Peter&Miao

Regarding "Also, not sure of the context or your definition of them "paying attention to it" ??? ", perhaps they are "paying attention to it" after the periods in DHL mail sacks in the customs and consulate warehouses are completed, and an employee sets eyes on the paperwork, and takes the first action on the case? Having, all too belatedly, followed your suggestion to read through the various visa type, time lines in the Circling Guz forum, and (oh, the shame of it) admittedly not having submitted to computer analysis, the durations subtended by subtracting the NVC OUT column from the P-3 column, it looks like "4-6 months" was a pretty fair estimate. I beg leave to gratify you by noting that this is positively the last contribution I will make to these forums. However, before leaving, sir, may I suggest that you check the dictionary on the meanings of the words "infer" and "imply" since, regretfully, you appear to me among those people that cain't rightly tell the difference.

Regarding really since when ?, perhaps I should only speak of my own case. So my answer is since my case. That case was sent from NVC on Nov 15th, 2007. Since the consulate's background check on my spouse was completed on Dec 8th, 2008, it seems fair to assume that the case arrived within 3-4 weeks.

If I may attempt a direct answer (and I am no lawyer/expert!), it should not generally take 12 weeks, but only 3-4 weeks (or less), between the case leaving NVC and arriving at the consulate. For them to pay attention to it, and notify you about the interview seems currently about 4-6 months, assuming there are no complications. If you grow impatient, you can try emailing the consulate from their website. However, my experience was that despite the drivel about 5-7 business days, they will totally ignore you until your case is noticed and becomes active. Wasting 54 RMB on calling the Visa Unit likely won't do you much good either. If they know anything much more than you do, they don't seem to share it. Good luck, Henry. Talking about this just gets me worked up again. I think that if you take 000's of $$ from people, and offer the kind of "customer service" these folks offer, you ought to be put out of business, somehow. Yes, 9/11 was awful, and relations between the governments may not always be the most cordial, but it shouldn't be an excuse to subject people to the arrogance and mystery that surrounds this consulate.

Just wanted to thank everyone so much for their kind words. I am astonished by this outpouring! I am guessing many on this site are like me - a bit traumatized by the strange experience of applying to hidden strangers, for permission actually to live with our wives or fiancees, in our own countries. We spend so long (I registered the I-130 with USCIS in Nov 2006), jumping so many hoops, and seeming to have so little control over our own fates ¨C it¡¯s maybe no wonder there¡¯s such an emotional outpouring when the whole frustrating, draining process is over. I admit there have been times I have wondered which was the free country. I¡¯ve been in China 10 separate times since 2004, when we met, to see Miao. At no time, did the Chinese authorities make any difficulty for us, granting and extending the visa. In 2006, I even went to live in China with my new wife and daughter. I have to admit that neither the company I work for in the USA, nor even I, could hack it at that time, and I came home after 3 months. But, my point is that I could have stayed forever as far as the Chinese were concerned. I couldn¡¯t even get a visitor-visa for Miao, before we were married, let alone after ¨C the Yankees just said ¡°no¡±. On reflection, it¡¯s not that it¡¯s taken so long that I mind. It¡¯s that the USA treats us as distantly and arrogantly as is possible, given that it is supposed to be operating within a framework of law. Getting information about case status is often unwarrantably hard. P.S. How do I get our picture to appear on the left-hand side of posts like all you old-hands' beautiful pics do? I uploaded the pic to our new profile...thanks.

Dear tsap_seui, Of course, I also found I couldn't contact these clowns. It seems the GzC only responds to email when they consider your GUZ case # "active". Apart from everything else said so far, you might TRY calling the Washington Visa Unit on 202-663-1225, then press 1-4-3-0 in quick succession, you will reach an operator eventually. The point is that this unit seems to be able to see the entire case notes. They can see internal and external notes that GzC may have made. Whether the WVU is going to share with you, who knows, but if you start out quiet and polite, chances are good they will tell you a lot you didn't know. A longer way round is to go to your Congressman's office, and have one of the clerks email to GzC. I found that my congress office had private email addresses for each consulate, and that he got a reply (it took 7-10 days, despite the 3-day promise) where I could not. Wish you all the luck you haven't had so far.

For others who follow us, it might be worthwhile setting out our particular experience with this wretched Guangzhou consulate (GzC, hereinafter). First, though, a little background. On October 15th, 2007, the NVC stated it was (at last) sending the cases of my wife and our daughter (by her first marriage, of course) to the GzC. They welshed on that, though, and there followed a harrowing month of Administrative Review, as unwelcome as it was unexplained. Between mid-November, when the cases were actually sent, and mid-March, when we were notified that the interview was set for April 9th, the GzC was a black box to us. Emails went totally unanswered, despite drivel on the site about ¡°5-7 business days¡±. Paying 54 RMB for 12 minutes of banter with the Visa Unit was a waste of money and time, as the employees who answer are apparently taught only one English phrase: ¡°I don¡¯t know¡±. Calling the Washington Visa Unit, in January, helped a bit, because they told me that the Admin Review had been a Name Check, and that my wife¡¯s background check had come up clean on December 8th. (Tip: call 202-663-1225, then press 1-4-3-0 in quick succession, each time the voice starts yapping, and you will then be told how long it should be before a gov employee will come on the line, much as with NVC). I have no idea what part, if any, the intervention of my Congressman, who wrote emails to the GzC, or my own increasingly irritated emails to them, played in the timing. We put in a big documentation effort for the interview. After waiting over 4 hours inside the building, my wife and daughter seemed to do very well at the interview. The docs seemed to have done the trick, because it was all smiles and banter, and within 10 minutes, my dear charges found themselves outside the door with a pink paper in hand. It told them to wait 2 days for the passports to be returned, with the visas stamped After 2 days, in which we were all ecstatic, and much liaising with the postman, the passports were duly delivered. No visas. Only a piece of blue paper, with 221(g) checked, and no demand for new documentation. We slumped again into the same anxious, semi-depressed state we had been in before. My calls to the WVU elicited only the information that it was a Name Check. The computer had intervened, right before the visa-printing process. Not expecting any joy, I wrote another clenched-teeth email to GzC. To my amazement, they answered in 2 days, the first time I had ever heard from them. ¡°We are calling your beneficiary in again.¡± So, having trekked across China once again, my wife showed up at the GzC, on Tuesday April 22nd at 2.00pm, as instructed. Again, the passports were taken, and she was told to wait 2 days for the miracle to occur. Back she came on the Thursday, this time having elected to pick up at the consulate you ju (Post Office). Without any word of explanation, she and all the others were given a pink paper (our second, then), which told them to go away again for another 2 days. Since she had now been told to return on a Saturday, my confidence that she would get even the passports back, let alone with visas, was not that high. After another excruciating 2 days, she went in, and ¨C mirabile dictu ¨C the passports were there and visas stamped in them. Believe me, I well know that our luck was infinitely greater than that of the poor devils on this forum, whose emotional lives remain forfeit to the whims of this government agency, and for whom I grieve and wince inside ( because I sense the injustice done to them, and can almost feel their suffering).