C4Racer

Congrats Michael. Time to build your new life together. Sometimes the adjustment can be hard. Remember, she left everything behind to start this new life with you. She is taking a big leap of faith. My best advise is do not work on making her happy. You will fail miserably. Instead, the best way to keep her happy is just be as supportive as possible. Be there in any way and at any time she needs you. Do not tell her you love her. This means nothing to a Chinese woman as to them it is just words. You will be miles ahead just to show her how much you love her. Then the occasional "I Love You" has so much more meaning. Good luck.

Congrats. Now you can breathe a little easier. Heck wonder if she gets a card for each welcome letter....

My wife has been is school for the past year. It was hard. She studied almost ever night and often all weekend long. She took massage therapy as she was a clinical massage therapist in China. There were times when she thought she would quit because it was too hard. Over the past few months she worried about if she could pass the Oregon State Board Test or not. She graduated Jan 29. Passed her MBlex test last month. Last Wednesday was her first shot at the Oregon State Massage Board Practical exam. She left the exam kind of low. Thinking she did not pass because of the language barrier. She had studied and practice all month, but they did not use the same words. So her comment after was she thought she did not pass. She was tested in three areas and needed at least 70 percent in each. Communication Massage Kinesiology (Ouline 7 muscles and explain how they work). Today we got her results in the mail: Communication: 78 Massage: 96 Kinesiology: 100 The State Board told her school no one had ever gotten 100 before. So now this past year of hell was all worth it. We can relax and celebrate. She can now call herself. Pingxiu Leard, LMT

http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2158

Not such a good idea, you might want to read Carl's post about doughnuts. Anyone with a green card gets tagged for something like that can have trouble when trying to renew the green card later.

She can travel to Canada and Mexico without getting a visa if she has a green card, So the answers to each question are: 1) She can travel to Mexico, but may need a visa depending upon other ports of call. Each country is different. You will need to check the requirement for that country. US has an agreement with Canada and Mexico that citizens and legal residences may travel between these countries for short stays. 2) Travel between Canada and Mexico are no problem with green card and passport. No visa is needed. 3) Europe she will need to get a visa for any country you wish to visit. 4) No. a legal permanent resident is a legal permanent resident no matter the type of document issued. The only difference between the two is how long you have before you must file to renew status. 5) Answers 1-3 change to no different than any other US citizen. So yes, she will need to have a visa to travel back to China.

Cathy, It also depends on if you opt to change your name or not. My wife had her interview in the afternoon here in Portland and came back in the morning for her swearing in ceremony. We had a friend who took it here in Portland, but had to wait a month for her swearing in ceremony. This is because when you decide to change your name it must be done in front of a judge. Mike

Man, please don't type so loud. Oh, my head. I think I had too much New Year cheer last night!!! Gong Xi Fa Cai ! to everyone at CFL !! We had some American friends over last night. They are actually school mates of my wife. They liked the authentic Chinese dinner. Lisa's parents couldn't understand, but they had a nice time.

You are not dreaming, but this is not computer software. It is a VoIP service called Italkbb. I have it and love it. It is 24.95 a month. It is box which connects directly to your broadband router. It will work on DSL, but the quality is not great at times. It is best to use it with a fast broadband ISP connection. You can call US, Canada, China and over 60 countries in the world for free. You get a China access number which your family and friends can call without long distance chanrges. If you are interested, PM me and I will send you a link. It has been a blessing to have it so my wife's parents can stay in touch with home.

I look for the deals first, too. However I am a bit gun shy about ordering things over the internet for fear of "shady" suppliers. I have a tendency to go for a bit higher price if the seller has a good reputation. I just ordered the Windows 7 HP 32 bit OEM from buyer.com and paid through Amazon. Total price was $105.00. I did see prices at $99.00 from others I did not recognize. Is it possible to buy another license if I do decide I want to put it on another computer? Yes, just watch for Windows 7 Home Premium Key only on eBay. Like I said, they come and go. You can also get a feel for the eBay rating of the seller. If it is a first time seller, I generally stay away. If it someone who sells on eBay frequently and has a rating I feel more comfortable.

That's what I am hoping. Vista started off good for me but later became a nightmare. I am kinda glad Vista bit the dust. The OEM version is going for around $100 +or- 10 or 15 bucks. Sounds like a deal to me! Depends on what you consider a deal. Since I don't care about Microsoft support, I went on eBay and found two license keys only for Windows 7 Ultimate. Paid $32 dollars for the two licenses. I found a place to download the installation cd for another $10. So for $42 dollars I have Windows 7 Ultimate for two computers. I have already performed the switch from Wimdows 7 RC, validated the keys and passed the install through Windows Genuine Software test. Now that IS a deal! I do not have Windows 7 RC so I cannot do the upgrade. I plan on dumping Vista completely with the 7 HP install for just one computer. My other computer is XP and it works great so I will keep it. Actually, you are not suppose to be able to upgrade from Windows 7 RC. They did allow you to upgrade from Windows Vista. You can always start from scratch with the same Windows 7 Installation cd. Interesting. I did not find any keys only on eBay at the moment. They come and go. I did find a Windows 7 Home Premium version for $69. I always look for deals first. Hate to pay full price for software. The biggest thing you are paying for and need most is a legitimate activation key.

That's what I am hoping. Vista started off good for me but later became a nightmare. I am kinda glad Vista bit the dust. The OEM version is going for around $100 +or- 10 or 15 bucks. Sounds like a deal to me! Depends on what you consider a deal. Since I don't care about Microsoft support, I went on eBay and found two license keys only for Windows 7 Ultimate. Paid $32 dollars for the two licenses. I found a place to download the installation cd for another $10. So for $42 dollars I have Windows 7 Ultimate for two computers. I have already performed the switch from Wimdows 7 RC, validated the keys and passed the install through Windows Genuine Software test. Now that IS a deal! I do not have Windows 7 RC so I cannot do the upgrade. I plan on dumping Vista completely with the 7 HP install for just one computer. My other computer is XP and it works great so I will keep it. Actually, you are not suppose to be able to upgrade from Windows 7 RC. They did allow you to upgrade from Windows Vista. You can always start from scratch with the same Windows 7 Installation cd.

That's what I am hoping. Vista started off good for me but later became a nightmare. I am kinda glad Vista bit the dust. The OEM version is going for around $100 +or- 10 or 15 bucks. Sounds like a deal to me! Depends on what you consider a deal. Since I don't care about Microsoft support, I went on eBay and found two license keys only for Windows 7 Ultimate. Paid $32 dollars for the two licenses. I found a place to download the installation cd for another $10. So for $42 dollars I have Windows 7 Ultimate for two computers. I have already performed the switch from Wimdows 7 RC, validated the keys and passed the install through Windows Genuine Software test.

The full version of Windows 7 normally will allow you to have your full choice of upgrade, install a new version on existing partition or format your hard drive and start over. I just upgraded both of my computers to Windows 7 Ultimate. In the past you use to have to buy upgrade to do the 1st option as full would not allow you to upgrade. Either way you are looking for the Full Version.

The whole point of a well laid out and operational airport is "It should be easy to navigate and find your way even when you have no clue where you are going." Hong Kong and San Francisco international are laid out much better and easy for a loawai to find their way. LAX is bad enough for seasoned travelers, let alone a laowai who may have trouble with the language. I wasn't saying don't use LAX. Just that, I would recommend not letting your SO navigate this airport alone for any first trip to the USA.

She is correct. They will not change the passport for a name change. They will put a statement in one of the observation pages that reads, "The bearer of this passport is also known as (put your so's name here)." This can be done at the Chinese consulate who oversees your district. this can be done thru the mail? No. They no longer offer mail service. She needs to visit the consulate in person. Don't forget her green card and your marriage certificate. You can pay to have it returned via FedEx or you can pay an expedite fee and have it in two or three days. I think the expedite fee it was $30. We traveled to San Francisco to have my wife's done and made a mini-vacation out of the trip.

She is correct. They will not change the passport for a name change. They will put a statement in one of the observation pages that reads, "The bearer of this passport is also known as (put your so's name here)." This can be done at the Chinese consulate who oversees your district.

Really good that you will meet her there. I really hate the way LAX is laid out. LAX is made up of 8 domestic terminals and the international terminal. It is difficult even for the seasoned traveler. She will have it easy to LAX. Then it won't matter cause her night in shining amour will be there to the rescue.

I think the correct term is "drawn and quartered." Seriously, I doubt if you would have much of an issue. I brought back 160+ DVD's. We went through Portland POE and even got spot checked. They busted the gal behind us for trying to sneak in meat. They fined her a hundred dollars. They never said nothing to us, except have a nice day. The secret is don't try and hide them. Take them out of the original package. Go buy some notebook style DVD cases. Make them look like what they are, your personal collection.

Just have to wonder how they actual survive in this world. Has to be that they landed a government job. Don't get me wrong. There are quite a few that get the job done. Others though only put in hours. You know they couldn't get a job where they would actually be graded on the job they did. My wife and I took her mother to the SSN office today. We had applied for a SSN card for her mother back at the end of Dec. No card so WTF. We gotta have the number for taxes. The first lady asks where is your receipt? I said, we just kind of found time on spur of the moment. It is back home somewhere not sure where. OMG, you would have thought her world ended. She started to explain how she could do nothing without the receipt and how we must have gotten one. The only thing that can be done is start the whole process over. I wanted to ask her WTF is that computer on your desk for, can't you just look it up in that thing? So we go get a form, get back in line and wait. A little later the nice guard comes over and gives me a new number. He mentions how we will be called by another very shortly. Sure enough. Our number is called in less than a minute. The guard goes over and explains to this gal what is up. We go over. Give her the form. She takes the information, types on her computer for a short while and announces that my wife's mother already has a number. She can reissue a new card and print out the number for us to have before we leave. I was so close to asking her WTF couldn't the first gal do this? But needing that number, I just held my tongue. Thanked her and the guard when we were all done, since they actually know how to do their job. My wife is still making comment about how she thought the first gal was stupid.

Thanks, I was worried about that too. I gotta agree with Carl. You don't need to worry. My wife's parents who are 60+, never traveled outside of Nanning in their lives just came through Narita last November. They had absolutely no trouble at all. We took them through Hong Kong just so their transit city would be Narita.This is one of the easiest places to change planes you could want.

My real concern is that since my son is "technically" a US citizen, if he can still use his Chinese passport for travel? Will that cause any problem when we apply US passport for him later. Thanks. lvlp It grants him the ability to become a citizen. What they mean by using "automatic" is that there is no test for him to pass. You still must file paperwork to exercise his right. This is an exert from the USCIS web site. I think you have until his 18th birthday to exercise his right. The answer to your first question is technically speaking China does not recognize dual citizenship at any age. It will depend on if you exercise his right to US citizenship or not. If not, then he maintains his green card and no problems at all. If you exercise his right to US citizenship, then he is suppose to turn in his green card. If he stays the summer in China with relatives, he might have trouble exiting China. Leaving on his Chinese passport, they will likely want to see a visa to the US or green card to show he has access to the US. Now if they give him this kind of trouble, he can't just whip out his American passport, because it lacks either an entry visa to China or an exit visa. Now, I have heard of others using their Chinese passport to enter China and their US passport to get back into the US. The key is will China let him leave? If he has any trouble at all, he is on his own, the US can't help him. If he travels on the US passport and has any trouble at all, the US consulate will come to his aid. The answer to your second question is No. The US recognizes dual citizenship. So they don't care if he has a foreign passport or not.

You don't need to worry. My son was 15 months when he and my wife left for China. He was given lots and lots of attention, especially by his grandparents and uncle. His favorite think to do in China was go to the market with grandfather in the morning to buy fresh mango. He spent lots and lots of time with Yigong. He fit in very well with his cousin, who was just a year and a half older. So when I went two months later, I worried he maybe forgot daddy. Not to worry, somehow they always know daddy.

You would ask your company payroll dept.

The information I posted above came from that consulate's web page. My first thought would be yes they do. However, the word I read all over Visa Journey from those who have been through the process is that HCMC consulate does not allow cosponsors for the K1 visa for the majority of the time. Yes, every once in a blue moon, it seems they do, but it is not the normal practice of the VO's to accept. They say it is allowed for CR1 and IR1 visas. Glad to hear the OP will contact Marc Ellis. He will know what HCMC will and will not normally accept.