USCONGUZ

Dear CFL Members, We noticed a recent posting that incorrectly described how immigrant visa petitioners may attempt to access the Consulate¡¯s office. Please be advised that the Immigrant Visa unit strictly follows State Department guidance to ensure the same level of access is offered to the public in an efficient and orderly manner, with no special privileges or special channels for immigrant visa petitioners. Additionally, our office follows strict security procedures to ensure the safety of our staff and premises. The Immigrant Visa Section, as a courtesy to U.S. citizen petitioners who have questions regarding the immigrant visa process, has a ¡°petitioner hour¡± on Monday afternoons in which procedural questions can be answered. This is the ONLY venue for in-person meetings to discuss immigrant visa cases with consular personnel. To attend the petitioner hour, please enter through the main consulate entrance by 2 p.m. If you try to enter the Consulate through the entrance described in the previous post, you will be denied entry and asked to leave immediately by security personnel. Please be aware that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security treats attempts to gain unauthorized access to U.S. diplomatic facilities abroad as serious security threats, and will take appropriate action in response to such threats. Please refer to our website http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/contactiv.html for more information for attending the petitioner hour. Thank you for your understanding. If there are further questions, please contact us using the web form on our website. U.S. Consulate Guangzhou, China

Dear CFL Members, The National Visa Center (NVC) has started a new pilot program of electronically processing visa petitions. Under this program all documents related to your case will be sent to Guangzhou electronically, rather than by mail. This should greatly improve the speed and efficiency of visa processing by avoiding delays due to postal service delivery. The electronic processing option is available only for the U.S. Consulate Guangzhou, China and will initially be available only to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens over the age of 21 years (visa categories IR-1, IR-2, CR-1, CR-2, and IR-5). If you have heard from the NVC and have chosen to participate in electronic processing you should not mail any physical paper documents to NVC. Doing so will result in a delay in the processing of your case. NVC will send instructions to all e-mail addresses you provided. Please follow all instructions from NVC for submitting documents electronically and bring the original documents to the interview with you. If your case is being processed through the electronic pilot project, your case number should begin with GZO. If your case is not being processed electronically, your case number should begin with GUZ. For further information regarding this program, please e-mail the NVC at NVCInquiry@state.gov or call the NVC at (603) 334-0700. Customer Service Representatives are available Monday through Friday from 7:30am ¨C midnight EST. You must have a touchtone phone to use this service. Please Note: The NVC electronic processing project for K visa (fianc¨¦e/spouse non-immigrant visa), has different procedures. For these cases, although the petitions are loaded electronically, the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou still contacts visa beneficiaries to provide more documents prior to interview scheduling. If you are a K visa applicant and you have opted in for electronic processing, you will still have to wait for paper Instructions via mail from the Consulate. Thank you, U.S. Consulate Guangzhou, China

Dear CFL Members, We noticed a recent posting that incorrectly described the purpose of the Consulate¡¯s IV petitioner hour. To clarify, the purpose of this session is not to serve as a chance at a prior/second opinion or appeal. We established this petitioner hour in order to give petitioners the chance to ask general questions about visa application procedures before or after their family member¡¯s interview. Petitioner hour is not the time or place to submit supporting documents relating to a fianc¨¦e visa. Instead, applicants should provide this information at their interview, or consult with their petitioner to mail it in, if asked to do so. The only information officers will accept on Monday afternoons is updated address or contact information. Please refer to question number five on our website at http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/iv_faqs.htm for more information. Thank you, U.S. Consulate Guangzhou, China

Dear CFL, The Embassy has received some reports of fraud committed against U.S. citizens by Internet correspondents from China professing romantic interest. For further information, see http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/iv_announcement.htm. Sincerely, USCONGUZ (edited to make link functional - Lee)

Dear CFL, This sort of issue can be somewhat complicated and needs to be handled on a case-by-case basis; so if you are facing difficulties getting this or any other required certificate, please contact the Consulate's IV unit through its website: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/iv/email.html Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, 1. In general, as far as the Consulate is concerned, a Chinese passport is sufficient--there is no need to also have the national ID card (note that there may be extraordinary cases where the Consulate will require both of these things). Note that this only goes for the Consulate's needs for visa processing--the Chinese government may have separate requirements. 2. Concerning police certificates: all official documents must be translated and notarized. Police certificates are required for anyone over the age of 16. In general, these certificates can be obtained at the local Public Security Bureau office. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, To our knowledge, this is broadly correct, provided (and this is very important) that the father is able to transmit citizenship to the child. See this website for more information on the process of getting a passport for children born abroad: http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/ne...gistration.html Questions of this sort are best directed to the Consulate's American Citizen Services unit, however. Please see our website for their contact information. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, Yes, FTJ applicants can interview with their parents even if they won't be traveling for 6 months or more afterwards. From the Consulate's point of view, it is preferable for all applicants to interview at the same time, even if one or more will follow-to-join later. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, This should be taken care of by USCIS after the beneficiary immigrates to the US. If the date of immigration is more than two years after the marriage took place, then the green card should be issued with IR status. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, All necessary certificates must be valid on the day that the visa is issued. So, if your visa is issued by March 22, you will not need new certificates. If it is not issued until after that date, you will need new ones. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, In general, all children beneficiaries, even those under the age of 14, are required to attend an interview before being issued a visa. A consular officer may, in exceptional circumstances, choose to waive this requirement for children under the age of 14, but such a waiver is exceedingly rare. Your understanding of follow-to-join K2/4 cases is correct. These applicants can either interview with the principal beneficiary or attend a separate interview sometime later. The important thing to remember is that visa issuance for K2/4 follow-to-join beneficiaries must take place within a year of the issuance of the principal beneficiary's K1/K3 visa. If a year passes, the follow-to-join child loses his or her eligibility for derivative benefits, and a separate petition must be filed in order for that child to immigrate. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, We would recommend contacting USCIS for questions about how to fill out visa petitions, as they are the ones who design the petition forms and adjudicate submitted petitions. There is contact info (and a wealth of other information) at the USCIS website: http://www.uscis.gov. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, The email form should still be available on the website, and this remains the best way to contact the Consulate, especially about a time-sensitive problem of this nature. Here is the web form address: http://www.usembassy-china.org.cn/guangzhou/iv/email.html Alternatively, you can send an inquiry to our fax number at: (86)(20) 3884-4412. For time-sensitive issues, please write "urgent" or something like that at the top of the fax cover sheet. From what we've heard from petitioners, it appears that email is a much more reliable way of reaching the Consulate successfully, and so we would recommend that as the best way of contacting us. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, We've noticed that a lot of petitioners have recently been coming in to Petitioner Hour at the Consulate mostly so that officers will make a note in their case that they appeared. In the event that people are doing this in the hope that it will increase the chances that their case will be approved--let's be clear that it really makes no difference at all if petitioners come to Petitioner Hour. If you want to prove that you returned to China for your fiance(e)/spouse's interview, just ask them to take your passport or a notarized photocopy of the entire passport to the interview with them. Furthermore, it might be worth keeping in mind that the time consular officers spend at Petitioner Hour is time that is not spent processing cases. The intention of Petitioner Hour is to provide a forum where petitioners can make inquiries about the status of their cases or clear up confusion about the visa process. So, if you go to Petitioner Hour without a real question, you are really just slowing the process down for everyone else. Please keep this in mind when you decide whether to attend. Sincerely, USCONGUZ

Dear CFL, It is difficult to give a categorical answer without seeing the documents referred to in this post, but a notarized legal document granted custody of a child to the immigrating parent would certainly be sufficient evidence of custody. Sincerely, USCONGUZ