Eric

It all depends on what the workload of the non-immigration visa unit at the embassy/consulate that you want to interview at is like at the time of the call. But generally speaking you are talking about a matter of weeks. When my in-laws got their first set of B-2s, my wife called the visa information center and was able to schedule an interview for them 2 1/2 weeks later - so the lag time isn't too bad. They interviewed in GUZ. One of my wife's friends just received her first B-2 several weeks ago and she was able to get an interview scheduled in GUZ less than 2 weeks from calling.

There is no type of NOA sent out after submitting a DS-160 and you and/or your in-laws will not hear anything else until additional steps are taken. When the DS-160 is submitted electronically a confirmation number for the application is generated which you indicated you have. The next step is to pay the visa application fee at a participating CITIC bank branch and then a visa interview needs to be scheduled by calling the Visa Information Center in Shanghai - all non-immigrant visa interviews (excluding K visas) in mainland China are scheduled through the Visa Information Center regardless of which Embassy/Consulate the interview takes place. You will need the application confirmation number to schedule the interview.

My in-laws are on their second set of B-2s and each time, I have filled out their DS-160 and electronically submitted it for them without any problems. I fill it out, submit it and then email my in-laws the confirmation page which is what they will need to present at their interview. There is a section at the end of the DS-160 which asks if anyone assisted you with completing the application and I have always entered my name & information there.

My mother-in-law received her second B-2 last week by using the visa drop off service - it was a very quick and efficient process. She did not submit any financial or property ownership documentation with her application this time, just the minimum requirements - Passport, DS-160 confirmation page, 1 passport sized photo, receipt for visa fee payment, plus an invitation letter from me. Her passport was received by Guangzhou and the visa was approved and sent back very quickly - her time line was as follows: Monday: Dropped off passport & visa materials at a CITIC bank branch in Xiamen Wednesday: Visa approved/issued by Guangzhou Consulate Thursday: MIL received a text message from GUZ stating that her visa had been approved & was being mailed back to her Friday: Passport/visa delivered via EMS in Xiamen All in all, you could not have asked for better service.

My wife and I traveled back to China this past February when my wife had an expired 2 year green card and she didn't experience any problems at all. We exited China via Xiamen and both the Korean Airlines ticket agent and the Chinese immigration official who we encountered knew exactly what the extension letter was and did not give it a second thought. Good luck and have a great trip!

I flew to China on a Delta 747-400 2 years ago and I have specifically avoided doing so again ever since. Delta inherited their entire 747 fleet from Northwest airlines when they merged and the interiors on those planes were really dated & worn out - economy class did not have personal audio/video systems, instead they were still outfitted with overhead TVs. The good news though is that Delta began retrofitting the interiors of their 747 fleet and the last that I heard was that the retrofitting was scheduled to be completed by the end of this year. So hopefully your flight will be using one of the planes with an updated interior.

I got one of the 24 month multi-entry visas for my son which we used for a trip this past February and I did not have to provide originals of anything except for my son's passport - I sent copies of his birth certificate, my wife & I's marriage certificate, wife's Chinese passport information pages and her green card to the visa service that I used (www.mychinavisa.com). I received his passport & visa back in less than 1 week without any issues. I would not feel comfortable sending originals of all of those items via the mail - it would cause way too many problems if they were to get lost. If the visa service you are planning on using really is requiring the originals to be sent to them then I would use a different service.

My wife and I took our son to China this past January-February for the Spring Festival and he was about 11 months old at the time. I recommend that you call the airline and let them know that you will be traveling with an infant and would like to request a bassinet for the flight. Using one of the bassinets makes a big difference - my son slept in his for most of the flight. The bassinets can only be used on certain bulkhead rows, so they are very limited and need to be reserved well in advance. Before the flight, you can also request an infant meal for your son consisting of either baby food or formula (your choice). As Dan has already mentioned you will need to get your son a passport and you will also need to get him a Chinese visa as well. I was able to get one of the 2 year multi-entry visas for my son without any trouble - just needed to send in a copy of his birth certificate and copies of my wife's Chinese passport information pages and green card with the visa application. We also took a lot of baby food & formula with us - filled up one big suitcase and several carry-ons with it, as my wife does not trust the Chinese brands after the big fiasco with the tainted baby formula that happened a couple of years ago.

My wife is from Xiamen and she has several aunts/uncles/cousins who live in Zhangzhou who we go visit during our trips. She was an English teacher at Xiamen Foreign Language School which has both a Middle School & High School campus in Xiamen and employs 90+ English teachers each school year - including a fair number of foreign teachers. I have met several of the foreign teachers who have worked there over the past several years and each of them were satisfied with their job & employment benefits. You may want to check this school out during your search - however they do require at minimum a Bachelors degree and either a teacher's certification or TESOL/TESL/TEFL certificate.

My in-laws interviewed and received their B-2s from the GUZ consulate. They thought that their interview was easy and also said that pretty much everyone who interviewed for B-2s the same day that they did were also approved. My wife also has several cousins who received B-2s from GUZ without any problems. So based solely upon our family's experiences I would say no.

Yep - I attended ACH back in 2009. Too bad they discontinued it, I found it to be very useful not just for the Fujian question that I had but also because they were able to fix a problem with my birth date being entered into their system incorrectly - the VO that I encountered was very professional & helpful.

IMHO, Fujian = automatic red flag is mostly an urban legend that has been blown way out of proportion via the internet. Like you, I too had read many horror stories about Fujian province causing problems with obtaining a visa whenever I first started to research the visa process for my wife (who is also from Fujian). So I attended ACH before my wife's visa interview and asked a VO about this and he then asked me the following - does your wife (then fiancée) speak English (yes) & what city is she from (Xiamen). His response after hearing my answers was - 'You should be fine'. He then went on to tell me that being from Fujian province doesn't cause any more scrutiny than being from any other province however he did reveal that there are certain 'watch' areas within Fujian that could cause more scrutiny if certain other factors also existed. But he also said that there were these 'watch' areas in all the other provinces as well, not just Fujian. He wouldn't tell me what the 'watch' areas were other than to say that Xiamen was not one of them. My experiences since then, has backed this up in that my wife's K-1 visa was approved after a short 2-3 minute interview and that my wife's parents and several cousins who are all from Fujian have since successfully received tourist visas to the US after very short interviews. My two cents is that the fact that both your ex-wife and your current fiancée were introduced to you by family members and that they are from the same area (no matter what province that may be) in China will be the biggest red flag & obstacle for you to overcome. These two things coupled with the fact that you met your fiancée shortly after your divorce was finalized and then got engaged on your first trip to visit her could cause a VO to be highly suspicious and conclude that the relationship is not bona-fide . I am not saying that such a conclusion would be the right one but just pointing out the possibility.

I was recently able to get the 24 month visa for both myself and my son issued by the Houston Consulate without any problems. I always use China Visa Service Center to get my visas and on their website (www.mychinavisa.com) they do mention that the 24 month visas are not available from the San Francisco Consulate.

We cross at Lo Wu. Basically you get off the HK light rail train, go through the customs station there, then walk out right into to the Shenzhen transportatio center. There you can catch a bus,, a standard rail train, or the high speed train to the Guangzhou train station. I recommend the hish speed train. It's about one hour to Guangzhou at about 110 mph. Another option, which I usually do, is to just take the direct HK-GUZ train which departs out of the Hung Hom station in Kowloon and runs 12 times a day. You go through HK exit customs/immigration at the Hung Hom station and then go through China entry customs/immigration at the Guangzhou East station which usually goes very fast. The train does not stop at the border and the entire trip takes about an hour and 50 minutes. The fare is HKD$190 (~$25US).

The time to submit my wife's paperwork for removal of conditions is fast approaching and I have been gathering up all the necessary documentation/evidence but have a question in regards to children and the I-751. My wife and I have a son who was born in the U.S. after my wife immigrated and is a US citizen - my question is should I list him on Part 5 of the I-751, which is the section about your children. My first thought was to include him on the form as it asks for information of all children but then after looking into things a bit more it seems as maybe only children who also require a removal of conditions should be included on the form. Thoughts? Thanks!