lyscra

My wife and I travelled to Europe last month. If you are stopping in the UK first it helps to get that Visa first. For the schengen visa, you would then provide proof of the UK visa and if that one is approved then the chances of getting approval for the schengen are pretty high because the UK is pretty thorough. Almost every EU country requires you to go in to interview for the schengen visa EXCEPT Sweden and France. As I had already been to both places, I chose to go through Sweden (plus French people really seem to dislike Americans from my experience). The rule is that you apply to the country you plan to enter the schengen coutries by OR wherever country you plan to stay in the longest. You can, however, state that you have not planned all of the countries you plan to go to and include a letter stating the half of your plan and that you plan to travel around by train and this is acceptable. That is what we did and we spent the majority of our time in Austria. Its a little tricky, but its unreasonable to fly back to LA for an interview 2 months after flying to LA for her passport renewal, which we did. The schengen visa requires you to have your air itinerary, but they DO NOT require you to buy the tickets. Go to Orbitz or one of those sites and create a "possible" itinerary and you can submit that for the schengen visa. I was actually told to do this by the consulate, and not to purchase the tickets until you get approved. We did however, reserve and pay for the hotels and submit this with the schengen form. Be prepared to take pictures. My wife took 960 in a two week times span, and I still feel I held her back.

I think the lady and her husband got a visa to go to school here. My wife is a green card holder though, and we were just going to the Europe for a couple of weeks and I wanted to find out if what the lady told me was true or not. Thanks everybody! -Sy

I had heard from a resident at my work that she needed to fill out a form when she travelled out of the US. She said it was a new requirement as of last year. My wife has a brand new passport and a valid green card. What other forms/paperwork do we need to re-enter the US after we leave for vacation? Thanks in advance! -Sy

Hello, I was looking at taking my wife to europe for vation this year and wondered if it is any easier to get her travel visas since she is a US resident with a green card. From my initial check they only seem to care what country you hold citizenship in. Anyone have any experience here? Thanks! Sy

I read that thread before I posted... nothing about LA consulate. I also read each consulate is different for whether they mail the passport back. Thanks for the effort though!

Hello, I tried looking on the consulates webpage, and they have nothing, My wife needs to renew her passport and the final word seems to be that she must go to the consulate. My questions (for anyone familiar with the LA consulate) are: 1) do they mail back the passport if we provide a self addressed stamped envelope? Getting her there for one day is already going to be a huge inconvenience. If not, can anyone pick up the passport from the consulate? 2) where can she get the passport photos (I read cannot be CVS or walgreens)? 3) What is required for her to have her married name on the passport? 4) What forms are required to get the passport? Thanks in advance -Sy

Logic and critical thinking are subjects very dear to my heart. Some would say I think too deeply about such things so excuse me if I ramble. I think that you may have lumped more than one "problem" into a single category. I don't think the Chinese lack imagination. Their imagination has different constraints than ours, but ours definitely has its own constraints. The group vs individual thing isn't neccesarily a problem of logic but of a difference in underlying assumptions that cause the same logic to return different results. I find the best solution there to be aware, as much of possible, of the assumptions she's working from. Usually, you'll have to ask as they won't be apparent to you. Then you can more reliably (though never perfectly) predict her responses. Another difference that comes into play is that western thinking tends to be much more linear. If we can go A--B--result, we will. Eastern thinking tends to be less linear so it may resemble A--W--B--C--Y--result. Why? It was just an interesting path with side thoughts about interconnected issues. Sometimes, our western mind can be impatient. Why are you not at the result in 3 steps?! When we see what we consider wandering off to C and Y we think the person can't solve the problem but in fact, if given enough time, they may produce the same or an equally workable result. Of course, one thing that we all forget (me especially) is that human beings are not logical creatures by nature. The science of logic has been a way to constrain the bizarre way that we as humans make decisions. It was definitely not derived from observing human behavior but by trying to correct it. We all get frustrated when we expect people to be logical, but its not a reasonable expectation. One way our western minds make the path shorter is by filtering out ambiguity. The eastern mind (all of this is in general, of course) can hold the ambiguity and then there are more possibilties to consider. Western minds tend to force things into clear categories, then make decisions based on that. As an example, Is communism/socialism good or bad? The more eastern your thinking the more likely you are to reply "both", as you would for capitalism as well. The western mind would create the dichotomy communism/capitalism and asign one to good and one to bad, then choose. In the example above the path from A to B may be clearer to us in part because we've filtered out the ambiguity and narrowed the possibilites. I think it is good to try to be aware that our cultures think differently and factor in those differences. You may have to wait longer for a result. You may have to consider a result that your direct path did not produce and ask if it is actually wrong or just different. If you present western thinking as good and to be emulated and eatern thinking as faulty and to be corrected (not suggesting you did) you will probably not have a willing student. If you are willing to lay out your thought process (because after all, it isn't going to display on our foreheads ) and be willing to listen to hers, you will both learn something. All the while you'll be fighting the western urge to assign one as right and one as wrong, one good and one bad. Both ways of thought have their advantages. The western way has the advantage of speed over accuracy. The eastern way has the advantage of a wider range of correct solutions to choose from. In the end, you may find that there are times when you would be better off taking the eastern route and times when she'd be better off taking the western route. If you can be as interested in hearing about the steps and assumptions she used to get her solution as you are in detailing the steps and assumptions to your solution, then you'll both have new tools to solve problems, IMHO. On the other hand, if you just want her to think like a western person, you may have to enroll her in Kindergarten and in about 13 years your wish will come true! I wish it were so simple as eastern vs western thinking. No, she just gets stuck, and then looks up at me with her big puppy-cat eyes and asks me how to do it. No, there is just a lack of logic/problem solving training. I dont want her to be a clone or a westerner, but I would like her to be able to tackle problems on her own.

Hello, My wife has been here for a year and a half now. She has acclimated well overall and just got her drivers license a few months ago. One thing that I continually notice is that she lacks the ability to tackle any kind of problem that she hasnt previosly been shown how to solve. She told me once that imagination and creativity is not something that was encouraged in China. This is a serious problem to my thinking. I need to figure out how to teach her logicical problem solving and Im not sure how. She is unable to really process problems outside of a group. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions. Thanks! -Sy

Hello All, I wanted to know if anyone knew if there were any customs requirements for sending photo albums from China to the US OR What the best method for sending photo albums to the US is. These are the only photo albums of her childhood or family left. The others were destroyed in the flood that came after the eathquakes a few months back. Thanks in advance! -Sy

Hello, I got such a good response about the birthday that I thought I would ask about the foods that members wife's cook. Since my wife has gotten here 6 weeks ago I have gained quite a bit of weight, but she says that frying all the food is normal. We bought a half gallon of canola oil two weeks ago and it is half gone. Is this the norm? Thanks!

Hello, My wife's birthday is coming up and I am wondering what the chinese custom's for a birthday is. I know she would be fine with just having a cake and whatever I did, but I am trying to be a good new husband and so I would like to go the extra mile. Any info would be much appreciated Thanks! -Sy

Hello, Quick question: Do we submit original forms like the certified marriage certificate and original chinese birth certificate with translation or do we send copies initially? Thanks in advance!

Hello, I have a question. I did not file taxes in 2004 because I was unemployed. When getting the visa they simply wanted the tax transcripts. The I-864 wants the numbers and says "(or most recent)". How do I deal with this? Any advice would be much appreciated Thanks in advance

Hello, My wife got her SS card today but it says “Valid for work only with DHS Authorization". How do we fix this (She is K-1 and auto authorized to work according to official links I have read here) Thanks!

She will be putting together a posting for 001 about her interview when she gets back. I will ask her to translate it and will post it in just a few days