She is finally here!

[warpedbored]

Whether or not a Chinese woman takes her husband's family name is a personal choice. The vast majority of Chinese women I know took their husband's family name. As Dan mentioned many use their family name as a middle name. When my wife and I filled out our AOS forms we did this. When we went to the AOS interview the IO told us we could use her last name, my last name or a hyphenated name, ie Huang-Jones. We opted for my last name. When the green card came we were pleasantly surprised to find that it was printed the way we wanted it in the first place. Changing her first name as you mentioned is a little more difficult. She would have to go to court for a legal name change. If three years from now she decides to become an American citizen she will have an opportunity to change it then for free.

[a2784]

To be honest I never thought about this. I just assumed that in the USA a chinese person would sign their chinese name in pinyin. I did not think a chinese signature would be accepted. FWIW my wife signs all her Chinese credit card receipts in China in pinyin.

The next time you get a prescription from your doctor, see if you can read their signature.

 

Again a signature is a person's mark, it does not need to be readable, just consistent.

 

I figure a signature using Chinese Characters is a unique mark.

Of course doctors are known for this (though I dont understand why). What does that have to do with this discussion.

 

I never thought of using the chinese characters for the signature because I am quite certain what a native born Alabama government offical will think and say after he sees my wife sign a document in chinese characters.

 

Also since the G-325 form says "If your native alphabet is in other than Roman letters, write your name in your native alphabet below". I figure from this that they wanted to signature above to be in Roman letters. Not that any of this matters. As long as they accept the signature mark you could just put an X in the box.

[Randy W]

Of course doctors are known for this (though I dont understand why). What does that have to do with this discussion.

 

I never thought of using the chinese characters for the signature because I am quite certain what a native born Alabama government offical will think and say after he sees my wife sign a document in chinese characters.

 

Also since the G-325 form says "If your native alphabet is in other than Roman letters, write your name in your native alphabet below". I figure from this that they wanted to signature above to be in Roman letters. Not that any of this matters. As long as they accept the signature mark you could just put an X in the box.

 

The path of least resistance is for her to adopt a westernized signature. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of time explaining the funny little characters she uses.

 

I ALWAYS sign my own name using my nick-name (RandyW). There have been a handful of places (especially here in China) where someone would require my full legal name for a signature (pisses me off when they do). In fact, at the bank, they insisted that I spell my full name out in block letters so they could read it!

[a2784]

Of course doctors are known for this (though I dont understand why). What does that have to do with this discussion.

 

I never thought of using the chinese characters for the signature because I am quite certain what a native born Alabama government offical will think and say after he sees my wife sign a document in chinese characters.

 

Also since the G-325 form says "If your native alphabet is in other than Roman letters, write your name in your native alphabet below". I figure from this that they wanted to signature above to be in Roman letters. Not that any of this matters. As long as they accept the signature mark you could just put an X in the box.

 

The path of least resistance is for her to adopt a westernized signature. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of time explaining the funny little characters she uses.

 

I ALWAYS sign my own name using my nick-name (RandyW). There have been a handful of places (especially here in China) where someone would require my full legal name for a signature (pisses me off when they do). In fact, at the bank, they insisted that I spell my full name out in block letters so they could read it!

That reminds me about the first time I sent money from my USA bank account to my China bank account. I sent the money to myself using my first name, middle initial, last name. This is my standard signature and how all my accounts in the USA are set-up.

 

When I went to see if the money had arrived in my Chinese bank account and convert the dollars to RMB they told me the money was in my account but they could not give it to me because my Chinese account is listed under my first name, middle name, last name (it was setup using my passport). I pulled out my Alabama DL and showed them it was the same name format and same address as on the bank transfer from my USA bank so I am that person.

 

Needless to say, after 1 hour of fruitless discussion and another 30 minutes of telling them to go F&*K themselves I went home and called my bank to cancel my account transfer and re-done it with my full name.

[Spekkio99]

Update:

 

We just went to City Hall this morning to get our marriage license. Need to wait 24 hours to go back for the marriage ceremony, we're planning to go back next Monday for that. She signed her name in pinyin and keeping the same name as on her passport.

 

We then went to Kay Jewelers and picked out wedding bands, won't be able to pick it up until April tho, so won't have them for the ceremony on Monday. Any suggestions for engravings? What do people normally engrave on these things, i have no idea...

 

I've had contractors work on renovating my apt all this month and should be finishing up by end of this week. We'll be picking out furnitures this weekend and starting to get stuff delivered next week. I also need to pick out a big screen tv.

 

Exciting times!

[Sam and Fen]

Thanks for the update but you left the most important part out.

 

 

Where is the bachleors party?

[TLB]

Of course doctors are known for this (though I dont understand why). What does that have to do with this discussion.

 

I never thought of using the chinese characters for the signature because I am quite certain what a native born Alabama government offical will think and say after he sees my wife sign a document in chinese characters.

 

Also since the G-325 form says "If your native alphabet is in other than Roman letters, write your name in your native alphabet below". I figure from this that they wanted to signature above to be in Roman letters. Not that any of this matters. As long as they accept the signature mark you could just put an X in the box.

 

The path of least resistance is for her to adopt a westernized signature. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of time explaining the funny little characters she uses.

 

I ALWAYS sign my own name using my nick-name (RandyW). There have been a handful of places (especially here in China) where someone would require my full legal name for a signature (pisses me off when they do). In fact, at the bank, they insisted that I spell my full name out in block letters so they could read it!

That reminds me about the first time I sent money from my USA bank account to my China bank account. I sent the money to myself using my first name, middle initial, last name. This is my standard signature and how all my accounts in the USA are set-up.

 

When I went to see if the money had arrived in my Chinese bank account and convert the dollars to RMB they told me the money was in my account but they could not give it to me because my Chinese account is listed under my first name, middle name, last name (it was setup using my passport). I pulled out my Alabama DL and showed them it was the same name format and same address as on the bank transfer from my USA bank so I am that person.

 

Needless to say, after 1 hour of fruitless discussion and another 30 minutes of telling them to go F&*K themselves I went home and called my bank to cancel my account transfer and re-done it with my full name.

 

Okay two points:

1. There's an Alabama driver's license? Who knew?

2. I see from the final paragraph that you've finally found the best way to work with the Chinese bureaucracy...

[Jon & Cindy]

and don't forget to show us the wedding pics!

[a2784]

Of course doctors are known for this (though I dont understand why). What does that have to do with this discussion.

 

I never thought of using the chinese characters for the signature because I am quite certain what a native born Alabama government offical will think and say after he sees my wife sign a document in chinese characters.

 

Also since the G-325 form says "If your native alphabet is in other than Roman letters, write your name in your native alphabet below". I figure from this that they wanted to signature above to be in Roman letters. Not that any of this matters. As long as they accept the signature mark you could just put an X in the box.

 

The path of least resistance is for her to adopt a westernized signature. Otherwise, you could end up spending a lot of time explaining the funny little characters she uses.

 

I ALWAYS sign my own name using my nick-name (RandyW). There have been a handful of places (especially here in China) where someone would require my full legal name for a signature (pisses me off when they do). In fact, at the bank, they insisted that I spell my full name out in block letters so they could read it!

That reminds me about the first time I sent money from my USA bank account to my China bank account. I sent the money to myself using my first name, middle initial, last name. This is my standard signature and how all my accounts in the USA are set-up.

 

When I went to see if the money had arrived in my Chinese bank account and convert the dollars to RMB they told me the money was in my account but they could not give it to me because my Chinese account is listed under my first name, middle name, last name (it was setup using my passport). I pulled out my Alabama DL and showed them it was the same name format and same address as on the bank transfer from my USA bank so I am that person.

 

Needless to say, after 1 hour of fruitless discussion and another 30 minutes of telling them to go F&*K themselves I went home and called my bank to cancel my account transfer and re-done it with my full name.

 

Okay two points:

1. There's an Alabama driver's license? Who knew?

2. I see from the final paragraph that you've finally found the best way to work with the Chinese bureaucracy...

Yes there is an Alabama driver's license. The greatest part about it is that one can get said license even if they use words like "re-done".

 

Where did that come from ...

[RivaRich]

Congrats to both of you and best wishes for your new life together!

 

A great post to read if you haven't done so yet: The 9 Letters of Happiness

Edited February 26, 2010 by RivaRich (see edit history)

[Spekkio99]

When applying for the Social Security number on the K1 non-immigrant visa, what do you check for the line item for citizenship? Legal alien allowed to work, legal alien not allowed to work, or other?

[Sam and Fen]

We checked Legal alien allowed to work.

Our card says work allowed with DHS authorization.

Edited February 28, 2010 by Sam and Fen (see edit history)

[Guest Pommey]

legal alien allowed to work.

[Spekkio99]

Couple more questions:

 

What is I-797C? I cannot seem to find this, is this needed for AOS?

 

On I-131, is my wife applying for "an advance parole document to allow me to return to the United States after temporary foreign travel"?

 

Form I-131 also asks for the exact mm/dd/yyyy of intended departure and expected length of trip, are these estimates or does she have HAVE to fly out of the US on that date?

 

For Civil Surgeon, I called a bunch and cheapest I found in NY willing to fill out just the vaccination portion of I-693 was $140, if anyone knows any better deals in the area, let me know!

 

I am knee deep in paperworks now...

 

Thanks everyone for your responses, much appreciated!

[Randy W]

Couple more questions:

 

What is I-797C? I cannot seem to find this, is this needed for AOS?

 

On I-131, is my wife applying for "an advance parole document to allow me to return to the United States after temporary foreign travel"?

 

Form I-131 also asks for the exact mm/dd/yyyy of intended departure and expected length of trip, are these estimates or does she have HAVE to fly out of the US on that date?

 

For Civil Surgeon, I called a bunch and cheapest I found in NY willing to fill out just the vaccination portion of I-693 was $140, if anyone knows any better deals in the area, let me know!

 

I am knee deep in paperworks now...

 

Thanks everyone for your responses, much appreciated!

 

 

 

The AP travel document is valid for travel anytime during it's year of validity. It's unclear to me why they would ask for dates. Just fill in estimates.