Bert

Would you turn down $30,000? My wife is demanding that I take it. That's what my inlaws are offering. Their view in China is that everyone is dying of Covid-19 in the US and it is not safe there. The first pitch was that it was for the airplane ticket for my wife and son to return to China plus living expenses. I refused. Then, it included me. I refused. Now, it is just money in case of an emergency. We can return it if we don't use it. My wife doesn't understand why I still refuse it. I understand their attachment o their grandson. They pretty much raised my son until he was 4. She told me once before that she regretted letting him go to the US, as though it was her choice to make. They wanted to see him last year. My wife's mother was ill. We went. A few months later, they wanted to see him again. They paid for the trip. My wife ended up leaving early after arguing with her father. They say there are no strings attached. As I told my wife, we don't need the money. If there is an emergency, I'll come up with the money to do whatever is necessary. We are not poor. They can send the money anytime should there is a need. I understand with all the propaganda in China, they feel he will be safer there. I think he is safer here than in one of the most populous cities in the world (Shanghai). There are strings attached. I think she is trying to buy her grandson. Her words haunt me, that she regretted letting him go to the US. And, my wife does have an uncle pretty high up in the food chain there. He could make trouble for me if he wanted, although I doubt he would get involved. He's a friendly guy to your face, but I always get the feeling there's someone sharpening the knife in the backroom.

Did anybody see this Epoch Times video about the search for the origin of the virus? https://youtu.be/Gdd7dtDaYmM It pretty much excludes the possibility that the virus starting at the wet market. The most interesting aspect to me is the connection to Jiang Zemin. Could he have had the virus leaked to weaken Xi Jinping? Or was he trying to corner the market on a vaccine?

That's pretty much where my wife is at. I bought a bag nearly 4 years ago. We used half, mainly to grind up and use to make pancakes for our son. But, we still buy the yellow rice with saffron from Sam's, but, even that, we don't eat much anymore. My son's stable is circle noodles and corn. The circle noodles and corn is actually an english peas, carrots, corn, and green beans mixture, in case you are wondering.

My wife says there is a second wave happening in China. I haven't seen anything in the news to suggest that, although I think that it never stopped. I have heard that China will start reporting non-symptomatic cases.

I went to Costco this past Wednesday. My wife had pretty much banned me from shopping, but, despite her rules, she managed to acquire an infection over the weekend. She then past it along to our son. We use the Costco pharmacy. I was supposed to go Monday to pick up an antibiotic but with senior's day on Tuesday, she decided I could use the opportunity to pick up food with less risk. She threatened to go with me to ensure I complied with her rules. That meant our son would have to go. I finally convinced her that it would increase our risk and waste masks. Tuesday came and she refused to let me go. She later agreed to let me go Wednesday. Wednesday came. I drew the line at wearing goggles or a full face mask or face shield. We finally compromised on safety glasses, gloves, and an N95 mask. I intended to be there about 15 minutes early. I was going out of the driveway and she calls and demands that I wear a hat. I had to come back inside and look for a hat. There was little traffic, but the lights were timed poorly. It took about ten minutes longer than it normally takes with traffic. I get there at about 08:10. The first thing I see is a 35ish-year-old woman carrying only a pack of toilet paper grinning ear to ear. I suppose that she was disabled. I put on my PPE and exited the car. The line was wrapped around the store nearly to the end. I heard one senior say that she was there at 07:00. Everyone was spaced 6 feet apart. They let in 10 or 12 people at a time. It didn't take but twenty minutes or so. The first thing I noticed was the wall of toilet paper as I entered the store. There was a guy who asked every senior if they needed a pack and loaded it for them. I'd say about a third of the people had a mask and/or gloves. As best I could tell, I was the only one wearing an N95 mask. There were two old ladies shopping together. One was hunched over the shopping cart with no protection. Her mate was wearing a pair of red knit gloves. No doubt it gave her a false sense of protection. I mention her because she was pinging all over the place getting in my face the whole time I was shopping. She wouldn't maintain her distance. The store was well-stock. It even had paper towels and Lysol. The refrigerated section smelled like rotten vegetables. I picked up a salad mix. It was partially brown with an expiration in two days. Another pack looked better, but the expiration was the same. I declined. I picked up $401 dollars worth of stuff we likely will never use, including a bag of rice and spam. We're still working on the bag of rice I bought nearly 4 years ago. The store had most things but not everything. They even had seaweed back in stock. My wife has become a compulsive eater, dieting then snacking like the world will end tomorrow. She's gained about 15 pounds recently. Most of the checkouts were open. I had to wait for one person plus another finishing up and paying--about typical. I exited the store a little after 09:00. There was no line, but I supposed that is because the store was closed to the general public and the senior hour was over. The parking lot had nearly emptied. I hate to see what the place is like when it opens to the general public. There's a Bi-Lo grocery store about a half-mile down the road. She allows me to go there now by myself during the senior hour. She says I can't go out, then says she must have fresh food. Nobody shopped in Bi-Lo at the best of times. All the self-checkouts were closed. Probably a good thing. Before the senior hours, my wife went there and used the self-checkout. I was amazed that she could clean out the dried beans and bring home a cartload for only $17. She told me that she might have missed a few things. After looking at the receipt, I think she missed most things. It's happened before at Walmart. I took the barcodes back with me the next time I went shopping at Walmart. It was hard for me to make heads or tails out of the Bi-Lo receipt. I just said the heck with it. My wife is really paranoid about this pandemic. She stays up most the night reading the news. She used to talk most of the night with her mother but she unfriended her again recently. Now her mother lectures me with her idiotic rules on how to prevent infection. I did a little yard work yesterday. I had to move the car out of the garage. I came inside briefly to get the keys. We replaced the deck a couple of weeks ago. My wife was afraid that there might be viruses in the grass. She sprayed two large cans of Lysol in the house and left the cans laying on their sides at the entrance (probably hoping I would step on them and fall). She did it more to punish me, I'm convinced.

My wife intends to apply for her citizenship at the end of May. With all the backlog, it may be years before it is granted. Or, they might be practical considering we have been married over ten years with a kid and grant it immediately. When we when for her green card interview, they told us it might take a year. Depressed my wife. We got notice of approval the next day.

I did the same thing. I found one that I was going to buy. I had been following it for days and none had sold. Then I go to buy it and it's no longer available. It's the one with ten trays on Amazon. There are several versions of it and Amazon has some in stock. I don't have confidence in the UVC LED sterilizers. UVC lights do work, but it takes several minutes. They are dangerous and that is why I haven't bought an unshielded one. I'm afraid my six-year-old would get hold of it. In the meantime, I found information on Far UV from steriray.com. It sterilizes in seconds and is supposed to be a 1000 times more effective and is not hazardous to the skin or eyes. The catch? It's not available. There are supposed to be available in a couple of months. They will be taking pre-orders in a week or so. Right now, they are handmade. The inventor just says they will be very expensive because they are handmade. It seems legit. I'm on the list for a wand. If I can afford it, I will buy one. They do or will make one for HVAC systems and rooms. I imagine that your light will work for your CPAP machine provided that LEDs do work and all angles are covered. I thought about buying the light you bought and putting a box lined with aluminum foil over the top of it. I have to wear a mask per my wife. Eventually, we will run out and I will need a way to sterilize the masks. I have seen a study that shows that it works. It allows 1.25% more penetration and it weakens the elastic bands. Sounds plausible to use UVC.

We're forced to home school now. The first day didn't go so well. After criticizing his writing style, my six-year-old punched me in the stomach and called me a big fat idiot. I learned to give him more break time. My wife had to substitute for me a couple of days. She told me that if she ever had to do it again, she would commit suicide. It's was going better until the last couple of days. He's getting annoyed. Tells me I am the meanest daddy he ever had. Both of us will be happy when he returns to school. I don't see it happening this school year. Rumor has it that it will go online and there will be a list of activities for the children to do. No structure, just do something.

Good luck with going to China. I hear that they have banned all foreigners from entering the country any time soon. We used Oasis. They are located in the same building as the China Embassy, which can come in handy. I've never seen it, but my wife claims there is a traveling Chinese visa service that makes the rounds to the smaller cities.

The neighborhood had an impromptu block party yesterday. The music was blaring. The people were imbibing alcohol. Kids were playing about. Many people dropped by, one pushing a baby in a stroller. My wife was having conniptions just watching them. Meanwhile, I was standing in our yard with an N95 mask on waiting for my niece and her husband to show up to put the grill back on the deck. Seems I was the subject of debate by the partiers. After my niece and her husband left, I had to sanitize the deck and outdoor furniture, then strip naked and take a shower. I wasn't allowed to invite them in. The only part I don't like is that she keeps shooting me in the face with Lysol. I think that I will die of lysolitis before I die of the virus. If I go out shopping, I have to wear an N95 mask and safety glasses. It freaks people out. It won't be long before she makes me suit up in a full-faced P100 mask and gloves. I have yet to see another person wearing an N95 mask. The last time I was in Costco, I did see one Asian man and an elderly white man wearing surgical masks. The woman at the entrance freaked when she saw me. I don't complain. It's the right thing to do, and, it gives me practice for when the crap hits the fan in a couple to weeks. My wife decided it was best for her to do the shopping, since she doesn't trust me to follow the rules. But, now, they have special hours for seniors, so I do the shopping.

I live to die another day. The governor will announce in a few minutes that the schools will shut down for two weeks. Two weeks will put us at the case, case, case, cluster, cluster stage, and a couple of weeks before Spring Break. No way it ends in two weeks. It will only get exponentially worse. The boom should happen after Spring Break.

We have arguments about hygiene all the time. She thinks I am unhygienic. Previously, we had to take off our shoes and clothes and wash our hands as soon as we entered the house. We were golden after that. Same thing; she handles meat with her bare hands, goes to the bathroom, whatever. No need to wash hands ever again until we leave the house. Dishcloths only get washed when they are visually filthy. She might even use them to wipe the floor and then dry the dishes. In her mind, after she sweeps the floor, you can eat off of them no matter how long ago it was. Same with the toilets. Once clean, they are golden. I usually have to clean them. I can only tolerate so much. She uses the countertops to make bread. She sees no need to clean them before rolling the dough. I bought a faucet with sensors that are used to turn the water on and off. You have to left the faucet in the on position for it to work. I hoped that you would use it after handling meats to wash her hands. She uses it as a regular faucet, so it takes one extra step to turn the faucet to the on position then wave your hand, totally defeating the purpose. It was I who bought the hand sanitizer and Lysol and wipes. She had to wait until someone Chinese suggested it before she asked me to buy it. I had to show her again that we already had it. Now, she's a hygiene NAZI. But, she hasn't figured out the wipes yet.

My wife says one of us will be dead come Monday morning. She says our son is not going to school. I told her he will. Since I am nonviolent, I guess it will be me.

If I had known that she didn't need an actual green card to apply for citizenship, I wouldn't have replaced it. But, there is probably a gotcha in there. They likely would have made her apply for another green card for her rather than just submitting a copy. Now that she has applied for a replacement, a copy is sufficient for the citizenship process, so they say.

I was surprised. It was only $3,000. The one they held up was about $1,000.

I've looked at Western Union before. It is not good for large sums. I don't think you can do it. It is quick, safe, and secure for small sums. Today, I always wire it from my brokerage account. Real easy. Used to cost $15 but now there is no charge. I always send in USD because the conversion in China is always better. I wire it to my FIL to pay HOA and taxes. He likes to keep the USD anyway as a hedge. The time before last, it didn't show up for a week. It caused a lot of concern and I advised my FIL to start a trace on his end. That's when the bank told him that they had it all along. The last time, just a couple of weeks ago, they notified him immediately and demanded to know who the money was from and for what purpose. My broker just says it can take a week.

Just curious, do you pay the full fee for the 10-year renewal? I think I know the answer. My wife lost her green card. I figured it might cost $10 to print up a new one, but, no, it cost $540 to replace it. Still don't have it. They said it would take about a year. Funny. The first time around, we scheduled an interview before we refiled her application for a green card because we were unsure why it was rejected the first time. The problem was we provided too much information. He told us exactly what to do, namely to get rid of superfluous information like her fiancee visa. Basically, keep it simple and don't confuse them with documents, even if they asked for the information. The guy told us acceptance was pretty much automatic. I imagine the ten-year renewal is more the same. Randy gives the perfect answer. We submitted the application for her first green card in February and interviewed in April. My wife asked how long it would take to get her green card. The guy said 6 months to a year. We got an electronic notification the next day, and a confirmation letter in about a week. The green card came in May. The replacement is another story. They told us it would take a year. That's was last December. She'll probably have her citizenship before it arrives.

My wife has officially gone off the deep end. She's hysterical. When she's in that state, she is capable of anything. I literally have to watch my back. It started weeks ago after she went to the Chinese store to pick up stuff. Shortly after arriving home, she declared that the had the coronavirus and started wearing a mask. I laughed. I make the mistake of reminding her that she went there the week before. She got sicker. She asked me what the symptoms were. I told her a fever and respiratory problems. A couple of hours later she had trouble breathing. She woke up the next morning and discovered she wasn't dead yet and maybe she didn't have the virus. I've been prepping since this thing first broke in China. I told my wife then that it would come here and there was no way to stop it. The US would be the opposite of China and that it would react better on the front end and worst on the back end. Everyone has their rights. There's no way to implement a mass quarantine in the US. Business comes first. I acquired a couple of jugs of hand sanitizer and lots of hand soap. I'm still trying to convince my wife that soap is better, but she still wants more sanitizer. You just can't buy it anymore and it is unnecessary. My wife picked up 4 boxes of respirator masks. We've been stocking up on food. I wish that I had been more aggressive with that, but we are ok. I did order toilet paper, but it was because we were out. It never occurred to me that there would be a run on toilet paper. We have a couple of full-face masks coming as well as goggles. I am thinking about ordering a UVC sterilizer so we can reuse the masks, if necessary. There's something better out there call Far-UVC. It is safer and more effective. It can destroy viruses in seconds. They have a lot of great products lined up, but I want the wand for now. I don't know how much it will cost. The company just says it is very expensive because they are hand made. Won't be available until May. My son came home with something this past weekend. He sticks with me like white on rice. I have it now. My wife is telling our son that I have the coronavirus and to stay away from me. I tell him that I got sick from him and there is no worry ad that it is not the coronavirus. My son tells her not to worry about him because he gave the coronavirus to me. I'm sure he will tell the school that he gave the coronavirus to me. It caused a big argument this morning. My wife announced that our son would no longer be attending school starting next week. I agree with her that the schools should be shut down, but, until they are, he must go to school. I try to convince her that he is not at risk and she has already had it (not really). My wife is a hypochondriac. So is her mother. I think that I told the story here where my son bit his grandmother on the neck. She went to the doctor many times insisting that he do something. He treated her for rabies. Hopefully, it was a placebo. My wife is the same. My wife currently has a bandage on her right hand and left elbow and she is walking on crutches. Her hand injury came from turning the steering wheel too fast. The elbow, from exercising. The crutches are for her ankles. No doctor has ever found anything wrong with her ankles. Oh, and she has TMJ from laughing too hard. Every woman from the region that I know is like that. Why am I telling you this? Her mom is spinning her up on this virus thing. She, in turn, accuses me of not taking this seriously and not being well-informed. She wishes me to die and tells my son I will die of the virus. Her mom wants her our son out of school now. She told me and I told her it wasn't going to happen. Her mother took it on herself to harass me on WeChat until I complied. I ignored her notifications. I can hear the two talking now about what an evil bastard I am. She got so hysterical this morning that I had to yell at her. Before I met my wife, I had only raised my voice a handful of times, and only once in anger. My wife can push my buttons with her hysteria. I have to listen carefully for the knife drawer opening for a while. Up until recently, my wife blocked her mother on WeChat, which meant she couldn't see her grandson. It took me a couple of months to get them back together. Now, I wish I hadn't. Now I have to deal with two hysterical women. I told the MIL to stay out of it this morning. That's my rant for today.

Teaching my wife to drive is one of my more harrowing experiences. It was like my wife had never seen a car before. She has a Chinese license and had a car in Shanghai driving for ten years. Despite the traffic, it is pretty easy to drive in Shanghai. No one trusts the other driver, so they all look out for each other, and the traffic moves slowly. All-way stops befuddled my wife. More than once, she assumed an all-way stop and pulled out in front of drivers causing them to come to a screeching halt. She wouldn't listen to me, so I sent her to a driving school run by off-duty officers. After the first day, the instructor was visibly shaken and just shook his head. After the second day, with another officer, he shook his head and told me, "You just have to take her out and practice, practice, practice." Even today, she will drive on the wrong side of the road for no particular reason. She ran a red light not because she didn't see it but because other people do it and she wanted to see what it was like. I take the view that you drive safely, even when no one is looking. The hardest thing was to convince no to try to push pedestrians in the crosswalk out of the way with the car. She's a horrible driver and is only marginally better than when she arrived here. If you are in the crosswalk and you see her coming, don't walk; Run! My wife is motivated when she is pissed off. I am tolerant of mistakes but not stupidity. I yelled at her one day and told her she could never pass a driving test. She wanted to go immediately. So, I took her. She passed the first time. The officer knew a little Mandarin and told her she passed in Mandarin. I think that is why he passed her because it was the only words he knew and wanted to impress her. She told the officer that I said she would never pass. He went out of his way to tell me that she was "Perfect". He doesn't know the monster he created. Her friends were shocked and didn't believe it. They had to see the actual license. She has a friend who took 13 times to pass. At work, we used to have Chinese visitors. Many of them would get their license in China but use the opportunity to learn to drive in the US where it is easier to drive. I didn't know it when I rode with one woman. She could figure out how to back out of a parking space in an empty lot. She must have hit something pretty hard along the line because a hubcap was missing. Some factories started forbidding them from renting a car when visiting the factory. She never should have been driving. Save yourself a heart-attack and send them to driving school and keept them there until they pass.

Teaching my wife to drive is one of my more harrowing experiences. It was like my wife had never seen a car before. She has a Chinese license and had a car in Shanghai driving for ten years. Despite the traffic, it is pretty easy to drive in Shanghai. No one trusts the other driver, so they all look out for each other, and the traffic moves slowly. All-way stops befuddled my wife. More than once, she assumed an all-way stop and pulled out in front of drivers causing them to come to a screeching halt. She wouldn't listen to me, so I sent her to a driving school run by off-duty officers. After the first day, the instructor was visibly shaken and just shook his head. After the second day, with another officer, he shook his head and told me, "You just have to take her out and practice, practice, practice." Even today, she will drive on the wrong side of the road for no particular reason. She ran a red light not because she didn't see it but because other people do it and she wanted to see what it was like. I take the view that you drive safely, even when no one is looking. The hardest thing was to convince no to try to push pedestrians in the crosswalk out of the way with the car. She's a horrible driver and is only marginally better than when she arrived here. If you are in the crosswalk and you see her coming, don't walk; Run! My wife is motivated when she is pissed off. I am tolerant of mistakes but not stupidity. I yelled at her one day and told her she could never pass a driving test. She wanted to go immediately. So, I took her. She passed the first time. The officer knew a little Mandarin and told her she passed in Mandarin. I think that is why he passed her because it was the only words he knew and wanted to impress her. She told the officer that I said she would never pass. He went out of his way to tell me that she was "Perfect". He doesn't know the monster he created. Her friends were shocked and didn't believe it. They had to see the actual license. She has a friend who took 13 times to pass. At work, we used to have Chinese visitors. Many of them would get their license in China but use the opportunity to learn to drive in the US where it is easier to drive. I didn't know it when I rode with one woman. She could figure out how to back out of a parking space in an empty lot. She must have hit something pretty hard along the line because a hubcap was missing. Some factories started forbidding them from renting a car when visiting the factory. She never should have been driving. Save yourself a heart-attack and send them to driving school and keept them there until they pass.

Here' what the travel document looks like: This is the back cover. Notice the wrinkle. Looks like it might be an RFID: Photo page. Name and picture changed to protect the guilty: Declaration page and notes in Chinese: Notes in English. I missed this before. It clearly states that it is for two years, after which, you must apply again. I think that we will renounce rather than going through the hassle again.

I hear that three Canadian executives have been arrested now. "If you are in a dispute with anyone in China regarding money, you should consider paying it and getting a valid and legally sound release in Chinese making clear that you paid it. See Maybe Owe Money To China? Don’t Go There. Or you should consider immediately leaving China." That's the one I worry about. I don't remember the name of the hospital anymore, but it is the most expensive expat oriented hospital in Shanghai. My wife was mistreated by a physical therapist there. It became a family affair. They agreed to treat her for free. But, my wife wasn't satisfied with the limitations. Then, after the treatments, they reneged. Her family created such a scene, that they decided to settle with her, agreeing to pay her 30,000 RMB. But, as part of the agreement, they would make a claim on the insurance company. If they paid, they paid. If they didn't, they didn't. It wasn't her problem if they didn't pay. Under my company's insurance paid, she was covered for three months after I left. For eight months, she was covered, but I would have to reimburse the company. I told her not to go, but she called the insurance company and they told her no problem. She went anyway. She was in that eight-month period. The insurance company must have paid something. Fast forward two and a half years and we get a bill by email from the hospital. We ignored it. It was a couple thousand RMB. The second issue is that since my wife received her green card, she thinks she has free speech. Much of her junk on WeChat gets deleted by the censors. She made derogatory comments about the Dear Leader to her mother. No doubt the government monitors WeChat. She may have a green card, but she is still a Chinese Citizen.

I came across a discussion on Reddit. If you can wade through the hurling of insults, there are a few nuggets. There are several people "who know for a fact" this or that. One interesting comment was about the procedures vary from region to region. In some regions, the Entry and Exit Permit comes with the renouncing of citizenship; others, not. The logistics seem to be unworkable to me. It is the people in Washington DC who will make the determination. Perhaps it is that the interpretation of the law is changing so fast. On another subject, my wife has been told before, "Check back tomorrow; maybe the rules will have changed." I have heard of a number of people getting an Exit and Entry Permit in Shanghai. They wouldn't do it for my wife. She had to go to her hometown in Hubei. Before they would issue a permit, she had to prove that our son had lived there for two years. It seems to me to be a stupid requirement. He had never lived there. My wife had no choice but to use low people in high places to fake the documents. My guess is the law is the same everywhere but ignorance prevails. You can see in the video where she says something to the effect, "Don't tell me what to do if you don't know what you are talking about."

Success! The travel document doesn't show an expiration date nor is there a limit on the stay. I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there. The embassy guy told me it was good for 18 years. He was clear that we never had to go back to Washington DC. Everywhere else I read says two years. Quite possibly, it has to be renewed every two years but we don't have to reapply or go back to Washington DC. My wife told me that the woman said he would be issued an "L" visa. She must have misunderstood. Perhaps it is the equivalent of an "L" visa. Nothing was put into his passport. They did not hold his passport, only his original Exit and Entry Permit. "The video I posted earlier, though, is where he talks about renouncing her citizenship." I listened to that section a few times. If I understood him correctly, he thought the Exit and Entry Permit would be the equivalent to renouncing citizenship. Only he can say, but there seemed to be a misunderstanding. Like you say, he will know for sure when he applies for a visa. He must have a certificate showing that the citizenship was renounced. That is what he needs in the future so that he can apply for a visa for his daughter in her US passport.

Visa Journey is a catchall. You can probably find others there that have gone through it. If there is a site, you might find someone there to tell you where it is.