Sam and Fen

Great job Cath. Happy Anniversary Larry. So how did she tolerate you for 15 years.

Food in our house is interesting. I am an Asian Indian, vegetarian for the most part, married to a Chinese woman who will eat anything that moves. For some one who had never even seen Indian food she can cook damn good Indian food, she is from Guandong and most of her food is bland and I like mine Heart Attack style. Eating out is always a problem, She does not care for Italian food, Mexican may be, Indian is OK but mainly because she can order extra for take home so she does not have to cook for me for a couple of days. In American food she likes wings and steak but does not care for the burgers and the taco bells. Vacations, what a difference an year makes. Made the "mistake" of taking a Chinese woman to Jamaica in January of this year. she would not go in the water or the sun let alone wear a bathing suit, can not get dark you see. She hated my idea of a vacation, to sit around and do nothing but drink and eat for a week. Guess what, she has now realized the value of a vacation my style and come January we are going to the Dominican Republic. She would have preferred the Cayman Islands, because thats where the Rich go on vacation.

I do not know who you are nor do I want to know some one that makes such broad AND WRONG assumptions about America, Americans and American Kids. My daughter for example Graduated from Purdue this year in Bio Phsysiology and got accepted to Yale and Pitsstburgh(which she chose) to pursue her Masters in Public Health and from there she will go on to get a PhD. Most of the kids she went ot High School with graduated from College this year. Oh and this is in good ole America and not China.

Yes, the Chinese are quite resourceful. As I understand, the current retirement age for Chinese women is 50, and for men, 55. The reason for these lower retirement ages is because of China's growing population and its limited number of jobs. Giving the older and lower paid generation a ticket out of work opens up jobs to the younger generation. I read an article yesterday that stated many of the older generation who are now retired are making more money on their pensions than they ever did when they were working. I don't know if this will hold true for this younger generation, as they are better educated and better paid. This is probably why the government is trying to raise the age of retirement, so they don't get caught into the pension traps the US and Europe are finding themselves. It is 50 for factory workers and 55 for other women and it it is 60 for men.

When my wife was in China last year she specifically asked this question and was told that she will not be able to collect once she gives up her Chinese citizenship. What she tells me is, once she starts collecting then she can become a US citizen and they will never know, but to me even that would be illegal China I believe has 30 different pension schemes and may be it varies depending on which scheme you are part of. China has similar problems with their pension scheme that we have with SS, too many retirees and not enough contributers. There has been talk recently in China about raising the retirement age which is not sitting very well with the public. Edited to add: Not 30 but 3000 different pension pools. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-10-31/chinese-rage-at-the-pension-system

She has two ways to get MedicAid. 1. If Maryland is expanding MedicAid as part of ACA then she can get it through the States Health Exchange. In this case a GC is sufficient and no need to be a Citizen. 2. If that is not the case then depending upon the laws of Maryland she can get MedicAid trough DSS and Citizenship might be required.

Chinese parents love American made baby formula.

The books wont do him any good if he can not get going so the pills is your best bet and also you might run into problems with Chinese customs as bringing any thing pornographic is banned. If you can not get a prescription for Viagra you will have to buy them from an online pharmacy and will run you upwards of $30 a pop. Been there done that. For the last year I have been using a generic form called Suhagra made by Cipla India (Cipla is FDA approved for making generic drugs for the US market). You can order those online and will run you about $6 a pop (I get them directly from India and it runs about $3 a pop) This is not as potent as the original but does its job, heck even if I have to use 2 it is still a lot cheaper.

LGA to JFK should take you no more then 1/2 hour. Not sure if the remaining 2 hours gives you enough time to get your bags at LGA and then check them in at JFK and go through security again. IMO that might be cutting it too close.

We got our ROC approval with out an interview on 2/14. We got by with providing just 1 affidavit but we did have a lots and lots of other evidence.

Great Story. My wife tells me that during CNY business people go to a Buddhist Temple for blessings to get good luck in business and in China Buddha is refereed to as Bhussa but most Chinese including my wife have no idea as to where Bhussa was born or his story. I can guarantee that most people on this board will not know Buddhas birth place either. Any guesses guys with out Goggling it?

Pork ribs on a string hung to dry across all windows and she makes this disgusting shoup (soup) with whole eggs and vinegar which is black in color when done.

Sorry to hear about your troubles. We are in the same boat. I am uninsurable and can not afford those who give me insurance. Both me and my wife work 7 days a week 12 hours a day just to make ends meet. I take meds for my Sugar and pay about $5 copay at Walgreens. They have some kind of program where we pay $25/year to get this co-pay. Please look into this for your meds. I see a Doctor about 2 times a year to renew my Prescription and pay about $75/visit. My wife asks me exactly the same questions your wife is asking. She knows a few Chinese people (reasonably well off and some have their own business like us) on Govt handouts and my answers are the same as yours. Good Luck. Hang in there.

Most browsers today can save your ID/Password of web sites. Check your settings in Chrome to see if this feature is turned on. It could be that Chrome for some reason is logging you back in when you visit CFL after a period of time. If the Admin's can see what time you logged back in you can run a test to check this theory.

If you go to any mall in the US you will see a store named after me. Forever 21.

How I wish we could meet up. Its been a year since we moved to Hartford.

Ah! Brings back memories. Took the wife there a few times when we lived just over an hour from NYC. The original China Town of NYC is in Manhattan on Canal Street. If you have not been there yet it is worth a trip as it is much bigger then the one in Flushing. My wife had the same reaction to the Rockefeller Christmas tree.....Big tree, lot lights big deal . If you decide to go to a Broadway show there is a ticket booth in Times Square that sells discounted tickets for same day shows. I have said it before but I will repeat it, for those of us whose spouses had limited English skills when we first met, the show Chinglish wil split you up and bring back memories. Another thing to do in Manhattan is a trip to the original Macy's store It still has the wooden escalators. If any one is planning on staying the night in NYC we have used Priceline a few times (name your price) for hotels in Times Square and they were able to get us a room at the Sheraton for under a $100. And oh yes, anything above 125 th street is Upstate.

This is very close to home for me and I have friends who live in Newtown. My son who goes to Danbury High (close to Newtown) tells me the principal of the school was also killed in the shooting and was the wife of his favorite teacher at Danbury High. This is sheer insanity and as my wife says, Stupid , so easy to buy gun in America.

My wife is traveling to China next month. Her 2 year card expired a while back and we will be waiting for another 6 months at least for her 10 year. I made an InfoPass appointment and had the I551 stamp put in her passport so she will not have any issues traveling with an expired GC (which they took away at InfoPass) and Extension letter.

VJ has a portal dedicated to Vietnam and as Dan said this site might not be a bad idea either.

VisaJourney would be one of them.

I am no expert on this topic and Dan is probably the best person to give you advise. Here's my 2 cents My divorce was finalized in August 08, I met my now wife in October of 08 and went to meet her in November of 08 , filed for K1 in Feb 09 and went to see her again in June 09 and again for the Interview in October 09. (It has been a long time so the dates might be a little off). We basically sailed thru the process. I have no proof of this but here is why I think we sailed thru: 1. My first marriage lasted 19 years. 2. My divorce decree only had child support payments and based on my income that was not an issue. 3. My credit score was in the top 15% 4. My fiancées first marriage lasted 9 years and it was almost 6 years after her divorce that we met and also she had a very good Government job in China. I think this was probably the #1 reason why we had no issues. Every case is different and there is no one size fits all. IMO you meeting your fiancée before the divorce was finalized could be a Red Flag. Good Luck in your journey.

For Westerners it is fall in love and then get married. For a Chinese woman, find a man who they think will care for them , get married and then fall in love with him(learn to love him).

Actually my wife told me the same thing last week. She read it in one of the Chinese news papers, I think WorldJournal. Makes no sense to me that a PRC citizen would need a visa to go to their own country, but this is China so who knows.

The last few week's I have been trolling the Internet looking at air fares to China so my wife can go visit and they have been around $1300+ no matter what month,duration,airline or web site etc. On one of my surfing sessions I came across a website called Skyscanner.com and I played around with it a bit looking at different dates etc. This site eventually found me a deal thru Farestore.com for JFK-HKG-GUZ leaving Dec 27th and returning Jan 17th for $1136.00. Also around the end of December ANA is offering deals as low as $806 JFK-Tokoyo-GUZ. The only thing with this is that there is 20 hour lay over in Tokyo on the way there. Hope this helps anyone looking to go to China.