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Note one more requirement to apply for citizenship: Abandonment of Chinese Citizenship. This means, your SO can not go back to China without a visa, ever again. They can not open a business in China ever again, without a visa. It also means that you can never apply for a Chinese Green Card, and they only can, so long as their parents are still alive.

I was told, in many small cities, that any BOC will do it. This is only because most small cities only have ONE BOC. In Qingday, Yantai, Jinan, and other similarly sized cities (eg: FoShan, etc.) Only the MAIN BRANCH OF BOC can do this. It is simple. You just need to find the right one. Any taxi driver can take you, for a price, or your SO can just ask.

I would agree. Either: 1. have the chinese spouse wait to enter the US until the USA spouse is ready to really come and be married, 2. have the spouse return quickly, to formally get married 3. try to immigrate to England?!?!

My Post was removed????? Hey! Not fair! What I posted again was: My wife loves Jerry! <take the political commentary elsewhere> Before watching Jerry, <take the political commentary elsewhere>

The CC is only good in an emergency. It will never get you the 3-star hotel room for 50-100rmb a night, which you can do with cash, and still live a good life. It is cash which allows you to haggle over old silver that someone needs to sell, and will make an amazing gift for a friend back at home, or elsewhere in China. Remember, China is a country of much extremes, there is everything from extreme poverty (100RMB a day is a rich person who can do almost anything in parts of Yunnan or Guizhou) to extreme wealth (100RMB a day can barely buy you a rotten cot to sleep on in Shanghai). It is a culture where business men and women regularly transport around large sums of cash (an old business person I know regularly carries 30-40 Wan RMB a day back and forth between branches of his business), and where almost all deals are in Cash (if you want to buy that house/farm/business/jewelery/etc. you will get a better price, and have a higher chance of securing your item if you come with CASH IN HAND. Good Luck and happy travels!

For the Hope Tax Credit, you can apply if you make less than $55,000 a year. A pell grant, it depends on family size, and income, but it generally only applied for a family of 3 if less than 40,000 a year, and for a family of 2 less than about 30,000 a year. There may be other programs too. In MA, you can even deduct up to 15% of your hope or lifetime learning credit (even I can take this one, being a graduate student) off of your state taxes... However, the most you can get from these credits is about 2000 back, unless you live in the New Orleans Area this year. All in all, the pell grants are much more money (more than 4000 a year, in cash, not needed to be paid back). But, why not shoot for both???

If you pay in Cash, you get a better rate. It allows you to haggle, and to purchase from vendors who will not rip you off as much. This said, almost every city (except for a few small rural ones) I have been in (And I have been to more than 500 cities in China), has at least one Zhong Guo Yin Hong which will case a traveler's check, at face value. In fact, sometimes, you can get a better rate than for cash, since they know it is authentic and not forged.

We find EBAY not too good, except for peddling lower end products. sadly, the consumer trust (and high fees) seem to warn away people purchasing at the higher end of the spectrum. But it is good for building an initial clientel base!

Yes, if: 1. she has a Green Card 2. Your income is low enough 3. She is working on a degree for a BA at an accredited institution. my wife just got her pell grant check a few weeks ago.

Skype is good. Everyone I know uses it...however, I still only use it for computer to computer, until a local mainland china number opens up!

She can stay in china for as long as she wants, so long as she is a Chinese Citizen. If she is a Chinese Citizen, it will be EASY for you to stay there with her too. The only issue is that she will loose her Permenant Resident Status if she stays more than a year, without returning. However, since you are already married, and have been so for more than 2 years, and since she will still have her paperwork in order, you could always reapply for her to gain admission via a i-130 in the future. And if you applied in Europe this time, it would be much faster! The fact is, I know people who stay only 1 day a year and have no problem...but there are others who have large problems. I think, if your heart is there, do not worry about the legalese...you can always reapply if worse comes to worse, and if not, then no harm is done!

Quite good pics. It looks like 2-3 of mine are almost from the exact same spot! But those sunsets are really great! Whoever took these, I would like to meet and share some tricks and tips both ways with!

That's it! We are done. The CF-1 stamp was given this week, at the interview. We were told that our case file was so huge that we would not be called back for another interview after the 2 years (at least we hope that it still holds...he did type it into the computer). Thus, we are done with the USCIS, forever we hope! What was most interesting is that our interview was far from what we expected: 1. We were told to not keep giving more evidence (after seeing our file more than 5 inches thick, they believed us). 2. most of the questions were directed to me, not to my wife. 3. we spent more than 1/3 of the 15 minute interview talking about qingdao beer and the up-coming Olympics in the city in 2008 4. after changing into a dress-up skirt, the attendants in the building offered much "help" to my wife, although before, in her comfey pants, people ignored us both profusely. 5. the interviewer asked us about how we met, and then about what we ate the day before 6. we got a good interviewer, middle-aged male. it seems that the people with female interviewers, or younger ones, were having a rougher time. 7. we talked more informally than formally, and it made all 3 of us more at ease! 8. go in with everything organized...we wasted no time getting out papers when asked, and often, he saw another 5-6 important papers there, so that he did not need to ask much...this saved us more time to talk about qingdao beer and the up and coming Olympics! 9. bring pictures of the FAMILIES together. he wanted these for the file, and even just made copies of them, allowing us to keep the originals! For more information, feel free to ask. If you live in NJ/NYC, then I can give you more details in a private message! Now, back to having fun!!! :-)

There is one that we have used for Qingdao. They had a link on there for other cities. I can not remember if Changchuan was on there or not, but the page was in Chinese, and I do not know the characters for the city name (never needed to learn them). try: http://house.sohu.com/

The account can be kept active, and just like in the usa, just have it sent to a local bank (bank of china) and they can forward it. Or have a relative send it. Just so long as she remains Chinese, there are no problems! Otherwise, it is hard for her to go back (unless her parents are still alive, in which case she can get a Chinese Green Card), but will be nearly impossible for you to go back (unless you have a huge wad of cash to invest, or unless you can get hired to work as a professor at a University, etc.), at least on a permenant/semi-permenant basis. Plus, if she/he becomes a US Citizen, they may get drafted...Chinese citizens do not need to worry about that!

You need to be careful to make sure that they actually CORRECTLY UPDATE your records. It will likely delay your AOS timeline...but that should not matter, since you are currently at least together! Good Luck...

I would have to say that you have 2 issues at hand: first...do you want to stay married? if yes, then get your but on an airplane as fast as you can and talk to them, IN PERSON. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. second...if you want to live together, in the US, then get your but on an airplane (after finding a job in China), or just go, and try to live there with her for a while... Good Luck!

My wife, and others from her part of China would be appauled to even be asked to step foot in a Christain Church, given that the Germans and Later the French used Christainity as a means of entering into Shandong, Jiangsu, et. al. which they then used later (after the Boxer Movement) to start to repress the local population. This included direct attacks on former relatives of hers by such governments (until the Christain Generals under Hitler later tried to protect some of the people from the Brutality of the Japanese in Shandong, Jiangsu, and Shanghai, etc.). The resentment is still strong. However, social organizations seem to work well with the other students at my University who are also from the North or the North East of China. My wife is feeling more comfortable in these groups (who tend to be either Buddhist or non-religious, and tend to have very few if any Southern Chinese (eg: Guangdong/Guangxi people in them)). Possibly conicidence...or possibly that the British were better at infusing Christainity (ie: through forced consumption of opium) into the parts of China closer to their regions (in the South) as compared to the more hostile reception recieved in the north (although Shanghai seems to have combined these two methods). It is interesting to read the perspectives in this post.

Yikes!!! There is already a host of potentially misleading information here. I am talking from experience, since my wife's mom and dad got B2 visas. Here is what *WE* learned: 1. They have no other childern in China, and it is OK, they still got their visas. 2. DO NOT MENTION THAT A CHILD IS ON THE WAY AND THAT IS WHY THEY ARE COMING, everyone else that same day who interviewed and mentioned this was denied. Possible coincidence, but I doubt it. 3. One parent works and the other is retired. Having a job seemed to help immensely, especially when accompanied with a letter on company work-stationary for a large government run company. 4. Do not ask to extend the visa, unless you want their future visa requests deined...but you can always go to Mexico and come back. However, DO NOT STAY MORE THAN 180 days in total in the US in any given calendar year. 6. They went to the interview with a i-134 signed by my wife and I. 7. They brought tons of pictures of us together, as well as my family with my wife's parents when my family went to China. They were specifically questioned about who I was and who my father was. 8. We gave a DETAILED LIST of where we would be when. We even included how we plan to go from one place to another: eg: take the blah blah train at this time from this city to this city. --- Has anyone else had any experiences?

The case applies for people who have given up their Chinese Citizenship (hence taken a US Citizenship). Then, if they want to go back to China, their old passport is gone, and they can not verify their old citizenship easily, since they likely do not have any valid documents showing their legal name that are recognizable to the gov't officials. --- On a side note: my wife and I have asked many Chinese women on this, and 100% of those asked, from her city, respond that they would only get mad if a man asked them to change their last name. However, China is a country of huge diversity, and it could be that Southern Chinese (where statistically most of the GC hunters come from) could be more open to the idea, where as being from the North, we do not see that and instead only see the reverse).

I promise, I am not upset. I just see this as being interesting: My wife is Chinese and lives in the USA with me, since that is where we currently reside. Our point in getting married was the get married. So many people here talk about people cheating the system to get a GC only, and I think that the entire flag of a Chinese Woman talking about wanting to change their name is a potential red flag that this is going on. It is not something that does exist in their culture, except for back during the latter periods of the qing dynasty, a time when women were quite repressed during Chinese History... However, it is also possible that they are just wanting to do this due to being scared of being in a new culture, or because they want you to be happy. Either way, is this really what they want? Do they realize it may make it more difficult for them to go back to China in the future? All I am saying is that people should think really seriously about this legal name-change stuff... And it is a strong myth...among people of my age bracket (25-35 years old), it is close to 40% (last I saw) who are NOT changing their name when marrying...so the trend if anything is towards people in the US not changing their names. In the end, whatever makes people happy is the most important... Just remember, I have seen and personally know 4 Chinese people in the US who legally changed their names, and got US Citizenship and now, 20+ years in each case, want to go back to China (they are all in their 40's or 50's) to be with family, to reclaim culture, or for business purposes, and in each case, they are either emotionally regretting their changing of names or loosing of their Chinese Citizenship, or they are finding legal hurdles in their path. So, my perspective on this is a bit different...I am taking a longer-time frame view. Good Luck to all with their personal decisions. Again, I like the idea of what is good for another is good for me...if I were willing to Change my name, then I would be willing to consider the other. For me, and my laopo, we are happy as we currently are!

Yikes! I can not believe the ratio of people talking so far.... My wife is **CHINESE** And as such, I would not dare to even ASK her to change her name! The fact is, that it makes life easier for us as well. If she changes her name, when her passport expires, since it will have been changed legally, it will be hard for them to reissue a new copy, which makes retaining her Chinese Citizenship in the future quite difficult. You are opening up many cans of worms here... Plus, culturally, Chinese women do not Change their Names! So, I must beg to ask the question: Would you consider changing your last name when/if you move to China to be with your wife? If the answer is yes, then by all means, treat her the same way. But if the answer is no, then stop to think for a minute... You will certainly distance her from her family, and likely from herself and you, in the process. We honor her last name and are proud that any future children will carry it as a part of their names too!

Hi. We have recieved a data for an interview for the AOS. This is great news, given how far behind Boston is. However, there is a concern with it: It was posted to a past address of ours, and is in a different state. Although it was posted more than 2 months after the no-information-line recieved our change of address (2 times, since we always tell them twice to make sure that they have it right). We did tell an immigration officer we prefer to have forms sent to this address (since some family live there, it is safe for us as a back-up mailing address). It is also the address used on her Travel Document (which was recently used to re-enter the USA). Is this a legal problem for us? If we go far away to the interview on the date prescribed, can this seriously set us back? Or should we just go with the flow? I really would appreciate feedback from people who are knowledgeable about the law on this, or who have had the same exact situation occur to them, or something almost exactly the same. Thanks for your help!

Speaking as an academic in the field: 1. it is technically feasible to be able to generate small scale weather changes... However, something of this scale would require so much energy, that unless we simultaneously detonated the majority of the world's nuclear weapons (involving cooperation between the US and Russia at least, since neither country alone has enough to make it happen), we could not even come close to getting this to happen...at least on THIS scale. 2. Hence, it is not currently technologically feasible. 3. But note that China already changes high RH regions to produce some rain...so the idea is inherently not impossible...just today! But, it was certainly funny to read!

Well, don't I feel like a dumb ass now. Thanks Jason - yes indeed there is an EAD stamp on the back of the I-94. Since it was stapled to her passport, I never looked at the backside. 155452[/snapback] Woo Hoo! Now, your family is together, and she can even start to work!!! Enjoy the rest of the week or two! We do not want to see you back.