End of the road

[shaun]

Gerry if you show less income than 25% over the poverty level then yes they would deny the application.  That would be $20,123.00 a year for you and your wife.  If you had someone that would be willing to be a sponsor that could help if your income filing is less than that.

[Martin]

I am with Willy...I would take China over Mexico anytime.  But then again, it seems to be open season on Canadians down in Mexico.

Your description of going shopping is rather depressing.  I hope you can get your immigration fixed so you can return to the USA...or maybe you can take a holiday.

[Willy The Londoner]

Yes Gerry I forgot you speak with an north American accent.  I can understand what you say/  But with my pure English English then they know I have no money anyway so do not waste their time.   

There again we do not buy very much packaged food.  We basically live on fresh items from the nearby farm shop.   Shopping is done daily.

The only meat meat we have is pork which the night before was happy as a pig in sh-t but today is an item in the butchers slab..  I must admit I have moved my wife away from buying from the butcher with the heavily blood stained plywood cutting board to one with a good stone slab.

The fish is straight from the aquarium and into the pan.

If you want to buy pseudo western food then you are not going to get quality. Not many Chinese would buy these items so they are pretty safe  with turning in poor quality.  But let them try selling dodgy basic foods to a Chinese woman with any age behind her.

Our eggs come direct from her sisters mini farm.    Baby milk is not for me but the bullet in the head sorted out the main leaders in that matter which occurred just as I first arrived here.

Any Chinese housewife knows what is good and what is bad and I know it is often the price that attracts some to buy the lesser items but with the money we put into the household coiffers there should be no reason for our women to go for the cheaper versions.

I only ever shop on my own for small items at my trusted computer shop, I would not think of going to buy any other items without a Chinese Back Up.

Willy

[Pineau]

 After 18 months my patience is wearing very thin. Maybe I do need a break.   Where is there a nice relaxing place that will let a Chinese woman have a holiday VISA?

But if I take a break this mess will be waiting for me when I get back.

[Willy The Londoner]

I would say Thailand.

A few go from here to there.

At least when you get back it may not seem quite so bad. Plus it will give you a chance to look at Thailand as a possible alternate.

Willy

[David E]

Gerry

Sorry about the problems, I cant offer any advice....we have a different Immigration system, but we have similar constraints vis-a-vis income. I guess the Beaurocrats can only see that you have a nett negative income...they dont care how it is made up of positive cash-flow minus negative asset gearing !!!

I guess a Lawyer is your best next bet.

Thailand is OK for Chinese Tourists, they dont need a visa, can get "visa-on-arrival" at the airport. I recommend Phuket as a lovely place to go (dont be put off by that  Aussie Tourist who was stabbed to death last week...it has never happened before and likely will not happen again).

Do you do all your own shopping ?...I know when I was in China (severaltimes) I would not dream of doing it, I left it all to Ming and I think it would be hard to cheat her, and most Chinese women for that matter. But there again, we never shopped for Western foods, I stuck with Chinese food for the duration. Maybe as a "shopping Lao wei" you are a prime target

[Pineau]

Thailand was great. I was there for two weeks last year. But being part of a tour group we were on the go from dawn to dusk to make sure we saw everything. It was fun but not very relaxing.

I want to go to a beach somewhere and sit under an umbrella, listen to the waves and stare at the blue water through the gaps between my toes.

[Arnold]

I want to go to a beach somewhere and sit under an umbrella, listen to the waves and stare at the blue water through the gaps between my toes.

Don't forget the Corona's and some Lime!

[JamesM.Roberts]

Gerry -We need to talk but I do not want to do it in the open forum-Please PM me at your convenience

[maxx]

Phucket is on a island it is nothing but sand and water.Pattaya sets on the beach.It is more then a little on the sleazy side.Quinqdao,Shenzhen,Hong Kong,Zhongshan,Zhuhai,Are all coastel cities in China.They all have beaches.Handan in the south of China.Is a island.

[David E]

Phucket is on a island it is nothing but sand and water.Pattaya sets on the beach.It is more then a little on the sleazy side.Quinqdao,Shenzhen,Hong Kong,Zhongshan,Zhuhai,Are all coastel cities in China.They all have beaches.Handan in the south of China.Is a island.

Yes Maxx....just the right place to sit on a beach under an umbrella and just relax. 

Keep away from Pattaya...all tourists, go a bit North and stay at Laguna, very quiet, very pretty and....very relaxing !!!!

[Pineau]

I will pick one of those places and disappear for a while.

I am going to lay low and keep quiet on the forum until I get a VISA in hand . If I dont I am going to say something I will regret.

[Neil]

I know how frustrating it is Gerry.  A denial is very demoralizing.  I've spent the better part of the last 2 months reassuring my wife that I haven't given up. 

I think you're on the right track, as far as fixing what went wrong with immigration.  You're blessed to have a wonderful wife and the ability to be with her through this.  I'd trade you in a heartbeat.  I think a holiday is exactly what you need.  You'll come back more focused.

Good luck to both of you.

[Willy The Londoner]

I will pick one of those places and disappear for a while.

I am going to lay low and keep quiet on the forum until I get a VISA in hand or throw in the towel. If I dont I am going to say something I will regret.

Good Idea Gerry.

I would also remove the 'throw in the towel' bit. You know immigration people of all countries get access to this and other forums.  You do not want to give them more ammo.

Willy

[Pineau]

 Scanning PDF documents.
I have been having fits getting all the scanned documents to fit into one email to send to the NVC. (if you send the docs in more than one email there is a high probability that the second email will get lost )

 I discovered that my hp scanner and the Epson that my son is using do not do a very good job of compression when preparing a pdf for email. The default settings are some trade-off between size and quality. If your rich just purchase ADOBE ACROBAT X PRO. If you not rich then wait until you have all the documents scanned then download a free copy. You can use it fully functional for 30 days. It has a lot of functions like delete pages, and insert pages among others.
 It takes a bit of brain power to get it setup the way you want but add <Document Processing> to the tools menu and add <optimized scanned PDF documents> to the document processing menu. Using the default setting and the optimize feature I was able to reduce some 5-6 meg files down to 500k. The quality was just slightly reduced.