jim_julian

Ooooo ... many Chongqingers would really object to being placed in Sichuan. Fundahin!

Frank: Thank you very much. I have sent an appropriate e-mail to Xiao Wang, Esq. She did steer me right on the dating a letter of commitment prior to divorce. She does read and write Chinese and improved the translation of various addresses but then again I caught a wrong postal code on the 129 that she prepared. As many of you might identify with, I am waaay hyper about this whole process and will continue to take my belt and suspenders approach drawing heavily on CFLrs as well as this lawyer.

Lao gan ma I love it! I haven't found it in the US yet but then I haven't checked in a hard core Chinatown area. I think my fave is the one that also has a bit of dry shredded beef in it.

I actually took the timing of the meeting issue head on. In the 129 attachment with photos, e-mails, phone calls etc I have some introductory material that says in part, "In May 2004 I told my ex-wife that I would be filing for divorce. After this divorce decision I felt it was acceptable to be interested in meeting other women." I then go on to say I met lao po on asianeuro in July 2004. My lawyer thought this was an OK idea provided lao po understood exactly what I said and was prepared for questions. We will do a lot of prep on my next trip.

In a meeting with my immigration lawyer today I found out something that I didn't know and perhaps others might not know ... In the case of a K2 "Follow to Join" the K2 visa expires immediately upon marriage of the K1 visa holder from which the K2 was derived. So that throws a kink in our plan to have lao po come here, we get married, buy house, etc and when we are a little settled our Chinese daughter joins us on a K2.

Thanks for all the advice ... I'll redo the letter of commitment. My lawyer also say I need a "birth certificate" for our follow to join daughter. We tried to get one in June and were told that we had to wait until school reopened. The daughter, who just turned 17, has never had a national ID card and I guess that complicates things. We'll reattack at the Notary level. Does anyone have experience in filing a birth certificate or not for a K2 that will follow to join?

For my 26 day visit to China, where I met the whole family, I rented a furnished apartment. I got a 3BR apartment on purpose so Mama and Baba and my Chinese teenage daughter could move in with us. At first they all wanted to serve me. There was a big language barrier as M&B speak no English. On about day 3 I had a "meeting" with everyone at the dining table after dinner. Lao po translated: Me: Am I a member of the family? Them: Nods and yesses. Me: Doesn't everyone in the family help? Them: same response Me: OK then ... At that point I got up and cleared the dishes from the table. They all sat there kind of dumbfounded. Then I said "Do I have to clean up the chicken bones too?" They laughed, hopped up, and everyone got busy. It's been OK since then.

... I hear that one so often when people first see lao po's picture. I am not marrying her for her looks ... I am marrying her for her heart.

Lao po and I made some handwritten, on the same page, by the book, commitment letters when I was in China in June. Now that I'm getting ready to file the K-1 package my immigration lawyer, Xaio Wang, tells me that I should not use this set of letters because they were dated before my divorce became final ... therefore, a very picky USG person could say that I could not legally commit to marriage at that point and the letter is invalid. She wants lao po and I to execute new letters. I can do this, particularly as I will be in China in nine days but it will result in a two week delay in filing. Could they possibly be that arbitrary as to reject a commitment letter with a June date?

China Post is the post office. They do normal letters, packages of various sizes, and a priority service that takes FedEx type envelopes to the US in about a week.

I highly recommend Skype It's free PC to PC. It works in China. It's inexpensive PC to phone.

I know this is primarily about phone to phone .... butt ... hehehe ... it is sooooo much cheaper to call from computer to phone (1.7¢/min) and it's FREE! 'puter to 'puter. Get connected!!

When you go through Chinese immigration to enter the country on a 30 day tourist visa you are not required to show a return airline ticket.

Hmmm .... I haven't taken a photo using film in years. I suppose people might think of a digital photo printed on photo paper of a conventional snapshot size as an "original", of course it's no more an original than one printed on paper. But ... point taken.

You got a Chinese counsulate to answer the phone! Please share the secret! In Los Angeles they even say they never answer the phone. Sigh ...

One of the "pile it on" gifts I got from the relatives upon my departure from China was a package of dried beef. I declared it and was asked about it at LAX. When I said it was commercially packaged and still in the package they didn't even want to look at it. Next time I think I will stage a "secret" departure to gracefully duck all the departure gifts!

Why not just use a publishing program and put a series of scanned or digital photos, with labels on a few pages? Print it using a color laser or good inkjet on plain paper and you have a reasonable quality collection of totally expendable photos.

I could not find cheese anywhere in Chongqing. Carrefour didn't even carry it! I did buy a couple of pizzas from the one and only Pizza Hut in Chongqing. It was an hour trip to get it home but the family seemed to like it and I didn't catch anyone making secret rice trips to the kitchen. Next trip I plan to bring a big block of cheddar to try on them.

I do think that China is a safer place for Americans, particularly in the context of the DoS Travel Warning that started this thread. You will recall: Clearly the tragic incident you report was not targeted against US citizens or interests. I've been on business all week in the UK. I was travelling by train to visit several companies and was surprised to find British police armed with automatic weapons in small rural railroad stations in Devon and Wales. For those of you not familiar with the UK, this is really the boondocks. The attacks in the UK are inexorably tied to US interests and are the kind of thing the travel warning was pointed at. As others have said in this thread there is a high degree of governmental control in China. Even though there may be many aspects of this control that a thinking American might not agree with, it still provides a condition where violent actions against U.S. citizens, unless government sponsored, are unlikely. That said, thank you for surfacing the bus bombing and the associated press coverage and government reaction ... it is insightful and easily missed.

These warnings are put out all the time. I travel to the Middle East all the time and see tons of them. This is a world wide warning with no particular applicability to China. Nothing to worry about. I'm currently in the UK ... and, I'm sure, in more danger than I would be in China

SKYPE Here Works great ... very inexpensive.

Get your USD to China quickly quickly ... and change to RMB. Hard to think you could lose on this one!

I think at this point I would be most concerned about the double barreled effect of her perhaps not truly understanding the concepts and a penchant for Chinese ladies to agree on things they might not completely understand or that they consider minor, while they have their eye on a larger goal. From what you say about her background life with you in America will be a huge change for her. I guess the best way to work on this is to work on the English and to spend many hours explaining and discussing ... maybe repeating the same concepts from slightly different angles to build depth of understanding. If you or she has a good friend who is fluent in both languages perhaps they could help in some of the discussions. You need to pay a lot of attention to this ... but your note indicates that you understand that. Good luck!

Thanks to all who posted re my question about the 001 site. I will relay this info to my lao po.

OK .... I'm still a newbie 'cause I haven't filed the 129 as yet ... right? What the heck is 001?? Sounds like it's a website. Google does not yield a good answer. I've been lurking hoping that someone would spill the beans but ....