chengdu4me

Her and her son are in Tenn. She's in. Everybody knows that getting her out will be an effort that is not undertaken. She has a legal battle ahead of her, but I think she will win it. She has the requisite "anchor" baby. Any child born of a U.S. serviceman overseas is an automatic U.S. citizen. I wish her and her son well. They deserve whatever they want.

I am on another forum for ex-pats and a person that tried to get the D visa was told the following by the Office of the Minister of Public Security. 1. The D visa is being phased out. 2.It currently must be approved personally in Beijing by the Minister of Public Security. 3.The background check required to get approval takes about a year. 4.It is not worth the time or the hassle to the government. This horse is dead. Use the extended stay L visa and set your alarm to go renew it every year.

Steve! Don't throw them all out...save the ones with the blue ring for special occasions. Do not give them to the dog!

My Yan...she has changed me in so many ways...the biggest of them being my address...other than that, I'm still me! Flexibly stubborn, stubbornly flexible, arrogantly compassionate, compassionately arrogant. I DO march to the beat of a different Banjo. I couldn't tell you one single personality trait that I don't have; nor could I tell you that I do not also possess the exact opposite trait...I'm me, Yan's confused, and somewhere in all of that...we just live... I can honestly say that she has met a man that is more stubborn than ANY Chinese woman! I'm sure she would tell you the same. No fighting, no yelling, no bad words or other animosities....but when I get to the line..I don't cross it...people may die, dynasties may crumble,, but I will still be standing on my side of that line. She isn't used to that at all!!!!

The "infamous" D visa is about as hard to get as size 13 shoes in China. If you aren't Bill Gates and are not willing to move your entire company here, you are not in the running for this type of visa. An "extended stay L visa" is all you need. You renew it every year. Is it fairly easy to do and you can renew it every year for as long as you want. No restrictions on that. After you have been here for more than five years, you can ask for a "two year" extended L visa and you will probably get it. Then you renew every two years.

This link will give you at chart and access to all the major airlines baggage policies from one screen. It is (supposedly) correct as of July 30, 2009 http://www.luggageforward.com/excess_baggage_fees.jsp

I just completed this process...so here's how it goes... When you get there, if you are staying in a private residence, go to the local neighborhood PSB (police station) and register as a visitor. Your wife will need to go with you. You will need... Your passport Her ID Card Her Household Registry Booklet If renting, the lease agreement (The reason they need this is they need the landlords name, address, his ID number and phone number) Once you have completed this, just sit back and relax...let the days of your visa tick down.... When you have ten days left on your current allowed stay time, then go to the Exit and Entry Administation Building in your city/province You will need... Your passport Your visitor registration form (got that at your local PSB) Her ID card Her Household Registry Booklet Your Marriage Books (His and Hers) Three (I think?) passport photos of you. A completed visa extension application form After your number is called, and they accept your paperwork, they will keep your passport and give you a receipt. This is your passport for the next few days. Keep it with you. You will return on the day that it says to return on the receipt they give you. You will go back up to the counter and they will give you another receipt. You will take this receipt to whatever bank they tell you to take it to (generally, right around the corner) and pay them 940 RMB. The bank will stamp your receipt as paid. You will take this stamped receipt back to the E &E and they will give you back your passport with your old visa stamped cancelled and a new one good for one year with no limit on the amount of days you can stay...if you wish to stay more than the year...go to the top of the post and repeat as many times as you like... Disclaimer: This is the procedure in Chengdu, Sichuan province...It should be the same everywhere, but....this IS China!!!!!

The fastest easiest, safest way would be through Western Union. This can be done at any China Post Bank. You will fill out the WU form, they may require a FinCen105, also. You can send in RMB and collect in USD, since the actual physical RMB nevers leaves China. If you didn't complete the FinCen105 in China when you sent the money, you will need to complete it when you pickup the money in the US at WU. Painless, easy, no problems. One benefit to using WU to do this is that you will have a receipt showing that this money was not earned in the U.S and is not subject to be taxed.

Note to self...do not try to teach the Chinese kids to say..."Where for art thou my car keys? Doth I beseech thee! Let me thine eyes for a proper quest!"

Anyone of you that visit me in Chengdu will become a DF. If you need an A to hide from your wife, you can come to my house.....HAHAHAHA

Either this is a very advanced ESL course or the teacher was confused about what class she was teaching. Just for fun, it might be interesting to see the look on the teachers face if your wife asks her to read and paraphrase the writing in one of Four Great Chinese Novels. I have no idea what they are, but I would guess they are on the same level of literacy as Jane Austin. A Mafan is right in that ESL course are usually taught at a elementary, pre-teen level. This actually covers a lot of words and a lot of phrases that you use everyday...and that is supposed to be the point of ESL.

There are a lot of stereotype, a lot a jealously stuff being thrown around about this subject. I think that a lot of how your wife thinks/treats your ex is going to depend on how your ex treats her. If your ex and you are still good friends, then your ex needs to tone that down so that there is no physical contact between you two when the new wife is around. That is just being respectful to her feelings. Nothing is going to make your wife more jealous and color her feelings towards your ex than a big hug and kiss when you greet each other. Likewise about the kids. If they are leary of her, she is going to be leary of them. She is used to happy, bubbly kids that are respectful and perhaps shy. A pack of heathens running through the house without any regards to the new lady of the house isn't going to sit well either. If they don't engage her and ask for her help, her opinion, her sharing, then she will get the impression that they don't like/respect her.

You guys are lame! DFA = Drunken Foreigners Asylum

12 step program???? We ARE your 12 step program...vent,...rage..ask questions, cry, whine,....do it here! Not in front of your sweetie! Truly Robert, the only person I can think of that has not been through all this is...me! I filed a K-1, cancelled it a few months later (never got to P-2)when some other issues out of our control came up, then we broke up, I met someone else, packed it up and moved to China....but, I went through the same things you are going through that first few months. Pretty much everyone here knows exactly what you are going through...this is the SOLE reason this forum was created!

You are in the beginning of the process. It is somewhat natural to be impatient, mostly because you don't want to realize or accept that it is still a long road. Fretting over small stuff will just make you even more impatient. More stressed... Regardless of your physical condition, you can and should get some exercise that will relieve the stress, flat out wear you out, and give you an outlet to vent some of that frustration... May I suggest matial arts. Attending class a few evenings a week, sweating like you have never sweated before, get your mind off the "dreaded process" and getting the bonus of being able to try to knock the crap out of the padded dummy is a great way to take care of all these things. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, try other things. Start a project that will take a long time to finish, but is something you like doing. If there are Chinese language course available in you area, try that. There are a million things you can do other than worry. Worry solves nothing. Use the energy that you spend worrying to take your time and make sure every i is dotted, every t is crossed. Other have said it, and I will repeat. You ARE the rock. You ARE the wall. You ARE the quiet strength that will give her supreme confidence. Her confidence in your relationship must shine through at interview time. English or Chinese, if she is unsure, the VO will see that. How the VO interperts that is anyones guess...

Everyone has given you the negatives of going to see her without a job. I live in Chengdu. I came here with my savings, got a home, got married, got settled. Even though my wife knows we are financially secure, I can see that it causes her some moments of doubt. She sees this pile of cash and she sees it go out, but she never sees any come in. To her and to her family, I am "retired" and that is fine. Recently, out of the blue, I was offered a really good job. When I told my wife about it, you could almost see the worry and weight just float away! She was so happy! And, more important, she became very proud! Bragging rights! She is married to a Professor at the most pretigious University in Sichuan Province! Oh my! You should have seen her face when she was telling her mother!!!. (I'm not a professor, I'm a teacher...just a plain ole' teacher) Your sweetie wants/needs to brag on you to family and friends. She needs to be able to show she has caught the big one and there ain't no way she is letting go of that line! She needs the one reason in the world to a Chinese family to pursue this relationship with you and to have all her friends and families blessing. I hate to break it to you, but LOVE ain't it!!!!! It is security!!!! Security for her, her family, your family, your children together...it doesn't mean love isn't there...it just means that love don't feed the kitty...love to a Chinese woman is a matter of pragmatism and logic....lets face it...she could love anyone she wanted to...but why waste the effort for just the emotion?...use it and other talents, educations, efforts to build a good life! Give her what she wants...a mature, responsible, logical, well-educated, employed husband....she..and you..will be happier for it! Another thought would be get a job in China. With an MBA, you are on the top of the heap for a teaching job. Come to China, teach for a year while waiting for the US economy to improve, get to know this fine lady and then go from there...if you stay here for two years after you are married, you cut out a lot of red tape as far as getting her a visa.

There could one or more of a million reasons. Work for lower pay. Friend of a current employee. Relative of a current employee. Perhaps he is a certified filter packer. Stronger and able to also do other jobs. Perhaps he also has fork lift experience or other experience that would make him more versatile. Not everything is outright discrimination. Some of it is just preference discrimination. If the hiring mangers preferences do not discriminate for any reason that is illegal, then they are free to do so. Companies can discriminate against smokers, short people, tall people, fat people (as long as the fat person has not been listed as handicapped), your commute is too long to make you reliable, you aren't able to work other shifts, you don't have your own reliable transportation, you don't have enough work history, you don't have any work history, bad credit, no credit, criminal record, etc., etc.

Companies discriminate all the time. Legal, illegal.....depends on the reasons. For example...if the Hispanic and the Chinese are equally qualified and the Hispanic will work for less money...the Chinese loses! Not illegal! If the Hispanic and the Chinese are not equally qualified...lets say the Chinese has 10 years experience and the Hispanic has no experience...the Hispanic will work for less money and the company is willing to accept that they will need training...the Chinese loses! Not illegal! If the the reason the company hires the Hispanic is because they have Hispanics on the payroll and they are afraid that hiring the Chinese will cause communication problems that will affect production...THAT is illegal! Good luck getting them to admit that is the reason... Intentional discrimination is probably one of the hardest cases to prove... If the

I don't what city she is in, but I would bet there are at least 100 private schools where she can learn English with classes for the total non-English speaker all the way up to advanced Business English. Her time apart from you is tough enough without having to give up her comfort zone and move to a school. Since she has no job, then she should be pretty flexible as far as class schedules go. Being close to family and friends is probably pretty important to her right now. She knows she will be leaving them all pretty soon. Try not to get upset that she wants this time and that she doesn't want to live in some stinking dorm room. Private school lessons a few days/evenings a week to gain a simple understanding of English and your support will go a lot farther than an interview in perfect English with an unhappy woman...

Sounds to me like one hell of a great time to take a weekend vaca in LA...Mickeys House, KBF, perhaps a drive up the coast through Big Sur and Carmel, turn right and head to Sacto...

Use private money changers outside the bank. They will be much quicker and they give a better rate than the bank. The bank will actually put the money RMB through their machine and verify the count and authenticity. Disclaimer...at least the Industrial Bank in Chinegdu will do this.... Changed some yesterday..Bank Rate was 6.76...Private Rate was 6.82

Screw em! Gimme back my butter! Ex-pats eat butter!

I am reminded of a story told to me by a pastor at our church many years ago. Mans laws and system of justice is based on what the eye sees. The eye can be fooled. Gods laws are based on the contents of your soul. God cannot be fooled. Man will be judged by man according to his actions. God wil judge man according to his intentions. According to the law of man, a person can be a murderer. This same man according to God could be a savior...what was in his soul at the time is the difference...unfortunately, man judges by what we know..and we never know all...

Ther short answer....in the Bible, it states that Jesus said; obey your masters and follow the laws of Ceasar. He also said that all that ask forgiveness of my Father for their sins will be forgiven. So, first part...obey and accept the laws and punishments of the earthly laws and courts Second part, whatever your crime, whatever your earthly punishment, forgiveness in the after life can be yours if you are repentent. Having not been there yet, I would only suspect that Heaven is full of murderers, child molesters, rapist, thieves, and other earthly scum. It would be my thought that those that have knowingly led a life of crime and hatred are more aware of this and more repentent than many who "think" they have led a good life and saw no reason to ask forgiveness...and then found out a little too late that they didn't...

Here is an interesting and ridiculous point about carrying your green card. Only DHS employees, and police officers that have been trained and are particiapting in the 287(g) program have the authority to ask to see your green card. Anyone other than those that demand to see your green card or other proof of legal residency is in violation of federal law and can be sued for violating one or more of your civil rights. Dumb, isn't it? Yes, you are supposed to carry it, but getting someone to retrieve it for you from home is a lot easier than replacing it.