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ama537621

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Everything posted by ama537621

  1. ama537621
    New question, Would you just use her multi entry visa and go thru the visitor line in ORD, or get her US passport stamped and file for the Chinese visa in her us passport? With us only staying 2.5 weeks I am leaning on using the visitor line, filling out the form for Yuan and I, and the seperate form for Emily. This will save the hassle of getting the Chinese visa for her to reenter China.
  2. ama537621
    Update, Visa in hand, unless my eyes are deceiving me they gave her a 1 year Multi entry visa. I was expecting to have to file for a Chinese visa in her US passport when we went state side for our visit. Must be my letter saying that we were visiting for 2 weeks and then were coming back to finish my work contract let them make it Multi-Entry. Now we just have to worry about Yuan's time out of country. They only gave her a 1 year reentry permit which expires in mid Feb. She should be ok on this trip back. But when we return in April they could give us crap for being out of the country for almost 1 year, then another 2.5 month's. on her 2 year GC.
  3. ama537621
    I hate to be harsh but what is more important the vacation or the Visa? Never plan anything that cannot be cancelled during the Last stage of the Visa. And never ever book a plane ticket until you have the passport with visa in your hand.
  4. ama537621
    You could get the ATM balance receipt before you withdraw the money from your account. You can take the exchange receipt from the bank. We will also be taking cash back with us. the Chinese bank wants 300 dollars to transfer and the US bank wants 85 dollars. Luckily my pay is deposited in my US accounts and only my Per diem is applied to my Chinese account. We will be making 2 trips back to the states so we are able to split the money up between the 2 trips.
  5. ama537621
    ORD is pretty straight forward. Been thru there 7 times now for POE. When you come to Customs ask the person directing which line you should go to. If you are lucky they will shove you to the resident/citizen line. If you are not lucky you get put in the visitor line. Either way you should be out of processing before the baggage arrives. The immigration person will mark your slip that you show to the custom's personal. You pick up your luggage then you wait in the usually long line for customs to look at your paper and either wave you thru or go to the more intense inspection. Make sure your wife does not do the "secret squirrel" that Chinese woman do and stash fruit for eating later. If the cute lil beagle takes an interest in you will be in for a lengthy secondary inspection. When you exit the customs area make sure you do not go out to the main to the general area of the terminal. To the right will be a united airlines baggage recheck area. There are 2 exits one is near the united recheck the other is the "other airlines recheck" sorry I usually fly united on return and never paid attention to the other side. Do not go thru the glass doors or you will have to shlep your bags all the way to the domestic terminal to be checked for your domestic flight. I would just pay the bank fee and have the money sent electronically to the us. It will not be worth the trouble to get caught without declaring it. And if you declare it you will have to have proof of where it came from.
  6. ama537621
    It is far easier to just hire someone to replace the bulb. When we had some bulbs blow the electrician came removed. He then went to the store the next day to make sure he bought the correct ones. I would of had him buy some extra bulbs but it his labor was so cheap that it was not worth it. We only have to the middle of April then we can breathe clean air again.
  7. ama537621
    The phone number is very important for China mail delivery. Our postal carriers will call and tell us they are leaving the package with the guards at the gate then we have to go get it ourselves. The express mail international while more expensive takes about 10 day's. I have baby formula shipped in on a regular basis and it is always 10 business days from the amazon ship notice that i receive the package. If you do not mind taking longer use regular priority but with no tracking information. Worst delivery time for a letter was 2 month's. But the sender did not put the Chinese address on it. The us translator messed up the translation of the town.
  8. ama537621
    Danb, http://www.86callchina.com/china-mobile-gprs-package.htm Retod China Mobile Guangdong (Guangzhou and Shenzhen )SIM card GPRS/EDGE Plans Daily Plan * Daily fee: 2 yuan /day Free traffic including: 5 MB /day (cmwap only) Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 * actived for Guangdong Easyown SIM Card 5 yuan Plan Monthly fee: 5 yuan Free traffic including: 30 MB (cmwap only) Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 20 yuan Plan Monthly fee: 20 yuan Free traffic including: 150 MB (cmwap only) Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 50 yuan Plan Monthly fee: 50 yuan Free traffic including: 500 MB (cmwap only) Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 100 yuan Plan Monthly fee: 100 yuan Free traffic including: 1000 MB Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 200 yuan Plan Monthly fee: 200 yuan Free traffic including: 2000 MB Rate exceed free traffic: 1 yuan/MB (cmwap and cmnet) Roaming charges: 1 yuan/MB To Active: SMS: send BLGPRS to 10086 (Chinese only) Call: dailing hotline 10086 Roaming (inside China mainland) use supported and 1 yuan/MB traffic. 500 yuan for unlimited traffic for any plan. All GPRS/EDGE plans above only actived next month when you apply it, not actived at once. For SIM card no GPRS plan (including basic plan) actived, when apply GPRS/EDGE plan, it actived at once.
  9. ama537621
    If you out of contract and can afford to buy an unlocked phone, Nexus 5, Iphone 5, 4s. You can purchase both thru their company web sites. When in the states I use the 45 straight talk, they can port your number over. The only drawback to that is when you are in China you will not have access to your US number. But WIFI is almost everywhere over here. so checking your email is a breeze. If you purchase an unlocked phone it can serve dual purpose. 1. You could always leave it with your Girl in China to use. 2. You can tell your legacy carrier that they are charging you way to much and get your phone service for 45 dollars a month. *** Make sure you have your phone set to NOT connect to the internet thru cel service while you visit if roaming on your US plan. The fees are HUGE
  10. ama537621
    Yuan and I filed after the first trip. 3.5 months later i went on a second trip to her hometown. I also was present for the interview, so we had 3 trips by the time of interview. We also would of gotten married in China and gone the no paperwork once in the states route if we could do it over again. I agree with Dan and tsap, and Warped. Take your time at this stage.
  11. ama537621
    They let me in for the ACS appointment that I made but would not let me go to the visa area. the shanghai visa and ACS are on the same floor of the office/mall. the ACS is a turn to the left and into a small room the visa section is straight ahead. It is actually possible to walk straight thru and get to the visa area if you really wanted to. I was a little pissed that I was not informed about this ahead of time. Honestly I should of known this from dealing with GUZ so partly my fault. But since Yuan was there I went with the flow and chilled in the waiting room for American citizen services. It only took Yuan 5 minutes from the time I sat down until she came back in hit the with appointment button for ACS 4 more minutes we were called to the window and they said no problem 1 week. From what Yuan said the interviewing officer had seen a lot of these in the last 4 weeks.
  12. ama537621
    Update, Yesterday Yuan and I went to the Shanghai Consulate for Emily's visa. It was a good thing that Yuan went because I would not of been allowed to enter the visa area to finish Emily's visa. That was a little item that was not provided by the ACS when I emailed them about the process. But the interview was very easy and painless. Yuan showed them Emily's US passport, Chinese passport, my passport and Yuan's GC told them we want to take our daughter to the US and they said no problem. We should have her Chinese passport back within a week with the Pro Forma visa issued. There was at least 1 other person visiting the ACS with a visa related issue. It seems that the Chinese Govt is enforcing a lot of rules/laws that have been on the books but were largely ignored by the local offices processing paperwork. For example when I arrived last may my work visa and employment book took about 2 weeks to process. Now they keep the passport for 21 days regardless of when the local office actually finishes the paperwork. Now we only have to contend with getting a Chinese visa added to her US passport when we get back to the states.
  13. ama537621
    Looks good to me, depending on their workload you might hear something very quickly. There was a post on Visa journey with a 6 day approval from filing DFC. Look under the china regional posting for some current experiences with the new consulate.
  14. ama537621
    If you have time I would ask your father in law to call the IRS or via online and have him get his tax transcripts for the past 3 years. The IRS will send them for free takes about 10 day's. Then he can send them by EMS to you that way you have an official IRS tax document that has not been scanned or printed from a PDF.
  15. ama537621
    http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-government-tries-to-spin-smog-as-a-healthy-benefit--and-aid-to-national-defense-174649885.html This is just so funny.
  16. ama537621
    My wife does not watch much tv. When we were in the states she was more concerned in watching shows to help her English on her computer. We would hook up my laptop to the TV using HDMI and watch movies with Chinese subtitles a couple times a week. Now that we are in China we have not used the TV for more than 4 hours since may. Of course the baby has a lot to do with that.
  17. ama537621
    You should have no problem with any POE. Just make sure that SHE DOES NOT OPEN the sealed packet and she has it with her thru immigration. . And take the X-ray CD from her medical. exam, even though they will most likely not even look at it. One more important item, make sure she does not try to stash fruit to eat on the trip. If the lil ole doggie gets a wiff she will have a hassle at the POE.
  18. ama537621
    Randy, We hope to file for a visa in her US passport as soon as we land. Our hope is that they void her Chinese passport and revoke her Hukou at the same time. I do not want her to grow up here there is to much pollution Shanghai consulate is showing a PMI 2.5 of 504.
  19. ama537621
    Randy, I agree I think they are just making a standard rule and trying to keep a better track of their population. With the baby having to be issued to a Hokou and a passport there is no chance the baby can slip thru the system and leave the country without it being logged. With the old system you could take the baby out of the country and they would not know due to the foreign passport. I just got pissed because of the unannounced rule change. I know I broke a hard rule that I should of learned from the K-1 process, NEVER book an airline ticket until all of the paperwork is in hand. But it was pretty cut and dry before apply wait 5 days have the exit book and you are all set. Now I just have to contact the company travel agency and try to get them to change the name for only the Shanghai-ORD portion of the ticket and leave the english name for the rest. I did check with UNITED and they said that if the ticket was purchased thru them that it would be possible. Seems like they see this a lot at their Chinese booking number.
  20. ama537621
    I think that they are using this as a way to prevent dual citizenship. With the pro forma visa in her Chinese passport and it scanned into the system upon exit there is no chance that she will be allowed to use the Chinese passport without raising flags in the system. It will show an exit of Chin and no entrance stamp to another country. They might just be using this to close the huge loophole that has existed for years. I was debating on using a visa service for Emily's Chinese visa in her us passport. But it might be better for us to actually take the trip to NYC or DC and apply in person considering this is a strange situation. We will cross the renouncing citizenship if we have to as a last resort. I only have 5 more months in country then we are back to the states for a long time. I do not want to get involved with a lengthy process at this time if I can help it.
  21. ama537621
    Randy, Shanghai Consulate has already replied to my email I sent on Saturday evening. There was 2 replies one was from a Chinese employee with the usual issues with translation. the other one was from the ACS unit itself. I have copied and pasted the email from the ACS. Now I just need to find out if the airline will allow her name to be Chinese on the outbound flight and English on the return when we have a Chinese visa added to her US passport while we are in the states. Greetings, To apply for a pro-forma visa, please complete the application process as described here. Please schedule a normal visa interview appointment AND an appointment with our office, the American Citizen Services (ACS) unit. Please note you and your child will ONLY need to attend the ACS unit appointment. Please be sure to bring your child’s Chinese and American passports, DS-160 application confirmation page with barcode, fee payment receipt, and one passport size photo. Please also bring your child and your passport to your notary/other services ACS appointment. Pro-forma visas are typically issued within a week. Once the pro-form visa is issued, your daughter should be allowed to depart China using her Chinese passport with U.S. pro-forma visa, and enter the United States using her American passport. Regards, American Citizen Services (ACS) unit (KL) Consular Section / U.S. Consulate General, Shanghai 1038 W Nanjing Rd - Westgate Mall, 8th floor 梅龙镇广场8楼 (Méi'lóng'zhèn guǎngchǎng)
  22. ama537621
    Randy, We did not register her in the Hukou until they refused to issue the exit visa. Xingning is 30 hours by train or 18 hours by plane and train from Shanghai. So when they said the policy had been changed we went back to Xingning and had her registered. We applied for her Chinese passport the next day. Shanghai consulate has a visa question open hour every Tuesday afternoon. I will head up to the city and ask them directly. i did not see an option for the pro forma visa application on CGI's website. With my luck running the way it is lately I will be the first person to try it and have a huge problem.
  23. ama537621
    Sorry for the short first post. Dan, Emily was born in China, has her US passport, Cert of birth abroad and SS card. The issue we are in is that as of last Monday they are no longer issuing the entry exit books for Children with one Chinese parent and 1 foreign parent. that is what we were told in the Exit bureau in Mezhou They tried to process the paperwork but the computer would not let them, they even called to a higher level and we were still rejected. We were traveling to GUZ anyway and stopped in the ACS there on Friday morning. We were given two options. 1. We can apply for a Pro Forma visa to be put in Emily's Chinese passport. This might be the best option but I need to see if the airline can change the name on the lap child because the Chinese passport will have a different name than her us passport. 2. Since Emily has been registered in Yuan's Hokou she can apply for a Hong Kong travel permit, then we can just go to the airport and us the US passport. I am concerned on this one as there will be no entry stamp in her US passport for arriving in Hong Kong. The second can of worms is that we need to return to China until the middle of April when my overseas work assignment is finished. USCIS only issued Yuan a 1 year I-131 which expires early February. So we are planning a return for 3 weeks to do some house hunting then return until April when we will move back to the states. So once we do get the baby out we have to apply for a Chinese visa in her US passport to get her back to China again. Which if that is the case we will need to change only the outbound flights name and keep the return in her English name. the sad thing is the K1 and the AOS were a piece of cake. Dealing with the Chinese Govt is driving me crazy.
  24. ama537621
    This week the Chinese govt changed the policy for exit of a baby with a us passport and a chinese mother and us citizen father. They are no longer giving exit and entrance books. We had to file for Emilys chinese pasport. And get a us visa issued to the chinese passport. Even though she has a US passport. Nedless to say this caused us a lot of isues his week. Since we were near guz trying to file the paperwork we did a quick passport application and tomorrow I will hit the consulate during the open 2 hour friday window time. Hopefullythey will have a easy way to quickly file for and get the visa when the passport arrives. I broke a rule and purchased the plane tickets for for jan 18. Stupid thing is the baby lap ticket has her English name and her chinese passport has to have the chinese name. Sorry fir extra typo s tablet is not good for my finger,
  25. ama537621
    I Booked our flights back to the states for a 2.5 week visit over Chinese new year. Listed the lil spud as a lap child and requested a bassinet with United the next day. I noticed no seat changes for my wife and myself to a bulkhead seat. I started doing a little web searching and found out that if anyone pays for the bulkhead seat before you check in you lose your bassinet. On the flights that I had selected there were only 2 bassinet locations that had 2 seats together available. I purchased the Economy Plus option for our over the pacific and back flight to secure the location. If we got to the airport and the bassinet was not available I would hear about the bad service the entire flight. Keep this in mind if you ever travel international with an infant.
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