I wanted to respond to wolf about a statement made above. The US Gov't. has more than 'one small consulate' in China. The embassy is in Beijing, and there are consulates in Shenyang, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. All of the consulates, and of course the embassy, issue visas for Chinese citizens wanting to visit USA. However, all immigrant visas are issued at the consulate in Guangzhou. As far as the '3000 per month' I really can't say much about that, except to say that in 2002 there were only about 2250 fiance visas issued in mainland china. This is published in the 2002 Immigration Yearbook, which is the most current issue. When you account for the other types of visa, and the inevitable number of denials, I suppose the number of 3000 per month isn't totally unbelievable, but I would like to see the source of that information because the number does seem a bit high to me. I know that there are many other types of visa, but I do have difficulty with the number '3000 per month'. Do you have a source for this information? The primary reason for delay in issuing visas is the time required for performing all of the checks required. As we have seen here on CFL recently there has been discussion of visa fraud. It seems that the US Government has two main problems, terrorism and fraud, and the visa approval process attempts to counter both of them. I don't like the delay and administrative bureaucracy any more than you do, but I do try to understand what our government is trying to achieve. You know that your fiancee isn't a terrorist or a visa fraud, but the visa office doesn't! Is our government efficient? No Way! Is our government fairly and equitably handling all visa requests? No Way! Do the visa officers capriciously deny applications? It seems so. Am I willing to put up with all of the US and Chinese government bureaucracy to have my fiancee with me? ABSOLUTELY! It's worth ten times the hassle and delay!