xiaofeizhu

Are you still in China? Not anymore, I have been in the US with my hubby since July 2008.

Just keep up with the positive attitude! Things will work out soon! Keep us posted!

We DCFed in 2008. Things are faster now than they were at that time; you will probably finish a few months faster than we did. I am sure you will not have any problems. Feel free to PM me if there are any questions I can help you answer!

My hubby and I have the Cannon Wordtank V90, which has Chinese-English-Japanese. Even if Japanese is not necessary, it works so beautifully. It also has the English-English so that once his English gets better he can use it as an English dictionary too. We did buy one in China that was just Chinese-English, but I do not even use that one anymore. If they are still in China now, they can find some pretty nice ones. The one we had that was Chinese-English had a lot of good functions and even sentence translation. It was not so easy for me to use because for that one, you had to know the hanzi for a word you were looking up, but since her son is Chinese it would not be a problem. Buying them in China is probably a good idea because the ones made in China are user friendly for Chinese people. They also have really neat ones. Ours had a color screen and even games

For those of you who live under the jurisdiction of the LA Consulate, have any of you been successful in actually getting a real person on the line to answer questions about renewing a Chinese passport? How about any of you who have tried to have the passport mailed back to you after applying? I would like to hear any and all experiences so I can prepare myself (probably mentally!) for what will happen when we get there. I have been hearing some not-so-good things and now I am curious as to any problems others have had with the LA consulate. I know this kind of connects to my other topic but I am getting so frustrated trying to contact them!

Good luck on the interview! I am sure everything will go on without a hitch! Best wishes and hope to hear the good news soon!

How about HNL? A nice stop in the tropics before going to the mainland might be nice If you have the time and money, they are very friendly and helpful, they let me go though the "immigrants" line with my hubby instead of making me go through the USC line and waiting for him on the other end.

PS, where in Hawaii are you? Oahu? We just moved to Oahu this week from Kauai. My friend's parents read the Chinese newspaper everyday, so they're going to keep an eye out for me. They did say it's twice a year, and it's absolute chaos, but if it can save me an expensive trip to LA, then it's totally worth it! Cool, we are on the Big Island. Please let me know if you hear anything. I don't care about the chaos, but if I can get it done, then that is one less thing to worry about!

Ouch. I hope they do not expect that someone from Hawaii will either a) wait around for the passport or actually come back to get it. That would be totally rediculous. Can someone else pick it up for you (i.e. one of my LA based aunts/uncles)? I would hate to have to pay a travel agency pick it up for me. How long did you take when applying for the new passport? We have only one day in LA (arrive at 6:45 am and leave at 10:35 pm) before we head off to Las Vegas. I would hate for this to become an issue. On a side note, though, it is really no problem if he does not have a valid passport for a while, right? It only would become a problem if he wanted to travel out of the country because he has his green card as evidence of his legal residency, right? I might just wait for the LA consulate to come here instead.

Congratuations! I was worried at first when I saw your post! Great news, and congratulations to your wife! Now the government won't hound you with rediculous green card fees, etc!

PS, where in Hawaii are you? Oahu?

OMG. We have called them repeatedly during all hours of the day, hubby even tried leaving a message for the "emergency" line. Nothing. We decided we will make a stop over there before heading to Vegas for our family reunion. Let me know if you hear anything! Question for everyone else who has used LAX: We are flying in to LAX at 6:45 on June 15, flying out to Vegas at 10:35 at night. I read the consulate is open from 9 - 2. Is it usually an in and out thing? No appointment necessary, right? We should have no problems and enough time to apply for the passport and have provisions to have it sent back to Hawaii, right? Any comments will be useful!

Great news, Robert. Hopefully it is all over soon and Hui will be with you!

Hi Robert, Sorry to hear about your blue slip. I know you will overcome it soon and you and Hui will be together sooner than you know!!! Keep positive, and keep cool. You will get there and victory will be even sweeter!

Did you ever figure out what it was?

Congrats! It is great news to hear, both the card production and both of you having jobs! Best wishes for the future too!

Congratulations and best wishes for your life in the US!

Congratulations on the visa! Your wife can do anything she wants! If she is interested in make up/cosmetology then she should persue it. If she has some other interests or if there is something that she does/did in China that she wants to continue, she can look for a job in that field. The opportunities are limitless! Good luck with whatever she decides to do!

PS.... I am of full Japanese decent, and I cannot use many brands of makeup, Clinique included. I get itchy and a rash almost breaks out. I use shiseido and MAC and don't have problems. I can't use cheap products or I get itchy right away. Because of this, I don't use much make up products...just a Shiseido face wash, and then eyeshadow and sometimes lip gloss, all Shiseido or Mac. If I use any other brand, I will regret it... Chinese skin may be sensitive as well, especially because many other brands are not developed for Asian skin. Finding a brand that is makes a lot of difference, because I have noticed that Chinese and Japanese products are less heavy.

When I moved to Japan, this happend to me. It was not right away, but about 6 months after moving to Japan. Kyoto was even more humid than Hawaii, so we ruled out dryness. I had it on my face, arms, and around my neck. I finally went to the doctor and he told me several things. 1) use bar soap, not gel soap. 2) when you dry after taking a shower, pat your skin dry, not wipe it 3) no baths, shower only 4) he gave me some ointments 5) he told me I could not stress, it only makes it worse 6) he perscribed me Allegra 7) try switching detergent, soaps, makeup, etc. I am a firm believer that th Allegra is what actually helped me get better. I am not sure if it just so happened that I got better or if it was one of those things that helped. It took about a month for the rash to get better but it finally did. I would have her do one of those allergy blood tests. My sister did one, and according to the doctor, she has "the highest level of grass allergy that I have ever seen". So you never know. The rash can be caused by stress but it can also be caused by something that she can avoid.

Congratulations on the great news! Now you can sit back and relax!

We did seperate folders. It's easier to pull out the necessary file and go from there than it is to hold a binder and try to flip through, especially since she will probably have to hold the binder with one hand and flip through with the other. It might be clumsy. I had a write up about how I organized my hubbys documents somewhere. I'll link it when I find it...

Congratulations! Your story is a proof that the power love will not separtate people. Best wishes for you and your wife! The real fun starts now~~~

Congratulations on your success! Now the fun begins and you two will be able to start a new chapter in your lives. Wishing you all the best!

Sounds good. I hope this is the case in LA too. How much did you have to pay for the shipping? Was it Fed-Ex/UPS or USPS? One day is definitely enough, if we go this route, right?