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Many of you at some point in the visa application process will make use of the pre-paid cards from CITIC bank for the Visa Information Service. How many of you actually make use of all the time you purchased? As much as the Federal Office of Management and Budget might like you to let whatever minutes you have not used expire, why not donate them? I have a RMB54 card with some unused minutes on it. I'd considered posting the PIN here for all to see but instead I've sent the card information via PM to Robert S. How many minutes? Who knows, but considering how much the recipient is paying for the card number... Robert, I trust you won't object too much if I direct them to contact you if they are in need, or have leftover minutes to donate?

Those who have joined Candle after 2004 may wish to read this to understand what went on before And now we begin Part II: After numerous delays the wife and I finally went to our scheduled green card interview yesterday. In attendance were she, our (very helpful) lawyer, a translator, and I crammed into the office of the examiner. Stood up, swore to tell the truth, nothing but, etc. Then she gets to asking the questions. Are you now or have you ever been a prostitute? Did you leave the USA last summer to spend time with uncle bin Laden? Are you a bible burning, dog kicking, freedom hating commie?" I sat there quietly letting my wife answer. Strike 1: Things went smoothly until “So, when did you get married?” One of the many nice things about my wife is that she is not the type to get upset when I don't remember the exact day we met, or married, or she arrived in the USA. Because she also has trouble with exact dates. So when she answers in English “December 2002” and I correct her with “No, in October 2002”. The actual month is November, she had tried to answer the question in English, and had said “December” when she meant “November”. She then made the capital mistake of trying to write down the date on the desk blotter “No you can't write on that!”. My excuse? 2 hours sleep the night before making certain that all our paperwork and documentation was in order, with originals and duplicates in matching nylon expanding folders ($8 each at Staples). Anyhow, I knew it wasn't December (X-mas). I had forgotten that I went over there during Thanksgiving, which would of course, been November. More questions on how we met, have I ever worked in China, (what does that have to do with my wife getting a green card?) where do we live... Strike 2: “What's the address of where you live?” Well, I know the street, street number, city, and apartment number... but not the zip. Because we have a P.O.B. that has been in constant use as a permanent address for about the past 7 years. I don't know my zip. Aside from a couple of utility bills I don't have anything mailed to this address. Our friends know where we live, aside from utility hookup never bothered to use the zip again, so why would either of us remember it? “You have a different address?” Yes, we do... I explain the difference between “mailing address” and “living address” to the nice lady. Wife and I know the mailing address as if we have been using it for years. Which we have. So she moves on to... “OK, so what's your home telephone number”. Something else we don't know. We never call it. We don't give it out. Normally there is not even a regular phone connected to the line. The only reason I have it is for DSL. Skype (internet phone) gets used for outbound calls when I'm at home, or she wants to call China. Like many people we know our cell phones have taken the place of a fixed land line. 8 years and counting for me. The advent of number portability between cellphone companies was a happy happy day. Anyhow, it looks like she is managing to wrap her head around the concept of keeping your cellphone with you means that you don't give out your home number, and if you never call yourself at home or give out your home number you just might possibly not have it memorized. More questions. Strike 3: “So, where are your wedding pictures?” We don't have wedding pics. There is a pic of my wife and I standing together on a little stone bridge right after the former PLA officer gave us our little red booklets. That's it. Little did I know that 5 years later some idiot would make the following statement: “EVERYONE in China who gets married always has a big celebration and takes lots of pictures of the ceremony.” She does not say this as a question, she says this as a statement of fact. Her ninja-style attack on logic and common sense is successful against me. I'm monetarily stunned into silence. My wife was listening to the translator, this allowed her to partially avoid off the attack on reason and sanity. Even she had a “what the fuck?” expression as she tried to wrap her head around this. The examiner, a Hispanic woman in her late 30's, is telling my wife, who spent over the past quarter century living in China, that she knows better than my wife what Chinese wedding customs are. And for her next trick she's going to inform me that I'm wrong when I say that I would enjoy some fresh broccoli because what I really crave is a warm bowl of spit. The examiner gets up and leaves the room. She returns, makes a few notes, we get a sheet of paper saying “We need time to review, don't call us-- we'll call you”. Just. Like. Last. Time. Unlike last time,aside from being upset at myself for not being able to deflect her surprise logic disruptor ray attack, I'm not angry. Well, I was for a few minutes after the interview. As I got into the elevator to leave the building I realized that it wasn't as if I was going home without her. She was there with me, would get into the car with me, drive home with me, it wasn't as if I would be separated again after a two week visit. We are still together. It's not as if this means I have to wait for her to be with me, she's with me already. I hope we are able to do something that lets her stay in the USA before her visa expires in a few months. If they don't then we move to China. Some of the old timers may remember me saying something along the lines of “You know that she is the one for you if instead of her leaving China and coming to the USA, you are willing to leave the USA and join her in China” My wife was willing to move to the USA for me. I have no problem moving to China for her. After a long absence it looks like your favorite reality game “Spot The Negro” just might be coming back to a Chinese metropolis near you!

If anybody has any feedback or suggestions about the new airport in Guangzhou, I'd like to hear about your experiences. Thanx

How's it going. Hope to hear good news from you soon. Dean

My wife and I got yellow sheeted! Told that "We require additional time to process your application. We will advise you when to return to the consulate." This is after being blue-sheeted for lack of a VHS tape (we provided) and a notarized copy of my passport (when I sent her into the interview with my actual passport). The folks in citizen services were nice enough to make notarized color copies of my passport for free, we took care of the VHS tape on the second floor of the Shamain hotel (25 minutes long). Yesterday they took the requested material and her passport, telling her to return today. Today the give her back the passport, along with a yellow "ineligible form" with the message outlined above. Anyone know what is going on?

Hello my name is Ross, i was wondering waht form to first fill out, i am currently living in China, right next to Guanzhou, so I am right next to where i need to get this done, I was woondering what form i first fill out if i was smarried in CHina, and am currently living here, becasue i know that it is differenet than the normal one Thanks in Advance Ross

By my reading of the P3 instructions, I only need to provided english translations of documents if they are not in english (duh!) or chinese. Is my understanding correct?

Howdy all. I'm done with the business side of my trip to GZ. Now it is time for the fun and games. Let's play... Spot the Negro! Rules: Approach me and say the phrase "Moon Carol Cafe ma?" and I'll treat you to dinner at the Moon Carol Cafe. The game is in play until 19:00 on November 15th. Even though I am an unrepentant "double-stuff oreo" it should still be easy to spot the hei-sede skinned chap running around GZ for the next few days, right? Game on!