Don

Several states have chinese versions, just use them. Most laws are the same. The main difference might be just the blood alchol level. All states have difference values. Make sure the dimming the lights are the same distances. The signs and most laws are the same. CA and other states have Chinese versions.

why because he is over a certain age that he cant file K2? Right, over 18 (?) i think, you can not file K2 anymore. Not sure it is 18, but over some age near 18 -21 you can not file K2 anymore.

Ours took a long time comming, and my wife did the same thing stayed with some other woman after i had to leave to work some more. It should be on it way soon. Just a big pain to have to stay and wait.

Yeh thats my current worry as of now. I met a couple at mr. yangs who waited over 10 days for thier visa. yep, we are day 6 still no visa So are u guys still hanging around GUZ? Jin is still there, i flew home alone that sucks i was looking for someone to go enjoy some chinese pizza with hehe We found that if you have Pizza hut deliver to Mr Yangs it is cheaper than going to the store.

That's not funny It isn't funny. check my time line. 1/25/08 mailed out of nvc, 4/16/08 NVC says Dos has opened it. Sad, but true. Funny thing is, the May - November wait for NOA2 I didn't even think about it, but these last delays hurt the worst! Sad, yes. But you are very close my man. Go for it. It's your time. I wish you the best !! Often the NVC has fast trun around. Some times it really holds thing up. We were at the NVC almost a year.

We had to wait till she had the EAD card. Than no problem. We waited till her I-94 was almost expired. We had married and even filed the AOS paper work, but they wanted the EAD card at that point.

The main requirement is that the acutal. I-134 needs to be nortarized. Many people have everything nortarized. We did not do that. We only had the I-134 done. Part of the confusion is the english translated document that the people in China must prepare. Those documents must be translated at the Nortary and they will stamp them, so they will be nortized during translation.

I am very sorry this has happened to you. It really is an injustice. At least now you know your next steps to take. Maybe Chengdu would be a good area to fix up homes in.

Sounds like your card. Congratulations.

Congratulations. We wish you the best.

We filed our I-485 along with the EAD. We got our NOA that said they had recieved them. We did the fingerprinting, but I have no info on the cases being moved to CA. Are they still at the national benefit center? I know my cases always move slowly, but I expected more info at this stage. We do have the EAD cards, so i know things where moving. I guess I need to call tomarrow, but any idea on what is normal at this stage.

Right now for new homes the minimum downpayment is 30% I think. If the mortgage is in the expat's name, banks are supposed to be able to finance no more than 50%, but many banks ignore this and allow you to finance as much as a Chinese person could. Interest rates for first time buyers of new homes are approximately 7% minus a 15% discount. Subsequent homes carry a mandatory 25% premium over the base rate of approximately 7%. GZBILL, I have no experience in buying a home (apartment) in China and my Lao Po has two mortgages at this time and says she doesn't want another. Is it possible for me as an expat to get a mortgage at this time? I'm leaning toward a used home, not new, and we will be living in it, not renting out. I don't have any contacts here in Chengdu and her brother is a little hard to communicate with. Thanks! Bill As an expat, it is not possible for you to buy commercial property at all. You can, however, buy residential property -- only one -- but first you must have been living here at least a year on either a student or work-related residence permit. Once you meet that requirement, you may easily obtain a mortgage. On a new property you'll need about 40% cash and on a used property 50%. Fees for obtaining a mortgage are higher with second hand properties as well as the mortgage terms being much shorter. A few ways around the ownership issues if you have the contacts. One way is to use a local company to own the property, or a local family member. Than you have a contract with them on the ownership and the use of the land. The mortgage is harder to work around. Since almost all of us have wives who are PRCC it's even easier...Just put it in her name... Remember every house you buy in your wife's name = 10 years of wedded bliss... Eunice said so... We have our houses done this way. In my wife's name. Her brother is the rental manager.

Right now for new homes the minimum downpayment is 30% I think. If the mortgage is in the expat's name, banks are supposed to be able to finance no more than 50%, but many banks ignore this and allow you to finance as much as a Chinese person could. Interest rates for first time buyers of new homes are approximately 7% minus a 15% discount. Subsequent homes carry a mandatory 25% premium over the base rate of approximately 7%. GZBILL, I have no experience in buying a home (apartment) in China and my Lao Po has two mortgages at this time and says she doesn't want another. Is it possible for me as an expat to get a mortgage at this time? I'm leaning toward a used home, not new, and we will be living in it, not renting out. I don't have any contacts here in Chengdu and her brother is a little hard to communicate with. Thanks! Bill As an expat, it is not possible for you to buy commercial property at all. You can, however, buy residential property -- only one -- but first you must have been living here at least a year on either a student or work-related residence permit. Once you meet that requirement, you may easily obtain a mortgage. On a new property you'll need about 40% cash and on a used property 50%. Fees for obtaining a mortgage are higher with second hand properties as well as the mortgage terms being much shorter. A few ways around the ownership issues if you have the contacts. One way is to use a local company to own the property, or a local family member. Than you have a contract with them on the ownership and the use of the land. The mortgage is harder to work around.

It's usually picked up two days later at a post office in the Guangdong province, although it has taken (rarely) as long as a week. I think you can only have it mailed within Guangdong. All other locations must pick it up at the local post office close to the consulate. So you must wait in Guangzhou and pick it up there.

Grandma's kitchen in chengdu is really goood for american food. I love that place. Isn't Chengdu devastated by the earthquake now? Chengdu is not damaged too much. The area north of Chengdu is were most of the damage is. Won't you be scarred living in a city which is stading on top of the earth quake fault line? Not really, i am in souther cal right now.

I really like Kunming, Yunnan. It has really good weather all year. It is a few million people, fairly clean real nice country around it. I have visited Yunnan a few times and really like it. I am also trying Chengdu, but maybe now is not the best time to live there. Or maybe with the money bing pored into rebuilding it might be good. We own houses in south Yunnan in Jinghong. It is good, but hot and humid. We might trade that house for one in Kunming. Decent air quality in that area. Jinghong does have many earth quakes. Mostly small ones. Older style two bedroom houses will cost about 100,000 rmb maybe a bit more in a better location. How would you compare Kunming and Jinghong, dollar wise and comfort wise? These are cities close to each other. Why is Jinghong hotter and more humid? Do you know if there is an earthquake fault line running thru Yunnan? I am going to rent for 1 year anyway. What would be the rent for a 2-3 bedroom apartment in these two cities? Kunming cost more ; maybe double over Jinghong. Jinghong is small town about 100,000. It is much lower elevation ~500 m and it is tropical rain forest jungle. Elephants live near by Jinghong. Kunming is ~ 1,800 m, always about 70oC year around. Kunming is much bigger over 1 million people. Jinghong has many different nationalities in the city. Huni, Dai and many others.

Normally, you have already heard the results, but in our case a delay was what we found in our mail. They wanted us to come back and do a full fingerprint set.

Since our family is in the middle of the quake, we talk a lot about it. We read every artilcle, I read the english and she reads the chinese and english, and try to find out info that is not being talked about in china. She calls several times a day to various family members checking to see how everyone is doing. We have not donated much money, since we will have to help with the clean up and friends and families rebuilding their lives. Google earth she really likes. It really shows everything that is going on and its location. Too bad they do not have the real time panda collar data yet. Soon they will i am sure, well maybe not some idiot might use that data to hunt one.

Honestly, I didn't know about that little tidbit. Wish I had. Would've saved a few apprehensive hours waiting to see if the visa was actually at China Post. I don't remember reading that anywhere here before either. I'd be surprised if anyone else realized that option was available. I'm sure someone else will come along and make a liar out of me now for sure. We could not read our numbers so we could not check. Our host at the hotel Mr ???? (not sure the one very close to consulate) told us.

Great news. Congratulations.

Grandma's kitchen in chengdu is really goood for american food. I love that place. Isn't Chengdu devastated by the earthquake now? Chengdu is not damaged too much. The area north of Chengdu is were most of the damage is.

Grandma's kitchen in chengdu is really goood for american food. I love that place.

This seems to be only for groups and only from the richer areas of china. The groups take you passports and only gives them back when you return to china. I am still waiting for individuals to be alowed to travel.

I really like Kunming, Yunnan. It has really good weather all year. It is a few million people, fairly clean real nice country around it. I have visited Yunnan a few times and really like it. I am also trying Chengdu, but maybe now is not the best time to live there. Or maybe with the money bing pored into rebuilding it might be good. We own houses in south Yunnan in Jinghong. It is good, but hot and humid. We might trade that house for one in Kunming. Decent air quality in that area.

Pinyin is a way to write Chinese using English characters and symbols for the tones. When we write "Chengdu" we are using Pinyin to write Chinese words as the real word for Chengdu is two Chinese characters. i did not include the symbols for the tones, but you can to help with spoken part. The charges are different for each part of the year. I was there when a big exposition is in town and everything cost much more. Just ask. He comes on the board some times. Rob gave you link look at that and you can email him him and ask for help.