We are back in China after our holiday trip in America. I was planning on writing a post about reverse culture shock, but I had to scrap that idea because I didn’t feel any reverse culture shock. Being in the states was like getting back on a bicycle. I felt like no time had passed at all.

It’s probably because of the internet. Not only am I up to date on all the American news, I even know what hair style is popular among young i-bankers who want to be conservative during the day but still look stupid at night.

Faux-hawk anyone?

So instead of reverse culture shock, I have a story to tell about traveling a long distance with a young child. Here is my advice to parents: always bring your child’s birth certificate when going overseas. You never know when you might need it.

Soon after we arrived in the U.S. we started the process of procuring a visa for Artemis so that she could get back into China. Josh and I didn’t need visas since we had permanent resident’s cards, but all Artemis had was a passport and an exit visa. We called a travel agent in Chinatown to find out how to expedite the process. Just like anyone else, Artemis would need a valid passport. As a child under ten, she would also need her birth certificate. There is also a rule that says people born in China need to present their last Chinese passport to make sure they aren’t agitators.

Artemis never had a Chinese passport. She has a Chinese birth certificate and a Report of Birth Abroad issued by the State Department. Both documents were sitting in our bedroom in China.

I had to coordinate between two sets of friends in my attempt to get the documents. The G family shares an ayi with us, and the ayi had keys to our apartment. The W family has a scanner. They got into our apartment, found the documents, scanned them and e-mailed us the images. We printed them in color, and hoped that it would be enough for the Chinese consulate.

We didn’t know until the last minute whether the images would be enough or whether the consulate would insist on seeing originals. Even so, I was remarkably unstressed by the process. Even if Artemis were denied a visa nothing bad was going to happen. Josh would return to China alone, FedEx the documents, then Artemis and I would join him after we got the visa. We would have had to stay in the U.S. for an extra week or two. Artemis’s Grandma would be ecstatic.

In the end, though, the pdf images of the documents were enough and Artemis got her visa. The three of us made the return trip as a family.