Lucky °®ÈË

Hey...Florida does have its reputation...hanging chads, etc. Sorry can't help it. I was born in Miami and parents moved us up to around Daytona Beach area. I tried to escape Florida once when I was sworn into the Air Force but that's another non-success story . But I can say things with Ying have been incredibly successful!

We have DISH Network with the "Great Wall" package. Yesterday or the day before my wife had the TV on CCTV4. It was showing information about the Chinese military including its new aircraft carrier. Then it changed to a CGI presentation showing how China could protect itself from a nuclear attack using a missle defense system. Then it showed the launch of a counter-strike. It showed a missile that launched and its path of travel. I could not make out the land below at that time. Then the top of the missile separates and releases I guess it was about 6 to 10 warheads. The next scene clearly showed the state of Florida below with all these warheads headed directly toward it! Did anyone else see this? Does these seem a little disturbing?

THANKS AGAIN GENTLEMEN !

His current name "Lu Tingjian" is on his Chinese ID and Passport. His name on his birth certifilcate is "Lu Kejian." My wife said it was changed as a family request. She said "Ke" means knife which could give his name a somewhat aggressive or violent connotation to his name. So his father changed his name in 2006. Lu Tingjian was about 10 years old then. This is my third immigration process. I never had an RFE with the first two. Since this was my first RFE I was nervous about it since I figured no response or the wrong response could mean a denial or an unecessary delay in processing. I realize that the USCIS has immigrants from many countries. I just thought China may have been one of the top countries for immigration and they would be aware of name changs procedures...my bad. I have printed out what her ex sent and will mail it today.... Thanks Randy

My wife has been in the US for about eight months and she is the best woman I have ever had a relationship with! We have difficulties like anyone does but other than that things are going great. She came here on a CR-1 Visa. Now we would like to bring her 16 year old son here on I assume a IR-1 Visa. I have already submitted his I-130. Recently we recieived an RFE requesting a copy of the court document submitted to change his name. Now according to my wife that is not how it works in China. She said name changes go through the Police Department. But any records kept by the Police cannot be copied. So her ex went there and received a notarized or certified document that substantiates the name change. My question is will that document satisfy the RFE? I am not so sure. I would have thought the USCIS having done this thousands of times would know there would not be any "court" document if name changes are done thought the Police. Does anyone know what I "really" need to do? Thanks a million!

Thank you Dennis and Chop Suey...ya'll be here all week, right? I had the sleep study done on May 14. I didn't get the follow up appt. until about a week ago. He said I slept 4 hours and woke up 60 time due to sleep apnea. He also said I feel asleep in 15 min. I hardly believe that! He said I had mild sleep apnea. A friend of mine at work woke up 400 times a night! After forcfully filling him in on other details he agreed I had two problems. I have insomnia and sleep apnea. I am 5' 8" and weight about 195. The said to me if I loose approx. 30 pounds I would not have to deal with the sleep apnea...don't know if it is true or not. Jun 15 I have the appt. for the study with the CPAP,,,,wish me luck! Sweetnov...thank you very much for the link! My wife said she will ready during her quiet time as she sais it contained allot of knowledge to be assimilated. Thanks everyone!

Does anyone have the overview or the basics of the Atkin's Diet in Chinese? I am finding it difficult to explain the diet to my wife. Right now to her the diet sounds like a sin and she forbids to stop eating rice! I would really like her to have a better understanding of the diet. Twice I have lost 30 lbs on this diet at different times of my life. (This time the doctor said if I lose 30 lbs I will be able to overcome sleep apnea, thus the importance.)

Thank you Dan, But my wife has been here in the US since Nov 13, 2011. And I am so grateful for that!

1) When I was in the process of getting the CR-1 Visa for my wife, her son did not want to come with her to the US. Now as of last Sunday he has decided he wants to come. Of course we both think that is great since it is what we wanted in the beginning. He is15 and is finishing middle school this year so won't be able to come until the end of the year. My question is what is the best visa to apply for with him? Should I do another CR-1? 2) I am not sure of the legalities, but a good friend of my wife's gave us some Chinese Calligraphy to try to sell in the US. We watched him make several while we were there. He is certified by some government agency to charge so much for his work. If I remember correctly is it 10,000 yuan/sq meter. I calculated twice that they would be over $10,000 a piece! I surely don't think we can sell them for that much. Any ideas for a more reasonable price and what type of client would like to buy them?

Has anyone ever wired money to their wives bank account in China? Can you do this even though she is now in the US? If you can, does the money stay in US dollars or is it converted to RMB?

Does anyone know where I can buy a Chinese bed, the ones that are hard and I am guessing not to many Americans sleep on? A queen or king size would be good. My wife desires to go to college and also find work. First she needs to learn to listen to and speak more English. What is the best way to approach this? Attend ESL classes, online classes, Rosetta Stone English? And how much should I be involved as her "English Teacher?"

Someone here told me that with the CR-1 Visa the beneficiary will have a green card before entry to the US. We don't seem to have one. The immigration officer at the LA airport just told me to make sure we follow the instructions on the paperwork in the immigration package. From what I see it is just instructing us to change her status before she is here two years. Also does she need the usually vaccinations with a CR-1? As always...thanks for your help!

Seeing as how I have to leave on Saturday, I am pretty much done buying all the gifts. I did get a majority of the suggestions you offered me. I greatly thank all you for your input. Going American from Orlando to LA, China Southern from LA to Guangzhou and to Nanning. We will stay at our home there for the week and then we will both return Nov 13. I can't wait!

My wife told me last night that since we are getting a gift for this man that we should also get something for his wife. So I am open to suggestions on what to get a Chinese woman who I am guessing is near or over 60. Thanks again.

OK, I went to Wal-Mart tonight and got one of the big 3 D cell black LED flashlights. It is strange how the packaging differed. Some had the wattage of the LED some did not. Others gave you distance in meters of how far the light would travel and others include the Lumen value. Also I discoved that the Raovac alkaline batteries are also made in the US. I got a pack of 6 so that will give him two changes of batteries. Again thanks for the suggestion!

Thanks again for your input! I hate to be a bother...but I also want to bring something for her 15 year old son. She did not give me any ideas. Thanks again...

Thanks d and d... as far as bringing a work item... I work at the Kennedy Space Center so maybe some kind of space/shuttle related apparel or some other kind of memorobilia?

I am leaving soon to go to China and pick up my wife. I was hoping someone could give me a gift suggestion. My wife knows a man, a friend who had a successful career as building and commerece official for a large city and surrounding areas. The last time I went to China he treated me and my wife to a trip to Mashan to see its famous undergrond caverns and he put us up in the best hotel in the city. So I am sure he does not lack for anything fincancial. This trip we will see him again and I wanted to bring him a special gift. Any ideas? Also, my wife wants me to bring some cartons of Marlboros for some of the men in her family. I have no idea what kind of Marlboros to get. Does anyone know what type of Marlboros Chinese men prefer?

When I submitted my wife's petition I held back on her son's. He is 14 and wants to come to the US at the end of Middle School. I thought I could submit his at a later time. However I have been told there are specific guidelines to follow. Since hers has already been approved, what should I do now if I have done this process in error? Should I mail out her sons petition as soon as possible? The idea is someone told me it is best to have them at the Visa interview at the same time otherwise problems might arise.

I think Skype is great! I have only used it once in the US with the family and saw them use it a couple of times so I am not familiar with it a whole lot. But to me the obvious advantage over what we normally use (Yahoo Messenger) is the video window is much larger (better resolution) and virtually real-time and the audio is in sync and is very clear. Yahoo Messenger's video seems unstable and updates so slowly so you miss so many frames of video and there audio is awful...won't even begin to describle all the problems it has! For someone who is trying to learn English through real-time conversation, Skype would be great...not so great with messenger. Apparently from what I know of about my wife's situation, there are virtually no English speaking groups in Nanning for which to engage in English conversation with. So even though she has a good grasp of reading and writing English, it is very difficult to speak English with her and you must talk very slowly...all understandable. Unfortunatly I have not yet had a chance to speak to my wife on Skype. I am going to ask her to download it and give it a try. Yes...they all use QQ. QQ's farms blow away Facebooks! When my wife and her son go on QQ farms it is like they are playing a fast moving video game with great graphics! I would recommend QQ to be in sync with what they use. Here is where I need help...I downloaded and used QQ long ago but was discouraged because even though I thought I downloaded the English version, too much of it was still in Chinese and that "counts me out" because I was lost in navigating it. Did I somehow download the "wrong English version?" Can anyone give me a current link to to the QQ we need and can should I re-register or can I transfer my old QQ login info? If Skype is going to be a problem in the future, QQ is probably the best but I don't know if it's video/audio performance is nearly as good as Skype? You know how we say that foreigners that come to the US should learn to speak English...well QQ is like the Chinese version of that line of thought. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"...when in China QQ! As a matter of fact...I am her only contact in Yahoo Messenger. All her others are in QQ (Does "QQ" actually stand for something?)

Thank you very much dnoblett, danb, Ryan H, Randy W and Kyle! One more quick question on this....Is it preferable to address it in Chinese....and never mix English and Chinese? I used to correspond with someone in Shenzhen. I sent those letters all in English and never had a problem. For some reason I guess it works a little different in Nanning.

My wife lives in Nanning, Guangxi. I have not sent her allot of mail. Accutally all I have sent so far is a card on one occasion and a Valentine's Day gift on another. Both times it took nearly 2 months for her to get it! Now that her I-130 has be received I know in the future I will need to correspond with her in a more timely manner. Would someone clue me in on how to properly address a letter or package to Nanning?

I am in Nanning, Guangxi presently. Most people who have traveled to China probably know this. If you are new to China you may not know this. I had a quite frustrating day today because of these two things: 1. You can use a US ATM card in most places in China. I have used mine in Shekou, ShenZhen and Nanning, Guangxi. But each place had its own limit for the withdrawal amount and number of withdrawals per day. Here in Nanning it is 1000 yuan limit per withdrawal and only two of these per day for a total of 2000 yaun in one day. 2. I also discovered when I tried call my bank in the US....of course the downfall of modern civilization, the wonderful phone menu option system...I could not make any use of it because apparently when you select a menu option the tone is recognized by the Chinese system as a new call and will get a Chinese error message. What happened: I wanted to take out 4000 yuan today. I tried several times at an ATM but it said "invalid amount." So I tried at another bank. Because I tried this a number of times in succession my bank recognized this as "irregular card activity" and lock out the use of my card! I checked my email and it told me to check my banking activity online and then call them to resolve it. I tried but could not use the menu options given because of the above no. 1. I had to call my Verizon agent and he had to call my bank for me and listen to the menu options and I had to tell him which one to press.....so frustrating! Then I got a follow up call on my cell phone from the bank but it also involved menu options! So I did not know whether I could use my card or not. I had to call Verizon again! Suffice to say I lost my temper with the second bank person....my bad.... I hope this saves at least ONE person from the frustration I had to deal with!

Thank you Larry and Dave! I did not ask her about it. I only listened to what she told me. It is just that she invited to her fathers.....I said yes of course...not knowing much about it. She said it lasts two days and that it continues over night. She said she did not expect me to stay awake with them over night. At least she said I was of great comfort to talk to during this sad event. Good to see you Gary... I see you jumped back on the proverbial Horse, no pun intended B) How's life treating you? It's been a while. Hello Charles! Life has been treating me very well! Without saying too much...I think this is the one...this will last the rest of my life! That's my story....

Thank you Larry and Dave! I did not ask her about it. I only listened to what she told me. It is just that she invited to her fathers.....I said yes of course...not knowing much about it. She said it lasts two days and that it continues over night. She said she did not expect me to stay awake with them over night. At least she said I was of great comfort to talk to during this sad event.