Craig and Mingjun

Ah, something I can explain due to research I have done lately. The way these travel companies get their cheap prices is they regularly buy a block of tickets on select flights when they first become available. They receive a very good price on these, and pass those savings partly on to their customers. Currently, Vayama is being very competitive on flights to Asia (I can get a round trip from where I live to Hong Kong for $680 if I book late April). It truly pays to shop around. I happen to work for a college, and the travel agency our international programs office uses is able to get academic fares from some airlines they are very inexpensive and cannot be found anywhere else. The important thing is to see if there are any affiliations you have that might qualify you for a discount. Senior, veteran, educational institution, religious, there are many options. And of course, if you become a regular customer of one of the local agencies, you may find your deals start getting better (regular customers get special treatment). Just my two yuan, I could have been misinformed.

Welcome home! Now I have an extra reason to visit Oklahoma when Mingjun is here (I have an aunt who lives in Stillwater). You and Dylan are such an inspiration!

I just sent mine to visarite in New Jersey. They seem to keep up to date information on their pages, and have been very good about providing information related to status and expected date of the visa. Current stipulations for a two year visa require one of the following: Scenario One: For applicant born in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macao and has investment in China. You may apply for it if all following conditions are meet: 1. You were born in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao. Your passport must show China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macao as place of birth. 2. You have received at least one multiple entry visa before and have been to China at least 2 times in the last 12 months. 3. You have investment in China such as real estate. Copy of deed is required. Scenario Two: For applicant born in mainland China, visiting parent(s) or child(ren) who are Chinese citizen and reside in mainland China. You may apply for it if all following conditions are meet: 1. You were born in China. Your passport must show China as place of birth. 2. Either your parent(s) or child(ren) must reside in China. Photocopy of the birth certificate as proof and an invitation letter are required. You must also provide their name, address, contact phone on the visa application form section 4.7 - 4.10. 3. You have been to China at least 2 times in the last 12 months. Copy of previous visa and entry stamps are required. Scenario Three: For US citizen married to Chinese citizen. You may apply for it if all following conditions are meet: 1. You are married to a Chinese citizen. 2. Your spouse must reside in China (proof or statement is required). Photocopy of marriage certificate as proof and an invitation letter are required. You must also provide your spouse's name, address, contact phone on the visa application form section 4.7 - 4.10. 3. You have been to China at least 2 times in the last 12 months. Copy of previous visa and entry stamps are required. They have this to say on multiple entry visas: Can I apply for a multiple entry visa? Please be informed multiple entry visa is now under tight control. To see if you are qualified for a multiple entry visa, please answer following questions: 1) Do you hold US passport? 2) Have you applied for a Chinese visa in recent 5 years? 3) Are you able to provide a copy of your previous Chinese visa and entry stamp? If you answer no to any of these, you can only get a single or double entry visa. Dan, maybe one of the moderators can oasischinavisa to the list of links. Looks like a pretty good service, and they take credit cards. Some of others require you to provide you own return postage, and just seems a tad inconvenient.

ACH was fun, I'm sure you both will come out pink soon. When is your new interview date? "According to our current schedule, we predict that she is most likely to be rescheduled between April and May." Now this is totally ignoring the fact that Mingjun faxed and mailed a request in both English and Chinese on January 20th, and I sent multiple emails. We finally got this response when I sent a fax

Way to be prepared! I think I may have to lift some ideas from you. It turns out that the medical delay was a good thing, as I am going to be able to be there for the interview. If I go and ask a few polite questions at ACH, we too can have a smooth interview Hopefully we all can meet in person one of these days

Craig Thanks for you enlightening story. Remember what I said regard to being with you the entire time? Now you understand perfectly why I said this and you were the acid test to prove my conclusions. I sort of similar to your circumstances. When I first began talking with Yin I was a Pre-med student (Pharmacy) and was working on a minor in Chemistry. I had numerous Chinese fellow students and Chinese professors. I went and asked all of them recommendations. From Chinese students I got a lot of so-so answers, titters/giggles and embarrassed looks from the girls, younger men would give evasive embarassed answers. Only one professor gave me some good advice. In short, I ended up spending countless hours on the Internet, the libraries reading and researching in my spare time. I picked up volumes of information that by the time I reached China, I hit the ground running and Yin completed my tutelage. BTW, I'm still learning today! Hence, my statements that I don't and won't ever profess that I have every answer. There is another entity that helped me.....That was every member in CFL, their postings and thoughts. I read every damn entry from all members and learned an incredible amount from them. Their ideas, failures and successes really cemented the information into my mind! I had begun reading CFL back in Feb or March of 2004, before joining. http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...ic=6373&hl= I damn near knew every step that I needed to take, from my reading of thir postings. Albeit, there would be a few failures along the way, which could easily be alleviated by CFL members. Mingjun's friend is a part of the Chinese social network I was speaking of in my posting. When Chinese friends bond...they bond for life, barring a catastrophic issue, betrayal, etc. They will fight and spat sometimes. However, they always come back together in the end! May I also add that if you ever fight with Mingjun you will be fighting her friend too! I should state that anything you say or do with your wife will immediately be sent via the proverbial "bamboo telegraph!" Plenty of sisterly advice will be rendered too! Been there, done that and have the T-shirt to prove it myself! Two Chinese women against one Western man? Well, you figure up the odds. It sounds like you are off to a roaring start. That is why I encouraged members to use my posting to even improve their happiness and relationship. Please understand this is on-going with my own family 5 years later. That is the hard problem; keeping up what you have today. My wife dislikes a hot fire for a love and marriage. She prefers many slow burning embers. As she has stated the fire burns longer then! Dave Well, once again, I am damn lucky. Her friend Rong is very outgoing, and likes me very much. So I really don't see it as being against me. I am pretty darn flexible As a matter of fact, I apparently made a great impression on all her family and friends. Apparently, I am one of the first subjects they bring up. They want to know how I am doing and when I will be able to come back for a visit again. There have been a couple of incidents during which I managed to stay very calm and collected (her purse being stolen from her brother's house with my passport in it is a shining example). I tend to like slow burning embers myself, so I see a warm future ahead!

You are so right. I bought a phone card, the typical answer is "you have to wait for Guangzhou". The call center is in Shanghai. The first time I tried to use the web page for email, they replied they couldn't tell who I was based on the email address. So I submitted a request using my work email address. No response. Monday afternoon for me I sent a fax, and requested they email me and/or send mail to my sweetie. I had an email response at 12:48 AM Tuesday my time (just before 5 PM China time), and Mingjun told me tonight that they called her on the phone and gave her the same information. The fax was definitely the best method (not sure why they never responded to Mingjun's fax back in January )

Congratulations, Wendylan! Hopefully we get a new interview date soon and have the same smooth sailing....

Dave, thanks again for this topic. So many things make sense now, and I feel damn lucky. I work for a college, and we have a number of Chinese professors and a number of Chinese students come to our institution every year. Since I had never been to China, I asked for advice about what I should take, what books to read, and other information. This is where the luck comes in, I managed to take some very appropriate gifts for the family just by accident. When we first met face to face, there was an instant connection (for both of us based on our conversations). I did not get grilled by the family, but they got first hand information from a better source: Mingjun's best friend, who happens to speak English fairly well. Now that I reflect, I was being gently probed from the minute I arrived. So, what we have here is an arranged marriage, with my Chinese woman as the arranger Now I am not complaining, I am very happy with the arrangement. The friend helped arrange the engagement, and assisted in teaching me how to properly request the hand of Mingjun from her parents, with appropriate dowry and order of events. Like I said, I was damn lucky. Both of my trips ended up with Mingjun taking me in hand, and we pretty much spent the entire 47 days of my two trips living together. There may have been a total of 6 hours the entire time in country we were not together. On the first trip she took a couple of hours to go shopping without me to get the best prices on gifts for my family. On the second trip she to a couple hours to get all dolled up for the wedding ceremony. And gifts. My suitcases ended up crammed full both directions. Her friends and family really are into that tradition I always try to make sure I take thoughtful, practical, and unique gifts when I visit. As Dave is so fond of pointing out, your mileage may very. I am just thankful Dave has shared his insights, and I am now able to see the meaning behind some of my experiences.

Nice point, Don. I asked the question about why there are many Japanese things in China, and got that response "Good products, bad people". The Chinese are pragmatic, they are not going to let a superior product go to waste because they don't like who made it. I don't think you would ever see a boycott of an product in China because the company or country it comes from does something somebody doesn't like. Just my two yuan worth, the Toyota Matrix is a very reliable and versatile vehicle. It gets the mileage of a compact, but has enough room to be able to haul things. It is billed as a compact station wagon. I think my Chinese bride likes the practical car I have (it is a Pontiac Vibe, which is a Toyota Matrix in drag ) I think my practical nature has earned me points in the relationship. I guess I should ask about an Americanized name, but I think she does not need one.

Thank you for these very thoughtful and insightful posts. Although I am not actually married yet, I have great respect for my future wife. It is very easy to see the importance of family in China, and when they saw the effort I went through to follow their customs to become engaged, I was welcomed into the family with open arms and given the blessings of both her father and mother. Her friends and family ask about me regularly. I look forward to many years of mutual happiness and shared life

Oh, I forgot to mention, I do actually use the service. Lazy me just got around to actually submitting to file, at 7:57 PM last night. As of 11:54 AM this morning, the IRS had accepted the electronically filed return. At this point, I can request a transcript, which will likely arrive next week... I wasn't in a hurry to file, as I own money. I will still wait until April 15 to mail the check

Frankly, I would just go to taxslayer.com and pay $9.95 to electronically file. No signatures needed from either party. I have not had to actually sign a return in quite a few years. And once filed, you can get a transcript from the IRS to go with the I-864, which I understand is actually preferred to a copy of your actual tax return...

I had to take a picture of this sign on the Changsha waterfront: http://i44.tinypic.com/i28x1d.jpg It was just classic...

Hmmmm, so you have enough beer for the first week What to drink the rest of the time? Snow seemed to be popular in Hunan, although you could find Tsingtao here and there. Finding it here in the states seems to be limited to Asian restaurants Mick, sounds like you have a great relationship built on trust. My sweetie and I only have eyes for each other, so this sort of thing would get a laugh for us too.

I will chime in here. I am not sure what options you have for flights, but here is my suggestion. The best airline I have ever flown for the longest part of the flight to China is Cathay Pacific. I found their economy seats to be more spacious and comfortable than other airlines, and unlike other airlines, they have a list of snacks that you can request at any time (the other airlines may have it, but Cathay Pacific has it in the menu they provide when you board). I did a quick check, and discovered there is at least one flight to Hong Kong a day from where you are. From Hong Kong, you can fly Cathay Pacific to New York, and from there you should be able to get a flight on just about any airline to Charlotte (although it appears Cathay Pacific will book a flight with electronic tickets from Hong Kong to Charlotte, using Delta for the final flight). Of course, if money is a problem, there are probably less expensive flights. As far as bringing stuff, on my last trip, I took two fairly large suitcases with me and brought back a number of items for my fiancee (coats, shoes, and other items). For bags that get checked, weight is more important than size. If you suitcase has enough room, you should be able to fit all your shoes in one

I have not seen a house in China large enough to hold a month's supply of beer Are you sure you're not living in a warehouse?

Tsap, good to hear. I was concerned we were going to hear reports of some crazy redneck trying flap his arms to fly off from Beijing to his li'l rabbit

I have not printed yahoo or Skype records, but I do use Skype. All of our original conversations were via email, and since I use gmail, I have all of the email ever sent between us. From what I can tell from Skype, as long as you don't clear your chat history, you should be able to view all your messages. Then it is a matter of opening your history (I found a history entry under the windows menu in Skype, and double clicking an entry opened my entire Skype history with Mingjun in my web browser). Once you have your history, you should be able to copy and paste however much you want into notepad or wordpad, or TextEdit for those on a Mac. Then print it.

I married my first wife on December 28, and we had to file jointly for the whole year. Granted, she was a USC, but from what I read, the important thing is the marriage. Nothing else really matters that I am aware of, but I am not a CPA, so I really know nothing

Yes, and iTalkbb is also perfect for me. I already have phone service over internet that I pay about the amount iTalkbb costs. So, you ask, what is the advantage of iTalkbb then? 1) Although it uses my internet service, it does not tie me to my computer, it uses my normal landline phones I already have, and gives me a local phone number for where I live. 2) For the monthly (or yearly) fee, I can make unlimited calls to any phone number in the USA, Canada, China, and a number of other countries I don't care about, but some other people may find this appealing. 3) This is a replacement for your home phone system, so 911 calls will direct emergency services to your home. 4) And most important in my eyes, my sweetie or any of her friends can call a Chinese phone number and it rings my phone. Currently I do all the calling because it is way too expensive for her to call here. And once she arrives, this is going to be even more important. 5) Because it is VoIP, the box doesn't care where you are plugged in. I took my box with me on both my trips to China, and was able to call people here in the US from China for no charge from the hotel. They could also call me. I suspect the new iTalkbb box will work the same. You don't want to call 911 when you are not at home, though, unless you register your current address Oscar, I checked out Skype unlimited (we use the free service to chat with video just about daily), but it appears to only provide an advantage to me, she would not be able to call me from her cell phone when she is out and about, and if we get service for her, she would be tied to home. And it definitely sounds like Tsap has found the best solution for his needs And I should mention, I recently changed from a Comcast cable modem to Verizon FIOS. It cost less, and the connection speed is better than Comcast (even though Comcast's advertised speed was 8 Mb, I consistently was getting 2 Mb, FIOS says 5 Mb, and I actually get that, as well as 2 Mb incoming instead of the 384 Kb of Comcast). I have had my VoIP service since I got Broadband back in 2000.

I use a service called Packet8 (like Vonage) and we video chat with Skype. But I am liking what I see with this iTalkbb, I am ready to switch! Tailor made for those with loved ones in China!

Hmmm, interesting. I remember a conversation with my fiancee back in December about how bad the things were in the small little village of 100,000 she lives in. Many people out of work, and definite signs of an unhealthy economy. She wanted to know if the economy was bad here and I had to tell her that it started here and we are dragging the rest of the world with us. That was bad on my part, now she is worried about me and what we are going to do. But I have been able to convince her that things aren't desperate yet, as I just received a raise in January. I guess things are worse in the rural areas than the city, at least in China. Seems the opposite here.

Have the P3 sent date, maybe an appointment in the near future?

Hi, I might as well join the fray. Now that I have a P3, let's get on your timeline! Craig