Shanghai John

My wife called Bank of China today to ask about getting this $85,000 to America. Apparently they were telling her that she had to visit some kind of government office and go through a bunch of baloney with them to do it. Stuff like, declaring what the money was from, and what it would be used for, stuff like that. Did you run into any of this? Any ideas on how to circumvent, or if she was just talking to the wrong person?

My wife has between $80,000 and $95,000 in a Bank of China account back in China. She will be returning this summer to visit for a month and we'd like to transfer that money back to the United States at that time. Based on what you've said, she should be able to knock this out in one day if she shows up to the bank with her sister or friend? Does it have to be to one of the "linked" Bank of America accounts I've read about, or can it be any valid US account with the proper SWIFT code and account number? Very interesting post, I've been browsing around all morning to look for info and who knew that my old friend CFL would have recent info on this topic!

Heh, I kinda like Guangzhou.

This morning, 5/4/2010. Went pretty smooth. Will post more later. I'm in China now too.

May 4th also. See you at the coffee shop? Heh.

I now plan to be at ACH on the prior Monday (Apr 26) as well. Maybe I will see you there (sheesh, 2 weeks from yesterday, time to get packing!)

Well, there are some specific issues to our case that are more complicated than most. Yes, I would like to attend ACH. Conventional wisdom here and elsewhere states that attending ACH is beneficial. I realize that we are at their mercy for the date of the rescheduling, but other than the agony of waiting for additional time, I don't see how it would be harmful to our case.

My fiancee's interview has been scheduled for Tuesday, May 4. I want to attend ACH which would be on Monday, May 3. However, there is a national holiday from May 1-3 in China and the consulate is closed on that Monday, so no ACH. How difficult is it to reschedule the interview, and would they be able to push it back just 1 or 2 weeks, or am I going to end up with a multi-month additional wait if I request this? Further complicating the matter, I have a new job. They are being cool about letting me have the time off so I can get over there, but I hate to add the complete ambiguity of not knowing when the rescheduled date will be into the mix. How long would it take to hear back with the new date? How far out will they push the date? Literally, one week delay would be completely sufficient from our perspective.

FYI, transporting 200 year old artifact shards out of mainland China is against their laws, and probably an extremely bad idea. I'm just sayin.

I make well over the federal poverty guidelines.... about $80,000 a year in salary, plus a potentially sizeable year-end bonus (no luck in 2009). I live in the Midwest, so this is a pretty respectable amount here. Do I need to list other assets on my 134 form, such as my home, etc? It's worth about 200k, and I owe about 125k on the mortgage. I also have retirement accounts, etc, although I'm only 32. I've heard people say that you shouldn't include other stuff if you make well over the poverty guidelines, to forget about the other stuff, but there's also people in RobertH's thread in results saying that anything under $100k could still be questionable!

Haha, good to know that the consensus is it won't affect us. I just know that sometimes countries do that whole tit-for-tat diplomacy with each other and it can have some unexpected consequences.

My visa inside my US Passport to visit China expires on February 10, so it needs to be renewed. I'm wondering if the recent US-China tension over this Taiwan arms deal could result in some additional side-effects such as denying tourist visas, etc. What's the consensus on whether it would be better to wait for a few weeks for things to cool down, befor re-applying? There is no pressing and urgent need to renew the visa immediately, but I want to have it ready to go for when I attend her interview (we're still waiting for NOA2, hopefully anyday here). Thanks!

The last time I sent something via FedEx to my lady in Guangzhou, it was stuck in Customs for a week also, and they ended up calling her to hassle her about it. She had to write down what everything was, and fax that in, even though I had already done so on the manifest/shipping slip (which got taped to the package???!?!?!). All in all, it was a nuisance, for both of us.

I have always had seat assigned as part of the booking process. That's possible, but I do know for certain that I was moved into an exit row at JFK when I checked in! I guess they took pity on the "tall" Westerner. (I'm all of about 6'1 on my tallest day)

I got into this discussion late, but yes, Asiana is a fantastic airline. I took Asiana flights from JFK to Seoul and onward to Guangzhou last summer. They didn't weigh my carry-ons. I was carrying both a laptop bag as well as a backpack. The backpack probably weighed about 30 lbs, but I just had it slung over my shoulder and it looked pretty normal, I think. The flight attendants are so on top of things, it's really great. They don't assign seating until you check in at the airport, so I was able to get an exit row on the 747 (with about 6 feet of leg room!) since I checked in very early at JFK due to my long layover. On the way back, I had a normal seat next to the window in economy, and it was still very comfortable, compared with United (where you are packed in like sardines).

Stayed in a 7 days inn in downtown Guangzhou on my way out of country on my last trip. It wasn't fancy, but clean, quiet, and functional.

Two things have made flying safer since 9/11: 1) Reinforced cockpit doors and 2) Passengers know to resist terrorists Everything else is a waste of tax dollars and a burden on global society at large. There will always be a weak point in the system, and that is what the terrorist-types will target. Airport security should be thorough, but tempered with a strong sense of reality.

Ahhh, now that makes sense. I was thinking "notarized passport!?!?" but I can see notarizing photocopies of it.

Not telling your wife that you are unemployed? Talk about starting off a relationship on the wrong foot. In my opinion, you really need to sit down and think things over. Good luck finding a new job, it's tough out there.

I doubt anyone would "notarize" your passport. A notary is a witness the signing of a document, swearing by their office that the person signing the document is the actual person it's supposed to be. A passport has your picture, biometrics, and other specific data already, (and a signature if I'm not mistaken, I don't have mine handy), so notarizing it would be sort of a moot point.

I use Dynasky, which is basically like an online calling card. You can go into their website and program their portal numbers to recognize your mobile phone (or home phone, presumably) number and assign quick-dial numbers. So I just have to dial 11# or 12# to dial my lady. It's 1.8 cents a minute to China or something like that. There's also a service called Rebtel that allows for calls FROM China to the US cheaply, at least if the caller can call a Shanghai or Beijing number cheaply. The Chinese caller creates a phonebook of people, who are all assigned phone numbers in Shanghai or Beijing (you have to pick one or the other). Calling the appropriate Shanghai/Beijing number forwards the call on to the USA (or whereever else), at 2ish cents per minute, once again.

You can cover some of that stuff in your EOR, but I would not make a separate letter for this. I would advise you to get a friend to help with proofreading your EOR, because your letter above was a little too informal (and full of typos). We all make mistakes when writing our own material and it's a lot harder to see them when you're the original author. That said, I would not post your actual EOR on CFL, because you want your EOR to be from your heart, not ours. Your EOR could look something like this (probably a lot longer, and with a lot more details. I just grabbed some dates from your timeline and went with that!).

Too bad indeed. I can tell you that all foreign service officers have secret clearance, (and I think most/all of them actually have top secret clearance). There is a confidentiality agreement that one must sign in order to take the verbal and written exams. This agreement states that you will not disclose any specifics about the content of the exams, or the examination process. Presumably, this level of confidentiality/secrecy only gets more intense as one gets along in the process and particularly if serving overseas.

Consular officers (and foreign service officers in general) rotate in and out of assignments relatively frequently, the new ones in particular. I believe the stated goal for State Dept. is to have a new officer be at 3 different posts in 5 years, with at least one of those being a "hardship" post (think Ivory Coast, Afghanistan, or someplace you just would NOT want to live). After that, they rotate less frequently, but probably every 3-5 years regardless. The original black pearl rumors started like... what, 2001? I guarantee that whoever it was is long gone. They're probably causing havoc with another country now. How do I know this? I took the foreign service exam (and passed!) and went to do the second round of weeding out (and failed!) about 4 years ago, so I studied up on all the details.

When you married your wife, did she take your last name? If so, how did that work with her passport, immigration papers, etc? Seems like it could be a complicating factor.