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Good point David. Also it is typical for the husband's mother to take care of the daughter-in-law during the marriage and after. The birth of a child here is taken more seriously especially for the mother's health than in the USA (at least in my view). No one here expects the mother will be up and back to work after a few weeks. All good points, sure a lot to think about. Now, we can only concentrate on getting everything done for her visa here. But in retrospect, I-130 sent so we are now in wait mode. But I will try for an expedite, cannot hurt and you never know. As far as support goes, it is my first baby, so I will do all I can. But I guess we will need to talk more about her mom traveling.. Dan Unless your work will give you a few months off to take care of her and the baby 24x7, it's not the support she is culturally expecting if in china; that is Allan's point that they take the birth more seriously; the wife is not supposed to lift a proverbial finger. But ultimately she has to say what her expectations are.... just don't be surprised if a request for black chicken instead of ice cream and pickles comes forth "Black Chicken"? sound just wonderful ... Just asked the wife, and she has told me her mom is to visit next year. But time will tell. Well not that you mention it ... "Black Chicken Soup" is quite tasty. I also hear it is good for the mother to be. All Silkies have black skin, bones and grayish-black meat; their Chinese language name is wu gu ji (žõ¹Çú_[13], literally "crow boned chicken"), meaning "black-boned chicken". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silkie

Good point David. Also it is typical for the husband's mother to take care of the daughter-in-law during the marriage and after. The birth of a child here is taken more seriously especially for the mother's health than in the USA (at least in my view). No one here expects the mother will be up and back to work after a few weeks.

good news!!

Carl in my experience and from conversations over here I would say this is still very much true. However I agree with you 100% on your second (it will change as imbalance worsens) and third points (Chinese women's stock will rise). Hell at some point their stock will be so high they will no longer even look our way ..

Your case is not special. My wife was also never married/no children. I was divorced once with 2 children. I know other case like me (Chinese and Western man). As Carl said before ... the gender imbalance problem that is looming is not caused by nor will it be significantly skewed further by "White Devils" taking chinese women based on China's huge poplulation.

Kyle was correct about this. I sent in my 2006-2008 tax transcripts and a copy of 2008 W-2. Before our interview in Feb. I got my 2009 W-2. My wife wanted to hand it in with the required documents. I said no .. we only give them what we sent them and what they asked for. They did not ask for the 2009 W-2 at the interview. And I know what some are you are thinking .... I checked in the documents she gave back to me and the 2009 W-2 was still in the bag....

I-130 Application - 355 USD AOS - 70 USD Visa Application/Fee - 400 USD Wasted Paper for Front End Loading and Kitchen Sink - 100 USD Wasted Time for FEL and KS that they do not look at - 10,000 USD Years of Life due to Stress and Waiting - 3 --Edit-- Lawyer Fee - 1800 USD (but only if you fail to stay at Holiday Inn Express the night before and find CFL AFTER signing the lawyer) Wasted Paper for Front End Loading and Kitchen Sink - 100 USD Wasted Time for FEL and KS that they do not look at - 10,000 USD Years of Life due to Stress and Waiting - 3 what do these mean?? would you mind explaining me detaily?? Just joking. The first three are the fees you will have to pay. The lawyer fee is basically 500-2500 USD depending on who you choose. I would highly recommend not using a lawyer. If you do use one don't use XXX (PM me if you want to know who not to use .. in case the bastard sees it and decides he wants to sue being that he is a lawyer)unless your willing to only speak to a paralegal who does not know as much as CFL members. So you mean, I just need to pay 355 USD + 70 USD +400 USD =825$, right? by the way, how long it takes to pay all the money? do they pay at one time? or in several times? Dude your starting from behind the eight ball while trying to put the cart before the horse. Check out USCIS website, DOS, and the FAQ here. You don't just pay the money and get a Immigrant Visa.

We got pink. She was asked two questions: 1. When did you meet? 2. How many times did he come to visit you? When she told him how often we met before marriage he said "Wow he flew to China that many times??!!??". She said "No he was living here in China when we met but we were in different cities". He then said "Oh" and looked at his computer and typed something into it. He then asked to see pictures. She gave him the first of three books (ones of us only without family). He looked at first page and handed it back to her. He then told her "Ok you passed". She then tried to get him to look at the pictures with our families until she realized he said she had passed. They laughed and then she left. She had the white handsome (according to all the girls we talked to) VO. He evidently only interviews the Chinese women married to white men.

I-130 Application - 355 USD AOS - 70 USD Visa Application/Fee - 400 USD Wasted Paper for Front End Loading and Kitchen Sink - 100 USD Wasted Time for FEL and KS that they do not look at - 10,000 USD Years of Life due to Stress and Waiting - 3 --Edit-- Lawyer Fee - 1800 USD (but only if you fail to stay at Holiday Inn Express the night before and find CFL AFTER signing the lawyer) Wasted Paper for Front End Loading and Kitchen Sink - 100 USD Wasted Time for FEL and KS that they do not look at - 10,000 USD Years of Life due to Stress and Waiting - 3 what do these mean?? would you mind explaining me detaily?? Just joking. The first three are the fees you will have to pay. The lawyer fee is basically 500-2500 USD depending on who you choose. I would highly recommend not using a lawyer. If you do use one don't use XXX (PM me if you want to know who not to use .. in case the bastard sees it and decides he wants to sue being that he is a lawyer)unless your willing to only speak to a paralegal who does not know as much as CFL members.

I liked that too.

When I was leaving China I wanted to get a few presents for my family; for my younger brother I thought a Chinese shirt with a few Chinese characters on it would be cool (knowing that these characters look cool in the West). But it turns out it is really hard to find shirts like that in China. Why? Because in the US Chinese characters are cool, but in China Western letters are cool! (i.e. no kids in China want a shirt with Chinese characters on it) I brought some very cool tshirts from the HKIA for gifts (and not expensive/good quaility) that had HK, China, Beijing, and Shanghai in Chinese characters with no english (4 different shirts).

I-130 Application - 355 USD AOS - 70 USD Visa Application/Fee - 400 USD Wasted Paper for Front End Loading and Kitchen Sink - 100 USD Wasted Time for FEL and KS that they do not look at - 10,000 USD Years of Life due to Stress and Waiting - 3 --Edit-- Lawyer Fee - 1800 USD (but only if you fail to stay at Holiday Inn Express the night before and find CFL AFTER signing the lawyer)

I found this a very interesting article about the influences of west to east and east to west. I think it would be neat to see this: Maybe we¡¯ll see baijiu and green tea served at baseball stadiums along with beer and soda pop. That wouldn¡¯t make the game any less American. Can you imagine "baijiu" drunks at Yankee stadium??!!?? http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2010-...ent_9427313.htm

Now there is an interesting thought/theory. My first thought was "no way" on second thought .... who knows.

Actually no I have not but I have experienced it in other Chinese cities and in other countries including USA. However I have not spent much time in Guangzhou so I have not been able to experience all the "bad items" I hear about Guangzhou from Chinese and Western people. Then again I have always heard nothing but horror crime stories about New Orleans from people yet I have been there more than 3 dozen times since 1996 and never experienced one bad episode.

This was from the article: People doing business at an international or even national level have been severely inconvenienced. But most people have resigned themselves to this situation. Now how is this much different from the changes made after 9/11 but the US govt. in the interest of "public safety"? Now having said that .. I posted the original article because I find it interesting that although most people think the Chinese are submissive and live meekly accepting the govt. "heavy-handed" control of them they actually are not so submissive and are not afraid, sometimes, to take on "city hall". In the USA I see more and more that as a people we shug our shoulders and say "you cant fight city hall" and just let things happen. It was this contradiction that I was interested in discussing. I am sure other's views are very different from mine but I wanted to hear them.

Some people would respond to this by asserting that China's refusal to adopt pollution controls to the detriment of themselves and their neighbors, their currency manipulation, and their laissez-faire attitude toward industrial spying and software piracy represent a large reason (but not the only reason) why western economies are struggling to compete. Maybe some would but it that is true then the west should not be bitching or trying to start any fights with China because this would mean they are the superpower now. I cant see how the global economic crisis can be in large caused by China.

One of the nice things about living in the US is that you can say things like this and not be sentenced to hard labor in prison for the rest of your life. Yes, quite. Even when it is true. Well not so fast ... try saying something along those lines while in an airport in the USA and see what happens ...

The interview is for AOS - 10 year green card. Of course I submitted the I-184 already in August. As usually Dnoblett you are on the mark. The list of items to bring to the interview says "I-184 and supporting evidence. (unless already submitted)". So that sounds like I have already submitted all necessary documents in regard to the I-184. I will bring my 2009 W2 just in case they ask. I have another question - They say bring my birth certificate and I cannot find mine. I have a passport, is that not good enough or do I need to rush and get a birth certificate? My wife, who is appling for the AOS, does have her birth cerficicate translated into English. Yes they are asking for proof of US citizenship, Passport should prove this, strange they ask this because you needed to prove citizenship in order to file the I-130 or I-129F petition for visa. Yes bring her foreign birth cert along with English translation. Note bring any origionals of documents that you sent copies of when filing AOS. Sure -- I also though it strange that after getting this far that now they would need a birth certificate. Thanks again! But if they specifically asked you to bring your birth certificate I don't think you can answer, when asked for it, that you thought the passport would be good enough. I would not take any chances.

We brought rings but very simple pure gold matching "bands". My wife does not concern herself with face but would rather use the money to enjoy life.

Well I can only speak for ourselves --> we went with the half nude marriage. She suggested that the other one should pick which half should be nude during the ceremony. She told me to have my top half nude. When I asked her why she said she did not want to lose face in front of her girlfriends ....

Thanks Kim for the great information.

Is this a shift in a long standing culture or just a few practical people bucking tradition??? A good read....now if the DOS asks you why you did not have a wedding ceremony or do not have any wedding photos you can refer them to China Daily and tell them you had a Chinese Nudie Marriage http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2010-02/...ent_9420359.htm

Thanks for sharing your experience. I think this is pretty typical thinking amongst the Taiwanese especially. They consider themselves "better" than the Chinese mainlanders. You just don't see the Taiwanese identifying themselves as Chinese. They are proud of it, and spread it around socially as a "name-dropping" kinda thing. If you bring the issue up with a Chinese person, you will generally get a response like, "Of course they are Chinese." This is the same experience as I have had with Taiwanese when I have heard someone tell them they are Chinese. However I am not as quick to write it off as they just feel "better" than Chinese mainlanders. The ones I have discussed the issue with clearly have differnces of opinion with Chinese govt. and the socialism with Chinese characteristics. In fact I would say I probably am more Chinese than they are based on their comments toward the mainland.

Good to hear and hope it works out soon for you. To me it is still a little unclear but I get the lesson from it that giving too much information can cause problems too (a good lesson for my wife and I to remember next Monday). Will you still be in GUZ this coming weekend? I will be arriving on Friday evening.