carl.hops

Hi everyone. I'm not sure anyone would remember me, life throws some real curve balls. I broke up with my ex (15 years ago or so). That was a good thing, because I met my wife a few years after in Tianjin, where we got married in 2011. We have two children now, and I've lived in China since. She's gone to the states on a travel visa twice, and my boys have their citizenship of course. To the point, we are considering moving to the states now. On one of those trips to the states, we had a second wedding and got a marriage certificate in Oregon. So, we have both a Chinese and American marriage certificate. Which visa should we apply for, if we are looking to get to the United States, together, as fast as possible? Thanks for your time, Carl

Tsap, I figured as much. Looks like I'll be doing what Mike suggested but probably not sending it over all in one lump. We'll just have to open an account with the right bank after we land in the states, then start transferring the money over.

What provider do you use? You can PM if you don't want to post it publicly. I've read several articles about how VPN connections are being actively blocked by China Unicom. You can still connect with Astrill using their stealth settings but it gets blocked within a few hours. I'm not sure what you mean by "Not true" it's not true that Astrill is the best service or that VPN protocols are being blocked?

I've been looking into banks located in China and the states to transfer money over without any fees and it looks pretty hopeless. HSBC Premier offers a good service only if you have a combined deposit of cash and assets of 100,000 or more. We only have the cash. You can take more than 10,000 with you when you enter the United States but you have to claim it. It wont be taxed either. The only problem is, I don't want to be lugging around 150,000 USD in China or the states and I'm almost certain we would be stuck in customs for a few hours while they make sure we're not money launderers, traffickers or drug dealers. I guess we'll just have to take the hit and wire transfer the money. Apparently anything over three thousand USD or so set's off alarms in which banks are required to report to the IRS which could mean weeks of the funds not being available while they make sure we're not criminals.

Just in case anyone stumbles upon this I've been using Astrill for a few years now and it's the best service you can find. They are always making sure their servers work. The GFW was recently updated to block all VPN connection attempts, but they are looking for a work around. Meanwhile you can still browse the web via their proxy.

I have good news to share, yesterday Yakun got a B2 Tourist visa to go with me and visit my parents. Apparently the visa officer was impressed by her English after asking a few simple questions about her and me, then said, enjoy your trip to America. I guess this means we won't have any problems getting tourist visa's anywhere else after our trip, Australia is next!

Right now moon cakes are sitting rotting in our schools fridge, I'm afraid to even open it again for fear of passing out from the stench. I'll get to it later...

Mike, I planned on having her and her parents just send 50k each like you said but I had no idea the bank would just send it all in one amount, that's really good to know! I'm sure it will be a pain in the butt, but so has been sending money back home with western union, no one ever knows what the heck their doing, this I'm sure they've got down to an art in some places. The wisdom in this thread is priceless, we aren't currently planning on moving over to the states for another six or seven years. Right now we are trying to have a baby (trying to conceive) and once our child is ready to start school, we will move back to Portland. Yakun has a business here, that I volunteer at, as I don't have a work visa, and her income is more than enough. We will be back and forth between China through out the year in order to manage it. So for now this house is mostly for investment purposes, but also a possible future home. Tsap, we know it's a long shot but before she gets pregnant she's going to go down to the Beijing embassy and try for a tourist visa (or some other visa that allows her to visit my family) we will be completely honest, we don't plan on getting married in the states or staying, I think showing her bank statements may be enough to persuade someone that she's got a business worth coming back to. We have been married for almost two years, by the time we move over we will go for that IR-1 visa, the house should come in handy as my proof of residence for the affidavit of support. Do you think I'll need to move back to the states for a few months before she comes over, or is having a home enough to convince them? Also, will I need a job before hand as is needed with the F1 visa? If so I'd have to leave my family, but for how long... I remember you were off in aus with the SO before you made it to the states.

knloregon, All of the funds are in RMB currently, I remember almost six years ago hearing my first Chinese girlfriends boss telling me he could only transfer $50,000 a year, I'm surprised it hasn't changed. I'm guessing it would be more than a hassle to have say, me send 50,000 over, then have her transfer 50,000 over (I'll be getting her, her own account with Navy Federal) and then have say, one of my parents transfer money over? I'm not sure how I'd put all that money together, maybe I could just make three payments? At this point a loan is not out of the question, but it will be a hassle considering I haven't paid taxes in two years going on three. I just spoke to my bank and they said that all I would need is her ITIN like dnoblett stated earlier, but, she would simply be a co-signer considering that she doesn't have a visa and has never visited the states. Still, with her (our) assets I don't think it will be a problem getting the loan. We will need to make a trip to Korea in order to go to the nearest branch however. I'm interested in talking to you some more about the market in Oregon, especially about your experience building your own house.

We would like to buy a home in Portland, Oregon. There are still plenty of condo's, townhouses and detached homes around 150,000. We plan on borrowing 100,000 from her parents, and paying the rest with what we have saved. So we wold be paying all out in cash. I had given up the idea of getting a loan because I'd rather not get stuck in a bad interest rate, I can personally qualify for a VA home loan at an interest rate around 3.3 but I'm unable to now because I haven't worked for over three years and haven't payed taxes for two. I wonder if she would be able to secure a good interest rate... Her parents have no problem lending us the money (they know we plan to take care of them later) but I'd rather get a loan and a more expensive house at around 250,000 if we can land a good deal on a loan from a bank, I'd much rather loan from the bank than her parents just so we can avoid and future problems that might occur. If we do end up lending from her parents, I don't see it being a huge problem as the money we make together now is kept in a bank account under her name (for the majority of funds) that includes our savings, so if a divorce ever did happen I'd most likely be the one with the short end of the stick. She will have her name on the deed which ever route we take. I was just shown Zillow and Redfin yesterday and I've been looking into which counties in Oregon are cheapest property tax wise, thank you guys for your thoughtful replies. I should hang around here more often.Also, it's really good to hear you finally were able to go back to the states WITH your wife tsap! It looks like I'll be giving my bank a call later and asking them what I should do in order to get a loan for my wife, hopefully I can use Navy Federal still.

Thank you for clarifying that for me :-) I don't think her parents would agree to just give out 100,000 USD willy nilly with out her name on it too. I didn't mean to say that I'm not a citizen anymore, just that if she were to try and buy the house she would be taxed more yearly. I don't plan on ever changing citizenship <insert flying american flag n such>

I'm back! It's been quite a while since I've browsed this forum, but not much has changed. My wife and I live in China, and we are ready to buy a home in the states. As I don't have a job anymore and no real income to report we plan on borrowing from her parents so we would be paying in cash for our home. My question is this: is it possible to buy the house in both our names? I've read that a foreign home buyer will need a tax identification number and that they can indeed buy property, but it seems that a foreign buyer is subject to high taxes. Have any of you who have a Chinese wife (married in China only) bought a house together in the states? Thanks.

Glad to see you are doing well....married man. tsap seui Living it up here in Chinertucky like you might say.

啊，你肯定看过非诚勿扰。这些天我跟我老婆看。 -edited for "cheesyness" and incorrect characters.

I recently asked my students what extent religion had because a lot of them talk about being Christian, that and here in Tianjin we have a large French catholic church right next to the major shopping street. There are regular services there. The only limitation that they told me about was, you can't solicit religion, that means no going to schools and handing out flyers or bibles. IMHO I think thats a good law to have, keep religion and state separate. Keep it private.