michaelt

Thank you Dan. Can you clarify something for me?My wife and I live in South Florida and her Chinese passport expires in June. Must we travel to Washington D.C. for renewal? How far in advance can we do this so I can plan vacation time? Can you point me to the topic or thread of others who have renewed their spouses Chinese passport with perhaps forms and fees required (cash, credit card, or money order?). Should my wife use her married name or maiden name? I want her to be able to travel to China with ease. Thank you so much in advance. I have searched CFL and not finding anything specific to these questions.

Re doing home deed is optional, your list is long and looks good to me. Note: you will be filing the I-751 AFTER Feb 2010 but before the CR-Green card expires, not "by" Feb. It is filed within 90 days before the card expires. Thank you as always Dan! : )

I will be approaching the same in May of 2010, so I will submit form and payment by Feb 2010. My wifes married name is on: Social Security card, our checking and savings acount, (has debit card in her name for both) a Visa credit card (her name and mine on seperate cards but same account), her own Chase card with her name, my car insurance (she doesn't drive though), Water Utilities, Florida Power and Light, Life/accident insurance with her as beneficiery, my Will naming her as beneficiery and she has a Florida state ID. Does anyone see the need for me to do a quit claim deed to get her name on house deed? Hate to bear the expense of the process and relinquish all rights to our home. She's my sweetheart and can have anything that makes her happy, but not sure if I need to spend the $300 and time off from work. Sorry to jump on your post my friend, but hope this helps others too! : )

My wife and I sent DVD's and CD's of jpg picture files and MP3 movies for her family to look at and they could not view them. I had to reburn them as "VCD".

My wife is attending free Adult English classes 3 nights a week at a local high school. She also visits http://www.iciba.com/ quite often for translating difficult words or slang. She also has Langensheit (or something like that) yellow chinese/english dictionary that we purchased at BooksAMillion. Excellent book. Chinese to English and English to Chinese. We tried the sample CD from Rosette Stone but it did not impress my wife. We also have enabled Pin Yin to Chinese character capability on our computers so she can write to her family and friends.

I live in Florida, sent my forms to Texas, and (something new at that time to relieve back-log in Texas) they ended up being transferred to California. All sounds normal to me.

We dropped one-suite when I couldn't recharge it. Took their customer service 2 days to get back to us (turned out it was an extra digit on the zip code). In the meantime, Jiaying wanted to make her call, so we went with China CallBack at pc2asia.com 1.8¢ Good to know Randy, and thank you for the feedback. : )

My sweet wife has been very pleased with onesuite.com. I think it's 2.1 cents per minute, a breeze for 3 phones to have pin programmed, clear connection, and easy to "recharge" your minutes online.

Thank you both for your thoughts. wanting to side-step this one and not get invloved!

My brother-in-law (in Beijing) would like us to purchase several $40 folding Buck knives and several $200, what appears to be, throwing knives. (found on such sites as Amazon.com in the U.S. but don't see these items on Amazon.cn) By the time we pay for shipping, insurance, he pays for custom fees, and the remote possibility of it either not making it through customs (since they will x-ray and see "weapons?") or just theft, I can't say I relish the thought of even getting involved? Any thoughts?

I'd be curious to hear any replies to this also. My immediate thoughts would be cost of shipping, insurance, customs and the possibilities of it "dissappearing" in customs. My brother-in-law (in Beijing) would like us to purchase several $40 folding Buck knives and several $200, what appears to be, throwing knives. By the time we pay for shipping, insurance, he pays for custom fees, and the remote possibility of it either not making it through customs (since they will x-ray and see "weapons?") or just theft, I can't say I relish the thought of even getting involved? Good luck in your pursuit of answers!

Microsoft has been employing scare tactics for years, that mislead people into thinking they have a security risk. As long as you are using good quality anti-virus protection, with firewall, and keep it regularly updated, you should be fine. Additionally, some of the better security products provide Web Threat protection, that will block known sites that present a security risk. I do not use IE unless I absolutely have to. FireFox and Google Chrome both provide an excellent product that is not weaved into your operating system the way IE is. You can uninstall IE, and locate a previous version of the application on the internet, and install it. Microsoft likely provides free download to previous versions. To uninstall IE: 1. Open your Control Panel, and click Add Remove Programs. 2. Locate and click the icon for Add / Remove Windows Components 3. Select Internet Explorer from the list 4. Click Uninstall ....then, reinstall the previous version I don't know what operating system you're running, but you can find IE 7 for Windows XP here: http://www.microsoft.com/Downloads/details...;displaylang=en I've updated to IE 7 and 8 in the past and don't love either. I'm staying with IE 6 but occassionally see pages with tiny fonts that are unreadable. As noted above, you should be able to uninstall IE 8 in add/remove programs which should bring you back to your previous version. I also like Mozilla Firefox which I run from time to time when I run into small font issues, particularly when trying to read bank statements.

Yes, eventhough a K-Visa does not need vaccintions done for the visa, you are better off getting them done in China and getting the "yellow book". This may save some $$ later on. You will then take the yellow book to a US Civil surgeon for transfer to an I-693 when you adjust status from a K-Visa. Also, expect the Civil Surgeon in the US to want to give shots that I argued were not necessary. He eventually signed-off with giving shots. His fee to fill out the I-693 form was $75 and he refused to make us a copy. Apparently it is an important form that only allows for one original copy and it must be sealed by doctor and mailed without duplicates being made. Correction: He signed-off WITHOUT giving shots.

Yes, eventhough a K-Visa does not need vaccintions done for the visa, you are better off getting them done in China and getting the "yellow book". This may save some $$ later on. You will then take the yellow book to a US Civil surgeon for transfer to an I-693 when you adjust status from a K-Visa. Also, expect the Civil Surgeon in the US to want to give shots that I argued were not necessary. He eventually signed-off with giving shots. His fee to fill out the I-693 form was $75 and he refused to make us a copy. Apparently it is an important form that only allows for one original copy and it must be sealed by doctor and mailed without duplicates being made.

I've had good luck and found the best price at the US post office. You can send an International Overnight Priority package, which should be large enough to accommodate your paperwork for 30-50 USD. Thank you, that is the way I thought I would go, but needed a better feeling then my gut...lol I've used USPS Expresss Mail which comes with tracking number many times with success. I've always sent boxes though, and had zero luck with envelopes sent via "NORMAL" USPS (Holiday cards never got there)

There's a box you have to check to save it - it doesn't save by default Thank you!

Go to your profile, and click on 'Profile Options' and 'Find Member's Topics' or just click here Not to jump on the topic, but does anyone know why my "sent" PM's aren't being saved in my sent box? "In's" are all there, but none of my "sents" are being saved? (shows as zeo) Thank you and sorry again to jump into this topic. : )

These are all outstanding ideas and areas of focus for us, and I thank you all for taking the time to write and share your clear insight. I knew my friends at CFL would shed some light! Sometimes the "forest- through-the-trees" problem arises and you've given us direction. Another obstacle I forgot to mention was my sweet wife does not drive and is just beginning to digest the learners permit study manual. It'll be months before she has a vehicle because I can't afford additional car or insurance right now. Mass-transit in S. Fla is the pits. For now, we'll focus on computer software and suggested website/H&R Block. Thank you all again and we hope you and your wonderful gals are enjoying Valentine's Day! : )

Thank you so much for writing. You said everything that I meant to say (much better than me!) You and I are in exactly the same boat and saving face is first and foremost on my mind. She sees me coming home wiped out every night and wants to contribute. I adore her for this, and want to help her contribute. I just fear something menial and lowering her self-esteem. Thank you again for writing and I look forward to others offering their thoughts.

My wife has expressed an interest in seeking employment and we are working on a resume for her. Her formal schooling (2 years) is in Accounting and some Appliance Sales & Accounting. She has done both for about 7 years. My sweet wife is extremely bright and enthusiastic, attends adult ESOL classes 4 nights a week, is constantly making use of her translation dictionary and our computer for looking up words and pronunciation, but her English is still a bit limited. Her Accounting background did not make use of computers and was done manually on paper using calculators and an abacus. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to translate this experience into a compelling resume or perhaps can offer an example of how you worded your wife's resume and cover letter to express her exceptional work ethics and how to overcome a prospective employers reluctance to hire someone with some-what limited English and computer skills? Starting today, I will have my wonderful wife start practicing with my QuickBooks and Quicken as well as Microsoft Word and Excel, but this may take some time. Any and all thoughts would be welcome so I can start preparing her resume. My Accountant has expressed an interest in receiving her resume soon and using her help in March or April but I fear he may be dissappointed with her language skills. Thank you all! : )

I had quality problems most of the time. My wife was always complaining about the connection to China. I switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS. The quality is so much better. Now, we never have a quality issue. Looks like Verizon FIOS not available in my area (South Florida East) so guess I'll have to wait till it is available. Any other options for home phone and internet? Your quality issue with Comcast concerns me. My objective is to get italkBB. Like Craig, my connection with Comcast varied a great deal. My connection with Comcast was suppose to be 5MB. It measured anywhere from 4.2MB to 1.6MB. When Lisa would complain I would measure right then and it would show less than 2.8MB. The upload always showed .384MB. My sister would said it was kind of hard to hear me from time to time. VoIP does eat up some bandwidth and really needs it to be constant so you don't get any packet loss or delays. This is where you get quality issues with VoIP. So I wouldn't do less than 5MB down and 1MB up if you have it connected to your home router shared with other computers. When I had FIOS installed they made an error in setting it up. I was only getting 5/2 service for the first week, but I was really getting 5MB down with them. The phone was instantly better on both ends. It was like night and day. Once Verizon set my service to 15/2, I really didn't notice any change with ITalkbb quality. Check to see if Verizon knows how long before they have service in your area. It is really worth getting . Prices are comparable to Comcast, but the speeds are more consistent. You can still use ITalkbb with Comcast, just be prepared for some quality issues. Also, talk with Carl (waredbored), he has both Comcast and ITalkbb, as FIOS is not available in his area yet. See if his experience is the same. It just might be worth the switch while you are waiting for FIOS. Thank you so much. I've e-mailed Verizon.

I had quality problems most of the time. My wife was always complaining about the connection to China. I switched from Comcast to Verizon FIOS. The quality is so much better. Now, we never have a quality issue. Looks like Verizon FIOS not available in my area (South Florida East) so guess I'll have to wait till it is available. Any other options for home phone and internet? Your quality issue with Comcast concerns me. My objective is to get italkBB.

So it's safe to assume italkBB needs cable, preferably from Verizon? My wife and I both have cell phones through Verizon (1400 minutes..about $80/month, contract lock for atleast another year), Internet (DSL) and home phone from AT&T (formerly Bellsouth) (about $80/month) and we buy onesuite.com (2.2 cents/minute to China) at an average of $25-$30/month. We certainly like the ability for her mama and baba to call us for free via italkBB. Navigated Verizon's website for packages but don't see much savings? Called, but Verizon rep not too helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated! ITalkbb can be used over DSL, but you would have some quality issues. Nothing too bad, but still very noticeable. You are paying 80+25 or $105 for slow internet, home phone and calls to China. If I were you, I would turn the DSL and home phone into FIOS or cable. Most DSL runs at .765MB, cable and FIOS is 12MB to 20MB. at around 60. So by switching to fast broadband, you could get fast internet, home phone and calls to/from china for around $85. You should save about $20 a month. Cellphone service is a seperate part of Verizon. FIOS is fairly new and not available in all areas, but any service that offers over 12MB download and 2MB up would give good quality with any VoIP. Thank you so much for your sound advice and I will pursue FIOS. Hope you and your family are well. : )

So it's safe to assume italkBB needs cable, preferably from Verizon? My wife and I both have cell phones through Verizon (1400 minutes..about $80/month, contract lock for atleast another year), Internet (DSL) and home phone from AT&T (formerly Bellsouth) (about $80/month) and we buy onesuite.com (2.2 cents/minute to China) at an average of $25-$30/month. We certainly like the ability for her mama and baba to call us for free via italkBB. Navigated Verizon's website for packages but don't see much savings? Called, but Verizon rep not too helpful. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

I'm quite happy with onesuite.com at .022/minute recommended by our good friends Clayton & Wen Li. The reception is great, buying more minutes is a breeze, our 3 phones are recognized and we do not need to enter a pin number.