pkfops

I doubt it. I did my naturalization about 10 years ago and I didn't have to step any flag. 191485[/snapback] That's what he said. Also he said he was an officer in the PH army. He could be very well full of crap.

Frank's a cool dude.

I once had a manager from the Philippines. He said he had to step on the Filipino flag and swear an oath of allegiance to the US.

You will find this to be very important down the road when you talk about money matters. A simple "we need to watch our spending this pay cycle" can have many meanings; especially if your SO is not working yet. A whole new topic.

You can find all kinds of that stuff in some of the older antique stores. Chairman Mao tableware and such. As for propaganda; you can always tune in to Lou Dobbs for his daily China bashing.

You may want to meet her half way as the two of you are in it for the long journey. Try this: http://www.multilingualbooks.com/talknow-cantonese.html http://www.multilingualbooks.com/talknow-mandarin.html

Just to add: I got a RFE for our AOS and they gave us 87 days to respond.

We hung around the Chinatown Fair and went home at 16:00 to watch the parade on KTSF.

We will be in Chinatown Saturday afternoon (till 17:00) for the "open market" activities. After that we will go home and watch the parade on KTSF. I will be wearing a green "Life is Good" cap, black REI vest, tan REI GTX shirt and green Columbia pants with a nice looking Cantonese girl by my side. Just like my photo. (tourist garb) My wife is flexible if you have a plan. May be a good idea to take BART as parking sucks. Might see you there. pkf

I use a Longman. All of the instructions were in Chinese and when I powered it up it was in Chinese too. And, since the keys were labled in Chinese it took me about 90 minutes to get it to boot up in English and figure out the major function keys. Same thing with the PC interface when I loaded it to my computer. But I found the English language button rather quickly. Other than that it works great.

For a first time visitor a simple pocket phrase book can get you by with your SO to be. You can upgrade to something electronic, saving $$$$, while there.

I heard the average time from arrest to execution in China for a drug dealer is 11 days. Seems more efficient then the US system. As for the bruises, your life is over once you get caught so it really doesn't matter.

Very well. I just drop her off at the BART station and she is in the big city in about 45 minutes.

Almost the same thing here too. A welfare recipient has more status. Just waiting for the EAD or GC; what ever comes first.

dstarsboy, I (we) can hardly wait for you to make your first visit to China. Hopefully, it's Nanning or someplace similar. Just know that if you don't go with a very open mind, you will be lost and quickly swallowed up by the seeming chaos. Or, you will learn to embrace and, maybe, love the disorder of your new love's country. Most of us miss it, when we return to our quite, orderly and serene lives. 187398[/snapback] I can't wait as well, I have plans to go in September so I'm browsing these forums quite a bit to ease some culture shock. I was mainly asking because of course, I don't want to be taken advantage of (aka. hail a cab 4 times only to have someone different push me out of the way 4 times to get into it). Especially in front of my lady. Haha. 187455[/snapback] Don't worry; your lady will be running the show.

You shouldn't have a problem ordering a credit card in her name. I keep my wife's in my wallet.

I think we waited almost a month before we went back for a second visit to get the number. I'm at work and the papers are home. For the bank; you should put her name on your bills/utilities after you get the number. That is what a I had to do with my bank to get her on my accounts. Good Luck

You can go to your local office and they can give you a printout of the number. You will need your wife, first recipt from SSA, and her passport along with any other form of ID. SSA will not do anything for you over the phone. We are going through the same thing. We have the number but not the card. Were were told "INS hasn't released the card yet". Now that we have passed 90 days since POE, we have to wait on AOS/EAD. I assume it is related to work authorization/green card approval.

OK. I just downloaded on my home machine,v.7. I'll have my wife check it out when she gets home as everything on her side of the machine is in Chinese.

I just did a quick test and it looks OK. I downloaded the Chinese Simplified.

Stop by SF Chinatown on your way. You can buy off the rack for very cheap and have it fitted in China. It would be better if you take her to the silk market in GZ and have her choose the design and get it fitted. They can do it in a day and for a cheap price if "you wait outside".

I kinda thought along this line as the September wave is now going through AOS. Maybe the RFE is just a way to have some quick contact/verification. We'll see how things work out.

When we toured BJ we hired a cab for the day for about $40. Trust your SO and have fun.

Give them a call as it may be a simple case of them misplacing the requested doc. We went through the same thing. One thing I got when I called was "send copies and keep originals for the interview".

Just thought I'd share the ESL my wife is now taking at SF City College. It is geared towards business and it is free. Don't think you would find this in a "red" state. Check it out: http://www.ccsf.edu/Campuses/Chinatown_Nor...Information.htm