yemmie

Welcome. Hope you will be very happy here.

As always, the information provided by the others here is superior to any you could get anywhere else. I only have a couple of things to add. Our situation was the same as yours. My wife and her son (now our son) came here on K1/K2 visas. He was 20 when they arrived. This is the way we did things: 1. We got married. 2. We got her SS card (could not get his because he did not have a green card yet) 3. Enrolled him in ESL classes at local community college. 4. Filed to adjust the status of each simultaneously in the manner already described here. 5. Her green card arrived quickly. They had their exams in China, but we did their vaccinations here at our local Public Health Office. (much cheaper than other places, but you do have to know what you are talking about because they will try to tell you that they need to have the medical exams again. NOT TRUE! I carried the rules regarding that to Public health and showed them to the Civil Surgeon. She was very nice and helped us get everything done correctly.) Our son's green card was delayed because Immigration apparently lost his medical exam information. At first, I thought we were going to have to do all of his medical again, but I was able to prove to Immigration that it had been done in China. If you run into any such difficulty with your daughter's green card, you can try to do the same. I sent Immigration a notarized copy of the little book showing all the details of his medical exam in China and reminding them that he could never have been issued a visa without it. If you want more detail about this, let me know and I will find my original posting. For now, just make sure that in your daughter's cover letter for her I-485 that she came here on a K2. Give as much information as you can - mother's name, alien number, SSN, etc., to clearly identify her and to connect her to your daughter. That way, there is at least a chance that if they fail to transfer some of your daughter's documents from the original K1/K2 visa folder for her and her mother to her own individual one, they will consider going back and taking a second look in the original K1/K2 visa folder BEFORE they write to you telling you something is missing. 6. After his green card arrived, got his SS card 7. Got his learner's permit and license 8. Got her learner's permit and license By the way. We are here in Virginia as well. We live in Portsmouth. If you are not too far away and would like to get aquainted, PM me. Hope some of this helps.

Nice going! I'm glad that the waiting is finally over. Start practicing "Yes, dear!"

Nice going. Now, the training begins.

Hi£¬ same router as you MI 424-WR. On a speed test it downloads at about 15 MB, uploads at about 5MB. I believe the plan calls for the same as you as well. We may be getting down to the issue. What device do you have from ITalkbb. Is it a Linksys SPA1001 or an SPA2102 Sounds like the router SPA2102? Usually not a good idea to have two routers on the same network, unless you are sub-netting. When you have two, usually it is best to turn off some capabilities of one which turns it basically into a network switch. I opted to get just the Analog Telephone Adapter (Linksys SPA1001) from ITalkbb. I did not want an additional router on my network. As you can tell, the firewalls and other protocols will fight each other. Best to avoid the configuration nightmares you can have with this setup. I would see if ITalkbb will change your router for just an Analog Telephone Adapter. Thanks. Yes, I believe you are right. I called Italk and told them about it, but of course they are just like American doctors. If you are sick in America and you believe you know what is wrong with you, American doctors will test you for every other kind of illnes first, no matter how rare the others are, before they will even consider that you could be right. Hence, they will send me another SPA 2102, even though the one I had worked fine until the day I switched from Cox to Verizon. Also, they don't have the SPA 1001 boxes anymore. Now, I would even be willing to buy one for myself, and I see them on line for sale right now, but they say no, let them try to help me solve the problem first. So, here we are. No phone since 09-25-10, waiting for a new box that I know will not work. Why am I stupid enough to do this, because my wife wants me to. I have learned that, most of the time, it is best to do what our Chinese wives want.

Hi£¬ same router as you MI 424-WR. On a speed test it downloads at about 15 MB, uploads at about 5MB. I believe the plan calls for the same as you as well.

I thank you all for answering, but your answers assume too much technical knowledge. I am relatively ignorant so I don't understand what you are telling me to do. I see from some of your answers that it is possible to make italk work with verizon fios. Some of you have both and have no problem. I just don't know how to do it. Italk doesn't know how to do it. Verizon says they don't know how to do it. Actiontec says it can't be done. My IT guy says it can, but he does not know how to do it.Those of you who are very computer capable can probably do it, but to tell ME how to do it, you need to explain/define each term you are using. Speak to me kindly, but as if I am a complete moron. I don't have the vocabulary. I know what a coax cable looks like, but I don't know all the other jargon I am reading. I know how to plug things in. I can use a computer. I can change settings if someone explains each step, what to click, what I will see, and tells me what each thing I am doing means. I can even solder connections, make coax cable end connections, etc. But my ability is quite limited. Maybe I CAN simply replace the actiontec router/modem with a different model, but which model? I have googled this question a million ways. I see no clear answers for any of this. I am just about ready to throw the whole system (computer, modem, router, phone converter, phones, etc.) out the window. I knew I should not leave Cox. It was slow, is slow, does have problems from time to time, but it did work most of the time, and it did work very well with italk. I knew changing was going to cause all kinds of problems, and I knew it was going to cost me more money, in the short term, but I did not know I was going to have to go out and find a second job to pay for the extra costs of just getting it to work. HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congratulations!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey Guys, I need some help. I recently switched from Cox to Verizon Fios because my wife said cox internet was too slow. Now, my ITALKBB does not work, and the internet is only marginally faster. Italk worked fine with Cox, but the internet was slow. Now, cannot call out. When you try to, sometimes it connects but the person on the home phone can¡¯t hear the person on the other end. Sometimes it does not connect at all. Incoming calls work fine. I have been in contact with italkbb and Verizon many times. Italkbb said it sounded like a settings issue that would have to be resolved by Verizon. Verizon seemed unable to help ME by phone, so I paid $196.00 to bring an IT expert into my home to trouble shoot the problem. He did some research on line, made some settings adjustments, opening all the necessary ports. It worked for one call, and then the signal was blocked again. He tried this several times. He decided, for sure, it was/is being blocked externally somehow. He called Verizon and spoke to them. They referred him to Actiontech. He called them and they REFUSED to talk to him because he does not work for Verizon. Verizon came here today and talked to Actiontech on the phone and tried to do some things to fix it. They finally concluded that the italk router and the verizon fios router/modem are not compatible because of the two firewalls. Basically the tech said there is nothing anyone can do to make italk work with verizon fios. Anyone else here experience anything similar? What do I do? Is there some other company that will work well with Fios that is cheap like ITALKBB? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I wish I could truly reply to this, but political threads are not allowed. Any real response to this issue will most certainly involve taking a stand on government policies and how we got to where we are now, and that will lead us to ideology, and that will lead us to politics.

Congratulations

Start preparing your "kitchen sink." This is the collection of documents required for the interview along with all of the proof of relationship evidence you can come up with.It takes a long time to really do this right, but if you work on it a little every day, it is not that difficult.There is a wealth of information on how to do this on this site, and of course, we will all be happy to help you along the way.To get you started, some of the things that will be useful to prove your relationship are travel itineraries, boarding passes, receipts of all kinds that are relevant (gifts with pictures of them bought for her, hotel, currency exchange, etc.), passport pages showing visa, entry and exit stamps to China, pictureswith her and her family if possible, e-mails, phone records, MSN chat logs, pictures of your girl wearing gifts you bought for her, etc.

Thanks Guys. This helps.

Hey Guys, We are leaving for China tomorrow to visit my wife's family. We want to take 3 liters of wine, 5 packages of cigarettes, about six polo shirts, a few lipsticks as gifts for some of the family and friends. We will pack all of these things spread out between our two checked bags. I am pretty sure there should be no problems in terms of screening, but will be have any trouble with customs? What should we expect/do? Thanks as always.

Oops, I should have proofed my own English better. I meant to say, she was slow in studying to get her learner's permit. I was hurrying because I must leave for work soon.

Hi Vinny, My wife asked me to write to you to share our experience. When she arrived here in 11/2008, she was very slow to get into really studying to get her driving test. She had become very interested in trading Chinese stocks on line and spent most of her nights, all night, studying that and working on it. She spent only a little time on studying the driver's manual. She told me the book was too difficult and too boring. Here in Virginia, they don't have a Chinese translation, so I got her one from California. I told her she should read and study the California book to begin to understand American traffic laws, but that ultimately, she must read and study the Virginia book in English if she really wanted to be successful in getting her license and in becoming a safe driver. Of course, I was willing to help her study some, but I told her that I couild not do it for her, that she would have to read and study on her own, too. She will tell you herself that she really did not believe me. She thought she could just get someone who could help her understand the words, i.e. translate for her, learn how to drive, and get her license. She watched our son study the book, take both tests, pass and become a good driver. She took the written computer test two times and failed it. After the second time, the DMV worker told her she had one more shot at it. If she failed again, she would have to go to school. I reminded her that if she went to a driving school, it would cost us money but the teacher would still be an English speaker who would not be as patient as me and who would not know the limits of her vocabulary either. She finally understood, buckled down and really studied for one month, took the book test, passed it, and got her learner's permit. Then, I began to teach her how to actually drive. It took her a while to get ready for the road test, and it took her two tries to pass it, but eventually, she got her license. Now, she is a fairly good driver, though not as good as our son. Time and experience will take care of that. Bottom line, English, English, English!!!!! Our wives must become fluent. It is the key to their futures here in America in all things. English is the key that opens the door to all endeavors. But it does not end there. English provides the medium for learning all the things that we take for granted. Our wives must learn the American way - our laws, our customs, our norms. Does that mean they have to stop being Chinese? No, of course not, but they do have to learn enough about our culture to learn how to function in it. There is no short cut for that. English is the way.

I have a suggestion. It will take a little work, but I think it will help. Write out step by step everything they will need to do in English. Number them 1. 2. 3. etc. Under the English, write the Chinese translation. That way, they can read for themselves what they need to do each step of the way, but they can also show each step to anyone in the Airport if they need help knowing where to go, or exactly how to do something. Obviously, any person helping them will have to show them, not tell them, but it gives them a better chance of communicating their needs.

Thanks guys. This really helps. I guess we will go that route if the airplane ticket prices are not higher. You never know because they do some strange things with pricing depending on where you are going.

Congrats!!!!

Hi all, My wife has decided we should fly to Hong Kong, take a bus to Shenzhen so we can visit her cousin and do some sightseeing, travel around in China, end at Wuhan, and fly back to America. My question is this. Can we enter Hong Kong and then into China without difficulty? She will have her Chinese Passport and her two year green card. I will have my American Passport with a Chinese visa (single entry of double entry if you think we need it). Will this work or is there anything else I need to know? Thanks, Yemmie

Just writing back to thank you all for your replies. As always, they were very helpful.I should have written before now, but I have been very busy lately.

Hi all, My wife and I are thinking about going back to China to visit her family in September. I have not been there since 2007. I remember in 2008, during the Olympic Games, they tightened up a bit on visa issuance, requiring Hotel reservations. Have they relaxed things again? If not, if anyone has been there lately, can you tell me what I will need to do? Also, we need to add my last name to my wife's Chinese passport. Do you know if we can do it the same day at the same Embassy location in Washington, DC? Thanks as always, Yemmie

We are very happy for you. Congratulations! We know it seemed like a long time but the waiting is over now. Enjoy your new life together!

Don't change the ticket in any way. Print it just as they prepared it, even though there is a mistake. Take plenty of id with you - Driver's license, passport if you have one, Sam's club card, bank cards, etc. Arrive at the airport a little early, maybe 45 extra minutes. When you get to the TSA ticket checker, be friendly and cooperative while explaining the mistake. Tell them that you notified the airline, and what THEY told you. Show them all of the ids. TSA may ask you some more questions, refer you to another TSA person who will ask even more questions, and then they may refer you for some additional screening. Take all of this in stride. They are only trying to make sure you really are who you say who are, and that you are no threat so that everyone on that plane is safe. If you present yourself this way, everything will be fine. Been there done that.

Yes, I have been watching it as well. I agree it is well done. The only thing I regret is that it does not delve much into the philosophical underpinnings of the American system of government: Universal Rights of Man - not rule by Divine right Natural Law property rights John Locke, Rousseau, Montesquieu (sp?) Declaration of Independence U.S. Constitution Separation of Powers, checks and balances Judicial Review etc. It is well worth watching, but for those who don't already know these things, it does little to inform.