Leaderboard

Here are some mentionable items from our experience: - The health-check place in GZ is north of and immediately across the street from the consulate. Take exit B2 and walk right. Take the entrance to the second large building (the Poly building) and find the elevator in the middle of the bottom floor, adjacent to Mr Bean coffee. The place is on the 5th floor and if you arrive early then you will be waiting in the elevator waiting area. It isn't air conditioned (or at least wasn't at the end of April) and there are no seats. - There are probably going to be a few people that appear to be employees and are sharing information openly with people while waiting in this line/area right by the elevators before the doors to the clinic open and they are freely answering questions. They aren't workers though, they're agents. And, as we found, the information they broadcast isn't accurate most of the time. - Get there early! We arrived at 0715 and were 17th in line. We left at 1000. Save yourself an hour by arriving to wait half an hour earlier; 0645 is probably a good time. The doors to the clinic opened at about 0745. There are plenty of seats to sit and wait inside the clinic. - The fees can be paid in ONLY with UnionPay network cards (Chinese bank cards) or Discover Card (which has a partnership with UnionPay) or cash, my Visa wouldn't work but we used my Discover. - You will only be permitted to accelerate your results and receive them same-day only if your interview is the day after the health check. We did the medical on Monday and were made to wait to pick them up the day before our appointment on Thursday, Wednesday. They wait until the absolute last minute to give you your results, I suspect. - You'll will need to line up and receive a number from a Nurse Ratchet type. Then you wait. When the number is called then you go up to one of the seven registration desks and they register you and check your forms and stuff. Then you are directed to pay (the base fee ~1100 RMB plus the cost for any vaccinations which is around 300 for the whole round). Then you go to vaccination registration which is just across from the cashier to sort out what vaccinations you're gonna get. Then your documents are put into a little stack and then picked up by a nurse who gives the patient a key on a scrunchy and then directed to go to the changing/locker room and change into the provided sweatshirt and sweatpants. Then you wait right outside the locker room and nurses station area and wait for your name to be called by a nurse. You are shuffled from one exam room to another. After the exams, you're directed to go to the vaccination desk again and check in with them, then wait again for a bit until your name is called over a speaker outside the doors of the vaccination rooms. Then vaccinations are given in rapid succession. Then you go out and wait for 30 minutes to check for negative reactions to the vaccines. Then finally your name is called to return back to the vaccination station to pick up your yellow vaccination book. This is your personal vaccination record, this copy isn't given to USCIS/DHS. - By the way, you'll be told to come at 1500 to pick up the medical report results. Show up early, like at 1415 and you'll be in and out way faster. We showed up at 1430 and they were already dishing out the results. We were in and out if the building with our results in under 30 minutes.

A few mentionable things from our consular experience (maybe these are somewhere, but we never came across them in our preparations): X-rays come on a CD now and you aren't permitted to take them past security and they won't let you check them in.I was permitted to get past the fence and wait with my wife in the line that is formed immediately outside of security, but I wasn't allowed to go in through security. It'd be even more crazy crowded, chaotic, and nightmarish if family members were permitted inside the GZ consulate to accompany the applicant inside.Her appointment time was 0745 and she exited the consulate at 0900, in and out in 75 minutesA line for appointments forms outside the fence/gate along it's perimeter, but this line isn't for any specific interview time so don't bother lining up. They'll begin letting people scheduled for 0745 in and the line just devolves into a crowded mess anyway. Your spouse should crowd around the security guards right at the fence entrance or she'll be last in line. Also, people for 0815 are going to get through the fence and wait in line outside security, so your spouse needs to be diligent and push and shove past those people.There are two entrances to the security building, a north side (near subway exit B2) and a south side. Immigrant interviewees need to line up and enter at the south security entrance. It is the same entrance that American Citize Services customers line up and is labeled as such, so look around for ACS American Citizen Services signs and arrows.There were a ton of people that didn't bring their interview appointment confirmation and weren't given a number at document intake, they were just instructed to "go find it" and basically blown off. My wife doesn't even know how they managed to get past security without it. So make double-darn sure your spouse has got that appointment confirmation.The medical report must be opened in front of the intake worker when instructedDocument intake numbers are not called in any order.You cannot use a credit card to pay unless it's in your name, they do check this (luckily I had gotten my spouse her own card attached to my Discover card and she used that to pay)You might not get a slip. And you should explicitly ask if approved, conditionally approved, or denied. As you can read below, VOs can be a little cryptic.The document intake worker only spoke in Chinese, the VO spoke English about 80% of the time.Clammy hands can make the biometrics process take an abnormally long time After security, she went to the third floor (USCIS) and stood in a line for one window, this one window was checking appointment confirmation sheets against applicant passports and also giving out ticket number slips. Applicants were directed to wait in the A-zone for their number to be called, and when called they went up to the window and for document intake. Documents were asked for one at a time. The intake worker was first asked for her passport and appointment confirmation, then to tear open the medical report packet and hand over the contents of the envelope, then she was asked if the two photos submitted with the DS-260 are the newest photos, then she was asked for the birth certificate whitebook, marriage whitebook, criminal history whitebook, and finally financial support documents. My wife asked the intake worker if she needed to submit her resume and the DS-260 confirmation page and the two photos brought as instructed, and then was told no she didn't need to submit them. Afterwards, she was directed by the intake worker to pay the fee on the second floor returnsto the same window to give the intake worker the payment receipt. Then, she was instructed to wait in the B-zone for the interview and was given a domestic violence pamplet to read. Applicants must stare at the screen or listen carefully for the *ding* to watch for their number. At the interview window, fingerprints (biometrics?) were done by the VO. Then the VO reviewed paperwork, financial documents, and the computer while simultaneously taking biometrics and asking interview questions. Here are the interview questions that she was asked and the answers that she gave: Q: So your husband's name is <my name>? A: Yes, my husband's name is <my name>. Q: When is the last time you saw your husband? A: Actually, my husband has been living and working in China for two and a half years and we live together. Then we got married half a year ago. Q: Have you ever been to America? A: No. Q: What is your highest degree? A: A Bachelor's degree of arts. Q: Did you read the home violence pamphlet? A: I've looked at it, but I didn't have time to read it carefully because I was watching the screen for my number VO: Read it. (he was pretty serious about this) Q: What does your husband do? A: He works as an English teacher in a university. Q: Does he make enough to support you guys or do you need someone? A: He has been working in China for two and a half years and he hasn't been working in America for two and a half years, so his dad is our co-sponsor. Q: What does your co-sponsor do? A: He's a <occupation> and he also <secondary occupation responsibility>. Q: So, you are planning to move to America? A: Yes, we plan to move to America this summer if approved. After the round of questions this exchange took place: VO: Alright, looks like you're good to go. Now I won't give you the slip. Wife: Huh? VO: Hui tiao ("slip"), jie sheng zi yuan ("save resources") Wife: Oh VO: Tong guo le ("passed" / "approved") Wife: Thank you VO: Please go online and check the CITIC bank address Wife: About two weeks, I heard? VO: Cha bu duo ("more or less") Wife: Thank you so much. So, I am ready to go? VO: Yes Wife: Thank you so much VO: You're welcome And that was it! Based on this experience, we are assuming she was approved.No additional instructions were given (except to go online to double-check the passport pick-up location), no requests for additional documents were given, and no paper or slip was given. Who knows the real reason why not. Maybe the printer was busted or the VO has watched a documentary on deforestation the night before or something.