Martin B

Hey Randy @Randy W- just curious how things are going for you and the Mrs. in Yulin? Have you been affected by the lockdowns whatsoever? Still have plenty of beer in the stash to keep you "busy" 😉 ? We're going on almost 3 years without being able to visit which sucks. Well, maybe we could visit since supposedly Q visas are now being issued, but it's a hassle and flights are ridiculously limited, expensive, and highly unreliable. Not to mention the random lockdowns that are being reported.

My wife finally got her 10-year green card, we filed the I-751 way back in Feb 2021!!! Took about 17 months at the LIN service center and the interview was waived. ROC in general is running really slow nowadays, so slow that extension letters have been upped to 24-months. My stepdaughter's ROC was sent off Dec 2021, but AFAIK, her case should be an "auto" approve according to immigration law since her mom's ROC was approved. We weren't able to file them together since they obtained their green cards more than 90 days apart.

I just found a YouTuber I haven't watched yet - mikeinchina. I watched 3-4 of his videos and he's actually pretty solid. He has a video specifically talking about what has changed during his very lengthy stay in the mainland. It's a bit overly simplified IMO and there are tons of minor details left out, but the first point IMO is spot on.

Every once in a while I feel nostalgic about the hype and excitement around China up until roughly 2018/2019. For some reason it's been pretty bad lately. My first visit to China was in 2012 and it was truly a magical place. Even then I was told by some that I had missed the "golden age". Sure China was a bit gritty and chaotic, but that was part of the magic. That's what I love about CFL - you can go back and see the excitement about China during the old days in the older posts, along with thousands of pictures from that time. When I watch SerptenZA's and Laowhy's old videos up until 2018, I cannot believe how much things have changed. Sure, those guys exaggerate but in general, look at any China vlog pre-2018 - they are exciting, fun, and most importantly apolitical. Hell, I used to love Gweilo's old videos up until COVID when he was just drinking beer and showing his daily life as a retired guy. And look at the state of vlogging in China now - there's hardly anyone left, and those that are left are mostly unbearable shills (Jerry Goode, Jason Living in China, etc.) All the OGs are gone - Austin In China, Prozzie, SerpentZA, Laowhy, etc. Even some of the OG shills like Barrett and JaYoe have left for good. Participations in China-US immigration groups and boards (like CFL) have declined substantially. I think the "end" started around 2012, when XJP took power. Actually, during his first term, not all that much changed to be fair. The election of Trump was IMO what really accelerated change. His adversarial tone, angry Twitter comments, and acrimonious policies really soured US-China relations. I'm not saying that China is totally innocent in this, but had Trump conducted himself like an educated politician vs an angry middle schoolers, things may have been different today. 2017 is where the changes really started occurring for foreigners - degree requirements, crackdowns on illegal working, drug testing entire foreigner bars, etc. Again, not saying China was in the wrong, but it clearly set a precedent and tone that still exists today. COVID totally locked foreigners out, and opportunities for foreigners were recently further reduced through laws like private-tutoring bans. It just seems so different from the 2012 China I knew, where China was clearly China, but more open and curious about the outside world. I just don't see what the end game is. We've moved on but still feel pretty sad about the whole thing - the pre-2019 China is not coming back, ever. We were planning on semi-retiring to China in 10-15 years (Gweilo60 style) but it's become a lot more complicated recently. Hell, just the cost of housing in the mainland has made it questionable for us. My wife is even considering naturalizing since our kids are here. Even places like HK (which I last visited in 2017) have changed. Just reminiscing about the "old times" - obviously not expecting much but figured I could blow off some steam during my lunch break!

Great thread. It's a shame Greg hasn't been around in over 2 years, really enjoyed his posts.

Interesting. I see Vivi (Laowhy's wife) changed her channel name to "Eastern Foraging and Gardening" and deleted all her old videos, with a very respectable 54k subs. This must've happened very recently. Funny thing is she still has Patreon with a nice $100/month in donations despite not having done anything in years. Serpent's wife still has a channel with 27k subs but hasn't posted in 2.5 years. It does seem like the guys have made anonymity a priority in the past 1-2 years. They are both very popular and somewhat controversial figures, and the last thing they probably want is people going after their wives and kids.

How many channels do Winston and Laowhy have now? It's getting hard to keep up with all their stuff: SerpentZA Laowhy86 ADVChina The China Show (formerly ADV Podcasts) China Fact Chasers Worthless Whips (not China related) ... and I think they're wives also have their own channels as well.

From what I remember reading, I'm almost 100% sure that pre-COVID visas are still suspended, but it'd be good to confirm with the consulate. Even if you can pick up a visa, flights are so limited and outrageously expensive that, for all intents and purposes, there is still a travel ban. Plus you're still looking at a minimum of 14 days quarantine upon arrival.

Makes sense it would only apply to Chinese nationals based on China's current setup... though they wouldn't necessarily have to go abroad since Tsinghua, Peking, USTC etc often make the top-50 world rankings.

Wise will give you the USD->RMB conversion rate before you send the money and lock it in for 10 minutes. I don't recall there being an option to send USD. I know Wise is a very widely used (including by us a few times) and overall they are pretty competitive when you take into account fees + conversion rate. For the Alipay option, we just entered the email address associated with my wife's Alipay account as the recipient. If you're worried, you can do a test transfer of something like $50 to see how it goes.

Does your wife have Alipay? You can use Wise to send money directly from your checking account to her Alipay (she will receive it in RMB), she can then transfer it to her WeChat, and send the red envelope. We've done this twice without any issues, it's quick, can all be done from my phone, and fees are very reasonable. See here: https://wise.com/us/blog/new-send-cny-instantly-to-alipay-users

You send in USD and the recipient receives RMB at some conversion rate minus fees. I use the APP 'Wise' (formerly Transferwise) for these transfers. Reasonable fees, quick, and easy to use. There are other apps available (eg Xoom), and some more expensive old-school options as well (eg wire transfers, Western union).

This is a really big deal. I had a family member that needed a CT scan last week but fortunately the condition they were testing for didn't require the contrast. Scary stuff

Totally expected. These people are straight up nutjobs with Dumbrill taking the crown. At least guys like Cyrus and Alex present themselves as somewhat level-headed rational people despite being idiots. I also have no idea what is drawing Alex from Reporterfy media into any of this - he's Canadian, lives in Thailand, isn't married to a Chinese woman, etc. Interestingly enough that they haven't said a word about the current COVID situation in China and have pivoted towards the war in Russia. I also saw that the Barretts are packing it in and GTFO'ing from China. I guess after praising China's handling of COVID for two years and constantly slamming the UK, they are going back to the UK because of China's handling of COVID... Not many shills left on the ground.

Depends on the service center where the petition is. You can use this site to get an approximation: https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/ Two of the service centers are running at about 6-8 months, while the other 3 are in the 10-14 month range, roughly. After USCIS (hopefully) approves the petition, it'll go to NVC, you can see the processing times here: https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/nvc-timeframes.html . Right now it's taking about 2 weeks to create cases that are received from USCIS, and about 3 months to review submitted documents. Be very careful at this step, scan everything carefully, and double check that everything is correct, otherwise you'll need to re-submit which can add weeks or even months to this stage. Last step is the interview in Guangzhou. Not sure how backed up the US consulate is nowadays, but when we went through the process in 2018, we got an interview about 5 weeks from NVC approval. GOod luck.

I wonder what China's endgame is. COVID is obviously in the country, and isn't going anywhere. Even if they snuff out the virus in one city through draconian lockdowns/shutdowns, all it takes is a single infected traveler from another province and another outbreak can easily occur. Looks like Guangzhou is also heading into full lockdown mode as well. From what the data shows, vaccinating the elderly and immunocompromised is probably the lowest of the hanging fruit, not sure what the % is in China. Looks like probably at least another year before we even have a chance at going back.

Loved the first half. Seeing all the pre-2012 footage made me feel so nostalgic. He will always be the China vlogger OG, despite the turn his channel took a few years ago.

When we went in for our AOS interview in 2018, our attorney prepared a stack of 4-5 recent court case decisions which supported our case. Our attorney said CPC membership is generally not an issue, but she did see an uptick in questioning regarding the matter around 2016/2017. My wife was asked about it at the interview but after she says she did it for school/work, the officer moved on. I understand the it's probably a more serious issue for citizenship. My wife is probably going to hold off on citizenship until the 10-year mark passes, to avoid the CPC issues and and to keep options open if we want to semi-retire to China (although that's looking less and less and less and less likely these days...)

Cases apparently exploding in Hong Kong: https://fortune.com/2022/02/17/hong-kong-covid-cases-lockdown-outbreak-omicron-testing-new-york-london/

Not just Chinese students, literally every Chinese person in the US is struggling with this to some extent. It's simply not feasible to travel back to China nowadays. I don't know of a Chinese person living in the US with a job and/or kids in the that has gone back. I believe you must now quarantine at your departure city for 8 days and test twice. Then if the flight actually leaves (which is spotty), you've got 3+ weeks quarantine in China. A positive test is going to be a major headache. Costs are through the roof. Not sure what China's endgame is, as COVID is not going anywhere for the forseeable future.

I can't imagine the stress he's going through. Though I've gotta say I'm surprised to hear him standing up for the Canadian truckers, disagreeing with vaccine mandates, condoning the idea of Canada dissolving into many small countries... while at the same time praising the Chinese government for doing the exact opposite of that. It's a bit puzzling. These latest 4-5 videos have really been odd.

Sorry to hear of the issues you're having, but I'll just throw in a third vote for needing your wife's permission. Every time we've applied for just about anything (Chinese travel document, US passport, etc.) both parents needed to provide consent. In fact several years ago my wife and I were at the Chinese consulate in Chicago. There was a Chinese fellow with his young US-born son at the window next to us arguing with the consulate employee, since they wouldn't issue the kid a travel book as the mother didn't come with them. Unfortunately he made a long drive down from Michigan only to get turned away in less than a minute from getting called up. It's not a perfect system but it's in place to prevent international kidnapping. Unfortunately it also means that your kid can essentially be stuck in their country of birth until the age of 18. I would be careful - as a foreigner in China you are at a major disadvantage legally speaking, so tread carefully and choose your battles wisely. Good luck.

Wow - that's really a shame. Despite not agreeing with this guy, obviously I don't think anyone would wish his wife gets ill again. He's in a tough spot. Paying cash for good-quality medical care in China is incredibly expensive. But his Canadian insurance doesn't kick in for another few months. In his case I'm not sure why he's waiting a month to go back, if there's a COVID outbreak in Nanning around the time of his departure he could be looking at several weeks delay, possibly not even able to go to Chongqing. Not too mention all the instability with flight schedules these days. And it could in theory be years before they can come back to China (if ever). Lots of factors. While it would be financially painful, I would choose the fastest way to get the best treatment possible. Stop messing around with insurance and start paying cash until insurance kicks in. Sell the house in Nanning and rent a dumpy apartment in Chongqing. Or sell the condo in Canada and rent or stay with family to pay cash for treatment until insurance goes online. I'd even be looking at paying cash at a top clinic in the US if need be (the first idea that came into my wife's head when I told her about this). I know a Canadian who was in a similar situation, he ended up paying $100k to get treated at the Mayo Clinic ASAP because of the waiting times in Canada. I get the sense there are some financial considerations going on here which I'm not a fan of when it comes to life/death of a family member, given how he's hinted numerous times at being very financially well-off due to all the businesses he had in Canada.

Randy covered the bases pretty well. A couple minor points to add Be careful about going behind your wife's back or doing things without her consent when it comes to this type of stuff, you could be budding up against international kidnapping issues, in theory. With the current US/China relations I'd suggest doing things by the book whenever possible. Are you actually able to re-enter China as a non-citizen on your current visa with the COVID situation? Double check this. Also you'd be subject to a very lengthy/costly quarantine upon return either way. Oh, and the rules can change overnight potentially leaving you stranded with no recourse. Sorry about the disagreement you and your wife are having, I don't have much to add on that front.

Thank you sir! Hope you guys had a great day