ShenZhen

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It has now been one month since we moved to ShenZhen from Beijing.

For me, it has been a relaxing month. Yes, we are still unpacking and organizing the house. I expect this will take a long time, as we never fully unpacked over the 4 years we were in ShunYi district of Beijing. Yes, our bedrooms are smaller. Our living room is bigger, and we have a beautiful view.

ShenZhen is what’s considered a New city. it started growing out of a village in the 80s. So in a way, I am older than this city. There is a ton of nature here. Lots of parks, lots of trees, and grass. Even the overpasses here have flower gardens built into them. the flowers and bushes hang down from the overpasses.

The city is smaller than Beijing, which is great, as we can get around better here. We have not explored much of the city yet. We have learned about the different regions by friends, adverts and videos in the display panels of the elevator in the building we live in. My wife and I have had to run around the city a bit. So we do have a bit of an idea. We look forward to exploring more, but in our own time.

One of the things I like about the city is, and this may just be me, but Life here doesn’t feel rushed. Yes it is a city, and is aiming to become a global city, but the general feel of life is much more relaxed. While there was some places in Beijing that you could relax at, the overall feeling of the city was claustrophobic to me. Most parts of the city were densely packed, and the looming buildings could be overwhelming. Most people were nice, but the sheer number of people pressing against you could be overwhelming. In the streets here, I have breathing space.

As an Autistic living here in ShenZhen, so far, my mind is at ease. My family and I can be quite particular with food, there are restaurants with cuisine from around the world, helping us with that. My Smell sensitivity used to force me to use only the “Premier” cars in the ride-hailing app (DiDi), here even regular Taxis are scent free, and easy to breathe in. The ocean is nearby, If I want to walk there and just listen to the waves. We have this beautiful view of the city framed by mountains from our house. I sometimes just go out to the balcony and stare. So far, I have not felt overwhelmed by the population density, or crowds. The malls we have gone to so far have not been too loud, or too scented.

Life is good in ShenZhen.

19 Years – Update

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So, after the events that lead to last week’s post, thing have changed.

On our end, we kept trying to find ways to get My wife’s paperwork sped up from the Philippine side. However, due to the typhoons (plural) that hit the country recently, certain government offices were flooded, and closed. (or the area nearby was inaccessible, I’m not sure). So getting a rushed paper copy of the paperwork was quoted as 4~6 weeks to arrive.

We looked into an E-Apostille. And ordered one. 2 problems came up from that. Apparently China doesn’t accept E-Apostilles, which sucks. The other problem is the method in which an E-Apostille is made. One Government office prints up our paperwork, authenticates it and then MAILS the papers to the Apostille. The Apostille Office then has to scan it, and create the digital apostle form. The Apostille Office doesn’t trust digital copies sent from the government? And then this falls into the whole Manila is flooded problem.

The HR representative from my company had been working on ways to extend my wife’s visa. They were handling this from the China side. She was more successful. We discovered that there is a specialty Immigration office on the far side of the city. This office deals with non standard applications, or problem solving. My wife had an interview with them yesterday. They agreed to extend her current visa 30 days.

So now we have 30 days to finish getting the paperwork.

This morning, My son received our marriage certificate from the government. But it was not Apostilled. And the next available appointment to get an Apostille was end of August. We called the government (again) this morning. They helped us order an Apostilled Marriage Certificate without an appointment. It should be available this week.

So at this point, we seem to be on the way to finally getting my wife a spousal visa. She will finally be legally recognized as family in China, after 19 years.

In 19 years, nobody said a word.

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19 years ago, I got married. At the time I was working in South Korea. When I got married, Korea told me that my marriage certificate would not be acceptable for 6 months. Basically I would have to leave my new wife in the Philippines for half a year. I was not ok with that. China, at that time said it was ok. We could come together and work here.

I must have told people that story 100 times over the last 19 years. We applied for our visas in the Chinese embassy in Manila, Philippines. We got the visas. and we came over. 19 years ago, The embassy gave me and my wife visiting visas. The company I was going to work at fixed our visas in country. I now had a work Visa. For 19 years, I thought My wife had a spousal visa. She did not. She had a “Personal Business Visa.”

19 years.

When we moved to Beijing, 18 years ago, nobody batted an eye. They transferred our visas to Beijing and said nothing. Nobody thought it strange that my wife didn’t have a spousal visa. We invited her family to visit using what we thought was her dependence visa as proof of relation. Nobody wanted to do the paperwork to fix that. and worst of all, nobody said anything. Her “Personal Business Visa,” somehow connected her to me closely enough that we could invite her family under my visa? Not once, but 3 or 4 times. No questions asked.

I moved through 3 companies in Beijing, nobody said anything. The HR departments all just looked at it and shrugged, then extended the visa. Why would they question it, if she had been using it for so long.

We moved to Shen Zhen recently. They cannot transfer my visa down like I did when I moved from Haerbin to Beijing 18 years ago. Maybe the policy changed, maybe one or more of my old companies bent the law. I don’t know. So my new company is filing for completely new visas. Work, and spousal.

Great.

But now we need paperwork from the Philippines that we didn’t before to prove our marriage certificate is real.

Ok.

Great.

But nobody seems to know what is needed. We were told to get it translated and notarized. We did that. We got it translated, and then took it to the notary. They re-translated it and stamped that the translation was accurate. Not a Notarization.

Then we were told to get it authenticated at the Philippine Embassy or Consulate. So we headed to GuangZhou, the capital city of this province. We walked into the Philippine Consulate. Nope. They don’t do that.

Now we are told that it has to be apostilled. Which can be done right next to the government building in Manila. Only there.

We have been running around for 2 weeks getting paperwork that didn’t work, wasting money. The Notary was the first person in 19 years to mention that my wife’s visa was not a spousal visa. Itw was not a dependent visa. This shocked me.

For the record, up until 2 years ago, the translation and notary was what was needed. But 2 years ago China joined the Hague Convention. An international agreement that says only apostilles are needed from governments and no longer translations, authentications and notarization.

Good to know for the future, but apparently most people here didn’t know that. Including the Philippine government website… Their Consulate knew it, but the Consular website did not.

What does this all mean. There is a very good chance, my wife will have to leave the country next week. Just before I start work. She will have to wait until my paperwork is processed on August 5th, then start her processing from the Philippines. Most likely, she will be able to return mid to late September, if she has to go. We are exploring all options right now.

I am not blaming. The last 3 schools probably just assumed I knew. But, damn it sucks. Nobody in 19 years happened to mention, “Hey your kids are dependents, but your wife isn’t.”