the mail considerably. The nephew who works in the post office told us that if it is addressed in English it may have to sit around waiting for someone who can interpret it to direct it to the right place. Also the addressing system can be confusing for the postman, even in Chinese.

Wiring money either to or from China can be a real pain. I have done it. Obtaining the numbers needed from the Chinese bank was a real ordeal. It probably would go much smoother from a Bank of China in Shanghai, Shenzhen, or Beijing, but my wife was living out in the sticks at that time. ("Little" city of only 100,000) There were fees assessed for receiving the money and for distributing it to her. Sending from Bank of China in Dalian to the States was equally trying. Fees and multiple paperwork needed to convert the RMB to dollars. Fees for the wire and great confusion over how to do it. Literally took several hours to get funds wired out.

Unless the rules recently changed, you do have up to a year for the daughter to utilize K-2 status. Your lucky, she is young enough to do so. Our two and a half year process resulted in my wife's daughter "aging out". (Over 21) Must be under 18 at the time the petition is filed and under 21 at the time the actual immigration occurs. Given the limited time frame, I would say that it is one of the few times that a lawyer might be worth the money. A mistake in the process could cost her the right to follow her mother. Will her natural father object to letting her emmigrate? I have heard of cases where the Chinese government refused permission to emmigrate based on objections of family members in China.

Very good point, Dave. Exactly to the point of what I hope people will share here. I had a lot to learn (and still do) about the customs and everyday routine of China when I was living there. Sometimes it was me that came across as the hillbilly. (Oh, yeah. I am a hillbilly!)

Yeah, very common in China. My take is that it is that they are primarily being worried about being thought of as a peasant. My wife is very disappointed that she could not find the whitening creams here in the States. I took her to the county fair yesterday and couldn't convince her that people would think it strange that she was walking around with an umbrella. Finally had to make her fold it up as some of the horses were frightened by it. Being from North-East China, my wife is surprised by the heat as much as by the cloudless sunny days. It has been over 100 F a few times and she announced that a person could die just from standing out in the sun.

Sorry if anyone disagrees, but it seems to me that this scenario is one where you need to make the trip back to China and get married legally. Seems that some have managed to do that lately, so the rules must have liberalized since three years ago. Then you check with the authorities and make sure that your name will go down as the father. Then item #3 applies and the child's American citizenship will not be in question. "(3) in the case of a biological child born out of wedlock who has been legitimated and currently resides with the natural parent. " It is entirely possible that the consulate will still want DNA proof at a later date. I would strongly discourage any invasive procedure to establish the DNA prior to birth. The K-1 is not the only way to pursue this. The K-3 or CR-1 will do the job too. She maintains "face" and the child's right to US citizenship is protected. BTW, my wife tells me that single mothers are becoming more and more common in China now. Still the local governments have a lot of sway and may be enforcing much more stingent rules than the national government.

Yes, I do have experience with this. The Shenyang consulate is generally much easier to deal with than is GZ, but they are notorious for issuing business visas relatively easily and being very difficult to get a tourist visa out of. The key point is convincing them that the person will be returning to China, not just overstaying the tourist visa once they make it into the US. They denied our daughters request and told her they would never issue her a tourist visa. US law actually requires them to assume that the person intends to stay in the US. It is up to the applicant to prove otherwise. Guilty until proven innocent.

An interesting side note is that the Merchants Bank in China has informed us that my Visa card that is through them can now be used in America and repaid in China in RMB. Previously I had to repay in the same currency that was charged to it.

Way back, there was a request for Mick or me to shed some light on a couple of things, but I have been too busy to keep up with the board this last week. China is a big place and there are variations in culture there, as would be expected for 1.3 billion people, but my wife has told me that the big belly is a sign of success and that the wife is taking proper care of her husband. She also tells me that having an older husband is better because they are more likely to be able to support the wife. Are there a lot of Chinese gals just looking for a way to get a visa to the US? Sure there are. 650 million gals, remember? Even a small percentage of that is a lot of people. Also something that my wife has discussed with me. She insists that Western men and Americans in particular, need to be very careful because they are the target of so many gals that are looking for that visa. What does that boil down to? Not much different than here state-side. You have to take the time to get to know that person before making a commitment. BTW. Yeah, Moses did get married in China. (A couple of my nieces have called me Moses for the last 20 years). That young gal by my side is actually almost my age. We were introduced through family and I have lived with her in China for the last two years. She is the ideal wife as far as I am concerned. Did we have a pre-nup? No. We took the time to get to know each other first and the trials that we have had to go through have just served to bring us closer.

U.S. military is now indicating that it may have been an accidental firing. The North only fired four rounds, three of which hit the South's guardpost and the South issued a verbal warning over the loudspeakers and then fired a 17 round burst back. The press made it sound worse than it was. Still a matter of concern for us since we will be living very close to the North Korean border and will fly through Seoul on the way back.

Need to get an answer from one of the people now in China, but I believe that the Chinese government has now stopped requiring the seperate exit card. The passport alone is now sufficient. You used to have to get special permission to leave the country each time. My wife had an old exit card from when she got her passport in 2000 but didn't need it for this trip.

Our experience in Kansas was the same as Eric's. Just walked in, filled out a brief information form, showed the wife's passport and they said that a number would be mailed out in about two weeks and welcome to America. Actually took 10 days.

Case number, name, etc. I filled out on my wife's medical paperwork. Everything went fine that way.