MarkLuvsShuPing
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Posts posted by MarkLuvsShuPing
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OUTSTANDING!!!!!
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Congrats and good luck! Keep us informed.
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On sending Chinese characters in email:
Make sure you set the character coding to Chinese Simplified (GB2312). Even though your computer could be setup to read and write Chinese, your email could get garbled if the charset isn't set properly.
In my case, the mail composer lets me write the Chinese, but complains if I try to send it and haven't set the proper charset. So I made some email templates with the charset already coded to GB2312; no worries.
Hey, Thanks Lee, I'll try this one.
I have to say that I have sent a couple of letters to her without problems, but the package I sent with gifts never arrived.
One point to note, we can all trust the USPS, but once they turn the package over to the Chinese post, it's out of their hands.
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Howdy Hank, (Sorry, I feel compelled to say "howdy" to anybody named Hank)
I figured out how to address an envelope in Chinese and English and print it out from my computer.
For some reason, I've never been able to send Chinese characters through e-mail and have it make sense when ShuPing got it. However, I overcame this by printing out the address in both Pinyin and Chinese and showing it to her on the web cam.
She can tell you if the Chinese is correct and probably tell you if the Pinyin is good too. ShuPing wrote it down for me in a letter she sent me and I was able to copy the Pinyin.
I sent one package to China and it was lost, anything you send via snail mail is likely not gonna make it. You have to use UPS or DHL to make sure it gets there, but then you pay for the service.
Hope that helps and I hope you're not mad about the howdy thing.
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I agree with you, nothing about this process has any rhyme or reason to it, at least from our point of view. There is never a sure bet white slip and the blue one always looms large.
Mark are you saying there is no such thing as a "Slam Dunk" ???
Sorry couldn't help myself Hey Gene, yeah, don't fight the feeling, just go with the flow when it hits ya.
I'm saying that when it comes to a slam dunk in GZ, a midget has a better chance at going up and breaking the glass in the Staples Center than we have at a guaranteed white slip.
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I've been sending ShuPing about $100 - $150 a month and she's been livin' large in Nanning. OK, maybe not LARGE, but bigger than before, she hasn't had to work since September.
There are unscrupulous people all over the world, but that doesn't mean you've found one, it could be the way lele said. If you've spent all this time and all this effort into coming all this way, I agree, you should go there and see for yourself what's really goin' on, if you can. To throw it all away on a few assumptions seems premature.
My initial reaction was to go with the assumption that she's using you, but have you really paid attention to her and why have you just dumped lots of $$$ into this without any ??? I feel there is more to the story here than meets the eye and more on your part that you're not telling us.
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Kim, You weren't trying to get political there in your opening remark were you? Just checking.
Excepting your first remark,
, I agree with you, nothing about this process has any rhyme or reason to it, at least from our point of view. There is never a sure bet white slip and the blue one always looms large.Still, it's everyone's choice about being there or not. It's a decision we all have to weigh heavily.
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Can I just say one thing? The United States Tax Code Sucks!
I just found out yesterday that I didn't do what I need to do in order to claim my wife. I thought I was going to get $14, now they want over $500.
Why, oh why can't we just all pay one flat rate or something and do away with all the f^*%& loopholes?
You guys are talking about the same thing I didn't do, so this is good. It looks like I can fix it, but it just represents more hoops that the government wants me to jump through if I want to get along in life.
Thank God somebody understands this sh**, I'm going to have to get a dose of Ritalin to focus long enough to figure out what I need to do. Once again, thank God for the collective wisdom on CFL. You guys really are a blessing.
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Obviously this is an individualized topic. It will be different for each couple and based on what they feel comfortable with.
I think money is probably the #1 reason why 99% of Americans aren't there when their Chinese SO goes through the interview. We either don't have the money or we have to keep a job to have money to live.
My last trip put me in a hole that I probably won't be out of when ShuPing gets her interview. If she weren't pregnant, I wouldn't be going, but I will probably have to sell my car in order to go. If she gets the interview before March, she'll be coming here ASAP. If, on the other hand, we're still waiting after March, I'll be going there to live for a few months.
My point is that my decision is based on our situation, she's pregnant and I wouldn't want to put her through the stress of going through the interview while she's pregnant and risk any problems either with the pregnancy or the visa.
Be there if you can, be there if you must, but don't be there if you don't think you need to be.
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That makes sense, but is that everyone's experience?
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Great news Lee!
I'm looking forward to our day and everyone who gets their interview and their loved one means I'm one step closer.
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I just read through Jeff's "White Slip" post, BTW congratulations Jeff, and began to wonder. Do the VO's ask the same questions and issue the same denials for K-3's as they do for K-1's?
I would hope that there are different considerations in the interview, after all, if you're already married when they interview, at least the questions should be different. But are they more lenient on wives (and husbands) than they are on fiance(e)s?
And just to relate this directly to my situation, if the paperwork has been expedited due to her pregnancy, wouldn't you think she's pretty much got a pass for the interview? Or will they scrutinize her more (bastards)?
I realize I'm asking for opinions, but those of you who've gone the K-3 route should be able to give somewhat qualified opinions.
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Good luck Moon, you guys deserve a break, not a fake. We're all rootin' for ya!
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Hey Kim,
I like that, an impressive little "here take this with you when you go" kinda thing....go FYS... yeah, nice one, dude.
Not to hijack this thread, but I've never visited any other visa related web site, hmmm, maybe I'm missing something, but who gives a F? I kinda like you people and your misleading opinions.
Besides, what the hell does a Brit know about being an American?
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There was a reason we had a Rumpus Room and, sadly, a reason why it got deleted.
Let's try to keep the more sensitive political subjects out of these posts. We do have a place where we can debate politics, but this isn't it. Refer to my previous post.
We are united in the common cause of bringing our loved ones here, let's keep the uncommon causes to a minimum so we can remain focused.
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Not me, I wouldn't want to start nothing. I think we'd get run off of here if we started that again. Remember what happened last time.
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Not to start another 300 thread, but I needed to get one more post to creep within 100 of Darrell. I'll pass him up and become #9 on the list and then Owen is next!
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Great news Mick!
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Gee Ed, you better stock up on the Cheetos.
I have no doubt that you're going to hit the 2000 posts mark before it's over.
But I really hope you only have time to reach the 500 post mark before she gets here.
(That's an off-handed way of wishing you a speedy process).
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Remember the old experiment where they put rats in a big cage and everything was fine until the cage got crowded? Not to compare Chinese people to rats, but there are a lot of people in China. It always suprises me that more people aren't fighting and killing each other on the street there.
Maybe it's their quick and severe punishment for crimes.
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From my perspective, there aren't enough VO's. My wife will go home to QiQIHaer from Nanning to live until she gets her interview (the reason being she wants to be home with her mom and sisters while she's pregnant, but also to get her passport and birth certificate), then she has to travel all the way back to GZ for her interview and wait however long to get the visa.
Why don't they process K-1 and K-3 visas in more consulates? Why not Beijing, Shanghai and GZ? They would drop the work load for the VOs in GZ and spread it around. There can't possibly be that many other types of visas being processed. Spread it around, let all the consulates process all types of visas and hire a few more VOs to get the job done quicker and more efficiently. We'd get better service and more fraud would get detected.
Of course then they'll raise the cost of getting a visa to pay for the added VOs, but it would be worth it to me.
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I agree with everyone about the lack of violence in China, but really, who would get out of line if you knew you could get your ass run over by a tank?
I do disagree about the gun issue, I've never once seen a gun jump up and shoot somebody all by itself. (We don't argue politics on CFL anymore, but if you want to debate, bring it to the Unofficial CFL Rumpus Room)
What I do believe is that our culture is more aggressive and violent than any other in the world, but at the same time we are the most lax when it comes to punishment.
If we Americans ever had the profound respect for our elders that the Chinese do, I think we wouldn't be so violent. We simply have no respect for each other and that breeds the violence.
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Darrell! Didn't you fall off the face of the earth? Or was that me?
Anyway, good to see you.
You know what we need around here? We need to have a mole. Someone who works in the GZ consulate, someone who knows the VOs and can give us the low down.
Barring that, I don't think we'll ever solve the mystery of who gets rejected and who doesn't.
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I don't know if there are enough of us to make a big enough stink about it, but I suggest everyone write their congress people a letter to explain the problems we seem to have. Offer solutions not complaints. If every Congressman or Senator started getting enough of these letters and e-mails, who knows.
On the other hand though, this isn't the first time this has come up on CFL. Most people just want to go about getting their visas and not be bothered with writing Congress. Although it hurts us all, there seems to be a feeling that it won't do any good, so why bother?
I had another thought, what if we got together a PAC, (Political Action Committe), figure out a way to fund it and try to change things that way? I don't think that's been proposed yet.
If everyone pitched in, we could buy our way into Washington. Are there enough of us to raise the money needed? I bet there are.
Thank you for your Inquiry,,, BUT!
in General Visa Discussion & First Steps
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Boy, All this optimism has me thinking I'd better find a job in Harbin.