kenshin77

Thanks for the detailed reply!

Thanks for the advices!

Wife has received 2-year Green card in June. We plan to go on a road trip to Ontario Canada during this long weekend. What are needed in order to pass through Canadian Custom? and Will wife be able to return to US with just Green card? Just want to make sure before we actually go on this trip. Please advise. Thank you!

Finally back to Shanghai, and here's the details of our interview: We flew to Guangzhou on the 14th with her mom, and stayed at Mr. Xia's place. The next morning we got to the Consulate @ 6:45am on the 15th, we were told to line up in the "Immigrant Line" on the left side. The line didnt start moving till around 7:30am. The security guy was checking the appointment letters and SO's passports one by one, and then they were allowed to enter the building. She took the elevator up to the 4th floor, lined up again, but the immigrant line was rather fast, passed security again, showed appointment letter and passport again, then up to the 5th floor ( the interview floor ). At this floor, they all needed to go through security a 3rd time. 40mins after sitting down, Yuki was called to go to window#25 to open the medical packet. (X-ray was not needed since the results were normal) That was a chinese lady at that window, she was asked the following questions : Have you been to US before? For how long? Have you been to Canada before? What did you do there? For how long? Do you have the police report from there? Afterwards, Yuki was asked to sign 3 forms in front of her. (Those were the ones in the P4 packet.) She was also given a number. Went back to the seat, after another 30mins, everyone stood up to give a vow. Soon after Yuki was called to go to Window#18 to get fingerprints taken quickly. At around 10:40am, Her number was called and it flashed at Window#28. The VO was a nice young man. The whole interview lasted around 2mins and conducted in English only. She walked up and greeted the VO: Y: Good morning, Sir. V: (writing something, then looks up) Good morning. May I have the passports? Y: (Hands in all passports) Sure, here are the current ones...and these are the previous ones. I also have the photocopy of the passport that I lost in Canada, would you like to take a look also? V: Oh, no its ok. (Looks at all other passports and typing in computer) So, your fiancee was born in XXXXXX? Y: Yup. V: How did you meet each other? Y: In an online game XXXXXXX. V: Oh, how did you start talking to each other then? Y: We just started partying and chatting in the game, we also started writing emails afterwards. V: Oh ok, has he come to China to see you? Y: Yes, two times. V: When was 1st time? Y: Last year July. V: And hes here now? Y: (Nods) V: (Returns all the passports to her) May I see your pictures? Y: Sure, we dont have many pictures, but we have lots of E-mails and Phone call records. (Hands in a small album) V: (Quickly looks it over and returns to her) May I see your Emails? Y: Yeah sure, Let me get those... Ok... Here are the emails...and these are the email lists. V: (Quickly looks at 2 emails and returns to her) Can I see his tax returns? Y: Sure! (Opens the folder, pointed at the W-2s) Do you also want to take a look at his W-2s and stuff? V: Oh, its ok. Y: (Hands in the Tax returns 2002-2006) V: (Only looked at the first page of the 2006 tax return, then gives them all back to her. ) Congratulations, your visa is approved! Y: (Was still putting away the documents, didnt notice the pink paper till she looks up) Oh, thanks a lot! V: You are welcome (Smile) Y: Have a good day! V: You too. She grabbed everything on the counter and tried to sort it on a table right behind her, but she noticed something weird, since she traveled to different countries before so she knew that you'd have to turn your passport in to get the visa page sticked onto the passport. However, somehow she felt like the VO also returned her current passport along with all the previous ones earlier. So she double checked the passports, and yes it was there. As she had the passport in hand, she heard the VO also calling her name, he also realized that he didnt keep her current passport. Smiling in embarassment, Yuki waved the passport at the VO, and he nodded to her. She returned to the window and handed the passport to the VO. The VO said "thank you", and she just smiled, waved goodbye as she walked away. (I'm just glad that she didnt exit right away... ) She went back downstairs and we met again at the Cafe, and the rest as they say, is history.

Congratz !!!

Thank you, everyone. The information and friendly advices here have been invaluable throughout our entire K1-journey.

Congratz!!

Got pink today It was an easy and pleasant interview lasted about 2 mins. The waiting was the worst part, but glad its over. Will post more details later about the interview.

Congratz! I think US Consulate General will have day off on the 12th of Nov. I planned to go to ACH on the 12th too, but looks like its not gonna happen... due to Veterans' Day. http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/holidays.html

and do you think that all the people walking around the street that day were all super cautious? I guess no. The warning is just a 'foreigner beware' warning.. unfortunate since if he told you nothing, you'd enjoy the walk more. Overprotection is over advice sometimes. Maybe it's universal. I think so too, the influences of the memory at that age was really huge

Haha.. I have to chuckle at this. While I disagree with Feather's assessment of how safe the US is compared to China--I also believe China is a lot safer than the US in terms of violence--but I also question where you've visited in China verses where you've visited in the US, Yuki. If you've only been to Boonsville Nebraska or Middleflatland Kansas, then you can't compare that to Shanghai, China. You need to visit Manhattan New York, Westwood California, South Beach Florida and, of course, Las Vegas Nevada. There are plenty of places in the US that's plenty exciting and energetic for both young and old. Having lived in China for 2 years in the very recent past, I can absolutely say China is overall much, much safer in terms of physical violence, but petty theft is rampant as people are in such close proximity to each other and lack of private transportation forces everyone onto public transportation where pick pockets are working 24 hours a day. In a big city like Shanghai, I was never once afraid to be out at wee hours of the night walking. There's no way I'd feel as secure in a comparably big city in the US-such as NYC. Just my 2 cents. Alrighty, It was 8 years ago when I visited U.S. and I was 17. The 6 years in between till 2005, I resided in Ontario, Canada. and Now I'm living in Shanghai with my parents. I'm pretty sure theres a lot of changes now. Im just trying to pull my memory out and share it with you. The Cities in U.S. that I went to are: L.A. San Gabriel, San Diego, Minneapolis, NYC. On the way back from NYC to L.A. I stopped at Las Vegas with Teammates, but since I was only 17, I could only stay in the Hotel or just walk with all the friends on the street, and It was the prettiest city in my eyes at that time. We watched the show outside of different Casinos and Hotels, I still didn't get the point why we stopped there since none of us was above 21, but I guess its our English Instructor's idea We went back from Las Vegas to L.A. We also visited Mexico at the border, I must say thats completely different experience to me in Mexico, and U.S. Overall, I like L.A. the most perhaps b'coz of the large Asian population I've seen at that time. oh,oh, and also the Theme parks were our favorites~ I feel relaxed when I was in the cities in CA and yes never had to worry about the safety. However, I remember when we flew to NYC, our instructor whos a white guy told us that don't hang the DV around your neck, don't carry anything expensive with you, don't bring Cash, most of all. We were all just surprised that he said that to us. While walking on the street, everyone's being like super cautious lol... idk but at that time, what we had to do was just to take people's advises. I've lived my first 15 years in Jiangsu province in China, I've also been to a lot of cities in China, small or big, nice or dirty, yet, I love them all, Im chinese, no reason not to, right? Like I said, nothing is absolute, U.S. or China, this is an endless discussion, but to me, neither of them is extremely bad or extremely good in some ways~ and for our goal, is still coming back to China in the near future~ Cheers, Yuki

From what I've seen I would think different. Being a foriener, people would say hello to me but I wouldn't see the same response amongst each other. Also, when I saw a man physically slap his girlfriend in the face, people would look the other way as if nothing happened. Here in most cases someone would have stepped in. Also, most of us have an extremely limited view of China and have been sheltered from the "bad" areas. You might not have to worry about being shot, but I'm sure there are places you would certainly fear for your safety. As for this being stricktly "Chinese", many of these traits are alive and well in the US and Europe. Where are these places that I would fear for my safety ? I'm talking about from the chinese citizen not the government. Does china have an equivalent of St louis or Camden or Detroit ? America is 24th on the muder per capita. China is not on the list http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_...ders-per-capita Others have stated similar to this, you must remember that China's media is state run and therefore what is not atractive does't air. Many times Jen made sure I had a better control of my wallet while in China because, as she put it,"people here no good". That is something here I've never worried about even in Oakland which can rank right up there in crime. Wether you want to admit it or not, there is murder, rape, theft, and so on in China as well. Just because it is not reported, does not mean it doesn't exist. Just my two cents, from the over 20 years living in China, I always can see the news on TV or anytype of media reporting Murder, Rape, or other Crimes. Theres certain TV show each day on different channels showing the crimes to prevent people from being harmed again. This is completely OPEN to ME. Yes, to ME, to Chinese. You don't see it being reported, doesn't mean it must exist~ Perhaps when your wife saying *Here is no good* I believe its good to be careful like that SOMETIMES, and most of the Chinese act that way too in some Certain places, same rules applied in the States as well. I believe walking at the river bund side in Shanghai is as nice as walking in some sort of place you consider safe in the U.S. Theres an proverb in China, Nothing is absolute. Jumping to another topic, during a survey of the Chinese who has been to U.S, its not hard to find out that in our eyes, U.S. is comfortable for Retirement, but China is definitely the heaven for energetic people who have the young hearts~. Yuki~ @Shanghai

Too many credit cards = Traps. I learned my lesson when I was in N.A. and Now, 1 is enough. Offers from the bank? No, Thanks! Yuki~

Agreed! Even though I am not sure if you are humoring us. I often could not help pushing my things even though another person is being served by the cashier. I was not trying to get in front of that other person, but subconciously felt that there are better things for the cashier to do than just standing there waiting for something to happen (for example the price being checked by another worker, etc.). If fact, in China, in the similar situation, most cashiers would start processing the next in line while waiting for the other's result. About this efficiency, there are many management theory/methods invented by Americans on how to carry out tasks efficiently. However, not many people think in such terms. Which remind me of a Chinese elementary school test question: There is a 11 inch by 8 inch retangular shaped plywood (or metal, cardboard, whatever) sheet. You will need to cut out circles with 3 inch diameter. How many circles can you get from this sheet? In reality, when my hubby and I were carrying out a project, facing a similar question as above, his reaction is to get a saw and start cutting one by one, while my reaction is to arrange and draw them out before cutting. I observed the difference and thought it all made sense. To my hubby, time is money. On the other hand, our Chinese live on limited resources, we of course have to plan carefully to reduce waste. Nah, things are completely different in individual's perspective, to me, as a Chinese girl who's been to the states, Canada and now living in China, my own point of view is: Canada : Peaceful, Boring, Lazy, Cold (Well, except Vancouver) U.S.: Comfortable, Relax, Aggressive, Boring China : Crowded, Energetic, Fun, SAFE When I use SAFE here, I actually mean SAFER than U.S. I don't really have to worry about carrying a DV on my hand getting robbed walking on a street in NYC or DETRIOT or any of THOSE places~ I don't really have to worry about having a lot of CASH in my pocket, sometimes I just dont like to use Cards~ There do have people they SEEM to follow you around, I've experienced this before at night time in Shanghai, However, at the end, I found thats just b'coz of myself being extremely suspicious always. o_O If my BF ever speaks Chinese, I'd rather us living in China. Anyways, We still plan to move back in the future. ^.- Yuki~

Agreed thats the right perspective~