How we got the visa...

[Magnus1977]

OK... last I wrote I asked about the call in letter. Couple people wrote and said make it a 5 day vacation to Guangzhou...

 

We didn't listen. We should have. But honestly we couldn't. My wife and I are both working in Shanghai and couldn't get away. But our call in letter had a date on it that we wanted to avoid, it said if you can get here before October 13... so we wanted to get there before 10/13.

 

We took a train Sunday night September 21st and got to Guangzhou monday morning. We took a taxi to the consulate. We shouldn't have... the Guangzhou DONG train station (Guangzhou EAST) is a hop skip and a jump from the consulate. Thankfully we had an honest taxi driver.

 

WE got in line at about 1:30pm. I decided that as an American I also wanted to know what was going on so I stood in line to ask some questions to a consular official. So my wife stood in line... I stood in line. WE all pretty much went to the same room. The lines were excruciating long...and wait was painful. But we got in. The side for US citizens was disorganized and completely inefficient. Kind of sad. But as a matter of fact my wife got out of her interview first.

 

The result was...at this point no guarantees..but that we had to return the next day to see if we got the visa. I said we couldn't. I already had train tickets to return to Shanghai THAT NIGHT! I had to teach, my wife had work the next day. We were told, û°ì·¨£¡ "NOTHING WE CAN DO!"

 

The key is, if it's important to you... you'll be here. AAAAAAAUGH.

So my wife went down to ask some questions to those "we'll send you your visa when it comes to us" type companies on the first floor. I waited for my number to be called on the CITIZEN side. I was called. I talked to a guy. I said, we HAVE to come get the visa? He said yes. I said you guys can't send it to us? He said no. I said, well the only time I'll be able to come pick it up is on Monday September 29th... I think I saw that you were open then... right? He said yes. He also said that he would add a note to my wife's visa... saying that the visa IF SHE GETS IT shouldn't go to the CHINA POST...that the husband will come to get it personally at the consulate.

 

I thought that was the best we could do because I don't want my wife coming to Guangzhou all by herself.

 

So we made phone calls. We informed people that we weren't coming back to Shanghai until Wednesday sometime... we figured we had no choice but to stay and go back the next day, same place, same lines, same time.

 

IKEA is right next door to the consulate... a great place to blow off steam, eat a cheap meal and just get lost in your thoughts and think.

 

We also got our train tickets switched to Wednesday night.

 

So my wife went Tuesday September 22nd to the consulate again. This time I had no interest in waiting in line.

 

My wife took about an hour. Found out that she would get the visa. and go to the China post. The China post would send it to us. Great! IN Shanghai? No, only in Guangdong province. That's not helpful. Nothing we can do. (They said that a lot.) The China post lady was apparently really nasty to my wife... even threatening... at one point she said to her, "do you want your visa or not?" Not a good thing... apparently in all my wife's sweetness she wanted to ask a question... you see, you just follow everyone around like sheep, nobody knows what they are doing... but my wife was going to ask a question... the woman blew up and my wife asked her why she had to be so nasty.

 

Anyway... she got the information... came down to a waiting husband. We found some problems and missing papers... NO PINK PAPER!!! plus the sheet from the China post had other Chinese people's names on it... a group of three people who were getting their visas... all born in the 60s... their names in PINYIN... so strange. We just thought that the woman was so nasty that she must've messed the whole thing up.

we went back to ask...they said no problem... They mentioned that the only thing that was important was that my wife's name was supposed to be there... and it was. we called the China post they said that you just call us on Thursday to find if the visa was there... we came back to Shanghai.

 

WE called Thursday... no visa yet.

 

We called Friday. No visa yet.

 

Then we started freaking out mainly because the question was, was the consular official, the guy I talked to, did he really put that note on her visa? If I go down to GUANGZHOU... would it be in the consulate...? If my wife goes down would it be in the post office? If it's in the post office, according the consular offiicial, then it would be a lot of trouble for me. If it was in the consulate, it would be a lot of trouble for my wife! Friday was really hard... because there were calling cards and faxes and cancelled flight plans... it was nuts. We were trying to determine where the visa was.

 

Saturday came and I was depressed. my wife woke up, after being somewhat cheerful the night before she was now somewhat annoyed. We hung out at home Saturday morning ready to go up to the suburbs to be with her mom and dad and see our SON.

 

Then about 10am... my cell phone rang. It was a Guangzhou number. I answered only to find some one trying to speak English. I gave it to my wife. She talked for a few minutes. The visa has arrived at the post office. HALLELUJAH!

 

She called her friend in the airline ticket company. She got on a flight at about 1pm to Guangzhou minus her husband. About 4:45pm September 27th I got a 38 second phone call before it was cut off due to dying batteries of both our cell phones. But I heard what I needed to hear. "I got it." "YOU GOT IT?" "Yes, I GOT IT." "YOU ARE HOLDING IT IN YOUR HAND RIGHT NOW?" "YEAH." then it started breaking up.

 

About 10:30-11pm that night my wife pulled up in a taxi to our apartment complex. It was over. WE had the visa and her new visa packet.

 

Now, the real adventure begins right? I gotta start reading stuff about PORT OF ENTRY and all that stuff.

[Guest WenDylan]

Congratulations! I would say POE should be easy, since the real hard part is over...

 

can you please PM me with info to fill out for my timeline?

 

THANKS!!

[plim]

wow, sounds like you guys had quite a run. im glad to hear in the end it all worked out, congratulations on the visa!

[IllinoisDave]

Getting here should be a whole lot less hassle than getting that visa. Congrats and best of luck.

[Jing Quan]

Great! A long story but a happy ending.

[usaRichard]

 

The result was...at this point no guarantees..but that we had to return the next day to see if we got the visa.

 

 

You're saying she had her interview and was not given an answer if she passed or not?

 

Richard

[Missingyou]

Wow, so dramatic, but a good ending.... I feel relieved for you two!

[Stepbrow]

Yes! Now it is time to get to work on the next step.