shyaushu

My then wife got a visa (12/06) despite her not speaking a word of English. She is a very charming and self-confident woman (and, unfortunately, a green card chasing scam artist) and our communication was never an issue. Self-confidence and attitude during the interview do have an impact on the decision, I am sure. Also, I was struck by your comment ". . . we are working on her English skills . . ." Yes, I know Chinese is a very challenging language, but my feelings, at least, are that "communication", by its very nature, is a two-way street. "Talking" and "communication" are not the same. I happen to be "good" at learning languages, and my current wife and I speak only Mandarin together (I am learning a lot of Chongqing-hua, too!). I know she will get to learn English when we are together in the US, and learning it here is so hard (i.e., it is so easy to fall back on Chinese). But our communication is excellent because my Mandarin is pretty good, and she is a patient teacher and tone-forgiving person. My point is perhaps your trying to also learn Mandarin might count big in the "communication" department. You don't have to be fluent or even "good"; just a sincere effort may pay off big time, both in the interview and in your lives later on. She is making a huge effort and perhaps you would do well to do the same. I await the tirade of disagreeing members!

Right on! A true wife is not a "Christmas present". You two are planning to spend the rest of your lives together, right? TB ... the quote above triggered a thought ... it almost sounds like you'd be bringing him home for a visit. Just want to make sure you know that these visas are for people who want to emigrate from China and become a permanent resident/citizen of the US. If you two intend to live in China for the next few years this is not the visa to apply for.

I keep posting this information so perhaps things have changed, but on August 29, 2007 the US Embassy at Beijing (the part in the Kerry Center) took our I-130 after simply looking at my work visa "Z". They didn't give a hoot about a residence permit and I'd been in China exactly one day at that point. I know a "residence permit" is different but a work visa alone worked just fine.

Things probably change at different consulates or embassies over time, but in Beijing at least, and last August 29, at least, they accepted my work visa alone as sufficient to file my I-130 there. I had been in China a day at that time. Everything went smoothly from then, except they gave us a blue card at the interview, wanting additional information about my ex-wife and how I came to live in China. But the work ("Z") visa was all they cared about as far as my eligibility to file was concerned.

I think we all know people who have everything right ~ all their ducks in a row, and then get a blue or white slip. We also know some who have several potential "issues" and they sail though. In many ways (it's very sad to say) getting an immigration visa to the US ~ the most powerful, richest country on earth ~ is a crap shoot. There often seems very little objective about the process. It all boils down to one guy's opinion and if he or she is having a bad day or "doesn't like" someone. Some friends of mine have been in "Administrative Review" for 6 or 8 months now, and they had everything going for them, including the VO saying they were "extremely well-prepared" and had everything organized extremely well for the interview. Did that raise a reg flag in itself? Too prepared? Might a paranoid VO (they all are, apparently) suspect they were up to no good because they were being so careful . . . ? Everything you have said sounds exactly like what hundreds of successful folks have said. And many unsuccessful ones. Whichever visa you decide pursue just do your best and hope for the best. If it turns out to be the CR-1, the Immigration law as written appears to say that a CR-1 Visa should be given to someone if the two people have met; they are legally married; they have completed and sent in all required paperwork; they have paid all required fees; had the appropriate physical exam and there is no evidence of fraud. So many people have been denied visas with all of these things completed. So, it's sort of a Kafkaesque situation and I believe we all have no choice but to send it all in, prepare the best we can, and keep our fingers crossed.

I will add my two RMB, with the caveat that I am not even close to being as knowledgeable as most of the other people on this forum. But I have actually been through this process twice, hard as that may seem to believe. This is because I married a Chinese woman in 2005, but she deceived me and she actually had no romantic interest in me. She was only interested in a green card and was obviously a really good actress. Live and learn. We were divorced about 8 months after she arrived in the US on a CR-1, and now I am working on another CR-1 for my current wife. She is not a good actress, and her love is sincere, and more. The relative details and plusses & minuses of the respective visa types are not my expertise, but I can say in my opinion getting a green card at POE and a Social Security number and the right to get a driver's license counts for a great deal. It is a real drag (to say nothing of the added expense) to have to continue to wrangle with USCIS after your loved one has actually arrived. I strongly feel it is worth the one or two or three months it may take to get the CR-1, if, indeed, it takes measurably longer. Then, all there is is the AOS if you both have not been marrried for two years when he/she arrives. Such expressions as "slow and steady win the race" and "the faster I go the behinder I get" come to mind. This process takes a long time, whichever path you choose. A few weeks here and there with a more meaningful result seems worth the extra time to me. Others may feel differently.

My wife and I met on that very site (Chineselovelinks) and, while we are currently working to get a visa out of our "blue slip", the manner in which we met was never an issue. Scores (probably hundreds) of couples have met on that site and there have never been any questions about it being an IMB, to the best of my knowledge. My guess is that the IMB law seeks to identify companies that charge a fee for introducing specific individuals ~ like a "match-maker" might have done in years past. Their thinking is probably that they fear companies that link up two specific individuals are actually acting as marriage brokers, and getting money when the couples they introduce get married, and also, perhaps, when the foreign spouse gets a green card. So, they are, in effect, selling green cards. On sites such as Chineselovelinks, the company simply leaves the "meeting" to the individuals, and only charges a fee so you can access the contact information of the people you like. Such sites are no more a marriage broker than "happy hour" at a bar would be. You pay the cover charge and you get a chance to charm anyone you can manage to. Don't fret, Tony n Terrific. The section quoted above can be seen in the image attachment. It appears to me that they do not fall under the act but I want to be 100% sure when I file my 129F. Any comments, suggestions or direction would be appreciated. Thank you, Max http://oldpyro.com/k1/att.jpg My SO and I also met on this sight. I am glad this clears my question about IMBRA up.

We certainly appreciate your good wishes and believe me, I did all I could to dot "i's" and cross "t's". I re-wrote the two statements five or six times, trying to get it all in the ". . . 2 two pages . . " the literate VO demanded. In the end I was satisfied with it. My old (1935 model) Leica took three great photos of us in front of our apartment and you can see the homemade sausage my wife made hanging from the windows. I suppose if we had pressed the Yang's about their prices we could have gotten a better deal, but I never liked devious people. My old lady knew of the other place from Chinese friends and they did not play games with us. They gave us a super nice place with a kitchen in the same building as the Consulate for 100 a day, no hemming and hawing. They also went over our stuff real carefully and helped with such arcane things as the "Standard Telegraphic Code" for my wife's name demanded by the user-friendly people in Washington. They were good people, basically. There is good grub in Guangzhou, but nothing like fresh shot ground hog with squirrel gravy, of course. There is a fresh seafood market a short walk from the hospital where Dao got her examination (Health Care Center of Guangdong on Shamian Street) and we went there one evening, bought a huge lobster and some shrimp that were as big as pickles and had the restaurant upstairs cook them up for us. Fifty RMB later we were both stuffed lobsters, ourselves (the fresh seafood was extra, of course!). Here in Guangzhou's Baiyun District (where the university I teach at is) there is a Beijing duck place a ten minute walk from our apartment that makes roast duck to rival anything in Beijing. They have a huge outdoor brick oven and they roast the plump buggers over a wood fire. 58 Yuen will get you one of them, with all the trimmings. On excursions in town we have gone to markets that sold every kind of fish, fowl and beast imaginable, including fresh crocodile (50 RMB a pound). Believe me, there is good stuff to eat in Guangzhou! I'll ask my wife if she is into making a mess of crocodile jiao-zi. I will let all know the result of our blue card overcome efforts as soon as it arrives. A "call in" for the visa is what we want, of course, but for now I am quite happy teaching here in this university-country club. Being together is the main idea, and all Guangzhou and George Bush can do is prevent us from doing that back in West Virginny. We're both pretty happy here. But I miss the old home place.

This is a fairly old "thread", but it is the same ole-same-ole for me and my wife. Here's an update. Our last words on the situation with the blue card thing they gave us was they wanted a hand-written statement regarding my previous (Chinese) wife and how I met & married my present wife and how I came to live in China. And a couple of photos of us in front of our apartment. They wanted these statements to be "certified", with no suggestion as to what that meant. Fortunately, the Citizen Services Section of the Consulate is next door and they do that certification for free. It's an interesting exercise in bureauocracy, as you have to give them your passport, go somewhere else ("window 16"), and get a receipt that says you did not give them any money, then return, show them you did not pay any money, then raise your right hand and swear everything you wrote is true. Then they put on embossed stamps and such. We wrote the statements and then moved to Guangzhou for a new job teaching at a university there. Boy, did that help things. I just went to the Embassy one afternoon on the bus and got it all done. We mailed it all off (you can't give it to them, even though you are actually in the Embassy!), and now we are just sitting pretty here, teaching business English and playing tennis. A good way to wait for a Blue card overturn! Not everyone can do this, of course, and we really didn't plan it this way, but we are very happy, of course, that we now live so close to the action. We have every expectation (i.e., we really, really hope, of course) that Daoqun will be called back to pick up her visa in a couple of weeks and now that, too will be a snap. I will let the forum know as soon as we have any news, one way or another. We hated to be the ones to destroy the 100% success rate for "DCF" filings, but a blue card is not a denial, yet. Guangzhou, incidentally, is one heck of a nice place to live (except for the 20 billion people who live here) and the weather and the food are great. It was a really good move for us. I shipped my bicycle here from Henan on the train (50 RMB) but they did a good job of damaging it. Nothing a hammer and a pair of vice grips couldn't fix, though.

When we filed our "DCF" in Beijing in August the Embassy there asked us why we didn't just file in Chengdu, since my wife is from Chonqing. The answer was because we were on our way to Henan Province where I had a teaching job. The Embassy in Beijing corroborated that filing in the Consulate in Chengdu is OK.

Since it is not yet the tax due date (April 15, 2008) they will probably not require the 2007 tax returns. The old version of the Affidavit of Support has a place for notarization but the new form does not require this. We used the old form (I could not download the newer version) but it was accepted without being notarized. But why not have your mom notarize the one she signs anyway? do you remember what was exactly on the form that you have to check off? after reading your comment, i decided we should have these things in hand before sending that form out, so i'd like to start collecting these forms...thanks for your help! sorry to trouble you! thanks for searching! they want you to already have your tax documents ready? ahhhh. my mom is the joint sponsor and she's so SLOWWWWW with her 2007 taxes. (i told her to get moving but she keeps on telling me just wait a few more days...) oh yeah, quick question, does the affidavit of support for a joint sponsor (my mom) have to be notarized before she sends it over? thanks again!

I can't say that I do, but I will double check our copies. We probably have it somewhere. It is amazing all the stuff they ask for and how hard it is to keep organized! And then, when they ask for a "hand-written" explanation of something they add "keep it to two pages"! They can write volumes of questions but we can only make a short statement. Where did these people learn people control so well? I will post the things they asked to check off if and when I find them. They were all things like the police report, a completed Affidavit of Support (I would complete that as soon as possible because they may want a copy of your 2007 tax filings after April 15), a bunch of photos, etc. do you remember what was exactly on the form that you have to check off? after reading your comment, i decided we should have these things in hand before sending that form out, so i'd like to start collecting these forms...thanks for your help!

That is technically true, but you must be very careful about things. For example, they ask for certain documents and notarial translations and the dates on those documents must match the date you checked that you have those documents. For example, if you say you have the police report on March 10, 2008, but the date on the translation says April 1, they will know you were not forthcoming when you checked the box. My wife got her police report in Chongqing but neglected to get the translation. So she had to return to Chongqing from Henan and get it. Therefore, the date on the notarial translation is a few weeks after we received the I-230, but before we checked the box and sent it in. Complete honesty is always best, although they gave us a blue card for our forthrightness. But they may catch you in a problem if you really don't have all the documents they ask for when you check the box that you do and put in the date. I suggest that you actually have the documents in hand before sending in the I-230. It is only a matter of one or two weeks in a process that takes many months. You can fill out the P3 forms as soon as you receive them and send them back. No need to actually have all the listed documents in hand. You'll have plenty of time to gather them before the interview.

You might want to look at our timeline. We also filed in Beijing, but in August. We received the DS-230 in late October. According to that thing, we had to check off all the boxes that indicated we had the documents that applied to us when we had them in hand, and then send the I-230 to Guangzhou. We did that and received the notice of appointment in mid-January. We arrived in Guangzhou about five days before the interview date and got the medical stuff done, etc. My wife brought all the documents they asked for (and the other stuff, like photos and letters, etc.) plus my I-864 to her interview. One difficult part on the form you have to fill in before the interview (I believe it is the Family Composition sheet) is where they ask for the "Standard Telegraphic Code" of the Beneficiary. This turns out not to be her telephone number but a four-number code which corresponds to each Chinese character (in your wife's name). In other words, the number for "Wang" might be 4356 (I'm making up a number here). And you must find and write the corresponding number for all two or three characters of your wife's name. The people at the hotel we stayed at (it was in the same building as the Consulate) helped us with that. Also, all things you write must be in English or Pinyin, except when they ask for the "native Alphabet" stuff. Of course you will see we were rewarded with a "Blue Slip" (actually, a blue colored piece of cardboard) that asked us to provide a handwritten letter about my wife and I meeting and getting married and how and why I came to live in China. They also wanted a time line of my previous marriage and divorce to a different Chinese woman and a photo of us in front of our apartment in China. So, you can see, we had some hurdles to overcome (the previous marriage, although according to the law Congress wrote that should be irrelevant), and that was surely the reason for the blue. We are fairly hopeful all will go well after we submit the stuff they asked for in a week or so. But who knows? They also wanted the hand-written letter I wrote to be "certified" (no explanation or elaboration provided) but I learned I could get that done in the US Citizen's Services Section of the Consulate. It was elaborate, but free. Except for us, all DCF filings have been successful these past three or so years, and, while we regret we ruined such a great record, we are pretty hopeful the non-decision will be overturned. But it is quite amazing how the USCIS has taken it upon themselves to use completely different criteria for approving an immigrant visa than the law Congress passed authorized them to. According to their own analysis and decisions, our relationship is "bona fide", my wife is not a member of any prohibited organization and she does not intend to enage in prostitution, she has no disease or infirmity that threatens people in the US, and my I-864 documents I have sufficient financial resources to make certain my wife is unlikely to become a public charge. Nevertheless, they did not give her a visa! They apparently want to further evaluate the likelihood that our relationship will endure when we are in the US. And they are trying to judge that by looking at how we met, etc. How I wish we had met at a church social! My first wife and I got married after knowing each other for a month, and that marriage lasted for 20 years (when my wife died). By-the-by, these past seven months with my wife in China have been extraordinary. We certainly got to know each other thoroughly and our relationship has matured from the excitement of new love to the satisfaction and marvel of two people completely devoted to each other for the rest of their lives. Plus Chinese food is a gas! If only poeple here wouldn't spit, blow their noses without using a tissue, stop cutting in or pushing everyone who is in front of them in line, stop blowing their car horn to intimidate pedestrians, stop staring at every "Lao-wai" like he or she was a two-headed calf . . . but I rant. It has been one of the most wonderful seven months of my life. And my Chinese has improved a lot. Good luck.

Well, that's sort of depressing. I never considered their asking for additional material was just a ruse to issue a second denial. Since we are still here in Guangzhou I asked at the Citizen's Service place and they said the Consulate itself, "certified" documents. So I went back to the apartment and wrote the two pages of explanation they asked me for and limited me to and had the Consulate here certify it. It was all about what happened in my first marriage and why I am living in China. According to their Blue slip (it is really a blue piece of cardboard: the "white slip" is actually a white piece of paper) now only "a photo of us in front of our apartment" remains. I suppose they can always say they didn't like the photo. If they want more from us it will soon be a lot easier. I have accepted a new job teaching at a university in Guangzhou so we can take a 4 Yuan bus ride to the Consulate instead of a 900 mile train ride. Am I a cockeyed optimist to believe they will read the statements they asked me to write, approve them as a reasonable explanation of why my first wife and I get divorced (she tried to kill me twice!) and that I am living here in China to be with my wife to allow our relationship to develop as it should: in person, and not from 12,000 miles away? I hope I am not. Any advice or whatever is welcome!

Taking it to the consulate might be easier said than done. There is no consulate near Henan Province. Another trip to Guangzhou will be pretty expensive, too, especially just for a "certification" stamp. The upside to all this is that they accepted my I-864 and they did not find that our marriage is "not bona fide". That would be some difficult stuff. They are obviously yanking our chains ~ all they want is the same letter, hand written and some photos. They apparently don't believe that I actually am living in China or something. They could look at my passport, of course. I have the entry stamp into China and no exit stamp. Or they could see me pacing in front of the Consulate for three hours. It's sad they do things like this but what the heck. We should get it all to them next week and perhaps they will ask my wife back to get her visa soon after that. Many tanks to all for your encouragement and support!

Here's an update on our visa. Daoqun got the blue slip today: they want some more information about my 1st Chinese wife, how Daoqun and I met (they already know this) and some photos of us in front of our apartment in China. No problem for us to do any of this, really. They want my letter to be handwritten and "Certified". What does that mean in China? Do I have to go to an American Consulate and have that done? Some tears were shed but there are upsides. Our I-864 was obviously OK, my US domicile is also aceptable and there were no questions about our communication, since Daoqun doesn't speekie English. They just want a handwritten letter explaining those matters. (I included one I wrote on the computer). Can anyone help us with the "certification" part? They did not say "notarial certification" or anything: just to certify the letter". We should have that minor stuff to them in a week or so. Sorry for ending the 100% success for DCF Filings.

We all have our own lives and our own wives, and a loving, well-intended partner is all anyone needs. So a wife who insists that a western medicine is ineffective, dangerous or whatever and that a dose of Zhong yao is better is probably well intended and she may be right. Who knows. My particular wife's reaction to my second cold here was to go to the local "sell everything" market and buy a bunch of (real) wool and knit me a lovely sweater vest I could wear to my classes (I'm a teacher)under my jacket. Another kind of Chinese medicine. It worked!

Thanks, Corbin, and thanks to all the others who have been silently wishing the Chongqing Hillbillies luck. An update on matters is that we found extraordinarily excellent accommodations and assistance at a different hotel in Guangzhou. (Not the Yang's. (They were too expensive for us ~ 200 RMB minimum, and they really did not seem to care much about us or our visa). The place we went to is called Mei Guo Ling Shi Guan Lou Shang Gong Yu and their accommodations are located in the actual building where the US Consulate is. Their tel. number is 020-33484858 (cell: 13178820186). It is a five minute walk from the east Guangzhou train station. Accommodations there cost us 120 RMB a night and consisted of a large living room, a large master bedroom, a smaller bedroom, a lovely bathroom, clothes washer, kitchen, etc. It was not a hotel room, but an actual apartment. The furnishings in it were worthy of being in our home back in the US. They met us at the train station and familiarized us with the consulate and the immediate area. They immediately went over our paper work and pronounced everything in order, except that I had no copies of our e-mails (stupid me!) and certain critical documents were copies, and not originals. So, stupid me had to high-tail it back to Luoyang to get those things. Train tickets from Guangzhou were unavailable, of course (360 RMB to Luoyang) but a plane ticket cost only 510 RMB! The best air fare we could get on our own was 860 RMB, but the people at the "MeiGuo" said "that's way too high", and got on the horn and got us the 510 RMB fare. We also used all our money for my return to Henan, and they have been allowing Daoqun to stay ther for free until I return (with more money!). Do people get more helpful than that? I heartily recommend them! I am returning Monday to Guangzhou to be with Daoqun for the interview on Wednesday. Dispite the well-intended (and probably justified) optimism of many fellow Candleforlove folks, the fact that I previously married a Chinese woman and that we were divorced after a very short (18 month) marriage looms as a real problem for us. I can understand why a visa official would be suspicious about my fairly quick marriage to Daoqun only three months after my first marriage ended. Therefore, I wrote a fairly detailed letter to him/her explaining what happened with my first wife (she was mentally unstable and tried to kill me), and I encouraged him/her to undertand that my first marriage was a big mistake, and to judge my relationship with Daoqun on its own merits. The fact that we have now lived together in China (very happily) for seven months must count for something. I also wrote about the things that happened here during those seven months: illnesses I had, and the loving care Daoqun gave me; the two wool sweaters she knit for me after my second cold here, etc., etc. I also pointed out that I wanted to live with Daoqun so that I was certain we were both committed to each other and that I had made a big sacrifice, myself, in coming to live in China because I left a wonderful job teaching at a university back in the US. I am hoping, of course, the visa official will understand that everyone makes mistakes: my first marriage was definitely a big mistake; this one is not. Daoqun and I will live here in China if they do not grant us the visa on Wednesday. That will be a huge sacrifice for both of us since we have a lovely farm back in West Virginia, and a 20 year old daughter in college there. That is where we should make our lives. One more thing about filing directly with the embassy or consulate in China. Those of us who take that route are usually living in the Chinese economy. We have a job here and receive RMB for our work. If (when!) the visa is granted on the 20th, we will face the problem of getting the airfare together for the two of us. We have not been able to save much thusfar (we have two daughters in college ~ one in the US and one in China) so I will have to work here for several more months to have enough money to return. So we may struggle to get back by the six-month window for the visa. That could be a problem for others, as well. But generally I heartily recommend a so-called "DCF" filing, if you have the means to do it. Of course, the I-864 and proof of a US residence are the usual stumbling blocks. But in our case it has been a couple of other things. I will write more later if it seems there are people on the CANDLE who think the saga of the Chongqing Hillbillies is interesting or informative. We will know the result in four days. think PINK all the way........... good luck you will do just fine.

Well, my wife and I are in Shenzhen waiting to head for Guangzhou for the interview on the 20th. We called the "Yang's" (the "helpful folks" who have a hotel near the Consulate) and they could not offer us anything cheaper than 200 RMB a night at their place. We can't spend that much because we will be in Guangzhou for almost 9 days, so we checked elsewhere and found another nearby hotel for 100 RMB, with the same promise of their going over our paperwork and assisting us in the medical tests. So, there seem to be plenty of places there, some more expensive than others. This brings up one of the other issues involved in filing directly from China: the potential lack of money. I currently teach at a school in Henan Province, and, while my salary is excellent by Chinese standards, it is a lot less than enough to give us a "comfortable" life here. We have been on vacation for three weeks (at least we can do that here) but we must be very careful with our money. We have been staying at hotels or renting apartments for a week at a time and we generally pay between 50 and 75 RMB per day. But for that price we had an ocean view apartment in Beihai ~ a wonderful city! So, unless you have a really high-paying job here in China, or some other source of reliable income while you are here, those of you thinking of coming here to file directly should consider the economic costs, too. That $380 visa fee (per beneficiary!) looms ominously for us. But it is quick, and the "success rate" has been 100%. How we hope and pray we will not be an exception to that record. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks muchly, Clement and family! Got it. If the rates still hold my wife (an irrepressible money saver) will love it. And it will be great to have someone shepherd her around as I won't be able to be with her this trip. You can find Mr. Yang Jia Hua's contact info here - http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...st&p=312486

Many thanks to all of you for your good wishes. An interview is the BIG step. Success there means no more of this junk. I understand the name of the hotel the Yang's have in the "Tian Yu Garden". What is it is Chinese ("Tian Yu Yuen"?). Does anyone have a phone number or an address for them? It would help my wife because she doesn't speak English and she could probably use the assistance they offer. I need to stay in Henan and work! We really do appreciate all the encouragement and support.

Of course, you are correct, and I fell into the common trap of being categorical. However, it is difficult to imagine a government agency where some rules apply in one place, but not in another. Imagine if IRS requirements varied by state or section of the country? But, yes, the only "urban myth" here is that the USCIS is consistent. Best to check . . . Corbin for DCF you also have to lived there for at least 6 months and on a work visa. CR-1 on its own is no faster than K-1 or K-3, maybe even slower. You would save on AOS, but as your marriage less than 2 years still only a 2 year green card. that was "your" experience; it varies by consulate... unfortunately, as it shouldn't... although some benefit from it... but the golden rule is to simply ask the local consulate one will DCF through.

Thanks to you both for your excellent suggestions. I will pass along what you have written to my wife. Incidentally, she may enjoy speaking Mandarin with the Yang's but since we always speak Mandarin at home it will not be much of a change. The Yang's may even appreciate her Chongqing-hua! Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend her interview because I still have a teaching job in Henan Province and they are not generous about giving me time off for anything. Bottom line seems to be that all of that can be accomplished in two or three days and for a few hundred dollars. All good news. Many thanks.

Our interview is next month in Guangzhou and my wife and I are getting our Beijing roast ducks in a row. First, there is the cost and time necessary for the medical exams, X-rays and vaccinations, etc. How much do those things cost, where are they best done and how long will my wife have to stay in Guangzhou to get them done? I know there are ways to get it all done in only a day or two. So, basically, how long before her interview should she get to Guangzhou for those things? Secondly, living in China usually means not having a great deal of money around (although we are getting richer as the RMB climbs in value vis-a-vis the US dollar!). I suppose hotels in Gaungzhou ~ especially ones near the US Consulate ~ are pretty expensive. Where is a good (read: inexpensive, clean) place to stay, especially if my wife must stay there for a week to get all the stuff together? The visa, itself, costs about 3,300 RMB and bringing along enough money is obviously necessary. Are there any other suggestions anyone can offer?