MoonCarolCafe

No subway available. Taxi will cost you near RMB150.

Nothing new. :-( Nose to the grindstone. Thinking about moving to China.

Today I was at the Chinese consulate in Los Angeles to renew my visa. I filled out the application, stood in line for 35 minutes, gave my passport, the application, and a small photo of myself to the clerk. She gave me a reciept telling me to return in a few days. That's it. All done. Contrast this to what someone in China must do to visit the USA.

You talk awfully big for someone with 2 posts to your credit.

Nope. I am sending polite letters to the consulate every week or so. And our I130 is still working through the system.

I will print these out, frame them and put them onto the shelf, right next to the small glass jar my wife keeps my balls in.

Nope. No visa. The only contact as of last night has been the consulate faxing my firm to request verification of my employment particulars.

She had my drivers license too. The VO kept it. I had to get a new one when I returned to the USA.

My wife took my passport into the interview with her. She was blue-slipped with a request for a notarized copy of my passport and a videotape of us communicating using sign language, in Sanskrit, while hiking across the Sea of Tranquility. The first thing I did was put on my cape of righteous indignation and march into the Citizen Services section to ask why a notarized copy of my passport was required when they had the ACTUAL passport available for inspection. The kind gentleman in the CSS told me he did not understand what why the request for the copy was made. He used to work down in the visa department (this is who told me the requirement for VHS tapes is due to the lack of anything but an NTSC VHS machine to view them on). He was kind enough to make a notaried, color copy of my passport, gratis! :D There ARE nice people at the consulate after all. The notarized copy of my passport was similar to the notarized translation of our marriage certificate; all pages copied, then bound together, and the notarial script was put on the cover. So long story short; you should not have to get each individual page notarized if the copied pages are bound by the notary, with the outside cover being notarized regarding the contents within. All my multi-page docs that were notarized were done in China. I can see how a notary in the USA would try to pad the fees by telling you that each page must be done individually. If you are thinking of NOT going to Guangzhou to be with your wife for the interview, please please reconsider. Even if all things go according to plan you will still get to see your missus. And if they don't, nothing like being on site to try and straighten things out. Looking back I realize they likely had no plans to give us the visa that day. Even if I had the notarized copy and VHS tape I think we were already marked for a yellow slip.

On September 7th the "Fraud Prevention Department" at the consulate in GZ faxed my firm a note requesting verification of my employment particulars. What could we have possibly done to warrant such scruitiny? They are giving us such a hard time because of my clearly Irish heritage. Visa Fraud Prevention guys, I don't know what you are up to, but quit playing with your replica sword of Damocles and give us that magic passport sticker. Please!!!!

The GZ consulate gets literally truckloads of visa applications. 22 boxes this shipment.

Thank you for your most timely assistance! You were a lifesaver indeed. I regret I was not able to make it back to you in time to take you and your family out for dinner. Today we took the train to SZ. Where it rained. All day. Still we enjoyed our time together under the umbrella, and I showed her my awesome DDR skills (Laugh if you like. It only LOOKS easy). We have come to accept the cards fate has dealt us. Nothing to do but wait. I'll return to the USA to take care of some family business and we will play another round of wait and see.

Oh, and the Consulate kept my license.

And I am really, really considering quitting my job and staying in GZ. I have an L-visa that allows unlimited entries for a year, I just have to pop over to HK every 30 days.

Good morning all. Here is the skinny: Monday: We take our 3-inch thick package of bona-fides (in a conservative green expandable folder trimmed with black cloth and brass corner protectors) to the local agent who was handling the paperwork for my wife. Among other things the folder includes photocopies of my passport, a notarized letter in describing how I met my wife. Agent tells us that our papers appear to be in order, but that we had better make a video, which we proceed to do that night. Tuesday: We run hither and yon in an attempt to locate a place to make a VHS tape... finally locate a place in the TianHe electonics bazaar that converted the miniDV tape to VCD. Wednesday: Interview. Blue slipped, requesting notarized copies of my passport (she had my passport in the folder) notarized letter from me describing how we met (in the folder, clipped to the passport), and a videotape in VHS format, because VCD never really took off in Asia you know. Gentlemen, THIS is why you want to be here when your loved one goes into the interview. Moments later I am inside the consulate at the Citizen Services section, asking in effect, “What gives?” I get to speak with the manager(?) in the CSS who used to work down in the visa department. He is kind enough to make notarized color copies of my passport, and informs me that the consulate only takes NTSC VHS tapes because the only equipment they have is a NTSC VCR. I bet they wish they could get away with demanding Betamax tapes. Darrel(I know you are reading this, sorry I have forgotten you name!) happens to be in the room with me, he is a lifesaver, directs me to the second floor of the Shamain Hotel where we can get the VHS tape made. They review the VCD and suggest a reshoot (my wife is not a talkative person). That night we remake the video, 25 minutes long. Thursday: miniDV to GZPerfect for conversion to VHS. We then RUN to the consulate to drop the requested material off. They take my wife’s passport and give her a white slip telling her to return at 14:00 on Friday. Friday: 14:00 she gets another blue paper, with a yellow paper stapled to it. The yellow paper tells her that they need more time to decide… don’t call us we will call you. On the blue paper it says the visa type is for K3… except this was our interview for the K1…??? And there was much rending of hair and gnashing of teeth. So here we are, in the stadium, two doors before us. Will it be the lady, or the tiger?

You will have to make an NTSC VHS tape. VCD won't work. Reason being the only equipment they have is for NTSC VHS. I got this from the mouth of a staffer in the citizen services section who used to work downstairs in Immigration. To get a VHS tape made go to the Shamain Hotel (up and across from White Swan) go to the sedond floor, and through the glass door across from the maid's station. GZPerfect I think is the name. Fuck I am so angry right now. Anyhow these are nice people, wish we had known about them earlier. They will tape a session for you for RMB500. We taped our own 25 minute session (Yes, it says 5 but we lost track of the time) using my minicam. I took them my minicam, they plugged it into thier gear, RMB300 and an hour later we had our VHS tape. Really, check them out. They are nice people. Edit: Thier phone number is 81215016 in GZ.

I ran into Darrel inside the consulate. Nice guy, did not win dinner because it was the day of the interview. Right now the missus is sleeping. We are probably just going to lay low for now and marvel at the Dirk Diggler strap-on the consulate must have bought just for us. Earlier this week I was instructing my MM in the proper use of the f-word. Today she used it loud and clear, correct context and inflection.

I'll bite my tongue about the GZ consulate right now. She is still crying, my hand still hurts from smashing a dent in the elevator wall. I am sad I lost my temper like that. I am telling her over and over that it is not her fault, I am pissed off at the consulate.

My wife and I got yellow sheeted! Told that "We require additional time to process your application. We will advise you when to return to the consulate." This is after being blue-sheeted for lack of a VHS tape (we provided) and a notarized copy of my passport (when I sent her into the interview with my actual passport). The folks in citizen services were nice enough to make notarized color copies of my passport for free, we took care of the VHS tape on the second floor of the Shamain hotel (25 minutes long). Yesterday they took the requested material and her passport, telling her to return today. Today the give her back the passport, along with a yellow "ineligible form" with the message outlined above. Anyone know what is going on?

You only worry about your wife acting like an American, if you married her because she is Chinese. Why did I marry a Chinese woman? Because Cupid was busy with other couples when I was in France/ Poland/ Botswana. Edit: For those not in the know, I used to be a bit "racist" towards mainland Chinese. Older members will see the irony in me feeling like this.

"Happy Times". I think by the same director of "Not One Less". Man she had balls. The size of churchbells.

This SO gets on my nerves. I hate being nickled and dimed (wu-jiao, ?? What is the currency that is smaller than a jiao?) "In addition to your food bill there will be a RMB1.40 fee for using our plasticware, RMB0.5 for the napkins, 3 toothpicks-- that will be RMB0.06, you requested clean food-- that was RMB1.00 to rinse the pots before cooking... " It appears that some of the more westernized places are starting to get a clue, and not charging for every little item on the table you use.

Thank you very much but in this case I think I will trust the site with a cable channel behind it before I trust a band of militant leftists.

Link for 10-day weather forecast for the area around Shamain Island: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/loca...rom=search_city

Only hot during the summer. It's dry, not humid, so it does not feel as hot as it actually is. Sunny almost the entire year around. During the winter it can get very cold, but only at night. Hardly any rain at all. There is a smallish Chinatown there (I used to live in the condos behind the Chi-Town plaza). Lots of wide open spaces. Due to the topography you can stand in one city and see what is going on miles away in another city. Get away from Vegas out into the desert and you will see billyuns of stars at night.