jpapish

My wife was approved for her immigrant visa in Guangzhou on August 14. We had been expecting her passport to be mailed back to Beijing through CITIC bank within two weeks as stated, but her passport's status on the website was never updated. A previous email update had accidentally been sent to our junk mail a few months ago, so luckily I checked her spam folder and found that on August 18, Guangzhou emailed us asking for 2 recent photographs before they could grant her the visa. (Side note...although the email said it was also sent to my address, I cannot find it even in my spam folder...weird...double side note...my wife actually brought two recent photographs to the consulate for the interview, but was never asked to submit them!) I submitted the photos through CITIC bank on August 30. Her "status updated date" has updated several times since then, most recently today, but still says "administrative processing." My question is, how long should I realistically expect to wait to get the passport back? We have an ETD of October 30 due to my Chinese visa expiring, so there's enough time, but I'm still getting anxious due to all of Guangzhou's previous screw ups. Thanks and sorry for the rant...I thought I was through with government incompetence...silly me.

Thanks everyone! We will get another copy before going to the states just in case. One more question. Will we need to go down to Wuhan where her Hukou is or can we take care of this in Beijing at the notary office?

Hey all, As the old radio saying goes..."Long time listener, first time caller"...Candle For Love's forums were an amazing resource during my wife's DCF IR-1 visa process and I'm happy to report she was approved last week after only 4 months! I have a quick question. The consulate is keeping our only original marriage "white book" and we are wondering if we should go down to her hometown and pick up another before heading back to the states in October. Is the white book recognized in the states? And is our marriage seen as official without it? Looking forward to your responses and thanks again! Best, Jon

Thanks everyone for your quick replies...am looking forward to using this forum to hear stories, ask questions, and make new friends as we get the immigration process started! Jonathan and Crystal

So it sounds like our white books from the notary public office in Wuhan are legit. How long are the white books valid for? We don't plan on starting the spousal visa process for another year or 18 months so was it moot to get the white books now?

I just got married to my longtime Chinese girlfriend last week in Wuhan! Yeah! So we got our little red books from the marriage office and then we went to the notary office. We couldn't wait the 8 days to get the White Book so we had them mail it to us in Beijing where we are living now. The White Book arrived today with the translation of our marriage certificate. My wife is telling me that we need to go to the foreign affairs office here in Beijing to have them make sure the translation is legit, but we are not sure if that is entirely correct. Does anyone have any experience with this part? Also, what would be the step after the foreign affairs office? Do we go to the US Consulate here in Beijing to have them officially recognize our marriage? We are hoping to apply for a spousal visa in the future, but maybe not for another year or two. Thanks for your help! Jonathan