Hello all,
I don't post here much, but thought I'd give an update to my situation. We just had our interview at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou on 8/19/13. Still waiting for the actual visa to arrive. It was rather uneventful. Lasted all of 5 minutes. We were scheduled for 9:30 AM and she was out by 10. She was only asked a few questions; How we met, how long we have known each other, how we communicate. Interview was done in Chinese. She speaks little English. Her 17 year old son, who is also coming to the U.S., was not asked anything. He was very happy about that as he was very nervous. He tries not to show it, I am learning. He hides behind his smile and "Yes, I know." He said, "Only hello, thank you, goodbye, ha ha."
It took 14 hours to fly Detroit to Shanghai, and due to weather, 14 hours to fly Shanghai to Guangzhou. Had to land elsewhere, and sit. My wife could not get any info at the airport about what had happened to our flight. Answer she typically got was "not my job." The medical center in Beijing that does exams (closer to her home) said they could not give results in less than a month, so we arrived in Guangzhou 5 days early. Had the medical exam and innoculations there in Guangzhou. They gave us the required documents the same day. A friend of a friend hooked us up with Victory the Residence Hotel. I believe it is an apartment building, but they rented us a place for a week. $47 U.S. a night. Full kitchen, balcony, living room, 2 beds. One queen size bed in a loft upstairs. Nice. Much larger than hotel/motel rooms. The landlord even walked us the 3 blocks to the Consulate and showed us the appropriate line to get in. I tried to book a room at a place suggested by RoberttS, but, as I am learning, my wife is the boss. And she will take advice from a Chinese person over an American anytime, ha ha.
We prepared our own documents, mostly. I did have some very good help from RoberttS. He pointed out a few mistakes and helped me to understand everything that was needed, prepared some doc's for us. Thanks Robert. Any Yanks need help or advice, I'd highly recommend Robert (issoga.com). He's knowledgeable, affordable, and competent. Judging by the length of my wife's interview, everything must have been in good order. We had emailed our documents to NVC. We had plenty of photos together and with family from both of my previous trips, with date stamps. Wedding photos. We had receipts from all the places that we visited, ate, etc. Boarding passes. We included excerpts from QQ chats with screen snapshots. I gave her my passport to take in to the interview. The only thing the interview officer wanted to see in the package we brought was the new I-864 and my tax returns. One thing I will say, bring some sun screen! It was hot, hot, hot. And humid. It's been rather cool at home. I didn't think about that. Finally found some sun screen in a cosmetics store.
When we returned to my wife's home in Shenyang, the family treated me like their long lost brother. Really a great bunch of people. My wife and I had a few misunderstandings, due to the electronic translator. Not that you guys don't already know this, but learn Mandarin! Learn it well. There were a couple times when I thought our relationship was in real trouble. The translator that we originally used at ChinaLove (Leona) has become a good friend of ours. We visited her, her husband, and their new baby at their home. She was instrumental in smoothing out the bumps. I don't know how the rest of you "fix" these misunderstandings, but Leona has been indispensable to us. Leona also enlightened me that a Chinese woman will react quite harshly to perceived shortcomings in my character, but she will always love me and do what is best for the relationship, after a day or two, ha ha. I have found this to be true.
I guess they don't get a lot of foreigners in Shenyang. I got a lot of stares. We went to the square in the city center at night. An 8 year old boy that was quite fluent in English stopped me to practice his English. Soon, there was a crowd of 40 or 50 around us. The Chinese seem quite curious about foreigners, there lifestyle. I also saw this when we went to visit Dalian. People on the train would come over and ask questions; where do you live, what is your job, how many children do you have, do you drive a Lincoln? (really). Also saw this around town in Dalian. Quite unnerving at first. But all were quite friendly. Wish I could walk around our American cities at night.
Now we wait for the visa and passport. Now, the adventure begins in earnest.
Kevin
