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Martin B

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Everything posted by Martin B

  1. Martin B
    Merry Christmas Randy, I know it's not a big deal over there but do you guys do anything special?
  2. Martin B
    BTW when my wife went to check on the process of renouncing citizenship it was not at all trivial. My wife's PSB didn't even know the procedure and had to call someone in Guangzhou for the details. I believe the processing time they quoted us was something crazy like 6-18 months, so we just decided it'd be easier to deal with the travel documents books. It's a huge PITA but I have a lot of family in the Chicago area, so we usually turn consular trips into 4-5 day family visits/vacations as well. Usually 1 day in Chinatown gaining weight, and another day doing something fun downtown.
  3. Martin B
    Holy shyte can this guy ramble. I didn't watch the whole thing but I did pick a few questions in the time stamps. He straight up dodges questions (e.g. the question about YouTube being blocked in China) yet somehow manages to talk for 6 minutes about it. Not sure why he even wasted 2-3 hours of his time on that, once a reporter has a set agenda generally you can only make things worse by talking on the record. Anyways, hope he enjoys the extra publicity courtesy of the NYT.
  4. Martin B
    When we were there a few years ago, BOTH parents needed to be there. At the window next to us a guy drove down with his son and was turned away because his wife wasn't there to sign. You best bet is to call/email the consulate in Chicago to get this information, these things change quickly and the websites are usually not helpful.
  5. Martin B
    Both sides have fallen so far it's comical (and really sad at the same time). BTW I noticed JaYoe has been MIA for almost two weeks. His last video was a 1+ hr long stream which I passed on... maybe he explained something there? But it's pretty clear his channel has majorly stalled since pivoting to the van life.
  6. Martin B

    Sex

    Martin B replied to m-coon's topic in Stateside

    One more thought - in my situation, whenever my wife is not interested in my advances, it's often because she's angry or or some other irritation is brewing inside. Usually takes a little nudging to get her to tell me what's wrong but that tends to fix things.
  7. Martin B

    Sex

    Martin B replied to m-coon's topic in Stateside

    Have you directly asked her why she's not interested? I doubt it's the money. If she really wanted a payout and no longer wanted to deal with you, she could divorce and mostly likely take a nice chunk of money with her. If it was all about the green card, she presumably could've bailed the second she got her 10yr card. It could be she's simply bored of the same routine. Maybe you've gained weight and she finds it unattractive. Maybe it's a hormonal thing on her end (depression?). Who knows - asking her the best place to start. Good luck!
  8. Martin B
    My wife's sister is in LA right now and will fly back to China today (hopefully). Even for Chinese citizens it is a huge hassle to go back and an enormous cost. She's paying $5000 all-in for a one way ticket. At least 3 weeks of quarantine. My wife is not thrilled about being away this long, and has pretty much given up on 2022. On top of that, my wife's mom just got turned away for a passport renewal. She has a B2 visa and we figured she could visit us next summer if China is still locked down. That's no longer an option which is really disappointing. We're possibly considering other international travel for next year depending on Covid and what countries are open (e.g. Thailand). We have a 3-year-old that keeps us busy, and my 12-year-old stepdaughter is in middle school which also takes a lot of time. My wife started a job at a bilingual English/Chinese school a few months ago which has really lifted her spirits since she now feels productive again and gets to be around a ton of other Chinese/Taiwanese ladies that work there. It kind of reminds her of working in China lol. The biggest downer right now is the impending midwest winter...
  9. Martin B
    I think he was going stir-crazy post Covid and there was a lot of pent-up frustration. But I think you're partially right, he seemed to be the most level-headed of the bozos and something always told me his heart was never fully into the whole shilling gig. There were also rumors going around that his wife was unhappy with his YouTube antics since it constantly put their family in the spotlight, which is something you generally DON'T want to do when in China, especially with his wife's family being fairly wealthy and connected to the CPC. He's also about 5 years too late to the van-life party. His views have taken a major dump since he came to the US. Subscribers have been totally flat for the past few months. Chinese nationalists don't want to watch a grown ass man driving around in a van, they want to see shilling and USA bashing. Van-life die-hards already have dozen of other better channels they can follow - he missed the boat (van?) on that. I don't envy his position at all, I really think he did himself no favors by getting sucked into the Gweilo, Barrett, Dumbrill group.
  10. Martin B
    Even if China "opens up" I think there's a good chance the quarantine isn't going anywhere. Right now I believe it's 21 days in a hotel/facility + some time at home, though this varies by region. This makes any short trip less than a month long basically impossible. BTW Shenyang now requires 28 days in a hotel + 28 days at home, that's basically two months of quarantine! See: https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/china/china-shenyang-covid-quarantine-rules-b1955737.html
  11. Martin B
    My wife and I are fully expecting to NOT go back to China in 2022. There hasn't been a single thing China has done to make re-entry easier since the pandemic started. I've now heard "China will open up when X condition is met" a dozen times over the past 18 months, and things have only gotten more difficult. Quarantine times have gotten almost comically long. The limited amount of international flights have again been reduced by 20% through March 2021. Foreign immediate relatives like spouses/children are still totally locked out. Getting PU letters for work visas is getting more difficult with some provinces no longer issuing them at all. Lockdowns and mass testing can still crop up at any time (look at what happened in Disney recently). Passport renewals for Chinese citizens have gotten more difficult as well. The writing is pretty clearly on the wall as to the direction in which things are heading. China is all in on a zero Covid strategy. AFAIK there has been zero deviation from that via gov't sources. There have been some soundbites here and there but nothing official.
  12. Martin B
    I've seen a few CR visa approvals on VisaJourney of online marriages. Apparently it's a thing!
  13. Martin B
    I wonder what, if anything, this will do for the foreigner arrival restrictions. Doesn't seem like they are easing up at all currently. In another group I belong to, people are reporting quarantines as high as 14 + 14, in other words, 14 day at arrival city in hotel + 24 hours to travel to final destination + 14 days quarantine at final destination (now this must be done in a hotel). This makes getting a work/resident permit within 30 days nearly impossible so people are getting 'unofficial' exemptions. And there have been several reports of highly-unpleasant stays at low-end hotels.
  14. Martin B

    From Yulin

    Martin B replied to Randy W's topic in Expats

    Being a landlord (been there, done that) in retirement would be my worst nightmare. Our family used to own a rental house from which we had to evict non-paying tenant's, who caused $10k of damage on their way out. What we would've done for a few cigarette butts LOL.
  15. Martin B
    I've been hearing these rumors since April 2020... I belong to a China visa group and it's only gotten harder to get in on a work visa. Many provinces have stopped issuing PU letters needed for the Z visa, or have restricted the types of employers that can apply for one. Not sure about family-related or emergency visas, but I haven't seen too many success stories. You could also re-apply and hopefully get a different consular officer who would make the exception and interpret "immediate family" in a different way. Good luck!
  16. Martin B
    I would say that in my experience, the wife and mother-in-law relationship in China is often... not great. Your brother's wife to be blunt, seems a little odd and oblivious to social norms & customs in your country (UK?). Just an FYI - I've seen so many battles when property is passed onto two siblings equally, let alone three - with a wife like your sister-in-law to boot. Be on high alert. You'll probably have to do things through your brother, as the more you directly confront the sister-in-law, the more you'll likely piss off both of them. Hopefully you can find a solution to this. Good luck.
  17. Martin B
    Did you talk to your brother, sister, and/or mother about this? What did they say? It's possible there are some ulterior motives here. Or the sister-in-law is just naturally overly-controlling but with no bad intentions. This does seems like the total opposite of most in-law relationships LOL. And I would also be driven crazy if I had to live with my parents and her sister's entire family...
  18. Martin B
    There are actually summer English camps in the Philippines and Thailand, I'm expecting them to be take off in popularity, unless they get banned somehow also.
  19. Martin B
    He is catching a lot of heat in the comments section for traveling and leaving his family behind for non-urgent/non-work reasons at the worst possible time. He keeps saying "one year" but how can anyone be certain that travel will be easier then? Unless he has a resident permit that was issued after COVID and will be valid next year, but even then, why risk it?? Rules changes overnight and he could potentially find himself with a useless piece of paper unable to re-enter. The van life is certainly a niche in the US but it's already a saturated market covered by a ton of US YouTubers. I think if he did something like "Foreigner Van Life in China" it'd be much more interesting and unique. And remember, his YouTube channel was at about 40-50k subscribers, it wasn't until COVID that his popularity shot up due to his pro-China/anti-US stuff he started putting out. There are also rumors going around that him and his wife split, which would be unfortunate and who knows what really happened there.
  20. Martin B
    Agree with Randy, it's probably best to not mess with things if you're already several months into the K1 process. Too much can go wrong, restrictions come and go every day, both of you need new visas, etc. It's unfortunately you weren't able to marry and do CR1/IR1 instead, which seems to go much smoother and quicker these days, and an immediate relative (spouse) carries more weight than a fiance. Good luck
  21. Martin B
    Very recent development - JaYoe is back in the US, taking one year to make videos on living the "van life" while his wife and daughter stay back in China. Terrible decision, IMO:
  22. Martin B
    I know of someone (friend of a friend) who was doing VIPKid and living in Panama. She's now scrambling to find other remote work. Apparently VIPKid was quite lucrative ($20-30/hour) and fairly easy work.
  23. Martin B
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/11/michael-spavor-verdict-canada-china-trial-court Ready for the Gweilo60 video about how he was 110% guilty, Meng is innocent, nothing is going on in Xinjiang...
  24. Martin B
    There's quite a bit of panic on a few other China-related sites I visit with regards to visa renewals. I don't have exact statistics but I'd imagine a huge % of foreign teachers are employed at private training centers. I don't think any of the new rules bluntly say "foreigners can no longer teach English in China", but the writing is on the wall. I agree that learning from a native is best especially when it comes to conversation. I studied Chinese for several years, first by taking a course at the local community college - the teacher was from Shanghai, and then I found some private tutors online.
  25. Martin B
    Looks like they are continuing to kill the private tutoring industry: https://www.reuters.com/article/china-education/update-1-china-to-clamp-down-on-for-profit-tutoring-document-idUSL1N2OZ0KW See also: Note point #3 - no more foreign online teachers as well. Ouch. I can kind of understand why they are doing this - but at the same time, the absolute upper-crust of society will still find ways around this (e.g. sending their kids to Thailand for summer school) while others will be left struggling. I really do wonder if there isn't some ulterior motive here, to eventually purge all foreigners out of China, aside from legitimate tourists, immediate family members, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the end of English teaching as an opportunity for foreigners in China. I've also heard rumblings of legitimate international schools coming under scrutiny. It really does make me sad to see how much has change starting around 2016.
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