hello123

Hello, Sorry, I am not sure which forum this would go under. Please move if you like. My wife and I sponsored her parents to visit us last summer and Fall. They both received 10 year traveler's visas. The visit went well except we discovered that her Father had previously undiagnosed (Type II?) Diabetes. During our process in getting the initial diagnoses and initial treatment, we occurred some medical expenses. Before their visit, I had payed for medical insurance through "Insubuy". Unfortunately the clinic would not take the insurance card and billed us directly. So when I saw the bill I filed a claim and forgot about it. About a month ago I found an old bill and called the medical facility but they refused to give me any information as to whether or not the bill was paid because I was not her Father. So again I forgot about it. Well, long story short we got a call from a debt collector today indicating that her Father had unpaid bills. They said that it was against the law for them to give us anymore information and they would try to contact him again in the future. So now what do we do? If I can't talk to anyone about the unpaid bills and no one will accept a payment how can we get this off his record? Will this affect him if he visits us again? Could he be refused entry? Also, we have other relatives that have travel visa's that we sponsored. Would they be refused entry because a person we sponsored has unpaid debt? It's such an odd feeling for me to be so involved with paying their expenses and medical insurance and now be blocked out of everything. If I could I would simply pay off the remainder since it should be less than $400 anyway.

We use a ItalkBB account which gives us a VOIP option and a local number in China. This has helped my wife's parents and other relatives that do not use computers as much. They can simply use their regular phone and call a local number that will not charge them long distance fees. We just have the basic service and pay .02 cents a minute. Since we only use occasionally use the service we normally don't pay more than $10 a month. I think there are unlimited plans too. However, we mostly use WeChat.

Thanks dnoblett, Does that allow for live TV too? I think they are looking for things on CCTV 1, etc. I ran across something called maige TV today. It looks interesting. Not the cheapest option but if it works as advertised it would be quite the box! Have you ever heard of someone using that?

Hi, I think this thread is a little old now but I would like to know what your experience was with italkbb TV service. My in-laws are in town and I signed up for channels via satellite but it seems the channels they offer are not good. Does anyone have any new suggestions or experience? Thanks!

Hello, I am also searching for health and travel insurance option for my sister-in law. I checked out the links posted earlier. Did anyone actually use these websites? Are there any that you had a good or bad experience with? My sister-in law is in good health and in her mid 30's. I don't think she will visit for more than 2 months. In my searches, the price wasn't too bad. I am just wondering if anyone here has actually purchased travel insurance and had to use it? Was it a good experience or bad? Thanks,

Well just a quick update. My sister-in law was approved for a tourist Visa today! She was only asked 3 questions: 1. Where are you going to visit? 2. Why do you want want to go to the USA? 3.Where do you work? "Congratulations, you are approved"... Unlike most who have posted here, we did NOT give any financial support promise but we did promise to help, for speed and convenience, with health/travel insurance. My own sister also added an invitation letter which may or may not have helped. I am not certain of the exact Visa she will receive as it has not come in the mail yet but "I think" it is normally a 1 year multi-entry? Anyway, just wanted to update and Thank everyone who helped with advise!

Hi Dnoblett, I was looking at the I-134 today. With your suggestion regarding us using some support, are you suggesting that we leave some of the income areas blank and simply enter a house address? Or, are you suggesting we fill it out normally and in our invitation letter we mention that we believe she would qualify on her own accord? Thanks!

Hi Warpedboared, Whooops, you are right! I used the word "sponsor" incorrectly. I was basically trying to find out "roughly" if she has any obvious red flags or if anyone "roughly" knows how much money/assets a Chinese national would need proof of to satisfy the VO. Thanks!

Hello, So we have decided to try for a visitor's visa for my Wife's sister. Mostly, we are going along the same path as outlined in all these previous posts. However, we are not planning to be her sponsor in financial terms. We are going to try to have her visit based on her income and assets. I don't know what the $ amounts are that the U.S. Government would be looking for but I hope that it will be enough. Her sister has had multiple small businesses over the past few years and currently runs a flower Wholesale business. Also, she has a few pieces of property including a new apartment that she just purchased. As for additional ties, she has a boy (11years) and a Girl (8 years) and several other sisters, a brother and parents. Of course we will send an invitation letter. I was looking for another example where the US couple did not sponsor the Chinese relative financially but I could not find one. Is it that hard? Thanks for any feedback!

Wow! No cameras here in MN. A few years ago these cameras were installed and the government was sued. After a lot of legal business, it was determined that the cameras were not legal under the Minnesota Constitution! So currently, no cameras and I don't think there will be any in the near future. That's how it's done in the great state of Minnesota at least! We need to deal with the tough winters but not some stupid cameras at least.

Wow, we made it! Thanks to everyone for the help! The plane ride there and back was not too bad. We took the recommendations and loaded up entertainment on to smartphones, laptop and we even purchased an Ipad to help give our little guy something to do during the long trip. We got first class going there but not back but that is ok. For some reason Beijing was very uptight about letting toddlers on to first class. We had to fly Delta Air from MSP via Tokyo NRT to Beijing and back again. As far as milk, we went to the local Carrefour and purchased some whole milk from France and Germany. For some reason, I could not find anything from New Zealand or Australia? Also, we purchased a couple of expensive cans of fromula that was the equivilant of Similac in the U.S. Even though the formula cans were shown to be brands from other countries, it seems that some of the production (or packaging) of formula is still done in China. Perhaps that is a requirment of the Goverment. I am not sure. Between table food, formula and whole milk I think we did ok. Once we were setup with formula, milk, etc. it worked out pretty well. Too bad it was July in the hot and humid weather! Oh well, it was amazing to be treated like royalty with all the relatives for about 1 month! Now back to reality :-( Wife starts to teach in about 2 weeks and we send our 14 month old to a Montessori "school" at the end of August. It is so strange to buy school supplies for such a young child. I guess I am just feeling old :-(....

@danb - My 24 month Visa only allows for 60 day max stay. The link that NUWORLD is a good one. We sent in a certified copy of my wife's passport, green card, marriage certificate and our son's birth certificate because we requested one for him too. They were all signed by a notory from my local bank and then was stamped "certified copy". If you call Oasis Visa service, I am sure they will advise you what you need too. I called them a few times as we were requesting 5 Visas at the same time so we ended up with a little group discount.

Well, I tried OasisVisa service. Everything worked out fine. Me and my 1 year old ended up with a 24 month multi-entry Visa and my sister with her two daughters with a 1 year multi-entry visa. We had a total of 5 Visas so they gave us a bit of a discount. I had to pay extra for fast mail delivery service to and from but that was my decision. Mostly because of our schedule and when we all had our visa photo's and forms filled out, etc. So we plan on leaving July the 3rd. and I will be gone for almost a full month! Wooohoo, might be fun? I haven't been back to China for over 3 years! We will hit Beijing and Xian to play tourist then zhongzhou for a few days. Maybe I can see the shoalin temple again. Thanks for everyones help!

Thanks 2mike&jin, there is a carrefour near my wife's sister's place that I can remember going to. We should be able to find the items we need there. You might be right about switching over to milk. It's probably wise to focus on formula while we are there but having whole milk as an option is nice. Thanks Randy W, I never thought of buffalo milk. Where would they be shipping that from? I have seen the milk in boxes all over and never really took the time to learn what was the difference. I actually had to look up "ultra-pasteurized"... I guess I am not much of a farmer ;-)

Has anyone trusted whole milk (not formula) in china? At 1 year old, the doctor has mentioned that we can introduce more milk instead of formula. Also, has anyone tried to bring a car seat in china? In America I can't even imagine not having our son in a car seat but I can't ever remember seeing one in china. Maybe the traffic moves so slow that it hardly matters....

Thanks to everyone for the help! Dnoblett thanks, I forgot to mention that we just recently received his passport and will both request a visa at the same time. Kind of funny to see such a young child's picture with the passport Thanks Eric, I have seen those child's bassinets in action when I was traveling but forgot about requesting them in advance. 2mike&jin, really some great advice! I never thought about fingerprints,DNA, immunization records, copy of birth certificate, etc. I just made our 1 year doctors appointment for our son so the timing was great! I was thinking about how to entertain him during the flight and loading up some movies and childrens tv shows is a really good idea. Otherwise, I know he will try to climb everywhere! I don't have an ipad right now but have smartphone, laptop, etc. I might pick up a ipad just for the trip to play with. We will need to take Delta Airlines and I don't think they allow infants in first class but I will double check that before we leave. It seems a given that no one wants to use the local baby formula (my wife included). He might be partially off of formula by 1 year but we will plan on bringing a few containers of similac for our stay. Also, I think it's a good idea to bring the normal "remedies" that we use often as finding them might be difficult or impossible. Trying to figure out wifi options once we land. I know our hotel/relatives house will have wifi but it would be really nice to have 3g options while there for our smartphones. I normally just use or buy a sim card and have a local phone number, however I am not sure if I can add data service on a pre-paid basis. Has anyone tried this recently? Thanks again!

well, I am not sure this is the right area but, My wife and I are planning a trip back to her relatives. That includes me and our 1 year old. Has anyone here done that before? I am a little bit concerned about traveling with such a young child. Also, we might be bringiing my sister and her 2 daughters on this trip. I think we might try to spend some time in Bejing for basic tourism reasons and then travel to my wife's home town of zhengzhou. I think my son will be off of formula by then or mostly by then anyway. Has anyone else had this experience? Any tips or recommendations? I think when in bejing we all will try to hit the main tourist spots but we have to consider how the weather and crowdedness will factor in. Thanks for any recommendations!

Thanks dnoblett for the link! It looks like with oasis visa service their charge is between $35-55 for each visa plus $19.99 for shipping of up to 4 visas. I might have 5 visas so that would be about $215-315. I added an additional shipping fee as I would need to send more than 4 visas. If I flew to chicago I would try for same day service which adds $20 to each visa. I guess that would reduce the difference between these options by $100. Maybe its not worth flying for only $100-200 difference. On the other hand I would have the visas that day and would not have to wait for more processing... Well, something to think about anyway... Thanks!

Hello, Hopefully, this is the right topic for this forum... Thinking about a trip back to china with my wife and 1 year old son to visit the family. Also, my sister and two of her kids might travel with us for a first time visit. I need a new visa and of course so does my son. If my sister and her two kids go with us they will need one each too. In the past I would take a trip to chicago chinese consulate and get a visa with same day processing. However, I am looking at alternatives. what is a good visa passport service? Any suggestions? It is possible that up to 5 of us will need visa's. I think I can fly to chicago for around $200. Could'nt I just buy a ticket for myself and bring all of them to the consulate then do same day processing? Has anything changed in the past year or two? If I fly to chicago I would bring all of the other's paperwork/passports with me and leave them for processing then pick them up in the afternoon. Any problems with this idea? Thanks for any suggestions!

Update: I sent in what we had (birth certificate, copy of drivers license and more utility bills that had both our names on it) and about 2 weeks later her green card arrived! So now we should not have to think about it until 2021 unless she decides to become a citizen. I am thankful that everything worked out. Thanks for all the help!

We sent it to the California office. I think we originally sent out the form in Feb. and got the blue (physically blue colored sheet) return in May with the requests for more evidence. We knew we were expecting so we wanted to wait before sending it back. We are required to send it back by July 25th. I think we will be fine with the birth certificate. I was just surprised that we still are required to go through this next step. I wonder what people who don't have a child need to do? (just thinking out loud)

Hi Dnoblett, thanks for the clarification. No interview, they have not asked. We got a blue sheet requesting evidence. The second page asks for a list of items such as Identity documents, Evidence of good faith marriage which includes - birth certificate, financial records, residence evidence. The second page seems kinda generic and asks for things we already gave (except for the birth certificate). In the original I-751 I sent -copy of permanent resident card -copy of marriage license -three original letters from U.S. citizens supporting our marriage -copy of 401k where my wife is listed as beneficiary -copy of 2 years tax transcripts where we filed jointly -copy of medical insurance card where my wife is a dependent -letter from local bank verifying joint checking account -2 months of energy bills where she is a joint account holder -copy of many photos of ourselves with friends/family. It seems the only thing I can add is the birth certificate, drivers license, more energy bills....not sure what else I have.

Hello everyone, Sorry, I haven't posted here in a while. Well, things are moving pretty well since my wife came over on the K-1 visa. We were married (two times..haha) and my wife has just recently graduated with a teaching certificate for early childhood for Montessori schools, ages 3-6 years old. I am very proud of here because it was not easy! She has found a job as a teaching assistant which starts in August. Also, we just celebrated the birth of our first child. We had a boy on June 6th! Now, I am trying to deal with being the primary support person for my wife and the child for the first month. I am sure others here know about the 1 month rest for Chinese mothers concept. None of her family is able to visit at this time and most of my family live a few hours away. It's not the easiest thing to do but I am getting better Actually, I did have a question too. Our original I-751 change of status was NOT approved even though we gave them as much as I could. I followed the suggestions from CFL and was surprised that it was not approved! So now I am about to mail out additional evidence which will include a birth certificate. My idea is that we only add some additional content such as the birth certificate, bills with shared accounts, pictures, etc. and the government will add it to our file. My wife feels we need to submit the same documents as last time (copies of them) in addition to the new documents. I think that is over-kill Any thoughts? Has others here been denied AOS after the two year card expired?

Ha! Sorry no! I guess it kinda sounded that way . I was just looking around cell phone plans and noticed this one. As far as I know no other cell phone plans offers this for the price. I haven't tried it but was wondering if anyone else had and if they had any problems.

Hi all, A couple of years ago I couldn't find an easy and cheap way to text China from the US with a cell phone. However, now I noticed that Boost Mobile has unlimited talk/text/web, etc. for $50 and for only another $5 you can add unlimited international support. That seems MUCH cheaper than any other plan out there. Has anyone tried this service? If you have tried it, has there been any problems with sending/receiving Chinese characters? The service is called "international connect". I think this service is owned by Sprint and is on CDMA. I also noticed that T-mobile finally has a International texting only bundle for $5 more. We currently have a cheap T-Mobile family plan but am thinking of changing. Any thoughts?