Randy W

Our collective fingers are all crossed for you. Your lives are literally in their hands.

The tax returns do not need to be notarized.

Congratulation, . . . and stay that way!

Congrats! Good news! a nice touch!

Print this page and take it with you to the SS office as ammunition, in case they need some help remembering.

It's under "Messenger", "Preferences", "Archives"

Merc my laopo learned Cantonese in GZ because she had to for her job. But she says that Cantonese people in GZ only speak Cantonese to other Cantonese and Mandarin is much more the language of choice there. 208057[/snapback] There are also plenty of people who still don't speak Madarin, including (Cantonese speakers) here in Houston.

DON'T FREAK OUT! KEEP a straight face, and go through it. It just MAY be enough. GOOD LUCK!

There is a time limit (maybe a year?). Say, you move out of one house, but before buying another, you rent a place. Then, if you buy a new home within that time limit, the exemption applies. I don't know if this applies to the property in China, though. Good luck! You might be better off just not reporting it.

For buying and selling property, you can avoid paying income tax on the increase in value of your residence by putting it all into your next residence. This would not apply to second or rental property. There is also a one-time exclusion, where you can sell your home and keep the money, but this is at (I believe) age 65 only (or somewhere in your 60's - I forget)

The only commercially available English language DVD's I've found with Chinese sub-titles are Mulan, Lost Horizon, and Lady from Shanghai.

http://bergoiata.org/gif/Feu4.gif Congratulations !! http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif http://tinypic.com/erfmns.gif

There are several Cantonese CD's available, including Pimsleur. Others, I don't know about.

To find out what is available, and asking prices, check out a site such as www.dfwhomes.com. The site here in Houston, www.har.com, shows every listing on the MLS (the same ones that your real estate agent would see). I'll bet there's an equivalent site for Fort Worth.

The premium on my '96 Acura is $584. For her '07 Toyota, it's $458. I'll be looking to see how much it changes when she gets her un-restricted license.

Yes - "To Live" is called the "Chinese 'Gone with the Wind'" (at least on the label) and is very good. Jiaying watched "Tian Yu" (English title "Xiu Xiu the Sent Down Girl" )intently, but it hit a little too close to home. She missed that "program" by only a couple of years. I don't think she'll watch it again, but it's an excellent (but depressing) movie.

YesAsia.com has a number of movies with "Shen Hua" in the title. I don't know if this was included or not, but that's the place to look!

The last time I went shopping for cars (1996), I put a couple of VIN's through CarFax (be sure to do this for ANY used car you are considering) - one had an odometer roll-back, the other had had a salvage title. I bought new. This time, there seems to be very little in the papers, and mostly cars that have already been sold. In my opinion CarMax prices are too close to new car prices - you might as well buy new. I'm pretty much Toyota-only these days.

It's an excellent alternative to a used car and a good scooter replacement! Seriously, it feels pretty solid and has okay acceleration, even with the automatic (2300 lbs. and 105 horsepower). We're pretty happy with it. She's pretty comfortable behind the wheel, and I think she'll do real well once she's ready for the test.

It's a new model (replacfement for the Echo), so they change the year to make it seem even newer. I forgot to mention - mine's a stickshift, so we needed an automatic for her.

Jiaying wants to get her driver's license. I found out a few weeks ago when she hands the phone to me and some guy asks for directions to our house so he can give her lessons. A fvew weeks later we meet him at a Chinatown grocery store and he gives her a 21 page, all in Chinese, study guide. For $80, he guaranteed that she would get a learner's permit. I think that means that they would keep trying until she passed, to a max of 10 tries. My biggest thing that I wasn't prepared for was when she took the eye test. The girl says to her "Read line 5". She has no clue, I have no idea how to tell her what to do on such short notice - fortunately, her instructor guy happened to be there - he had 4 Chinese people in tow that day - and is able to translate for her. For the written test, she is allowed to have a translator with her. He translates the question, but does not see the answers (I'm not exactly clear on how that works). Anyway, she passed on the first try, and we went shopping for cars. I was figuring on spending around $12,000 - $13,000 for a late model Toyota Corolla - for only a little more, we found an '07 Toyota Yaris. We took it out for a drive Monday. She did okay with the steering and brakes, but kept the speed to pretty much 10 to 30 mph. We took it into a little bit of traffic - they just zipped around her. For the road test, no one will be in the car with her except the patrolman. Hopefully, understanding things like "turn left" and "turn right" will get her through. Her instructor says that they will point for her - that English language communication is not necessary. I think we'll go to that DPS office for the test (near Chinatown). So now she has the instructor guy out again to give her 2 hours of lessons in Cantonese. Then I'll do the rest (at least that's the plan) until she'd ready to take the road test.

There is a LOT you can get away with with the IRS (especially if you really are entitled to it), if you just try. The worst (penalty) that could happen if they disallow something is about a 2% (10% annual rate) interest, unless you deliberately lie about something. Either file jointly now (the TIN is the hurdle here - just include what you can - the notary seal may just cut the mustard), Or like Lee says - file an amended return later.

I'm not advocating that anyone try this, but it seems to me that a lawyer could successfully argue that the terms of the visa would be satisfied by a marriage in China. The visa would be issued to a fiance of an American LPR, and the marriage would occur well within the 90 day time limit. No misstatements (lies) would have been made - no checks are made between the issuance and use of the visa. No one wants to risk having to take their marriage to the Supreme Court, or of failing AOS because of the "fraudulent" marriage, but do we know of anyone who has actually done this? (Gotten married after issuance of a K-1 visa, but before using it to enter the US). I can't imagine any legal advice from anyone that I would interpret as meaning it is safe to do this, but do we know of any actual case where this has happened?

86 is the country code (not needed inside China). 20 is the city code (needed). Always dial 0 before the city code (just like 1 here in the states).

Lawyers, in some cases, have been responsible for some very long delays experienced by our members. Check out Doug's (Mengxin's) timeline There is nothing magical about lawyers - if you find a good one who knows what he's doing, he'll do just as well as you can by following the advice here. About half of our members who have hired lawyers swear by them. The other half swear at them.