Jerry & xiaomin

Oh, thanks Mike... Reminds me I have to update my signature timeline!

Hi, Thank you for posting this detailed story, it is both encouraging and intimidating at the same time. May I ask, was the passport supposed to be copied ahead of time, or is this something that is only done at the interview? Thanks! Apparently she was suppose to have copies of her Passport ahead of time, but nothing that we could find says this... Go figure ay?

Hi, Thank you for posting this detailed story, it is both encouraging and intimidating at the same time. May I ask, was the passport supposed to be copied ahead of time, or is this something that is only done at the interview? -- MAKE THE COPY OF YOUR PASSPORT AHEAD OF THE TIME! HELL, MAKE 2 COPIES. Thanks!

OMG!!! I asked xiaomin to write her "Interview Story" for posting on CFL... Who'd of known that she would write an actual story? LOL -- It's long, but provides a great insight to those who've not yet made that journey... [and she tries to tell me that she can't write! pfffft...] D-Day [xiaomin¡¯s Visa Interview Story - 20 July, 2009 ¨C U.S. Consulate, Guangzhou, China] Honestly, looking back to July 20th, the longest day of my life (though the actual interview lasted barely 6 to 8 minutes) is the last thing I desired, especially now that the day is history, regardless of the result. Recalling that dreadful day is so much of an emotional disturbance to me that at the end of the day, I was totally physically exhausted, emotionally drained. But, as much as I want to scrub the memory of July 20th (at least the All-Mighty Queen BS part!) from my mind, I also have this irresistible desire to tell it to whoever cares to listen, so I'm not alone walking through every step there, so you'd know at least one thing about me, that I'm not a drama queen. Jerry woke me up at 5:30 in my morning, saying, sounding upbeat as he always has, ¡°Honey, it's time to get up, and get this whole thing done and over with!¡± That pep-talk definitely served as a motive to get me to drag my worn butt outta bed at this bank-robbing hour. Dear God please let it be over! Pink, Blue or White, I DO want to end this once and for all, after some 200 days of running around town, between bureaus, ... fighting, begging for my certificates, ... waiting in the dark wondering where my papers had been stashed ... trying to call, getting nowhere/nobody but a nice voice from an answering machine, ... pressing numbers ... finding that I had somehow gotten sucked into a black hole ... finally throwing my hands up in the air! Not to mention those hours of sitting our asses at a computer; printing, printing ... and more printing ... I'VE HAD ENOUGH! Well, it turned out NOT to be over yet. It doesn't matter how thick Jerry sugar-coated it ¨C ¡°A PINK with a side dish of BLUE¡± -- the fact is that, I finally crawled my way to the end of the tunnel where a streak of bright light shinning, bathing my face! But, I can not move any steps further toward it. Again, the Chinese Government managed to screw up my life for me. As a going-away-present? I PRAY FOR THAT! It must have been nearly 6:30am (if not even earlier) when we arrived there, feeling kinda stupid ¡®cuz I thought we must be the very first arrivals. NOPE! The lines were already constructed by dozens of people, and stretching out with newly arriving Morning-Birds. To the end, I was amazed at the length, or the size of the crowd. Of course then I was also very thankful to my friend, Mei, who'd given me this wise advice ¡­ "to get there much, much earlier than the Interview time given on the Appointment Letter". And I thought she was crazy! Then it started drizzling, and very quickly turned into raining, on and off during the whole good hour while hundreds of people standing in front of the Consulate building, firm and still. Holding our breath, while trying hard to hold on to an umbrella in an ass-to-front queue. Í·¿É¶Ï£¬Ñª¿ÉÁ÷£¬Î»Öò»¿É¶ª (translation: ¡°Hold on to MY place in the line at any cost!¡±) ... At one point I was secretly praying for hail or a shaker, just so to pleasure my perverted-desire to see what's gonna happen next. Just 5 minutes before the Consular Officer started to check passports, letting us in, it poured! But everyone survived no casualty occurrences. YEAH£¡(Now I understood why we were labeled by the U.S Government as 'Immigrants & Fugitives', very accurate indeed, for it certainly looked like a herd of fugitives to me.) In between, I got into chatting with a young woman behind me, telling her that one of my colleagues is still working after her retirement, and so does her husband. Her reason? 'We must send our only son to study in America, and we are spending our retirement money, but that's what we want for our son, and that¡¯s what our son wants too.' The old man before me turned his head, obviously overhearing me, and said, 'Your friend is lucky, she can send her son to America, not Europe, ... otherwise, no chance to even try to stay there, they will do everything to make them leave as soon as the kids finish their studies. What's the point of spending all of our blood-covered money if the kids can¡¯t stay there?' After we went through the security check we finally moved into this big hall with some one-hundred chairs lined-up in front of a line of windows. I dragged all my luggage (12lbs of docs and evidence) to the end of the hall, but very quickly realized that wasn't a good idea, ¡®cuz I couldn't make out what names that guy was calling in his putonghua [translation: ¡°Native Language¡±, i.e. Mandarin] MOVE! Luckily I found a great seat, right in front of the windows. Now we wait. 'LUO XIAOMIN FROM SICHUAN ¡­ WINDOW 21!' (I should be thrilled right? But why the hell did I feel like I was in a prison on ¡°Family Visit Day¡±?) This is where I met the All-Mighty Queen. I was hit with a nasty surprise after I handed over all the required documents, the Chinese Officer wanted the copy of my passport, and she gave me a weird look when I stammered, "... I don't have a copy ... It wasn't required on the Interview Instructions, to which I followed to the letter.' Jerry had taught me to just say 'Yes Sir/Ma'am' or 'No Sir/Ma'm', and 'Solly Shir, Solly Mdan!' ... Maybe I should have listened to him for a change. Then it was a downhill ride from that point on. A nastier surprise followed. 'Your Police Certificate is not acceptable.' -- 'Why?' -- 'It was issued by the Police Sub-station £¨ÅɳöËù£©. ' D'UH?! -- Ok, be calm girl! You can not afford to have an enemy here. 'Where was it supposed to be issued then? ... Please?' 'The Notary Office.' Now, how do I present my plea with just 'Yes Sir/Ma'am or 'No Sir/Ma'am', and 'Solly Shir, Solly Madan' ? To hell with it! I'm not gonna swallow this, whatever it is that she's playing with me. I mustered all my guts, 'Are you sure? How can a notary office issue a Police Certificate, or any certificate for that matter? What rights does it have to possess such power? ... And again, I was never instructed as to where and how to get one of these, actually I wish I had been blessed with such direction, so I wouldn't have been made into a football, and got kicked back and forth between those departments ...' 'It's just not what we want.' With that 'explanation', my Police Certificate was thrown out of the window back into my hands. And needless to say I didn't get the answer to my question. But hey, at least I did manage SOMETHING, to make an enemy in no time. The shit just kept coming ... When she asked for the financial papers, I had to struggle with my luggage to dig it out because Jerry had them stuffed into the Miscellaneous book, along with the Tax-return Records and such, which I did take out to submit. So I didn't exactly follow that instruction to letter after all, and I paid for this crime dearly. She rolled her eyes, jotted something on a slip and flipped it over to me, 'Go out for your passport copy, and come back to this window along with the right papers, I don't have time for your paper-hunt! ... And don't lose that paper, or you can't come back.' -- YES MADAN! It took me a great deal of effort and time to pack everything back, and check around making sure nothing was left out. Then I made a bald move. I asked the All-Mighty Queen, and a guard too, whether I could leave my stuff under their watch, for just few minutes, so I could 'travel light'? The answer was of course a flat 'NO.' ... But the message in the tone was loud & clear -- "What the hell were you thinking?" ... Right, What the hell was I thinking? WELLY WELLY SOLLY MADAN! WELLY WELLY SOLLY SHIR! I'M GONE! This whole episode cost me more than half hour though there was some hawks waiting right down there one floor lower, to 'serve' me. Now I'm back!!! Here's everything you asked. Thank you. 'Ok now, you wait for your turn. List carefully to Your LUN.' 'Excuse me, what?' -- What did I miss? 'The LUNBER, I give you.' 'No you didn't.' 'Yes, I did.' NO! YOU DIDN'T! YES I DID! NO! YES! ... 'Go to Window 30!' I went, wracking my brain trying to remember, and to come up with some explanation for the officer at Window 30, should I go into details or just say that I didn't get a number, and she said I had? ... Well, no explanation was needed, for sitting there at the Window 30 was the same All-Mighty Queen. And again we did this Yes-No jigsaw spat. Suddenly it hit me. 'Was it on the paper you gave me to get back in? Didn't I just hand it back to you. And that was the only paper you gave me.' 'LO LO LO! Another paper, very small. I told you don't lose it.' 'Then, can you please tell me what number that was assigned to me?' 'How can I remember so many numbers?' 'Don't you keep one identical number on my file, so they can call me? 'More eye rolling, but, '... Ok, I'm gonna give you another number. Don't lose it again.' I kept my mouth shut. And that was the last time I saw that Queen that day. I must have done SOMETHING good in my life. Gone with the All-Mighty Queen was the Dark-Age in my interview process. Now back to waiting. But It was moving along smoothly. And at the finger-prints collection, the middle-aged lady seemed like an angel compare to the Queen I just had. Then everybody was called standing up to take the oath! You don't have to ask any questions to figure out how everyone's interview went, the results were written all over their faces! And the pass rate was shockingly high, 80% PINK to say the least. But that didn't do any good to lift the heavy cloud cast in my heart. Lucky somehow my case was arranged almost to the end, that Queen's job for sure, but it worked out just perfectly for me. Because it gave me time to observe, and I found out that the VOs, 5 guys and 1 girl, are all very polite, patient, and seem to be pretty fair. So I determined to try my best to stretch my interview to the max, I must find a way to present my Police Certificate, I was determined not to let that All-Mighty Queen blow this chance for me. And I did it! The VO I got, I was blessed with, it was that angel girl, who spoke the worst Chinese, I'd noticed that. So I must have played well on her, by surprising her with my English, the relief in her tone could not be disguised. I don't blame her, I'd be frustrated too if I had to speak a language I knew 20 words of, or had to try to understand their perfect Chin-glish all morning. (This is one thing that puzzled me, why the hell would the American Government allow anyone to get into their country without the ability to communicate? Haven't they imported enough English/Chin-glish-speaking rats already?) How I miss that few minutes of my Interview. I had a great lousy, shitty day until that moment. It was a whirlwind, but I believe that the conversation, and interaction that took place between a VO and her interviewee had reached an up-close and personal level beyond my wildest dreams. When I asked the lady, 'Anything else you need me to provide?' She smiled, 'Your fianc¨¦¡¯s name for starters?' ... And we both laughed, not hysterically, not loud enough to catch some attention, I'm sure. And Jerry's expired drivers-license was stuffed in the pile, she picked it up and asked if he was there to, I said no but he so wanted to be, if only he could squeeze the trip in to his schedule to fit his 'fultime-job, single daddy' life. She asked some questions like when, where and how we met, the times Jerry visited me, reviewed our scant number of photos, didn't ask any questions about that though, checked a few of our emails. After my answers, she asked 'U Neverous?" I said, 'How can I not be Ma'am, it's nerve-wracking already this case itself, and I had a problem with my Police Certificate, notarized, but the Chinese staff there told me it wasn't acceptable. ... Can you please take a look at it, and give me some ... advice?' 'I'm sorry, but it's not my job to deal with the papers.' Then she was looking at a card (or something of that sort), I tried my best to stretch my neck, and could make it out that was a report of the paperwork-review, and I saw 3 X¡¯s on it. She spoke again, 'And there's some other problems with your documents too, the Single Certificate. ...' I was ready for this, 'Ma'am, I am not married, ever. But please let me explain, you have no idea how many departments I'd run to get this paper, and I did question about the legitimacy of my Single Certificate, but the Marriage Registration Office said that their company (can you believe what they called their Government department, or organization? a company?) was founded on July 13th, 2007, and their computer data can only go back to that period, that¡¯s why they could only prove my marriage record to that period. I even signed a personal statement of my single status, but they wouldn't budge, said this is how it would be issued, take it or leave it. ... It¡¯s just hard for us, just like my Police Certificate. ' That was when she decided to take a look at my Police Certificate, and sent a Chinese staff to the Window 30, 'Ask them what's wrong with this, please.' Off she went, I was worried that nothing would change with that Queen serving at that last window. But there was nothing I could do. 'Ma'am, I can also show you another proof of my single status, the notarized document of my Household Registration Book, my hukou, in which the box of my marriage status is also blank.' She read it, and then asked for my personal statement, I had a hard time to dig it out, but she waited patiently. ... Then the Chinese Staff came back, and asked me in Chinese if I'd ever been abroad, I said no, she said then Your Police Certificate is good. I went on explaining, but the Lady said it's ok now, you don¡¯t have to do more explaining. I just wish that Queen was there to hear this. The Lady then asked the Chinese Staff if my notarized single certificate was also ok, the answer was that they want the original, not the copy. The VO accepted my argument of my single status, she said, 'Everything looks good to me, so I'm gonna approve your visa, but you must provide the original certificate before I can issue you your visa. But, don¡¯t you worry, you passed the interview, so, that's a good thing right?' While I was still there, discussing about which way to provide the missing doc, 'do you prefer to mail it or walk it in?', I tried to discuss my options with her, explaining the complicity due to my position here in this town as an outsider, would they accept a notarized document from the local authority, she said, 'I'm sorry, I can't help you there, because there's some legality issue here which will be decided according to the law in China. ... But hey, don't worry, it's just few more days of delay, your visa is approved. So it's not all bad right?' I just couldn't believe that I could be SO lucky to meet 2 women whose action, behavior and attitude had such great impact on my day, the first part of the Interview was like a long journey leading to hell, in which you couldn't help asking, 'What's next?', ... and in the second part, that sweet lady just lifted me from the bottom of the pit, and put me on the top of the world. Even though I still face some problems to re-gain the missing document, I cant express my gratitude to that nice lady. I wanted so much to ask her name, but of course I didn't. There's a line you don't cross. This story may come out sounding like I'm accusing the American government of being unreasonable, putting us through a horrible experience in the process. But it certainly is not my intention to accuse the American government of anything. If anything, they are not keeping the door closed enough to stop the flood. I'm still shocked at the approval rate. 80% of hundreds of applicants (most of them don't speak one word of English) got PINK, in one day alone, from one consulate alone. Do some math yourself, then you'd know what I'm talking about. P.S. How could I forget about a very crucial part of my interview¡­ Right before the VO approved my visa, she asked me, 'Do you love him? You DO love him right?' I answered, 'OF COURSE!', I couldn't hid the glow on my face. We both laughed again. Then she asked, 'Why?' "¡­ because he loves me in a way that nobody ever has, and nobody ever could."

I guess it would also be called a non-married certificate. She got two originals from the notary. One was... ummm.... misappropriated [i'll let her explain that as I'm not 100% sure what happened] and the other she sent to me. I'm UPS'ing it back and she's going to be trying the notary of the copy too. But all-in-all we're okay, or going to be soon. Whew. The battle is winding down, last skirmish is over, now we're just cleaning up the bodies! get 4 originals Hindsight now, but hopefully someone else can benefit from the advice. Thanks :-)

I guess it would also be called a non-married certificate. She got two originals from the notary. One was... ummm.... misappropriated [i'll let her explain that as I'm not 100% sure what happened] and the other she sent to me. I'm UPS'ing it back and she's going to be trying the notary of the copy too. But all-in-all we're okay, or going to be soon. Whew. The battle is winding down, last skirmish is over, now we're just cleaning up the bodies!

xiaomin passed her Interview yesterday. They were very impressed with her English and documentation / proof-of-relationship. They would have issued her a PINK right there and then but she only had a copy of her Single Certificate and they needed her original [or maybe a certified copy] We should have this taken care of in a few days. They approved her Visa and actually kept her Passport, so we got a PINK with a small side dish of BLUE! She won't make it here for our July 25th target date, but is sure to hit our next window of August 8th. I'll let her post her experience, but I'm soooo proud of her. She's amazing! I'm happy! Thanks Everyone, we'll be around helping others, and keeping everyone posted on our together-life!

Thanks for sharing Scott. Excellent feedback and questions..... OMG! I've collected so many posts and clips of information to email to xiaomin! Like she has time to read with less then a week to go before her interview. I hate it that the ball is entirely in her court now, I feel so helpless! She's chargin' like a mad bull though, passed her medical with flying colors [i keep telling her she has the body of a 25 year old, now I have proof! LOL] and she paid her Visa fee, and has everything collected and organized, a ride to the consulate lined up, forms filled out. She's as ready as ready can be! Thanks everyone for this information. We're counting on a pink, but expecting a blue [just to be prepared to avoid a mental devastation] but knowing that it's possible to recover from a blue, on-the-spot, is amazingly encouraging. Thank you, thank you, thank you. [God, do I sound nervous? And I'm all the way in California! LOL]

$131 DOLLARS? In American cash? = [Ôª896 Yuan] -Or- Ôª131 Yuan = [$19.15] $131 US Dollars or the equivalent in RMB (Ôª896 Yuan) The CITIC bank near the consulate knows what to charge. Oh, great Thank You!

$131 DOLLARS? In American cash? = [Ôª896 Yuan] -Or- Ôª131 Yuan = [$19.15]

Thank you peoples .. That seems easy! OMG! She could be here in 32 DAYS! I gotta clean house!

Hi all, We've got everything on the P-4 Letter collected or figured out with the exception of... NIV Application Fee Receipt ... that she's suppose to bring to her Interview. Unless she didn't scan and send me a form, there doesn't seem to be any reference of where to pay this fee, when to pay it, or how much it is. Help?

I'm just curious, why, out of all the countries, China?

Good luck to us all. Who all's making the trip to be there for our SO's moral support [or in my case ... immoral support!] ???

You got it my friend. You've been a wealth of information and an inspiration through this whole process. We won't forget.

Okay, so I lied, obviously they don't just schedule Interview Dates at the beginning of the month [actually someone else lied to me!] but I saw other's dates being assigned today so I called too... July 20th, 2009 @ 7:15AM I called her at 3:00AM her time, woke her up and said "Honey? We have LIFT OFF, are you packed yet?" LOL -- She won't be going back to sleep! I'd love to be able to go and be with her, and maybe I can swing it... We'll talk about it and see. WOOOO HOOOOOO - It does seem like it's been a long stretch, but when we first started this process we were looking at a much longer timeline! I am soooo ready for her.

ROFL -- And I thought I had this nick name for my Lao Po coined! Oh well, since she's 10 years younger then I am, I can't say "old" but the rest of it fits!

I see on VJ there are a number of us waiting to get into GUZ. My thinking is that we all have 'small packages" so we get in at the same time. But only twice a month are the schedules made. Why do people always have to call DOS since the schedule is done in GUZ? small ~ 5lb SMALL PACKAGES??? Speak for yourself! LOL -- Actually, what are you talking about?

We're in the same boat here. xiaomin became qualified on June 5th for an Interview Date, but a very nice lady that I spoke with at DOS [sarah] told me that they only schedule Interview dates ONCE a month at the beginning of the month and my fianc¨¦e just missed the batch of assigned dates so she'll be scheduled in the beginning of July. Sigh, the closer it gets the slower time goes [damn Einstein anyway!] Oh, Sarah was even personable enough that she asked me how to pronounce xiaomin's name! That was nice for a Government agency. I got some guy a few days back that was real snotty... If anybody gets scheduled toward the end of June, post so I can start calling again. xiaomin has a ways to travel to get to GUZ now [not to mention a whole slew of going-away-dinners to attend!] so every day's advance notice is critical.

Thank you so much Sebastian [and Pommey] xiaomin will be relieved to know this [as soon as I give her, her 7am wake up call!] she'll have no problem in getting to the "big boss" -- She's not letting anyone or anything get in her way. From her description of her attempt to get what she needs, she did talk to some desk flunky that just told her "nope, sorry, you can't get there from here" type of thing! She'll do okay with your encouragement and advice. Thank you so much... Yes, we seem to be moving along at lightening speed. I'm sure that some entity KNOWS how much we need to be together.

[/b] PLEASE I need help with these documents desparately: 1. 'Birth Certificate': 出生证明 Right? But what I got was called in Chinese, 户籍证明，which with no information of my parents, such as names, marriage proof etc, but oddly enough was approved by the USISC. Now in the visa instruction papers I received from GUZ Consolar Office, the Birth Ceritficate was definied as a certificate that including date and place of birth, AND my parents names. Where to get it? Here are the places I was sent to: 民政局 the Bureau of Civil of Affair 公安局（户籍处）the Bureau of Public Security ( the Household Register Department) 派出所 The Police Sub-station 街道办事处 The Street Committees / the Community Committees？ 2. 'Police Certificate': 警方证明 Where to get it? Again, here's a list of the choices: 公安局 the Bureau of Public Security 派出所 the Police Sub-station 街道办事处 the Street Committees / the Community Committees The Police Station told me that because I'd been away from my hometown for decades, I should go to those cities' police station(s) for such certificate during whatever time while I was there, and I've worked (so lived) in more than 3 provinces in China, does this mean that I have to go to every single one of them? I thought that the local authrities would defenitely be notified if I had ever been charged or convicted of any crimial charge. PLEASE HELPL!!! I'm at the dead end.

OH LORD! I'm happy this is something of an issue, and kinda hope they'd ask me that question, then I'd go, "OH LORD! I WANT TO BE ANYTHING BUT ... THAT THING!" Careful Honey -- Remember what I told you about badmouthing the CCP, at least until you get here and I can hide you in my trunk... I mean... ummmm.... until you have some freedom of speech!

OH LORD! I'm happy this is something of an issue, and kinda hope they'd ask me that question, then I'd go, "OH LORD! I WANT TO BE ANYTHING BUT ... THAT THING!"

Thank you so much, Sebastian, I'm flattered. One thing I want to share with you is that this dragging process and endless helpless waiting surely is killing us, but oddly enough, I dont hold any grouch against the United States Goveronment, even if to the end I dont get a visa. Because I certainly understand the reason and the necessity of this tight control measure. Otherwise, your country would be flooded with ... you know what. -- (something undesired, something you'd call a plague). Well, there's a funny story about 'the plague' One of the US presidents (Nixon maybe?) went over to china to speak with the Big Man (Mao?) and during the conversation - whilst talking of trade, it was mentioned there were millions of extra women in China, and how happy the leader would be , if he could somehow export them to the USA, and could the US President help him out? Whilst in hindsight, the 'view' was funny, it was really interesting to think about - the US would be much different these days... Have you thought of what type of mop to bring over ?? MOP? I'm lost! Is this an "inside joke"? [or should I say an "outside joke"?]

Thank you so much, Sebastian, I'm flattered. One thing I want to share with you is that this dragging process and endless helpless waiting surely is killing us, but oddly enough, I dont hold any grouch against the United States Goveronment, even if to the end I dont get a visa. Because I certainly understand the reason and the necessity of this tight control measure. Otherwise, your country would be flooded with ... you know what. -- (something undesired, something you'd call a plague).