sylinchinastill

Thank you! No points for my reading comprehension there, I swear I have read those instructions before!

Okay- I thought I understood the answer to this, but now that it is here I can't find confirmation as to what I thought... My husband's date of residence on his green card is 01/30/2008. 3 years would be January 30 of 2011. But I thought I heard that he can go ahead and start the process (for citizenship) 6 months early. Is that correct?

This is a little late but I have a big one to put on the list- US citizens can travel to countries besides China much more easily than with a Chinese passport. My husband travels a lot to different countries for business with his Chinese passport, and has to have a visa for almost every country.

thanks all- we know about the south africa visa part.

My husband, who still isn't a US citizen, is going to south africa (with me) on business. We are going through the UK. He doesn't need a visa, right? I called a travel visa company connected with Delta, and they said no, but someone has brought this up to my husband and I just wanted to know whether anyone has had any experience with this. We have actually gone through london on our way to france before with no problems, but... I just want to be absolutely sure. He is a green card holder. Thanks! Sylvia

We use sinocalling.com and it works as well.

Use DHL- you can find multiple shipping agents and it will arrive in one week.

It figures- there are people who met later than when my husband first came to the states and already have their citizenship. We should have fought over the 'permanent resident since' date because they should have made it 2005- from the date of interview- not from whenever they finally decided, after many months of waiting, phone calls, lawyers, lawsuits, and a few wrinkles, to give us the green card. Oh well...

Really?! Let me give our timeline and tell me what you think. He came here in 2004, we filed AOS in August of 2004, we had our AOS interview in August of 2005, we passed but they did another name check and we were stuck in a black hole until December of 2006. We never received the two-year card. We received a two year card in January of 2008, and then we went and complained and got a ten-year card that says, 'legal permanent resident' January 2008. So, can we apply now? Or if we have to wait until 3 years under the 10 year (since we never had a 2-year card), then do we have to wait until June of 2010, or January of 2011 before we file?

I'm not sure whether anyone else has posted about this before, but I just read this amazing book called A Tiger's Heart. It is written by Aisling Juanjuan Shen and it is about how she went from living with her family of rice farmers as a child to living in the states where she now works for an investment firm. She came here on a fiance visa as well. It's a really encouraging story and I think many wives on here would love to read it.

I went to Macau once and we did a tour of the city with a tour guide. That was my favorite part of Macau. We went up to this huge church and it overlooked the city and was really pretty. You should do that tour if you ever go back. My husband also really likes the food there too. But no- it's nothing like Hong Kong- and I guess it is kind of like Vegas- I thought Vegas was super boring!

To teach ESL here in a school, you have to have a regular teaching degree. To teach in China you could get a TESL or TEFL certification. Depending on what city she lives in you could make okay money to live there- around 15,000 RMB a month(or so it was 4 years ago) in Shanghai and probably more if you found the right job. Check out this link, daveseslcafe.com and you can find more info. Plus- especially if it's a small city, you can get lots of tutoring jobs and supplement that way. I lived in China teaching english for three years in Shenzhen and Shanghai, so PM me if you have any questions.

Have her get an english tutor or go to school in the two years before she arrives. If she can get extra help to learn now it will make transitioning much easier for her. There is enough to learn without having to have such a language burden of you can avoid it.

Wow- Congratulations. We contacted Bob Corker's office in Tennesee, and that is finally what worked- after 3 1/2 years. I would definitely suggest calling a senator. Call- no letters. We contacted tons of congressmen, who could only give us an update on our status. We even tried suing and that didn't work. We sent letters to tons of congressmen every month, and even sent a couple of letters, and got some responses, from Laura Bush. But until Corker got elected nothing worked. Then, we contacted Corker in November and everything was fixed by January of this year.

We went down for an infopass and they gave us a form for the permanent card. We don't have to pay any more money. Thank god since we have paid someone's salary with EAD and AP money. So now it's almost a normal timeline- I'll take it I guess.