Must speak English during interview

[oregonknl]

Hey Richard ~!

 

Sorry !

 

My heart felt congradulations ~!!!

 

I'm just not as active as I was recently. so not seeing all the posts.... since I'm trying to put together a new house even as I live in it (needs floors, most immediately) ..... lota changes, not alot of break from bankers and bill collectors... etc..

 

Wish you the both the best possible future ~!

 

Warmly, Kim

[Chinese Wife!!!]

Hey Kim,

 

No Problem man. I meant you should congratulate LeeJCandle on that thread- He and HIS Julia have overcome the GZ BS reported above.

 

Sound like you need a break Kim.

[Carl]

I noticed hear that everyone keeps talking about a VCD.  Unless things have drastically changed since August, you need to present a NTSC VHS tape.

 

I have reprinted the topic from the archives here.

 

 

 

 

Dean Hall posted this in the General Visa Discussion and it seemed like a good one to put here. Thanks, Dean.

 

 

This is a continuing topic on the Candle, so I thought I would add to it.

This is copied from a post last week.

 

Everybody-

 

Clearing up the VHS tape issue:

 

The tape you make needs to be a US standard VHS format. (NTSC)

This was just verified in person by Moon Carol. (08/04)

 

Let me explain a little further, my experience being in the videography field as an electrical engineer in the continents of Asia, Africa, and the USA.

 

All US Embassies (I did videography for one in West Africa), are in essence on their own tiny slice of American soil within whatever country we are talking about.

 

This being said, everything within that building is shipped from the USA.

The furniture, computers, and video equipment.

 

The voltage is even converted to 110v.

 

What this means, is, that when you give them (the US Consulate) a standard VHS tape, they will push it into a US version (NTSC) tape player that was shipped from the states.

 

The term "Chinese VHS thing" is very confusing.

 

What people are doing is this: They are taking a Chinese wife / fiance into

a Chinese facility which is filming your English or Chinglish 5 minute conversation on a Chinese (PAL) version video camera, then electronically converting it into an NTSC (American) format and transcribing that onto the VHS tape.

 

Or, secondly, folks are filming their own selves using their US 8mm or digital mini-cams, and the Chinese facility is transfering it straight to a VHS size tape going NTSC to NTSC, or simply just transfering your stuff to the larger VHS tape.

 

If you were to bring your own older version VHS size camcorder, (hard to find anymore, but I do have one kicking around Shenzhen somewhere),

you could simply do your taping, pop it out and hand it to the consulate.

 

As to the VHS tape itself. It does not matter whether you bring the tape from the US, buy it in China, or bring it from Africa or Bangladesh.

They are all the same. Its the format thats recorded on them that changes.

Although there are thousands of labels (Maxell, RCA, TKD, ect) there are only 4 major factories producing all of the VHS tapes.

 

So if you were to bring that very same tape back with you and plug it into your machine here in the US, it will play just fine.

 

A quick re-cap.

When making your video, equipment-wise, that is, think American.

The VHS size is the big tape size like you rent from Block Buster.

When you have it made in China, you are handing the consulate a USA version VHS tape. Bring it home and play it again.

 

The Chinese will tape you using Chinese (PAL) equipment, but convert it to American (NTSC) VHS tape.

 

I hope this is not to confusing.

 

The very best of luck to everyone going through this process.

 

Dean.

Clear as mud.....

[leejcandle]

Lee,

 

Let me add my best wishes for resolution of your situation...  anyone that goes back as far as you knows that you are a master at communication with your SO --- very creative ... to the point of carrying her around in your lap top ~! ha, ha!

 

....just wish the VO's in GZ were half as much...  

 

I do think this is one of the areas where the "process" is evolving...  

 

Fei  (December interview) wasn't even offered the option of speaking in Mandarin ----

 

.... and the VO was on the attack from the first question, which threw her too, but her English is pretty good, so she came back at the VO after a moment's thought....

 

I do think we are going to see more of this shift from interview to interrogation as homeland security continues to focus  (stupidly) on legal immigration...  

 

.....  our SOs, and legal applicants everywhere are the obvious easy targets...

 

But Lee, I do expect you both to prevail!  

oregonknl,

 

I'm going to carrying her around the house beginning next week.

 

She arrives in LAX Sunday afternoon. I'm going to meet her there, and we'll fly back here together.

 

Talking about communication speed; we had a very speedy real-time dialog on Yahoo Messenger last night. She was on the phone with a travel agent, telling me what was being said; me adding comments or making points she need to emphasize with the agent. Our fingers were burning up the keyboard(s) It's interesting how far we've gone with messenging since her first baby steps with a computer.

 

As her English improves; there will be times when we get on Yahoo right here in the house when we have something important to discuss.