H1B工作签证超过六年以后回国的一些零星备注

I-140 approved 以后，可以再申请三年期的工作签证。这次回国以后需要再次去使馆面试，基本过程和之前的都类似，唯一不同的一点，是在DS160表格上，被问到是否有immigration petition的时候，点选【是】，并提供解释。

中信银行网上支付签证费用的过程，第一次设置非常繁琐，非常不友好。必须是本人名字的借记卡，要有国内的手机号，还要上传本人身份证正反面的照片验证。

费用提交以后，面试日期选定确认之前，是可以改变DS160的内容的。我之前因为选择上海领事馆，发现没有合适日期，所以又重新填写了一份新的160表格去预约广州领事馆的面试，然后在预约面试的网站更新上新的160信息确认号码（AA开头的那个号码）就可以了，不需要重新再交一份签证费。

广州领事馆面试的整体体验比上海好很多，首先地方要宽敞多了，无论是排队的地方还是签证大厅内部。这次和夫人一起，但是我们网上预约的时候不是作为一个家庭而是单独约的，只是时间刚好在一起。结果到了签证大厅以后，在面对签证官之前一类类似预审的程序这一步，我们被合在了一起，所以后来排队了真正面试都是两个人一起，估计这样省下来了不少时间。

我们的面试非常简短，我甚至已经忘记了面试官的问题，可能就问了我职位的名字吧。

现在，签证通过了，会给你一个粉红色的纸，大概A4一半大。

Pointless anger

I got angry at her for buying an overpriced Japanese book. And I lost more than that amount from a movie I forgot to attend. Recently I realized that I let myself to be angry, sometimes for an unjustified amount of time, because I simply like the feeling of being angry. It is a subtle and harmful addiction. The anger I feel usually stems from incredibly petty matters. It feeds a sense of righteousness and cultivate self pity, which seems pathetic for a grown man when you dissect the issue.

An interesting day

I celebrated my wife's birthday recently. The celebration was string of events that started with a home-made mother's day brunch. Then on the day of, I made cupcakes. But the execution was a little poor. I complete lack of cupcake making experience resulted in some sagging, incompetent looking cake-like things. Fortunately the taste was passable due to the Greek yogurt and Mascarpone cheese I substituted for the more traditional butter milk.

As for gifts. I thought about giving her a weekend Upstate trip in a lovely bed and breakfast. Then work got in the way and I ran out of time to plan anything thoughtful. So I resort to actual gift. I am so reluctant to spend on physical items - especially less functional, more luxurious items such as jewelry. But it seems like a very safe choice. She got her ear pierced recently, I got a pair of pearl ear studs. How I got the studs was a story by itself.

I got off work early, planning to heading to this boutique on 5th Ave. But the thunder storm came hard on NYC the moment I exited the subway. I briefly entertained the idea of heading home. But emotion took over. I braved into the heavy rain. It got so heavy that I had to find shelter by a construction site. I stayed there for a good 45min to wait out the heaviest part of the storm. Time ticked by until 10mins from store closing. So I ran into the storm again to get my gift. Fortunately the store was still open and I found exactly what I wanted.

The rain hasn't stopped when I exited the NJ Path. So I had to wait for another 15min to wait out the rain. Our dinner plan - eating out in a fancy steak house to celebrate the occasion - was obviously cancelled. So I ordered pick-up from a local restaurant. The rain continued, albeit at a more acceptable intensity - a little more than a drizzle, but far less than a storm.

The restaurant obviously missed my order placed through Seamless. They had to make everything on the spot, which turned out to be the best part. The freshly made pizza-like entre and everything else were fantastic - a reasonable reward for my third run in the rain in that crazy afternoon.

The whole idea of gift giving on birthday is quite absurd by itself. On retrospect, I would prefer to turn every birthday into a series of memorable events and deeply personal experience. Hopefully this past birthday for her qualified. I know it did for me.