One Blue and Two Pinks

[Jaseball]

Back in May of 2008 my fiancee received a blue slip at her interview. I knew there was a 95% or greater chance she would get a blue slip, since she had prior Communist party membership and even though she gave up the membership and had not paid dues in some time it wasn't 5+ years ago. At the time I tried to focus on the fact that at least it wasn't a white slip and nobody was trying to say our relationship was fake or some sort of scam.

 

I prepared myself for a long wait. The blue slip said we just had to wait for Administrative Review (AR) and the additional checks. Since she had documented her leaving the party in advance, there was no further evidence being asked for and I just hoped the wait was on the shorter end of 6 months and not something like 1-2+ years.

 

In November of this year we were informed the AR process was finished and the visa was approved! She finally had her pink slip and it was the fastest I had seen a Communist blue slip get resolved.

 

That was a great feeling and I started to plan out my trip to pick her up, meet extended relatives, host a banquet, and get my fiancee ready to finally come back here.

 

Left in early December and flew into HK and took the bus to GUZ. Got there Tuesday afternoon. My fiancee went a day early to go to the consulate on a Monday and she was given the standard post office pickup slip and everything looked good to go.

 

On Thursday we find out she had something waiting at the post office, so we head out early in the morning, get a waiting number, and wait our turn.

 

I see several people with the larger paper Fed Ex style envelopes walk out. I knew it had to be a larger envelope for good news because of the large brown envelope needed at the time of POE.

 

When it was her turn I walked around, happy our 1.5+ year long wait was coming to a pleasant end. I had read on the papers she had been given that in 'rare,' circumstances a visa could still be delayed or even denied at this point, but we had gone through AR and she had additional security checks, so everything should be kosher.

 

Well, she comes out of the small postal pick up room with her passport in a clear plastic bag and a note saying her fingerprints needed to be processed again and no visa could be issued.

 

Of course it was Thursday and they only process fingerprints Mon-Wed, which meant we were expected to spend Thursday-Sunday day and night in GUZ, go in on Monday and then wait until Wed or Thursday again before going to the post office.

 

Anyone else feel that was complete and utter BS? How can you get to an interview without clear fingerprints? If you get a blue slip like we did, how can you pass the additional security checks without clear fingerprints?

 

Also, who plans to spend 2 weeks in GUZ sitting on their butts waiting? People with jobs, vacation days, financial restraints, other obligations, etc., just don't have the freedom to piss away full weeks of time, especially after over 1.5 years of waiting.

 

It completely blew my mind. We walked back to the consulate. I hate how the Chinese workers there treat people differently when they see a US passport. They have this crap attitude and power trip when dealing with people who are seeking visas, but that drops off when they see US citizens there.

 

They didn't even let my fiancee in, but I went into the left hand side for US citizen services.

 

Now, on the sign it says that you need an appointment and that only certain situations are emergencies, such as someone dying while out of the country, terrorist threats, health issues, or other life and death sorts of problems.

 

I ignored that, went through the security screening and went into the non-immigration side and took a number. After 5 minutes I noticed there was an emergency window and went there.

 

The first woman was Chinese. I had my fiancee's passport, her blue slip, her pink slip, my passport, the mail pick up slip, and the fingerprint notice.

 

She tried to brush me off and said I should go to the immigration side, which would have been useless as we all know. She said my issues were not emergencies. I told her maybe it wasn't an emergency for her, but it was for me and to get me a supervisor.

 

The supervisor was an American girl. We chatted a bit and I explained our long wait, how I didn't see how the fingerprints could be an issue, and how we had been in GUZ for almost a week already and waiting until Monday for fingerprints would mean we would be stuck for almost two weeks there and it would ruin our plans.

 

She said she understood, but asked if I had read the notice about visas still being delayed or even denied and not making travel plans until visa was in hand. I told her I did read everything, but given the circumstances I doubt anyone who had waited for 1.5 years and been through this experience would think even further delays were possible.

 

The woman's name was Trish and she said she would check to see if anything could be done. She copied the fingerprint notice, talked to some folks, and in the end we were scheduled for fingerprints that afternoon and didn't have to wait until Monday.

 

This meant we could get that part finished and actually leave GUZ instead of waiting 4 days until Monday.

 

It also meant we had to fly back to GUZ to pick up the visa and burn our time and spend extra $$$ on flights and lodging we shouldn't have had to as well as cut other more pleasant areas of our trip short, but that is how it goes.

 

The rest of our trip was also an adventure. We visited about 8 different cities in China. We had 9 different takeoffs/landing, took 2 trains, public bus, tour bus, double decker bus, 1 long ship ride, 1 ferry ride, private car, countless taxis, minivans, and SUV's.

 

I hated carrying around cash, our passports, her medical papers, her brown entry envelope, jewelry, etc., and was constantly paranoid of thieves or bag snatchers, but at the same time I didn't trust leaving anything in hotel rooms.

 

Filled up 8GB worth of memories and thankfully my girl is now back here with me and we celebrated her first XMas and tonight we get to celebrate her first New Years.

[Randy W]

More cruelty from GUZ. That is WAY too much in the way of playing with people's lives.

 

Good job on your part.

 

Congratulations!

[DongDong]

Finally , Jaseball

 

Congratulations... and Excellent News about bringing her home

 

Have a great New Year!

[Missingyou]

Bringing your lady home is all that matter. Nice work on getting her in for fp w/out having to wait for few extra days in GUZ. Cheering for you!