TLB

Wow, this scares the hell out of me; is it required that she speak English well? The language of communication we use is Chinese (Mandarin) -- should we even be trying this?

Yes, and why did they ask one question in English and do the rest in Chinese? Do you communicate with her in English? Was that an issue? Inquiring minds want to know (MORE!)

IMO you really just need to search as many sites as possible; I've gone over three times: once I bought from Expedia, and twice from flychina.com. I have contacted agents all three times but have yet to find them cheaper (though I suppose they will do the work for you of looking around a lot in case you don't want to do that yourself). Not knowing where she's going exactly, you might also consider alternate routes. I.e., I'm going to Hong Kong in December -- some days going to Guangzhou instead is $150 or more cheaper, other days it's not. To save $150 I'll ride the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong... I've found more important than the site you buy from (all the search engines pretty much have the same searches) is the time you buy -- prices can change by $200 in one day either way. I've never gotten a good hold on exactly how that works. And somewhere I read it's cheapest to fly on Tuesday (!). Personally I like the flychina.com site but I can't defend that it's better. I'll be interested in what others say.

Wow, these warm my heart as well. Some comments intertwined; thanks for making my heart ache

These are great ideas; I'm in the same position in that I'm trying to shore up the bonafide relationship part since we only see each other twice a year for two weeks each. My thoughts and experience (remember I don't know that these help or work -- it's just what I'm doing to try to show the commitment): 1. When we were in China in July we went to three different banks and none would allow us to open a joint account 2. I opened a joint account here in the States with my credit union (she had to sign a couple of papers) and she has an ATM card she uses to draw from it as needed. 3. I send her some money each month, and have been for some time (we've known each other 18 months and got married in July), and I have receipts for all of that (and her friends mentioned it in their support letters) 4. I made her my beneficiary for my 403b and for my job's death benefits should I die before retiring 5. I will be looking into filing my taxes with her name as well 6. I will look into adding her name to my mortgage, thanks for that idea! (I had assumed they wouldn't do that) All of these of course can be changed easily so I'm not sure how convincing they are by themselves, but I can see a VO asking "if this is the woman you want to spend the rest of your life with, why is she NOT on your mortgage, beneficiary, taxes, bank accounts, etc"?

My wife is asking whether we need a "foreign certification" on these affidavits (Íâ½»ÈÏÖ¤) -- I've never heard of this; anyone know what this is and if it's needed? It seems a friend is suggesting we might need this.

yep, and we're an open-minded group -- even help Canadians!

okay, sorry, one more time from the top (I apologize, I'm just really stupid I guess, I'm still not getting this). Let's take an affidavit all the way through (and does a "white book" fit in here somewhere?) 1. friend or relative writes affidavit in Chinese 2. if wife knows someone who can translate, that person does so 3. translator fills out certification of translating competency (only in English?) 4. wife, person who wrote affidavit, and person who translated all go to notary (?) 5. all sign appropriate docs in front of notary End result is 2 affidavits notarized and a certification of translator competency (also notarized) -- or are there two of these as well (one in Chinese)? What have I got wrong? Thanks again; I'm trying to tell my wife about this as she doesn't know, but I still need to wrap my head around exactly how to do it, A to Z.

Yeah I can do that; I'm talking about the ones in Chinese from her family and friends.

"they can be written in Chinese and then brought to a notary office for a notary translation." So what's the process here? You start with an affidavit in Chinese, and then, rather than take it to be translated somewhere, you take it to the notary and ask for it to be notarized and translated there? And then are you done?

hi friends, I've seen reference to the affidavit of marital relationship for the I-130 having to be notarized -- anyone have any specific data about that? Most places just say it has to be translated and the translator has to "certify" that they're competent to do the translation. I think somewhere I read something pretty detailed, like you ended up with 6 documents or so for each affidavit (original, notarization of the original, certification of the translator's competency, notarization of that, translation by the translator, notarization of that) -- anyone have experience with that? Oh, and I did find an example affidavit in English on the web; anyone know of a Chinese version? (I can translate, I'm just lazy)...

Playing devil's advocate here, what would you have had the VO do differently? If you were in her shoes, and the interviewee said she spoke "a little" English and you spoke "a little" Chinese and that you had a "special way" of communicating, what would you do next? How would you handle that? Remember that it's your job to judge "bona fide" relationship. (yeah, I hate that too and every day I thank God that it's not my job to make these judgments on others, and I also hate that evidently so much premium is put on verbal communication that one can't have a bona fide relationship without verbal communication in the same language -- but that's a philosophical issue for another thread) I don't know that this would be sloppy work on their part; they have thousands of these to go through and it became obvious to the VO that they needed more info from you to go forward; why go on from there? Would you really feel better if the interview had gone on for another five minutes and then the deny? I'll face the same thing probably, as my wife speaks very little English (probably less than yours); I expect I'll need to prove that I speak Chinese well enough to satisfy the VO. Good luck going forward.

There is a difference between asking for a SSN and requiring one. It may be that the company uses SSN, as has been suggested, for identification; they should not have to do that, but maybe their computer programs require it. Still, I wouldn't give up on this; if you tell them she doesn't have one, it seems to me they either have to tell you they can't insure your spouse or they have to give you another way to identify her.

I'm not seeing that the History of Relationship document is required if you're already married; am I wrong on that? I see it listed among the documents for the fiancee visa; are folks here saying it is required with the I-130 as well, or that they know folks who've been asked for it? Thanks for helping me with my confusion. Tim

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-11008466 "It is believed the pilot, who was killed, may have been trying to defect to Russia, according to unnamed intelligence sources cited by Yonhap. The crash happened on Tuesday afternoon in Fushun county, Liaoning province. China has a repatriation agreement with North Korea, which could explain why the pilot may have been trying to reach Russia, the report added." It's so nice of China to send back anyone trying to get out of North Korea...

I'm very sorry you had to go through that. It makes me sad, though I understand the government's position -- still, you'd think an exception could be made. For our part, a regular visitor visa seems out of the question: she's retired, her son is grown and not at home, and she has only a small, cheap apartment and a small pension to her name. Her parents don't need her to be with them at this point, so there's not much there for the US gov't to be convinced she'd return to China.

Hi friends, I'm in a position I didn't think I'd be in, but I hope it will have a good ending. I've posted here a few times, but haven't really contributed much, compared to what I've learned lurking and reading. We married in Shenyang this last July on my third two-week trip to be with her. Our plans had been for me to retire in 18 months (we're both in our 50s, she's already retired) and move to China for a year or two and then travel back and forth as best we could. Recently my mother suffered a stroke, and so I find myself primary caretaker for two adults (my mom and my brother, who is 64, learning disabled, and not in great health himself). After talking this over with my wife, she is amenable to starting the immigrant visa process now and moving here so I can continue to work a little longer and take care of my mom and brother. Thanks to CFL for the help you all have provided to me already, and for your thoughts and prayers and the further help I know you will give to me as we start this journey toward her coming here -- a journey which, as best I can tell, will take at least 8 to 12 months if all goes smoothly (which it might not). One question for any of you still with me here: have you ever heard of "emergency" visas that might allow my wife to come for a short visit in case my mom or brother passes before the visa process is finished? I hope that won't be necessary, but this is not idle speculation on my part. Thanks to everyone. Tim (starting the gathering for the "front-loading")

This is undoubtedly true in many cases, but not always. My fiancee rips open any present I give her as soon as she gets it in her hands (and has from the beginning). Her folks, perhaps because they received my gifts in their home, did open the presents not in front of me, but pretty much immediately as well (which was good, since I needed to do some translation for them). I guess as with most things, generalizations are only true generally. B) Thanks for your ideas!

My fiancee has a birthday in September; she's in China, I'm in the USA. What do you guys do to give your wives presents for birthdays? I have a sense that giving gifts for birthdays is not as prevalent in China compared to the West; am I right about that? Any ideas for marking her upcoming birthday would be appreciated; what have you done that worked? Maybe didn't work? thanks Tim in Austin

From the leader of an event of 20 or so years ago to this: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110200/from-tiananmen-square-to-possible-buffett-successor;_ylt=AvtXnGk4yzcuC.EAoZVt5VzyBK1_;_ylu=X3oDMTE2MDBzYWhqBHBvcwM0BHNlYwNhcnRpY2xlTWFpbgRzbGsDZnJvbXRpYW5hbm1l?mod=career-leadership

Thanks; I sent an ATM/debit card through the mail yesterday. I'll come back and post the results. I sent it USPS Registered, cost about $15.

Hi, With Xoom.com gone, I'm considering sending an ATM card to China for use there. Has anyone else done this? Or should I just wait 5 months until my next trip and take it with me? I know you have to fill out a customs form to send things overseas now; has anyone had any experiences good or bad with sending credit cards and/or ATM cards to China?

Do what is comfortable to you with regard to the name; some change, some don't -- if you don't want an English name, fine. People will learn to deal with it either way, and either way she'll have some adjusting to do: it's not like she heard people call her by her given name all the time in China either.

Rather than buy it yourself and ship it, you can buy over the web from a Chinese seller and have them ship it. For example: http://www.shoppingchinanow.com/shop/guzheng.html