mchina34

We will be going through this process shortly. My wife has filed for her citizenship. Once she has that, we will file the I-130's for her parents. I will keep you posted on progress. Thank you kindly.

Sounds strange, but I've been to his grave in Seattle.

Yeah, mr dnobblet already confirmed that she must be a citiznes for me a ways back. That's when I though i could petition them, but that is not possible. That's cool 90 days prior to GC 3rd year anni....that's news to me. Thanks for the response. Nighty night!

Dude, I did one and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done. Keep your pants on my friend; it's not neccessary to take them off. You gotta run around a bit, but that varies per family. I had to sing a song, answer some stupid riddle by a b!tchy chick (her friend), all while I was plastered. Basically everyone wanted to drink with me...and the drinker that I am I didn't refuse. Later I found out that's what my groomsmen are for...they normally take most drink for the groom. At least that's how things were for me. Everything was a nice hotel and we had a speaker doing introductions...cake, chapagne, all the goodies you'd expect at an American wedding. i can tell you it's a very big deal to them and complying with her requests will be best. The silliest thing was the cars hasd to be black with flowers all over them...a gringo driving down a chinese road in a car covered with flowers and a wreath stands out pretty well. Not a time to be shy is my point. Good luck....

My wife and I spoke about this a few times in the past. alhough we don't know that we will do, I though I'd ask some questions anyways. So I know she has to get citzenship first, which we're not sure if she will. But say she does, she can then petition for her parents as she'd be a USC. Does this take the same amount of time that it took for me to petition her (8+ months)? Are the requirements the same, eg, proof we can support them, relationship, going to lovely Guangdong, and all that jazz? Anything else that might be good to know? Anyone on here have their spouse become a citizen and then they try to petition for his/her parents? Many moons ago I think I once read it takes longer for naturalized citizens to petition someone???

I am refering to the gift tax that can be assessed by the China Customs Agency. http://www.fedex.com/us/international/irc/...ml?gtmcc=us#D03 It is generally not assessed on items that have a value of $4oo or less, but if value exceeds $1000, the Chinese receipient can find themselves paying a gift tax. All items being sent through the mail or shipped are subject to customs duty tax. These taxes vary depending on the country of origin and destination. Usually between US and China you find that even though Customs laws state that all items being shipped are subject to duty tax, they usually seem to extend the same $400 exemption you get when hand carrying it on an airplane. The official stance is that their is no exemption for shipped items, but both countries seem to extend this for items sent between our countries. I only sent some earrings, so that must be why. .......... If the guy could make it in person, it's obvious he would do so. I think it has a small chance of helping (maybe VO looks for it, but doens't ask), so I'd mail it to her.

Just make sure it's insured. I'm not sure of the tax the second poster is speaking of, but it may be true. I sent some jewlery once (not nearly as expensive as an engagement ring, though) and there wasn't any tax or anything different than sending a document. I used fedex. good luck!

Well, I must respond to this last post....someone here actually is from Washington!! I don't think one ever really has to proove his/her marriage, except for a few cases. One being the health INS issue, and even then, that's speculation. Donald Rumsfeld (dodging eggs) once said something that there are 'known knowns, unknown knowns, and known unkwons'. There may be unknown knowns for us as well as the one example I explained. Wheew, tongue twister...

That's what I said in one of my comments. Seems the only good way. to everyone else(what's really going on, etc): What's really going on is exactly what I said in my initial posts. Period. I'll tell you why (not that I think I need to) I even thought of this. Fiscal year ended for my company just a ways back. My HR department sent out insurance policy information stating that if you want to add a spouse to your health insurance you would have to provide proof of marriage by showing a marriage license. My wife has INS from her own company, but I thought about the what if's. What if I did need to put her on mine and my HR dept. did not approvae of the red book (it's in chinese for anyone who hasn't seen one) or even the translated document (USCIS accepts of course). So, essentially, I am being proactive. Probably won't happen, but still it would be nice to not be challenged and I think if I get the book translated/notarized in the US I probably won't ever have any issues. Initially we had both mistakenly thought that we could simply get a license here, thinking, or rather hoping, they have our info in their systems. Of course they wouldn't, but that didn't come clear until I created this thread.

We have a Chinese license that, as you might have guessed, is in Chinese. If I ever needed to furnish proof of my marriage who is really going to take a look at my little red book serisouly? Nobody in the US can even read it, hence my desire to get an american license and ultimately the marriage certificate. I do have it translated, but of course it's a tacky lookin' document on standard printer paper that a 3 year old with a box of crayons could've done. I'm concerned sometime in the future someone will need such docs and be like, uh, what the hell is this? It'd be great if they could look at my translated/notarized docs and issue me one with the original dates, etc. Don't think it's gonna happen, though. I'll have to call the courts on this one it looks like. To be continued....if I find out anything interesting. You needed to get a translation done by the notary office so that you could file for the visa, did you NOT make a copy and keep the original? You send the photo copy in with the I-130 when filing for the visa. Typically the translation gets bound into the book with the marriage cert. If your translation looks poor, I would just get another done here in the USA, have the translator do it on fancy paper, and have them certify it and perhaps have a notary, notarize the translator's signature. Yeah, we had two originals, so that's not the problem. Of course i'm exaggerting how crappy the translation is....but still, it's not 'normal' looking. The translation does not get boudn to the book. The book is a little red book (no, not a mao book) with some basic info (marriage date, ID numbers, DOB, etc)...some 4 inches tall I guess. The translation is a totally seperate document on normal printer paper (11.5*14? ish). One page will be in mandarin, the next in english for a total of, if I remember correctly, 4 pages. Again, totally seperate from the actual marriage book. I'm just going to get a translation/notarized done here as you suggest in your last comment.

Maybe I will just get a notarized/translated version of the chinese license done here in the US. So few K3ers out there in CFl....it seems nobody's run across this.

We have a Chinese license that, as you might have guessed, is in Chinese. If I ever needed to furnish proof of my marriage who is really going to take a look at my little red book serisouly? Nobody in the US can even read it, hence my desire to get an american license and ultimately the marriage certificate. I do have it translated, but of course it's a tacky lookin' document on standard printer paper that a 3 year old with a box of crayons could've done. I'm concerned sometime in the future someone will need such docs and be like, uh, what the hell is this? It'd be great if they could look at my translated/notarized docs and issue me one with the original dates, etc. Don't think it's gonna happen, though. I'll have to call the courts on this one it looks like. To be continued....if I find out anything interesting.

I would say K1 is not a good option, as you are supposed to get married and this is something you will sign off on and send to the USCIS. Without injecting my moral concerns, I'll just say that this is a rather lengthy process and I'd think you'd have to want more than to 'just be with her' to sustain the hardship that is entailed in the process. It's a major pain in my opinion. Go B2 route, says I. I know a filthy rich single girl in China who has been to the USA several times as a tourist. But the last time she wanted to come here it took her 3 attempts to get the B2 visa, so your GF may have some troubles as she is not employed.

Hey Richard (I assume you are not Li ) I don't recall replying to any of your posts, but this one seems worthy... Violence is both an individual and societal issue; if we look at it to narrowly, we think only about the individual (which I think the OP makes the mistake of... although I do think there is some validity in the comment, but it depends on the "check and balance" that society has imposed--despite the 'supply side gender' issue posed). IMO, China is not wont to become violent. As you said about walking down the street at night... feeling safe... Most on CFL has said this about China; of course there are exceptions. But too many examples could be given about their more pacifist way (I think this is the wrong word but don't have an easier way of saying it right now). Let's look at a countries dependence on defense spending as an indication of their worry about how to deal with violence in general. The US spends about $500 BILLION on defense budget China (4x population), spends the equivalent of $50 BILLION... um... that appears less than some US wars alone well... actually.. one war alone is about the same as the defense budget, but that is another topic... B) You mean we have this large defense budget because of our violent sports, video games, wars, proxy wars, etc?? You's crazy. The media has been telling me (and I believe everything I hear) these wars and defense increases are because there are 'people that hate freedom' and want to take it away from us. Edit: I just ouldn't resist... I guess since the Chinese aren't 'free', nobody hates them and nobody is attacking them, hence the lack of defense spending in China. But then again that wouldn't explain Canada's small dfense budget as they are free...I'm confused.

So my wife and I went the K3 route, which means we were legally married in China. We now want to get a marriage license in the USA. Do we apply for one like the normal Joe and Zhang would (courthouse)? Or am I going to need my Chinese marriage licesne and approriate translations? Also, in the future, am I supposed to use the Chinese date we got legally married (at least the USCIS recognizes this), or the American date? Ponder these questions I shall....

You got her covered except for one thing, lots of money to go shopping. But you will need a Chinese visa in your passport, but you probably know that. Our first trip back we took a carry on only and bought enough clothes to fill the 4 suit cases we bought for the trip home. Amazingly enough we spent less than a $1000. Yeah, I bring back so much stuff every time (much of it her personal belongings)...4 suitcases just under 50lbs this time...2 for each of us. Yay - can't wait to drag that through Shanghai again... Luckily United Airlines only charges $50/bag for domestic flights. I got my visa (stupid new process due to the olympic games btw), and our chinese marriage book, too. Thanks fellas! I'll be sure to eat some Dongpo pork for you all.. This is our first time flying back to China and then to the USA together, so it's going to be really cool.

So my wife and I are going to China next week. Is there anything special we/she needs? As far as I know, she should only need her Chinese passport to get into China and her American green card to get back in the USofA, right?

Check out my signature (if the other response don't work)....though I'm not sure if they are still valid options.

Just print a few pages for different periods of time. Save a tree doing so...and an attached tree hugger.

man, we use msn, but that only calls the computer. i once set up a phone dialer box for someone about 4 years ago, and i am pretty sure it was free and used the broadband connection to call. i'll have to look into that again and see if i'm right. anyone else heard of using some sort of phone dialer box? it's external to the pc, but uses the internet connection to establish a connection.

xie xie

So we already have our GC, but our EAD submission was just now processed and not approved. Says the letter will tell me why. I suspect this is because of the GC approval. Is this normal?

renton, washington has a Ranch 99 store that sells it. surely you can find it online though.

might also look into netflix. they have a selection that's decent, and they all have english subtitles.

wow, bummer man. you already have a kid and they want to question your relationship??? ridiculous! good luck preparing the document. i prepared such documents before my wife went for her interview to guz and they did ask for it. mine was about 1.5 pages long with fairly detailed notes, signed and dated (not notarized) by both of us, and an easy-to-read time line in case they didn't want to read all my rubbish. good luck!! if that's all they are asking for, i think you are in good shape. they just want to be pecker woods sometimes, so don't fret.