jim_julian

Typhoon Nuri hit HKG when our daughter was there on her way back from CKG to LAX. The poor kid had a 20 hour layover in the planned itinerary and it got extended by another 22 hours. JAL would not pay for her room or meals because the typhoon is an act of God. It looks like her delayed flight to NRT will now take off at about 10AM local and she will be able to make a connection NRT to LAX on American Airlines. She was a bit shook up about all this and I spent a considerable part of the night and early morning hours talking to her. Luckily she had her Macbook in her carry on and we were able to have frequent video chats. Evidently they have free WiFi at HKG. The poor kid drags in to LAX on Saturday and college classes start on Monday ... at least she'll have a good story to tell.

The best way to resolve this is to get an InfoPass appointment. Dress nicely. Be well prepared with copies of the submittal, copies of regulations, notes from USCIS phone calls, etc. Smile and be professional. Be firm if success is not immediate but never get angry. If necessary ask politely to see the supervisor. It seems to me that if non-delivery cannot be attributed to negligence on your part, and I assume USCIS does not have proof of this, then you should be entitled to have USCIS mail the card again. I would never use the word "replacement" when referring to the card you want ... you never had it so how can it be replaced. You want the original EAD card.

We always keep something to learn on the refrigerator door in the kitchen. For a while it was the Lord's Prayer, right now it's the Pledge of Allegiance ... I think I'll surprise the girls and put this up next week!

Another step Jerry .... And, yep, the Chinese Consulate in LA is pretty efficient and reasonable.

Good luck to all three of you!

Toolman ... the instructions are clear about notarizing the blank pages. This is merely an administrative error; easy to correct. Is there any more information on what triggered them to ask for an evolution of relationship letter?? The key with these is to keep them simple and, although a little emo is OK, don't go overboard. Good luck!

Joanne ... unfortunately there is a lot of past evidence that these girls are underage. The IOC accepts passport age without question. The Chinese government has just issued passports to these poor girl with false age. It's really a shame. The Chinese girls have worked so hard but their achievements will be ever haunted by the age cheating.

Could even happen to old Laowei ... Roger needs to be very careful!

Thank you sir, you are too kind.

Ahhhh ... so that's how he injured his ankle!

Yep that rug does look pretty bad ...

I was chatting with my daughter, currently in China, this morning and she brought up Liu Xiang. She wanted to know if his injury had gotten any bad press in the US. (Not to my knowledge) She mentioned that some Chinese were saying that he was afraid to compete and faked his injury and this was causing controversy in the Chinese media.

Spacebar ... spacebar ... ahh what the heck, no sense arguing with him ... sigh Anyway, I thought the US ladies were gracious in the face of the obvious age issue and the admittedly subjective scoring issues.

The travesty continued in the scoring that produced a "tie" on uneven bars .... sigh Just my opinion of course.

I'm sure you can get the transit visa and answers at the Canadian consulate in Seattle. BTW, I have lived on Whidbey Island twice ... great place, love that summer salmon fishing until 10PM!

Congratulations! That's really an unusual question set ... thanks for reporting it.

Why don't you tell her about the very wise and experienced Mr. Yang? When you have your interview date she can call him to make a reservation and at the same time ask him if she needs a lawyer prior to the interview. I think his answer is predictable. You're up against the "I heard it from a Chinese lady" thing ... ain't easy to overcome!

Here is a list of lawyers that the Guangzhou Consulate has no adverse information upon. This is as close as you'll get to a list "recommended" by GZ. Several of these legal firms practice immigration law.

Congratulations!

Yes ... you are bad! ... for posting results from the east coast time zone ...

Opinion (everyone's entitled to one) Many of you know that I am an active and committed Christian however, when I look at this from my perception of the Chinese government's viewpoint I think the government has a fairly even handed approach. There seems to be not much of an issue in China with churches and mosques that operate in the open and are registered with the government. I should add that I see no evidence that these entities are "party-controlled" as the, in my view, biased AP article states. The issue with the government comes when religion is practiced underground because, I believe, the government suspects that these underground religious organizations may have a political agenda counter to the present government. In my view, Vision Beyond Borders, was both naive and wrong to try to bring 300 Bibles into China without permission.

It's very clear (65-61) that the determination of which country wins (65-61) the Olympics relies on total medal count (65-61) vice some other measure like how many bronze medals or how many gold medals. There are some irrefutable (65-61) unbiased (65-61) references (65-61) for this but I can't find them right now. Of course in the future, just like the positions of Presidential candidates, the irrefutable unbiased references could evolve (A< if underlying conditions change. In any case I know that the free world will rejoice when the host nation has secured its place as first runner-up.

The consulate is generally supportive of bringing the minor sons and daughters of marriage based visas to the US. There seem to be only three issues that can cause a problem: 1. Age ... you're OK there 2. Birth father's permission ... discussed by others and you have a plan. 3. Actual maternity/paternity ... if the child was born in a hospital and you have the original paperwork you should be OK. With less official evidence an issue could possibly arise, particularly if someone alleges otherwise. The photo evidence of mother and son at various stages in life helps but many Chinese families do not have this. The gold standard is a DNA test by a consulate approved process.

Don't worry, Jim There is something call photoshop that will take care the "lower flap malfunction" Sometime we want to see just as much as we can Ahhh ... but you should have seen the eyes on some of the respected uncles moments before I became cognizant of that rule. Evidently they admire filmy little white things.

The pictures above remind me of a key rule: "When carrying Lao Po, Lao Gong must be mindful of the lower flap of the qi pao!"