American w/ Mainland Chinese wife

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  1. #21

    Talking

    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    It is my understanding that if your wife from the mainland has lived outside of China for a year, then there is no problem to get a dependent visa.
    Not sure where you get that understanding from. My wife has never left china for more than 2 months, as she could only get tourist visa's to HK before - which means her status wouldn't come under the 1yr loophole ruling.

    Please understand the rules have changed recently - the rule you're talking about is from 5 years ago.

    Some of these rules are probably hushed changes in law to accommodate complaints from foreign migrants without angering locals - since permanent residents aren't allowed to have their wives life/work here from china. I can't pretend to know why, but I know what is.

    FYI I applied for the visa in HK, not europe/us or some distant land

  2. #22

    Have you tried getting your wife US citizenship? I have dual citizenship with US & UK. It took me about 9 months to get. I wasn't going to go for it as I was worried about losing my UK citizenship but after 9/11 (I needed to secure all our finances for our children if anything happened to my husband) I looked into it more and found that I didn't have to lose my UK citizenship. It was just a thought, as your wife could then apply for a visa as a US citizen instead. I don't know the legalities for Chinese dual citizenship... but just a thought.


  3. #23

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Posts
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rorshack:
    Not sure where you get that understanding from. My wife has never left china for more than 2 months, as she could only get tourist visa's to HK before - which means her status wouldn't come under the 1yr loophole ruling.

    Please understand the rules have changed recently - the rule you're talking about is from 5 years ago.
    I can tell you that this is the way it is handled right now on standard inquiry at the immigration department.

    She has to take residence for at least one year overseas and apply from there. This is because Chinese mainlanders with _residence_ in the mainland are excluded from the normal dependants procedures.

    Exceptions to come directly would be to apply under the investment scheme or talent scheme. But since you are talking about dependant visa that can't be it.

    What type of visa did you apply for her? What you are saying sounds much easier than what they used to do.
    Last edited by 100LL; 29-04-2008 at 10:39 AM.