What is China thinking?????

[Guest R2D2]

Again, I sent through Western Union- that is all I use and trust in Nanning -$800 last week. I had no problem doing so. The limits are imposed by this government so that they can track cash. That is why the IRS has a$10K limit on reporting cash transactions and the law for filling out a form for INS. It is another of our freedoms in the interest of tracking drug money. Maybe they will blame it on 9/11 today but it has been in practice for many years!

[Guest R2D2]

Pre-med major, WSU, National Merit Scholar, been in 2 wars - one defending this country.

[Stats]

$1000 USD a  month is lot of money to send to China.   If you send more than that, then your loveone will live like a queen.    

The problem is that she has not received any salary for the past 2 months due to SARS related slowdown in business . Also, she owes our interpreter about 3,500 RMB.

 

Naturally she withheld this information until the "critical stage".

Sounds like your interpreter may be the one who is ripping you off. 100 RMB an hour is big money over here. You could pay for your fiancee to go to an English training center for that kind of money.

Owen,

 

With all due respect, the interpreter has been helping us since November 2002. We have been emailing each other daily since then, plus the translator helped with the I-129F documents. My guess is that our cost has been more like 35 RMB per hour. I cannot say for sure, I am just guessing. It really doesn't matter, $400 USD or so for 6 months of daily work is irrelevant to me under the circumstances.

[Guest R2D2]

Stats,

 

Again, I hate to put my nose in someone elses beeswax. I do however have a suggestion. I was having similar peoblems with translators. I solved the problem and my lady is learning English vey well-I am teaching her. She is also teaching me Putungwah (Mandarin). I sent her $1,000 2 months ago with explicit instuctions on what computer I wanted her to purchase. She did so and I talk to her daily for an hour on Yahoo mesenger while I type the words that I am saying. She has learned English very fast, with my accent, and just the other day I told her she was learning to much English. I told here she only had to learn, "Yes". She laughed for half an hour!!!

[owenkrout]

Yeah, well I can see why it ran up quite a bill considering that. We got around it early on by using students who wanted practice at translating. We were also fortunate in that there are several people in her family that have majored in English and so they helped quite a bit.

 

Our daughter picked up American English very quickly, my wife considerably slower, but that is the way it usually works with any language, the younger the student is the easier the language is. I am like my wife, my Chinese is progressing, but slowly.

[robhon]

I tried to get an additional card also but the bank said no way

 

So instead I opened another account at a different bank and will simply send the card for that account to China.

I had a checking account that is little used so I sent the ATM to my sweetie and stocked the account with a grand. Cheap and fast way to access money from there but the ATM limits withdrawls to the 1,000 ~ 4,000 RMB range (depends on the bank).

 

I've found that it's a little spotty using ATM's in China. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. On several occasions we've had to go to the bank manager to have my card retrieved. On another occasion the machine didn't give me money but deducted the amount from my account (took 2 months to resolve).

 

At this point I've reconciled myself to my wife's admonishments to "bring cash!" I've always said, "But we've already almost been pick-pocketed twice, that we know of." She just says, "We just need to be more careful."

 

I also tried opening a multi-currency bank account in China but you still get dinged all over the place. And, NEVER, EVER (as I learned) try to do a cash advance off your credit card!

 

When I take cash over, my wife's mother does this thing. We all go to the bank. Outside the bank is an individual who will make a deal. Her mother and the man go to the teller and chat for a bit. After that we've got a pile of RMB at a good exchange rate. Still not completely clear on what everyone gets out of it, but I know we do well.

[Stats]

Stats,

 

Again, I hate to put my nose in someone elses beeswax. I do however have a suggestion. I was having similar peoblems with translators. I solved the problem and my lady is learning English vey well-I am teaching her. She is also teaching me Putungwah (Mandarin). I sent her $1,000 2 months ago with explicit instuctions on what computer I wanted her to purchase. She did so and I talk to her daily for an hour on Yahoo mesenger while I type the words that I am saying. She has learned English very fast, with my accent, and just the other day I told her she was learning to much English. I told here she only had to learn, "Yes". She laughed for half an hour!!!    

R2,

 

You are not "putting your nose in beeswax". Actually, it is a great suggestion and something we are already doing.

 

When I went to Shezhen, I bought her a camera and microphone for her computer. Also, I left her with an electronic dictionary. For the past 5 months, we spend about 6-8 hours every weekend on Yahoo IM. I use a Chinese>Pinyin dictionary. So far it was worked very well and we can talk and understand each other in a 3 hour conversation. Her English is getting better every week.

 

However, I still like the translator for emails so we both can be understood completely. To her credit, she reads every mail in English to see what she can understand before sending it to the translator.

[sarah36]

However, I still like the translator for emails so we both can be understood completely. To her credit, she reads every mail in English to see what she can understand before sending it to the translator.

Hi, States:

Maybe you can spend translator fee to hire an English tutor for your fiance. That money can be paid for a very good English tutor here. I dont think your email needs to be read for one hour only if you do write very long. So the left time she can teach your fiance some English and take your email as a teaching sample. Besides most of the English tutors would help the student read email for free.

 

It's up to you. I'm only here to put forward my suggestion.

 

 

 

Sarah

[Guest R2D2]

I tried to get an additional card also but the bank said no way

 

So instead I opened another account at a different bank and will simply send the card for that account to China.

I had a checking account that is little used so I sent the ATM to my sweetie and stocked the account with a grand. Cheap and fast way to access money from there but the ATM limits withdrawls to the 1,000 ~ 4,000 RMB range (depends on the bank).

 

I've found that it's a little spotty using ATM's in China. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. On several occasions we've had to go to the bank manager to have my card retrieved. On another occasion the machine didn't give me money but deducted the amount from my account (took 2 months to resolve).

 

At this point I've reconciled myself to my wife's admonishments to "bring cash!" I've always said, "But we've already almost been pick-pocketed twice, that we know of." She just says, "We just need to be more careful."

 

I also tried opening a multi-currency bank account in China but you still get dinged all over the place. And, NEVER, EVER (as I learned) try to do a cash advance off your credit card!

 

When I take cash over, my wife's mother does this thing. We all go to the bank. Outside the bank is an individual who will make a deal. Her mother and the man go to the teller and chat for a bit. After that we've got a pile of RMB at a good exchange rate. Still not completely clear on what everyone gets out of it, but I know we do well.

Same thing happened to my fiance in Nanning. The ATM deducted money from my account without dispersing. I use only Western Union now. China Bank charges for depositing a wire transfer into her account there.

[wolf]

All of you that think that our government should control the money we send out of this country are way off. The government sends more of the tax payers money out of this country than any individual person or company, than it bans us from sending to loved ones and slows the visa process. We worked for the money and can do what we want with it and many of us defended this country but does the government care about us when we ask for a visa for our wife or Fiancee?

[lele]

NoNONONONO. you got it all wrong. you see. it's U.S's POLICY. not China's. because of the large amount of money were being transfer via western union over the years by many of the chinese immigrants in the U.S. recently U.S governement force western union to limit its customer to send only 1000 dollars per month. and only once a month according to the new anti-terrorist act, also know as the patriact act. this was big news here in New York City because of the large number of new immigrants from China.

True True True! It is quite sad.

 

However, the Bank of China in New York City still seems to have an exception to this rule, although it still has a US Government imposed limit, however, this is $3000.

 

If only people realized that so many of our problems with our timelines (such as GZ being understaffed and them not using multiple consulates to process our applications like they do in other countries) are tied into the current President and Congress, maybe people would actually organize for future change? (I can only hope...)

[lele]

All of you that think that our government should control the money we send out of this country are way off. The government sends more of the tax payers money out of this country than any individual person or company, than it bans us from sending to loved ones and slows the visa process. We worked for the money and can do what we want with it and many of us defended this country but does the government care about us when we ask for a visa for our wife or Fiancee?    

Great Point!

 

Over the last 4 years, Under Bush's Leadership, the US Government has been sending (in terms of Government Savings Bonds, so that it could Deficit Spend) more than 150 Billion USD a year to China.

[king]

Sending checks to China, personal or bank, is really a lenghty process. The last time I did it, it took about 3 months for the check to be returned to the U.S. by the Chinese bank to be honored by the U.S. drawee bank and then return the credit to the Chinese bank for me to pick up the cash.

[Guest jimcope]

I tried to send 1100 dollars by computer with western union and was told you can not send more than 1000 dallars. so i just used the phone and called western union and had no problem.

jim

[msmckee]

I tried to send 1100 dollars by computer with western union and was told you can not send more than 1000 dallars. so i just used the phone and called western union and had no problem.

                          jim

From the Western Union Site...

 

"5. How much money can I send from westernunion.com ?

 

Initially, the maximum amount of money you can send online with a revolving 30-day period is $999.99. Once you have used the Western Union Money transfer service on the web, at least once over the course of 120 days, you may send up to a maximum of $2,000 within a revolving 30-day period. If Arizona is your state of residence, you may only send up to a maximum of $950 per transaction."