IllinoisDave

You'll have the opportunity to explain it better in your overcome evidence. Just be thorough and give them everything they want. At least it doesn't sound like it was a very adversarial interview. Seems the VO just needs some clarification on the financials. Good luck.

Good news!

Is that what the kids are calling it these days.

Yeah and I'm sure my wife could negotiate a real reasonable price for it too.

This really isn't a good thing. When I think of 'Western,' values I think of a very materialistic lifestyle where people think of instant gratification, the loss of stable family life, loose sexual values, selfish behavior, and willingness to screw over 100+ other people for even a slight gain. I'm not saying living in abject poverty or struggling to have money for basic life necessities is good, however with Westernization the most entrepreneurial, connected, lucky, and hard working will almost always rise up, but the poor remain poor. Western ideas are also about everyone for themselves and the poor and destitute can also make it, but they are too lazy. Also, if China's government adapts the idea that they are always right and should police the world and attack at will like we seem to do in the US, then WWIII and the end of life as we know it is just a few years away. You have a very negative view of western values, and a very rosy one of China, then. I think many people here when they "compare" the US to China tend to think up the worst they see in the US and then contrast it with the best they see in China. To be expected from someone recently falling in love with China, but hardly an honest or fair comparison. Actually the negatives in your first paragraph describe the negative side of "modern" China very well if you ask me. I've met and known of some pretty cutthroat people in the US, but the kind of soulless materialistic backstabbing related to me by my wife from China makes them look like rank amateurs. If you look for sinners you will find them. If you look for saints you will find them. But this idea that one people lacks some essential "goodness" over another I have time and time again in my life to be 100% grade A bullshit. I think C4racer's idea of the differences being more circumstantial than cultural is more correct than anything I've heard here in awhile. What he said.

I hadn't seen a nighttime pic of it before. Pretty cool lookin. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008...ent_6505891.htm

Ya' know Smitty I've seen much, MUCH better pics of Gong Li than your avatar... http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/8363/gonglikq8.jpg OOOOMMMMGGGG!!!!

I have a feeling they're on their way.

That's excellent!! Bout time we had some interview news around here.

I'll PM you.

Thanks, I hadn't read that before either. Interesting to ponder where we'd be today if not for a chance encounter on a bus.

So $14,001 is considered ABOVE the poverty level for two people? Geez.

To have a boy in China means hope for a future with a man to take care of the family. Rather simplistic statement, maybe true in rural China. More couples realize that an educated woman's earning potential can also secure their future. Yes. My wife provides more towards the family than her brother.

Your sentiments are very understandable. I wonder if my wife won't start to experience some of the same things that your Li is going through. And I know I've felt some of the same things you have about life here. That's nothing to have to apologize for. Some days I just think: "The hell with it Sweetie, we're going to China. You can go back to your well-paying job and I'll pick up an English-teaching job for a few extra yuan a month. We'll eat great food on the cheap every day. I'll get to live in a new exciting land amid a culture I've come to admire." Then I start to think about all the realities of actually doing that. The not being able to speak the language and being out of my element culturally,the pollution,the iffy water,the possibility that the Chinese economy could be headed to a place where it's much less affordable to live there than it is now. Neither list of factors really outweighs the other so much that my mind is set for or against a move if it were to come to that. I just think a lot more thinking and talking it over would be called for before making a final decision. I suspect that's true for most of us. Good luck with your decision.

You filed K-1 petition, then got married in the same month? Entered the US, not entered the petition.

The solution offered to the Japan catch-22 was to get two copies and open one to check it,leaving the other sealed. Don't know whether the rules are the same for UK reports or not, or if it's feasible for you to get an extra copy.

So does mine. Without the chips. Mine likes it with or without chips.

Congrats on getting your case out of gridlock.

Maybe you can go to down to St Louis for some good baseball. Or I could just go up to Clark and Addison for some WINNING baseball.

Thanks for that. I haven't been married long enough to experience this yet, but now, when I do I'll know how to handle it. Or will I?

Congrats on the GC. If the in-laws can show sufficient ties to China to satisfy the gov't, it shouldn't be a problem. Good luck.

Yep. Make sure you get her/him a SSN before you file your taxes.

Thanks and welcome back spacebar. And a big congrats on your wedding! What does Xiao ping think of our lovely Chicago weather so far? I know how great it feels for you to have her here with you. The rest is gravy now. If I was a betting man, I'd bet you two will get to bypass the interview as well. As long as you've satisfied GUZ on your financials you shouldn't be an issue. (fingers crossed) Good luck and enjoy married life.

VERY unofficial of course. So dubbed by myself as this is where I first experienced real Chinese dumplings.