MarkLuvsShuPing

Sounds like we'll have a passport for ShuPing soon. Thanks folks, this sheds a whole new light on the immigration process.

Thanks Clifford, ShuPing has a birth certificate for sure, but she may not have been able to get it earlier. She is from the far north and lives in Nanning. Her sister is bringing the birth certificate to her in Harbin, obviously she didn't have it. That may be the sticking point, I'm still trying to get an answer from her. I'm sure there will be some type of bribe involved to get it. But we do what we must. Hell, if she gets it and comes here, she may forget to go back.

Congratulations! I can't wait for that day to come for ShuPing and I. Your perseverence and patience is heartening to all of us who wait.

I just sent an e-mail to her. Hopefully she can tell me why.

ShuPing told me that she tried to get a passport in China, but they would not give her one. She didn't or couldn't explain why, but I wondered what the possible reasons for this could be. It's so easy to get a passport here in the US. What's going on?

Hmm, I'm not too sure about what she isn't getting now, but I'll take a guess on it. 1. The top of a 14,000+ foot mountain in Colorado. 2. Skiing 3. Bungee jumping, OK I want to do that, but it could be fun watching her face when I tell her about it. 4. Football games 5. Disney World, Sea World, Universal Studios, Six Flags 6. Horseback riding in the Rockies 7. Fishing and Gator hunting, or at least a ride on an airboat. 8. Super sized movie screen theaters 9. The Parade of Homes 10. The Grand Canyon

Extremely well written and thoughtful posts gentlemen. You both (Orrin and keelec) make very valid points, both of you are very right in your perspectives. This is an issue that confronts each and every one of us on this board, even the ones who are blessed enough to have their spouses here with them. They have been through the fire and care enough to show the way for the rest of us, they maintain a quiet protest by providing this forum. We all handle this in our own way. I am very new to this process and I've already learned more than I want to know. The pain and anquish, the frustration and disappointment lay before me and I wish to God there was someone who could just fix it before I have to deal with it. But I have chosen a path that I can not turn away from now. I'll relate this story only because it makes a point, not because I am a hero. The night of September 11th I went to my job figuring to have another uneventful overnight shift. I am the overnight supervisor of a residential treatment facility for mentally/emotionally ill children. They range in ages from 8 to 18. To make a long story short, 2 boys, 17 and 18 had run away, they came back to pair up with 2 girls who tried to run, but were stopped by 2 of my staff and I. Marci, one of the staff was holding one of the girls on the ground when James, one of the boys, came running out of the shadows with a stick bigger than a baseball bat. He would have killed a defenseless Marci if I had not run up to intercept him. I was hit instead of her. In the end, we subdued the boys and the police took them away and the girls came back on their own. The point of my story is, in that moment when I realized that I had to get hit with a stick or watch someone get killed or seriously injured, my thoughts were "I don't want to do this, but I have to. God, just make it go away." Still I continued to move forward, with a surreal determination that I've never experienced before. This process that I have been and am about to go through, has been like that. When I decided that I would marry ShuPing I began doing things, taking initiative to get things done that I would never have been motivated to do before. I am, by nature, pretty lazy and I procrastinate to avoid lots of things. This process is different, I continue to move forward, even though it is a hassle and I don't want the aggrevation. It has already changed me and I'm not even married yet. So when we talk about protesting this crap, I don't want to do it. I want to be the guy who just fills out the forms to the best of his ability, ensures that everything is in order, plays the game that the system has set up and waits my alloted time for the whole thing to be over with. I don't have time to go to Washington or Texas or wherever the hell else I need to go to complain. I just want someone to fix it and make it work faster. Problem is, there's nobody but us who can get it fixed. There's no one else who can take a stick to the head to prevent someone else from suffering. Prior to the Revolutionary War, 2 cousins helped to begin the process, Samuel Adams was a radical, protesting and causing trouble for the British, taking his case to the people in the loud voice of anarchy, while his cousin, John Adams, a lawyer, did his part with quiet, legal types of protests, laying the foundations for change, while he played the game given to him by the British monarchy. I'm not a radical, I won't be going to any demonstrations or sit-ins or protests in Texas or D.C. or GZ or anywhere, sorry guys. But I do want this to change, I'm willing to contribute whatever knowledge I gain, whatever talent I have, to bring about the change, even though it would be a pain in my ass, I can't see just sitting here, doing nothing. Change must come, this world is shrinking and the number of international relationships will only increase with time. Can we simply sit back and do nothing or do we move forward and sacrifice so that others don't have to?

Yes, they do rent cars in China. Yes, to get a rental from an agency you will need a Chinese drivers license. No, your international drivers license is no good in China. I don't think traffic is all that bad. Most parts of GZ I would not want to drive in, more because they have a great public transit system than for fear of traffic. A car is spot-on for intercity travel. Not having to take buses everywhere is the donkeys' danglies, plus you get to actually EXPLORE!! For instance, there is an outdoorsy roadside restaurant somewhere outside of HeiShan where the chickens that are to be served for dinner are pecking in the dirt around your feet at lunch, and the parking area faces the field of taro that will be served to you freshly yanked from the ground. Ordering fish? There is a large pond on the premises... This is the sort of stuff you will never see while taking the local equivalent of Greyhound. Visiting the wife's home village becomes a trivial excercise. Getting into a bang-up is a definite risk (Trauma room? Ha!), and the way they mark construction zones makes for exciting driving after dark. Actually, I was only thinking about the trip from Beijing to Harbin to Qiqihar. A road trip along the Chinese countryside would be pretty neat. I'm also thinking that there would be more heat in an automobile than a railroad car. Of course, then there's the whole, I don't have a Chinese driver's license thing. Do you think I'm learning to deal with the reality of things?

Pee Pee dance, I like it. Do you think we could get Brittney Spears to do that one?

HA! I laugh in the face of danger! I throw money away on the most expensive nonsense I can find! Why would I worry about a little fender bender. Give me the road or I'm takin' it! (Remember, I'm living in a fantasy. My I-130 will be processed in one week because I'm that special). B)

Then it looks like a cash advance for me. Thank you again gentlemen. You are truly a beacon in the dark.

So it would be a challenge for even my wreckless lifestyle, huh? They probably wouldn't let me drive anyway.

OK. How about stores, restaurants, etc in Beijing? Will I have any luck there?

You see! Right there, you see! That's why I love you guys. Good thinking Carl. Now if I only had a credit card. Just kidding. I'll do that, that should help if needed. After all, isn't that what a credit card is for? Unless, I could just use the card instead of cash. Do most hotels and bigger businesses take credit cards? I assume they would. I'll just run up the ole credit card to the amount of the deposit before I use cash to pay for things. Every now and then I get bumped out of the fog. Thanks for bumping, Carl.

Speaking of rental cars. Do they rent cars in China? If so do you need a Chinese license to drive?

That really is an "off-color" joke. Orange. Now here's another. Guy goes to the sauna at his health club, sits down, relaxes and sees another guy on the other side. Something familiar about the overweight guy makes him ask what high school he went to. Come to find out they knew each other. "Wow, you've gained some weight since high school", the first guy says. "Yeah, hell it's been 5 years since I've seen my unit" replies the big guy. "Have you tried to diet?", says the first guy. To which the big guy asks, "Why, what color is it now?"

Now that's not a bad idea Marty. My problem after that is not being able to access money that is deposited in the bank after I've made the initial withdrawl and moved on to QiQiHar. If there isn't an ATM is can withdraw the new money from, then I'd have to go back to Beijing if I ran out of money. That's not going to happen.

LIES! LIES! LIES! I'm not listening to any of it!

Thanks for the encouragement boys. Geesch! Y'know us chicken hawks gotta stick together. Lemme at 'em, let me at 'em! I gotta chicken to catch!

Very funny Mick, but so far I have not had to deal with any negative beaureucratic interactions (of course I haven't filed any papers yet). I'd like to keep my little naive fantasy going for a little while longer, so I'm going to pretend that I never read this post and that even if I did it's not true anyways.

Thanks Bob. BTW I checked out your pictures. You are a lucky man with a lovely wife. Thanks for sharing your pics!

I'm leaving in one week, next Friday morning. Well, I should have enough in the bank to get me through the whole trip, but it would suck to get to QiQiHar and run out of ready cash. "Sorry Airen, we have to go back to Beijing so I can hit an ATM". Payday on the 26th and we'll be in QiQiHar for sure. YIKES!

Just because I've never been there and I'm about to be, how difficult is it to find an ATM? Do most of the cities (in my case QiQiHar) have an ATM? My concern is accessing funds that aren't in the bank yet. In other words, I get paid via direct deposit while I'm there and I want to access that money. Will I be making a trip to Harbin at that time because QiQIHar doesn't have an ATM?

Hmmm. That may be the way to go. I placed a bid on one at e-bay, but had second thoughts about it after I was outbid. I don't like the idea of buying something that I can't physically look at and try out. I should be able to get a similar one in China for less and get to play with it. I'll try that.

Congrats Whoever! Persistence does pay off! As someone who has yet to file an I-130, I look to guys like you to show me the light at the end of the tunnel.