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Martin B

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Everything posted by Martin B

  1. Martin B
    My wife ended up filing earlier than she planner and actually had her interview last week - the CPC issue barely came up! She has her naturalization ceremony this coming week. I was shocked at how fast the process was. She applied mid-September. Got the interview notice 3 weeks later. Interview was early November (last week) and the naturalization ceremony is next week! That's 2.5 months from submitting the N400 to the oath ceremony!
  2. Martin B
    I haven't followed him for close to a year now but I just took a look at his recent videos. Looks like they took a short trip to China between May and August (roughly) this year. If I had to guess (and I hate to speculate), his wife's prognosis was not great and they took one final trip together while still able to. Looks like they came back to Canada a few months ago. My deceased uncle was in a similar situation, years ago he had cancer and was told he had less than 12 months to live. Despite being a US citizen for over 40 years, he went back to his home country of Poland immediately to re-visit his childhood home, see his remaining family and friends there one last time, closed out a bank account and pension, and transfer a small piece of land to another family member, basically wrapping up any loose ends and re-visiting his home country one final time. Though in his case, he ended up living with a decent quality of life for almost 3 years after that prognosis and actually died of a heart attack. Really sad, however, to see Gweilo putting out trash hit pieces on India, US, HK, Taiwan as well as a sprinkling of the usual Tibet and Uyghur nonsense, right up until last week. Despite that, I hope he makes it through these next few months in one piece. And RIP to his wife, it's truly heartbreaking to see anyone struggle with cancer for years and pass away that young.
  3. Martin B
    Just got word from another group I'm in that Gweilo60's wife Weifang passed away yesterday. His wife seemed like a lovely lady that reminds me greatly of my wife. While I don't care for his political rants and shit stirring I hope he makes it through this terrible time. RIP.
  4. Martin B
    Thanks for keeping this forum going Randy, really appreciate the time you put
  5. Martin B
    Have your wife call or email the consulate just in case. I was eligible for a Q2 visa but the L visa was far easier to obtain at the time I was applying (2018). If you are going to be traveling far to the consulate definitely bring everything including the kitchen sink - every potentially relevant document (original and photocopy). We saw a guy at the window next to ours turned away for missing a certificate that he claimed wasn't a requirement but they were demanding it regardless. Had to make the 5-hour drive back to his house in Michigan without a visa for his kid (it was quite a loud scene). And I agree with Randy about the travel book/visa situation - your kid should get a visa, not travel permit.
  6. Martin B
    I don't watch him much anymore, especially any political stuff, but I saw his recent video about trolls - what a rambling mess. He really needs to stop making serious videos while clearly drunk.
  7. Martin B
    Do you have to use western union? There are way easier and cheaper ways to send money to China nowadays
  8. Martin B
    Good to hear. I haven't been to the mainland since early 2020 but even then I recall "sandwich-style" bread (which looked like your bread minus the raisins) being overly sweet, to the point where I started craving Wonder Bread LOL. From what I understand you can now buy pretty much any Western food on Taobao, everything from peanut butter to bread to coffee to meat. Looking forward to hopefully getting back over in 2024 - this year we decided on the MIL coming here and she just finished up her visit.
  9. Martin B
    Congratulations! My wife will likely be filing soon... though we may just file next February when she is eligible for the 5-year rule. Best wishes to you guys.
  10. Martin B
    Thanks Randy for all the hard work keeping this site up and running. Let me know if I can be of any help. Losing the 20+ years of content on here would be a huge bummer.
  11. Martin B
    LOL Alex - a foreign "expert" - I needed a good laugh this morning.
  12. Martin B
    Is it possible to procure a residence permit that's longer than 1 year? I've heard of some 3 year permits, and I **think** I heard a China vlogger saying he was granted 5-year permit. Major PITA IMO. BTW China should just rename "residence permits" to "long term tourist visas" since they don't allow you to do sh*t in China. Just a few days ago, I went to my wife's company work picnic (she works at an International Bilingual School in the US) and spoke to 2 American/Chinese couples who recently moved back to the US, thanks largely to the horrifically unstable visa situation for foreigners. Given that both couples have kids, I definitely don't blame them for fleeing the zhongguo.
  13. Martin B
    Great information, thanks Randy
  14. Martin B
    Randy - just curious, how do you handle US mail? Do you use a scanning/forward service? Have it go to a friend or family member's house? Have you run into any issues not having a "permanent" US address?
  15. Martin B
    If all goes well, then there will only be one N400 interview which includes the civics/English test. Right now processing times are all over the place. People are getting interviews 2 months after submission while other cases are waiting 2+ years for interviews at the same field office. The online time estimates are all over the place. Rumor is USCIS is processing some new cases to bring down their average processing times (on paper). You can re-schedule the interview, but the new date will be totally at the discretion of USCIS, I've seen interviews rescheduled for one week after the original date, all the way to 12+ months after the original date if things fall through the cracks. Good luck.
  16. Martin B
    His Twitter is a disaster. I'm guessing 80% of the posts (the anti-west/pro-China stuff) is written by someone else - those posts are written in flawless high-level English whereas Gweilo's English is pretty damn rudimentary and filled with grammatical/spelling errors. My guess is there is, of course, money involved.
  17. Martin B
    We always used Charles Schwab for international withdrawals and had no issues whatsoever (except for the daily limit). Now we just send the money via Wise directly to my wife's Alipay account before flying out, it's nice not to have to deal with so much cash.
  18. Martin B
    Word on the street is Gweilo is back in Nanning now or almost there. Will be interesting to see if he continues making videos, and what kinds.
  19. Martin B
    Definitely true based on what we're seeing. My wife's coworker just paid $5k for a summer trip, and this is 3-4 separate tickets on different airlines... Seems like SFO <-> HK is currently the best option if you can swing it and put up with connecting in HK.
  20. Martin B
    Unfortunately prices are still really high and flights are slim pickings. Our home base airport of Chicago O'Hare used to have Hainan Airline flights to Beijing and Chengdu, a China Eastern Flight to Shanghai, United to both Beijing and Shanghai, Cathay Pacific to HK, EVA to Taipei, and another one or two I'm forgetting. Chicago is a huge US international megahub and right now their is EXACTLY one flight which is the EVA flight that requires connecting in Taipei, although United is resuming the Beijing/Shanghai flights at the end of this year... still far away. Capacity is still a tiny fraction of what it was in 2019.
  21. Martin B
    The end of an era... Thankfully we didn't waste the time/money to try to get a Q2 visa, and I can now use my tourist visa from 2019!! Unfortunately flight prices are still pretty outrageous 🥵
  22. Martin B
    The state of China vlogging continues to fall to new lows.... both on the "pro" and "anti" China sides. Time to go watch some SerpentZA videos from 2015-2018 to help lift the spirits LOL.
  23. Martin B
    Here is a reddit post from a green card holder who recently re-entered the US after a 6 year absence without any issues: My recommendation would be to enter the US through one of the "mega ports" (JFK, ORD, LAX, Miami etc.) where CBP has historically been much more "forgiving" due to the sheer volume of passengers they process versus ports like MSP, PHL, PHX, etc CBP cannot revoke green cards. They may pressure her to sign an I-407 at which point she should tell them to (politely) get bent. If CBP makes a big deal out of it, she will need to go in front of an immigration judge to plead her case. According to our attorney, immigration judges tend to be incredibly sympathetic and you can obviously bring legal counsel along to the hearing. My final suggestion would be to find a US attorney that has dealt with this before and do a 1-hour virtual consult with them. They will probably be up-to-date with the current lay of the land and can offer more precise advice. Good luck.
  24. Martin B
    If my math is correct that's 1000RMB/month if you have 3 kids (7500+11000+19000 divided by 36)??? That's.... not much. Especially in a high cost-of-living city like Shenzhen.
  25. Martin B

    From Yulin

    Martin B replied to Randy W's topic in Expats

    Take care of yourself Randy - hope all goes well these next few days
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