Orrin

Yeah, just like I did; only it took her 5 years to complete her agenda.

As a devoted viewer of "Red State Update", all I can say is that WE'RE HERE! We're also growing in numbers with each passing day. If you want to know what's going on in Zhuhai, join http://zhuhai.expat9.com

@Corbin, You¡¯re right¡­ They¡¯ll keep on ¡°practicing¡±, and some day they might get it right. Just an update for everyone; yes, I¡¯m doing exceptionally well. I¡¯m completely recovered from my illness (despite the best efforts of the local ¡°doctors¡±). I begin my new university teaching job on September 1, and, I must say that, after laboring for 5 years in the Zhuhai and Zhongshan ¡°language mills¡± where 40% of my time was spent doing the ¡°dancing white monkey¡± bit, I¡¯ll finally be doing some real teaching. For those of you who might want to get some realistic idea of what life is really like for ¡°expats¡± in the ¡°middle kingdom¡±, I invite you to join http://zhuhai.expat9.com, as well as www.eslcafe.com. I am a regular contributor on both of those sites, with a lot of posts and photos. Cheers and beers to all of you. I hope to make contact with you soon. Orrin Who you know I have heard is more important in China than many other things. This is somewhat the same way here in the US, but not totally the same. In China it seems to be that if you don't know the right people you can't start a business venture no matter how much money you have. Though this may be changing as they become more capitalistic in their ways. Now as far as retiring to China I think I would still do it. As they say doctors differ patients die. That is why they call them Practicing Doctors.........

In late Oct. of '04 Kellee and I were looking for a new apartment because the lease on the one we moved into when we came back from China was about to expire. After looking at about a dozen or more places, we finally found one that was just about perfect, or at least that's what we thought. The agent was showing us through the empty apartment, and the more we looked it over, the better we liked it......until we stepped out on the patio. Kellee's face turned white as a sheet with a mixture of alarm and dissapointment. There, directly across the street from the back side of the apartment complex was a cemetery. After we got back in the car, and I asked her why she changed her mind so abruptly, he only words were "Feng shui bu hao". I guess she was right because 120 days to the day after that incident we closed on our new house. I think that there might be something to this Feng Shui stuff after all

Kelle was approved for an IR1 because her INTERVIEW DATE was 2 weeks past our 2nd. anneversary. I guess that's the key to IR1 or CR!.

Trying to persuade the Chinese not to spit on the street is like trying to persuade the citizens of Paris to be polite to foreign visitors. I remember while I was in China, getting really upset with the manager of a fairly expensive resturaunt for ignoring the people at the next table to ours who were spitting on the carpeted floor. I got the typical response; "This is China. We just have to put up with it."

I would agree completely Don, except in the case of Yao Ming. Seems the Houston Rockets were able to get things moving pretty fast in his case. All in all, though, I don't think money has that much to do with it. 203192[/snapback] You're correct. Money doesn't have anything to do with it. They treat everyone equally badly.

In Guangdon province one doesn't hear a great deal of Manderin. It's mostly Cantonese. Remember, before the revollution Guangzhou was called Canton While I was in China there was a piece on the TV news from HK about the HK government sponsoring Manderin lessons of all of the Cantonese speaking store clerks and other service workers in HK. This was all in an effort to make the new guests from the mainland feel more at home................and therefore, more easilly separated from their $$$

When I was teaching EFL in China, almost all of my students had difficulty with the "r", and also the "v" and "th" sounds because they don't have those sounds in spoken Chinese. I gave them two sentences to paractice with that my students said helped quite a bit. They are: "Think very ahppy thoughts of mother in November." for the "v" and the "th", and: "Lovely red roses last a long time." for the "r" and "l" Give these a try. They can't hurt.

Welcome to the CFL family Just keep in mind that you're at the beginning of a road that's about 6 months to a year long on which you will encounter many speed bumps. The final destination, however, the "magic visa", will make the whole trip worth while. Best of luck on your journey.

4.5 months from P3 to visa approval seems reasonable, but whatever you do, don't buy any air tickets, especially non-refundable ones until she has the visa in hand. GUZ doesn't give a flying flip about your individual situation. As far as they are concerned, you're just another paper in the pile in the "in" basket.

I had a devil of a time getting my wife a tourist visa even after we had been married and living together in China for almost 1 year. This difficulty was in spite of the fact that we were both under contract on our jobs in China, had not yet filed any immigration petitions, and were planning only a 14 day US holiday. She did finally get the tourist visa, but only after several heated phone conversations and visits at GUZ.

When Kellee doesn't want me to understand anything that's being said, she switches to Cantonese from Manderin. Frustrating.....

I looked into this while I was living in China 4 years ago. What has been said earlier is true. As long as your wife doesn't become a naturalized US citizen, she retains her Chinese national status. The same holds true for you. You can obtain a Chinese "green card" after residing in China with you wife for 5 contiguous years. You are still a US citizen, and can apply for all of your entitled benefits such as Social Security retirement. You can arangement for a direct deposit of your monthly SS payment through Bank of China, which has brbanches in California and NYC.

Well, as of the day after tomorrow, Kellee will have been here in the U.S. for 22 months. Although she has acclimated well, both on her job and in regular social environments, there are a few habits that she brought with her from China that I just can’t seem to break her of, or get accustomed to myself. Perhaps the most annoying one is that of washing meat before she cooks it. The other night I brought home a pair of beautiful, 1.5 inch porterhouse steaks which were destined for the BBQ grill. As I was passing through the kitchen with a bag of mesquite chips in hand, I was horrified to see her WASHING my two beautiful steaks under the kitchen faucet. Apparently, she just can’t grasp the facts that food which is purchased from any American supermarket is prepared in far more sanitary conditions than it would be in any of the wet markets in China. Has anyone here encountered a similar situation? If so, how have you dealt with it?

Don't forget the Victory Hotel. It's nice, clean, moderately priced 4-star, and only a 5 min walk from the consulate.

I filed December 21st, 2004 and was notified December 28th. NVC received petition February 8th, 2005 and GZ received March 1st, 2005. My fiancee received notice that the P3 was starting preliminary checks on April 28th, 2005 and here we sit and wait... I filed through Laguna Niguel, California. esun41 135676[/snapback] I was there over New Years as well... Was the air full of sulfur for two weeks where you were ? I developed a couch which lasted 6 weeks.. didn't stop till I got back to US and got some antibiotics ! But still worth the experience... 135681[/snapback] I remember the noise the most. Couldn't sleep most of the time. The red envelopes were an experience. Made me want to be younger!!! It was an experience to remember... I would do it all over again! Esun41 135760[/snapback] Check out our attached timeline

There is a series of English training books called "New Interchange" that I can recommend very highly. I used them quite successfully in my classes in Zhuhai with my high school and adult classes. I understand also that this series is being used at several of the CC and state sponsered ESL programs here in Utah.

Thr problem lies in the fact that China Telecom, a state-owned monopoly, is the only real ISP in China. Every time Beiging gets a hardon for somebody over God knows what they block access to all the associated websites. For the nearly 3 years I was there, I was never able to access any of the BBC sites. I guess that they were REALLY pissed at the brits. For most of the time I was there the NY Times and the LA Times were blocked, and for a period of about 2 months, they even had Yahoo, Google, and the US consulate sites blocked. Go figure

CONGRATULATIONS!!!! I'm certain that you'll find that it was worth the wait.

Go to Dave's ESL Cafe. www.eslcafe.com there's a lot of good stuff there.

Try Zhuhai. There are a lot of available teaching jobs there for Americans, and the cost of living there is still quite low.

Joray, You obviously spent a good deal of time and research preparing your post, and I, as well as many others here, appreciate your effort. The reality of the situation is, however, that SIX MONTHS IS VERY QUICK compared to what it was a year ago. A year to 18 months ago the average processing time for a K1 visa, from P1 to P4 WAS OVER 1 YEAR. I suggest that you take a look at some of the timelines of some of the more senior members of this board. There, you’ll see that some waited as long as 18 months from P1 to P3, only to have their SO denied the visa at the first interview. Trust me; if you can get it done in six or seven months, you’re way ahead of the power curve. Although K1s are sometimes a bit quicker to obtain than a K3 or other spousal visas, to expect to get a K1 visa processed, from initial petition to visa issuance, in less than one year is being unrealistically naïve. The State Department is about as autonomous as a federal government agency can get, and they operate at their own pace. I’m not sure that you’re aware of the fact that ALL of the K1 visa applications for the whole of China are processed through the GZ consulate. The only thing that will be accomplished by initiating a blizzard of correspondence throughout the seemingly endless levels of the State Department is to really piss off some low-level clerk at the GZ consulate, who will then see to it that your petition goes to the bottom of the pile. Indeed, CFL is a great place to come for moral support, help, and some degree of comfort, but you must understand that, you, I, and all of the other members of this board are but mere fly specks on the Great Wall when it comes to the overall scope of the DOS. Once you understand and accept this fact, and let the process proceed at the pace it no doubt will, you will be relieved of most of the mental anguish and stress that comes from the separation of you from your SO. If you really want to expedite the process, here are a few things that you CAN do; 1. Make sure that you fill out ALL of the required documentation EXACTLY as the instructions indicate, including ALL (every scrap, whether you think it’s relevant or not) of the supporting documentation they request. For this task, CFL can be an enormous source of information and help. 2. Make at least one additional visit to your SO in China. Make sure that you save every scrap of paper during these trips including: airline ticket stubs, credit card receipts, receipts from any currency exchanges you may complete, date-stamped photos, etc., etc. Any documentation that will prove your multiple visits there will go a long way in helping her through the interview. 3. No matter how many trips you make to China, make absolutely sure that you are there with her for her visa interview no matter when it is scheduled. If she is rejected on the first interview, you will be able to speak face-to-face with the interviewing Visa Officer (VO) to find out first hand why she was rejected, and exactly what needs to be done to get the visa issued at the next interview. No matter how well prepared you think you are, there is a 50/50 chance (unless your SO is from Fujian province, in which case the chances are 90/10) that she will be rejected at the first interview. All of this being said, I wish you and your SO the best of luck. I sincerely hope that you can beat the odds and get this whole thing done in a minimum amount of time so that you can enjoy the most time together.

Kellee and I will be closing on our new (new to us) house at 8:30 Monday morning. This will be the culmination of a process that we began about 3 months ago. During this process, however, I encountered a facet of the Chinese mentality that I haven¡¦t had to deal with before. That is, the ¡§new¡¨ syndrome. Apparently, Chinese think that a house must be brand new, or else it¡¦s old and no good. I took me, and the Taiwanese real estate agent that we dealt with, over a month to convince Kellee that a 15 or 20 year old house is not ¡§old¡¨. It also took a lot of convincing to get her to realize that getting a freshly-built house into the same condition, with finishing, landscaping, flooring, window treatments, and etc., can be considerably more expensive than moving into an established and mature existing property. When the realtor showed her the numbers, in black and white, as a comparison of new vs. existing, the ¡§Chinese Thriftys¡¨ kicked in, and she saw that a house built in 1987 (the one we bought) isn¡¦t such a bad deal after all. I¡¦m curious if any of you have encountered a similar situation and how you dealt with it.

I'm not sure whether or not the rules have changed in the past few months, but when I filed the I-130 at the GZ consulate, I had to produce my Chinese resident's permit, better known as the "green book" before they would accept my petition. Without the green book, I would have hade to file through whatever processing center in the U.S. that handles petitions from my home state. I would assume that the GZ consulate would accept a notarized copy if you file by mail.