Forum	Title	Content	Member	Sex	Country	Date/Time
China	Expedited Passport return?	Doubtful.  The only way to get it any faster would be to select the Guangzhou or other city's same day pickup once it's delivered location.  It took us over 2 weeks to get the passport back even though we selected the same day pickup location in my Fiancee's hometown. It lists these same day pickup locations on the ustraveldocs site when you select a pickup location.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-10 12:53:00
China	Interview scheduled... how screwed are we?	Best of luck to you!	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-10 15:37:00
China	Interview scheduled... how screwed are we?	If you think you have enough documentation, bring more!  It's all up to the VO to decide, and not having enough with put your case into AP and cause delays.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-10 13:26:00
China	Interview scheduled... how screwed are we?	Guangzhou allows cosponsors for K-1.  You just need to make sure you have a ton of documentation for your co-sponsors finances to prove they are 125% or more above poverty line.  I've heard several cases of people not having enough financial documentation for co-sponsors.  I'm sure Darnell or someone else on here can provide more specifics.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-10 12:51:00
China	P3 Question	Took our case about 10 days from when it left NVC to when we got p3.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-11 15:40:00
China	we canceled K1-visa interview date - how do we reschedule?	The slots are all full I'm sure, have your Fiancee check out some K-1 QQ groups.  That's how we got her interview booked a few months ago.  They tend to release appointments first thing in the morning China time on a Monday.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-14 11:07:00
China	How do you fit so much information on such a small line?	Leave the line blank and print out the completed form without that line. Print out what text you want to put on that line in really small font.  Cut out that text and paste it into the line.  Copy the form with the text pasted to it.  I had to do this for the G325A in the initial submission since the address line was way too small.  I ended up putting 2 lines worth of small text to include the full address.  Pain in the ###, but it worked without any trouble.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-15 16:25:00
China	My wife thinks that the person at the document intake will ask her many questions	Sorry I didn't understand what you meant.  No, my wife was never asked questions during document intake before the interview.  Only about 12 questions during the interview part, nothing during document intake. Tell your wife to relax she has nothing to worry about if everything is legit with the paperwork and your relationship proof.       Maybe I didn't word my original question clearly:   My wife thinks that on the day of her "real" interview - during the document intake that occurs in the morning, prior to the real interview - the person receiving the documents will ask my wife questions - Interview-type questions.  And the document-intake person will then pass on his/her impressions of my wife's answers to the person who will do the "real" interview later in the day.   My question is: Is this indeed what the document-intake person does?	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-19 14:14:00
China	My wife thinks that the person at the document intake will ask her many questions	Yes, they do a pre-interview check for criminal record, etc well before document intake, not on the day of document intake or interview.  Usually if you documented enough before the interview with the original submission she won't have any problems.  My wife's interview was fairly easy, the questions seemed to change after the first few questions when the VO realized that it was real and no lies.  Read my consulate review for more details on that. There's no fees to pay in the consulate.  You paid the fee on the website before it let you book the appointment. My wife's interview they never asked for any original documents.  They only asked for the DS- documents that you have to fill out for the interview listed on P4 and my affidavit of support with tax returns.  They didn't even ask for any additional proof or pictures.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-19 00:55:00
China	Got our P4 on 10/20/2013, Questions on interview/medical exam	This was our experience as well. Had to wait for hours after lunch time for the medical, but well worth it.   Show up at the medical place in guangzhou 8 in the morning, get the medical done. If the medical is done early enough in the morning, you can pick up the report sameday in the afternoon.   We went 8 in the morning, got the medical and vac done at around 9:30. We left the building and got breakfast, and then walked around the area, got lunch, and rested for a bit in a restaurant, and went to pick up the report in the afternoon.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-23 01:36:00
China	Tidbits on the new GZ consulate	Yes, we needed the P4 letter, not the scheduled appointment letter.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-28 11:09:00
China	Tidbits on the new GZ consulate	That was us that had the issues at the medical needing a copy of P4 when they said they needed the "appointment letter."  I still don't understand how "appointment letter" means P4 when it doesn't even include the appointment, just how to schedule one, lol.  The prices were absolutely ridiculous but just wanted to get it done and over with.  My lady wasn't happy either. There's a western food restaurant that's pretty good right next to the print shop, about a half block away from the consulate next to the medical place.  They hardly speak any english.  I was unable to order by myself!   Just a couple of take aways from our interview this week. A few weeks ago, someone mentioned that they needed to copy the P4 email at the last minute. They found a little print shop just around the corner that was convenient and grossly overpriced. We found ourselves in that same shop. The wife walked out when she heard the prices. We found another place a few blocks away. The wife was happy not to get "cheated" and when she's happy I'm happy. It's at the wuyangcun subway stop on line 5, one stop away from the consulate. But it's a short walk and you don't need the subway if you have time. Ph# 020-37570559. qq:2720168748. If you like traditional Chinese food and you're staying near the consulate, you're in a world of hurt. We found one good place, but I lost the name. From the consulate, go west on Huali Rd from the consulate, two blocks past the starbucks you'll hit a dead end/ freeway. Pretty much directly across the freeway is one big restaurant. The overpass is to the right. You can follow these directions to the print shop too. It's pretty much dead at the bottom of the pedestrian overpass on the other side.  Tip number 3. If you want more real GZ cuisine, take the subway Line 5 two stops from Zhujiang New Town to Yangji and transfer to Line 1. Then 7 stops to Changshou Rd. There's a food street with a couple of restaurants and a lot of little shops. The little street runs into a pedestrian street with more restaurants. That's what I found in a couple of days. Maybe some of you know other good GZ restaurants etc. I tried to find the alleged GZ Consulate page on VJ, but couldn't.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-09 12:50:00
China	Connecting through Vancouver using a K1	LA customs can be a nightmare to go through.  Just a fair warning if you decide to go through LAX expect delays in getting through customs.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-30 13:29:00
China	Could this be the p4 package?	Print that out and bring it with you to the medical exam and interview.  This is the "appointment letter" even though it doesn't have your appointment time on it, lol.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-11-01 11:54:00
China	CGI CITIC Bank and Guangzhou Embassy relationship	Well Said, well said! Their website was a complete joke for me, too, Darnell. The old system never seemed to have these sort of issues from what I heard. CGI/S isn't just failing with us state department contracts....     ~Moved from US Embassy and Consulate Discussion to China Regional Forum~ ~Commentary is country/consulate-specific~   (organizer hat off)   Ever since CGI Stanley got into the thick of things at Guangzhou, it has resulted in only tales of disconnects, disjoints, poor service, no service!   To OP: I sincerely hope that all works out to your satisfaction.   Good luck.   YMMV.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-11-12 17:30:00
China	P3 documents	Considering how the appointment booking process is basically a lottery, this doesn't surprise me at all!     Due to the enormous amount of complaints the consulate received about the CGI mess, the documents are being sent directly to the embassy again, skipping the process of dropping off at the CITIC bank branches.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-09-09 09:23:00
China	P3 documents	Weird!  I've heard like a month ago that they were going through CGIS for p3 return.  I bet some do it through CGIS and others still through the consulate.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-09-06 18:01:00
China	P3 documents	This was the same P3 that my Fiancee received this past June, but I believe it's changed to not include the Consulate's address since everything that I've seen posted in the last couple of months goes through CGI Stanley first. Shame, really.  CGIS delays the process by from what I can tell is around 2 months.  P3 to P4 for us was less than 3 weeks. I really hope they get their act together and get their backlog sorted out. The fact that my fiancee had to wait over 4 weeks to get her passport back really makes the consulate and the US in general look like we don't know what we're doing when they told us 2 weeks after the interview.       That is all you submit for the P3, for the interview you have to take a lot more:     http://photos.state....on GSS 2013.pdf	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-09-06 15:11:00
China	Visa approved !	Post a consulate review to help others.   http://www.visajourn....php?cnty=China	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-11-27 13:30:00
China	Bizarre, bad interview experience...	Thanks for the correction.     What the Consulate instructions actually say is:   (3) from all countries where the applicant has resided for at least one year,	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-11-14 17:57:00
China	Bizarre, bad interview experience...	Sorry, but just wanted to share my experience with police certificates.  My wife lived in Singapore for about 7 years and was required to get a police certificate, but the VO didn't even ask for it during the interview.  I believe it's 6 months or less you don't need one if you stayed in a country. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.     My girlfriend lived in Norway and then again in Austria for right around 6 months each.  We were not required to provide a police certificate for either location.  I wouldn't worry, cat_lovers.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-11-14 16:42:00
China	Resume Needed?	They asked for my Fiancee's and asked some follow-up questions off of her resume.  Depends on the VO like everything else.  Have it regardless, it's easy and better safe than sorry.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-09-13 14:15:00
China	K1 Online Payment Success in China for Embassy Fee!	Be prepared to wait hours just for them to get the medical results sealed envelope back to you in the afternoon.  Ugh, longest 2 hours of my life...	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-01-22 12:01:00
China	Number to call for the consulate	Calling is the way to go.  They never even bothered to reply to 3 of my 6 emails that I sent GUZ last year.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-01-24 14:10:00
China	Average Passport return time	Our interview was back in August.  We didn't get the passport back until September 6th if I remember right.  Check my timeline for my info.  Figure at least a month to get the passport back.  If you want it back sooner specify the return location to one of the 3 locations on the CGIS site that you book the appointment on.  It'll be returned about a week quicker if you select one of those main hub banks.  Hope this helps.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-01-24 14:07:00
China	Help!!!	Yep, what the above poster said.  Looks normal to me!  Best of luck! Edited by Daveykins, 11 February 2014 - 01:09 AM.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-11 01:09:00
China	Evidence for interview	As long as he has some photos it shouldn't be an issue. Good luck!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-13 16:18:00
China	guangzhou IV unit interview question	It's all done on one day now, fingerprinted, document submission and interview is all within an hour or two at the scheduled time through the CGI stanley site.  I'm sure it's still a mess though on the website as it was back last July.  Good luck!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-13 14:09:00
China	Thinking about K1 for Chinese girlfriend	Yes, I agree with the previous post.  If you have a bon-a-fide relationship you have nothing to worry about.  USCIS can be a pain in the US and it's even worse when your case gets to GUZ.  It's a total mess right now, and there's no signs that it's going to be fixed any time soon if at all.  I think they intentionally make it more difficult than it needs to be to weed out fraud from the beginning. But, it's only a minor issue in the end.  Waiting almost a month after the interview for my wife's passport to be returned to her with the visa in it was agony!  If you have front loaded everything and follow the guide on VJ for k-1 visa applicants, then you should be alright.  Please don't hire a lawyer, just follow the guides and do it yourself.  The lawyer just adds a third party that's really unnecessary. If you have any questions with the paperwork before you submit I'm sure it's been asked and you can search for your answer with the google search thing at the top of each page on VJ.  Came in super handy throughout our entire process. Best of luck!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-13 16:03:00
China	Latest	You got me started, sorry. Don't expect to hear much back from GUZ if you email them.  Their response time for me is only 50% that they actually reply to my inquiries.  Or, if they do reply, it's very basic at best and they don't even answer the question.  Very frusturating to say the least.  So glad I never have to deal with that bs ever again!   Ya, sorry, you walked into the sh|t.   And it's been like that for some time. I did write a bit about contacting CGI/Stanley, getting a human sitting in Guangzhou, and how busted their email inquiry system was (do not get me started, I'll burst a vessel)   CGI/Stanley is a Canadien consortium, another unit of CGI is responsible for the ObamaCare website, and another (CGI/Force) for passport appointment registrations in the USA.   Slacktards, the lot of them.   I do emphathize (sp?) with your plight - IMO it's a boondoggle , but there's a reason Guangzhou has the largest staff of Fraud Prevention Officers in the world (not the USA) attached to the IV Unit.   Just be thankful this isn't a 2 day-slog anymore - it used to be day 1 was the 'drop off paperwork' day, with day 2 being the actual interview.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-14 16:12:00
China	Latest	Hey, 3 months is really really good for any visa case!  Ours took 10+ months... Your story sounds very similar to ours scheduling an interview.  It's a complete mess and utter joke on the "scheduling" site where it's basically a lottery system and pray you're feeling lucky to get the date that you want.  My wife had to join the QQ group 6 to even manage to actually see any interview slots as they filled up in 5 minutes for the entire month of last August. Good luck at the interview!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-13 16:16:00
China	Approved! How long to receive passport?	Ours took about a month to get back in August, 2013. 2-3 weeks is a good guess.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-02-21 16:42:00
China	Looking for advice	You cannot go with her to the interview, but you can be outside for support. There are many on here including A&B above that were there for thier fiancee's interview.   I was also there for support at my wife's interview last August.  As was rawlsca, but I don't think he posts on here anymore.   It was priceless for me to be there waiting outside at the starbucks around the corner.  The trip paid for itself knowing immediately that she passed just by seeing her in the distance walking back.  Gave her my passport with the EoR lengthwise that I notorized at US citizen services the day before.  Also gave me a chance to see the process as you walk right past the IV unit interview windows on the way out from US citizen services!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-03-14 17:15:00
China	Passport Tracking after approval	Took us over a month to receive the passport back too.  You're not alone in despising the process, lol.	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-16 22:43:00
China	Passport Tracking after approval	The email tracking thing just randomly stopped working about a week after the interview.  Never worked again for us, lol.   updates ------ DoS Hotline Human - the last update we show on your case, the email inquiry you sent via the WebForm was reviewed and logged [no answer to it, though]   ustraveldocs website- Passport has been received from the consular section, and is currently being processed for delivery   ustraveldocs email - There is no status update available for the passport number submitted. --- So, some movement ! YAY !	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-11 15:11:00
China	Passport Tracking after approval	My fiancee's passport did the same thing.  It was stuck on AP on the CEAC tracking until after the interview, then changed to "ready" for a couple of days and then back to AP for a few more days and then finally changed to issued. The traveldocs site never really changed, it was on status unavailable for weeks after the interview, but when I called the number it'd always say still with post.  It changed to "processing for delivery" or something like that for weeks, and then it changed to "ready for pickup" a day after she picked it up and then finally "passport picked up" like 2 days after that, lol.  It's a huge mess...	Daveykins	Male	China	2013-10-11 14:16:00
China	K1 Guangzhou journey most recent (visa approved)	Good point.  Hopefully it's been working better for other couples as well lately, too.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-04-09 20:45:00
China	K1 Guangzhou journey most recent (visa approved)	Congrats!  Sounds very similar to my wife and I's experience through the whole grueling process last year.  Glad it's over with now as I'm sure you are, too. A note about the interview scheduling on US travel docs site.  It's a complete joke, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  You were being much too nice about it makes no sense when they release new appointments! Your significant other in China will have to join a QQ group to have any chance of getting slots.  The only way we were able to book an appointment was to find a K-1 visa qq group (QQ team 6 if I remember right) and the ladies in the group take turns checking at specific times every hour each morning China time and when 1 sees slots open they let everyone else know.  It's a pain in the ###!  Also, they limit how many times you can check every day so have to be careful of that as well.  Ugh, thinking about it again is just getting me irritated!	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-03-13 16:50:00
China	Time to Get Passport Back After Interview	I wouldn't count on it being back by the 22nd.  Ours took several weeks last October 2013, almost a month in fact to get back.  If you have it sent to the same day return CITIC bank locations listed on the ustraveldocs site it MIGHT be back within a few days but I wouldn't count on it.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-05-06 11:43:00
China	China Tourist Visa	The last time I applied for a visitor visa last year, all I had to show was a hotel reservation email confirmation.  I then promptly cancelled that reservation and booked a hotel my wife wanted to book instead, lol.	Daveykins	Male	China	2014-06-19 16:07:00