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They still take pens and other things. Now it has an airport style x-ray machine for baggage, etc., but they still take them in custody while you are inside. Maybe this will help speed up entering long lines of people waiting. Certainly the business with Jade Yan, AOF or whomever is less than enlightening for people here who have lots more serious and important things on their minds. I am not saying anything new, but the best medicine for those people is to completely ignore them. Their own words have hung them.

The street/parking lot side. A little change in the way to get to the Consulate entrance since last Friday. If you go from the WS Hotel you will need to go around back of the church complex to gain entry to the outside waiting area or from other places go, west along the center park.

For all of those of you that know about and love the U.S. Consulate in GZ, the remodeling construction has been finished. On Friday last, 8/15, the front side of the Consulate grounds were re-opened for business. You will now go there, along the road leading to and from the White Swan Hotel, to enter the Consulate and also to submit overcome papers, pick-up results and pick-up visas. The head construction man of the U.S. business doing the work said that they were remodeling to increase the security to the post-blasts in Saudia Arabia, Kenya or 9/11 standards. For the most part it looks good and presumably the unobservable parts are the best parts. But there are several annoying things. No protection for those outside the Consulate boundaries. That affects me as I am there quite a lot, so I am prepared to run like hell if I see any funny business. The other annoying thing is about the outside deliver and pick-up windows. They are made to worldwide security specifications I guess. The bank-like passage box is small and tight. Can't get my hand all the way in to manuveur the papers to the clerk. I spoke with the chief security guy about not being able to get docs easily through the window and he said "you can't get a gun in either." I will leave y'll to speculate on the meaning of that.

Regarding a K-1 visa, you and your friend only have 90 days to make a decision AND get married after she arrives in the U.S. If you do not marry within that time she is required to go back to China. When it comes to the past F-1 refusals I suggest she be well prepared at the interview to handle the issue of "immigration intent"at the time she applied for a non-immigrant visa. This could be a significant issue for her and you. It might make the K-1 more diffficult to be granted. As an alternative you could marry, but the total processing time is about 2 years now and it too is risky as the IV unit is refusing a number of marriage visas now. There is almost a whole a new crew in the IV unit and they are being cautious. The issue they raise for refusing is that the people have not established a "bona fide" relationship. So the more good evidence you have of your relationship the better. Some paternal advice, if both of you are not sure about marriage, perhaps it would be better for you to postpone the the K-1, if you choose that route, until both of you are convinced that marriage is the right thing.

Don. Good to hear your news. I hope EMS gets there pronto. Other news. The new Director of the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (old INS) has declared his primary objective is to reduce the horrendous case backlogs at his agency. This will be good news, if it happens, for those who are just filing. GZ Consulate says that its IV unit will be processing many more case than what has been normal this and next month. One officer said they had about 3200 new clearance cases - if I heard him right.

Actually, there are 3 different "white slips". 1. this one is about letter size and in the format of a letter. It has been given out after an interview, stating the visa has been approved, but more work needs to be done on the case, such as a clearance check. I have also seen it used at other points in the visa application approval process. 2. then there is a "white slip" about 7"x4" which is used in the overcome process, when an applicant has been refused and hands in additional evidence, to tell the applicant to return and get the decision on the overcome submittal. 3. finally there is a "white slip" that is smaller than #2 that tells a person when to pick up the visa itself. A word of caution here, sometimes even if you are given this white slip and you show up to get your visa, the IV unit can and does say sorry, we need more time to work on the case. Sometimes only heaven knows why. Recently, the IV unit would then give you the #1 "white slip". I hope this helps a little.

An update about name check clearances, on Wednesday, 7/30, a number of clearances were acknowledged by the IV unit. I know of 14 that day. Some of them were from "black hole" period.

Try www.chinapage.com/china.html www.china.com.cn/english/index.htm Lots of stuff and links. Have fun.

PJ: If you are coming through Guangzhou, look me up for a cup of coffee (latte) and a chat. Perhaps I can get some donations for the site. I believe you have my e-mail so you can contact me directly if you want.

Whoever goes to pick up the visa and visa package should always check the back side of the package and make sure that there are 3, count 3, red circular seals on the back placed at/on the juncture of the envelope flap and the envelope. Always check the information on the visa (K visas and immigrant visas) against the information in your passport and for the separate kind of visa attached to the visa package make sure it is signed and with an original signature. The person picking up should do all of this before they leave the consulate grounds if they are allowed to stay or at least before they leave the entrance gate area.

Correction. I think it is Clayton HAYS.

Richard Adams, former chief of the IV unit left a week or so ago. His replacement supposedly will arrive in August sometime. At this time I have been told that Clayton Hayes is the acting chief of the IV unit.

The procedure I use in such a case, it is not uncommon that the file gets lost in the forwarding unfortunately, is to try to get a written statement from GZ that it has not received the file/documents. Try the e-mail inquiry system. I don't know if you get get such a e-mail response because I walk in such written inquiries to the IV unit. If you can get it, then send it to NVC and ask that they create a second file and forward it. I suggest you wait a month before you e-mail your request to GZ.

Today, 6/25/03, I went into the IV unit of the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou and talked to a Con/Off about this "mail problem." He said the problem is being dealt with in Beijing at the Embassy level. He said that as of now it has not affected the IV unit's processing of cases as it has a lot of cases in the pipeline they are working on; suggesting these new files that are hung up would have been handled in the normal course sometime later anyway.

On 6/18/03 I received an answer to my written memo to the GZ IV unit which included a copy of the CFL message from Jemodurn on 6/9/03 about the mail hold up. The answer from the IV unit was: "Your memo of June 11, 2003, asked if the story in the attached Candle for Love posting was true. The answer is no. None of the IV Unit's operations have been disrupted by any issues with Chinese customs." I am skeptical about the answer as it is from the government, but until I hear anything otherwise I am operating on the basis it is correct.

For CR1 visas the pick-up date, the date you are told to pick up the visa, is not necessarily the issue date. Sometimes it can be, if for instance the visa is issued the same day it is approved.

I couldn't find the recent discussion on lawsuits for this situation so this is a new line to compliment the old one with some observations. Some years ago the old INS, even though required to give file documents to the petitioner it would not do so and many immigrant families did not know what to do, so they just waited, but nothing was given to them after many months. A NY lawyer told me that what the petitioner had to do was (get a lawyer) file a complaint for a lawsuit with the government, then when a DOJ lawyer was assigned the case, that lawyer would most likely tell INS to provide the requested documents. End of lawsuit and the petitioner got the papers. (A pretty poor use of taxpayer dollars not to say anything about how callous the INS was.) This used to be a common situation. The "on hold" and B/h cases may require something similar. Recently, civil rights lawyers in Texas, Texas Lawyers' Committee and MALDEF (Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund), filed suit to make the DHS provide proof of the legal status of immigrants in America. A quote from U.S. Newswire about the lawsuit follows: The lawsuit, filed today [May 28, 2003] in federal court in McAllen, Texas, claims that the DHS has consistently rejected lawful permanent residents' requests for processing and documentation of their lawful status. The DHS has told lawful permanent residents represented in this lawsuit that they would be advised by mail of a return date to complete processing. DHS' delay in processing, which has lasted for months and years in some cases, has created hardships for these and other lawful permanent residents. To contact some lawyers involved in the lawsuit for the plaintiffs you could call Javier Maldonado 210-277-1603 ext.307 or Joe Berra of MALDEF at 210-224-5476. They may be able to give anyone who is interested some direction about a case. I do not know either one of those fellows. Another place to contact would be AILA, American Immigration Lawyers of association; its national headquarters are in Wash.D.C.. Try 202-216-2400. It does support immigrants with legislative advocacy and research. The Web site is www.aila.org

I don't see this is about me. You all know the saying "what goes around, comes around." On occassion I might be able to add helpful information and do so in appreciation of the info I have gathered and used from this forum. I would like to tell a little story. I am thankful to have a very conservative and skeptical older brother, sort of middle american of the mind kind, who would tell me every attorney joke he heard, virtually all were negative to the point of making out lawyers as road kill were lower than snakes. I grew a pretty tough outer skin, but there was one true incident about lawyer images that genuinely outraged me. Early during one Christmas shopping season in my hometown I was looking around an upscale toys, games and things store and saw a boxed broad game entitled something like "KILL THE LAWYERS." I protest to management and I think they removed the game as I didn't see it there about 2 weeks later, or, heaven forbid, they were all sold out. Peace and justice.

The reason that trying to get a student visa does not work in most situations is because a person wanting a non-immigrant visa cannot have an existing intent to immigrate which a child waiting to get a immigrant visa through their fiancee or spouse parent is presumed to have. The age-out situation for children of intending immigrants, reaching 21 years old before getting into America, has been exceedingly unfair. But now, the law has changed to help alieviate that unfairness. It is called the Child Status Portection Act. It is difficult to understand, but it already has helped many children get to the U.S. after they turned 21, which under the old law would have barred them from the U.S. for 5 or 6 years after their parents had gone. Since about February, 2003 I have been reading this site's information without joining until just recently. It has helped me do my job. I have learned a lot about the "black-holers," and the clearance fiasco. As late as March this year the Company I work for in Guangzhou as an American immigration lawyer had some 40 or more immigrant visa cases with approvals from 7/02 to 11/02, but no clearances. Virtually all of these people waiting for their visas were Chinese families or Chinese couples. They had no group support and were not getting anywhere either. Neither was I until I found your site. So I thank you all for the un-intended consequences of all of your knowledge, your pain and frustations and your efforts. Yes, I know, I know, many of you are sceptical of lawyers, maybe for good reasons, and perhaps you don't want me on this site. If so, take me off. I am not trying to sell my services, but to give information when I see it could be useful or pass on some understanding about the law. This is not an advice column. I appologize if I have overstepped your bounds or rules.

Any suggestion that you can buy a visa or someone will guarantee visa issuance for a fee is propsing to you to commit a crime under American law. From my experience in Guangzhou there is no way at this time to "buy" a visa, altho some of that may have happened in the distant past. If you are concerned about traveling with a Chinese fiancee in China and staying at hotels, just get two rooms. You can use one in the early hours and two for real sleep. I have done it, not really convenient, but it works.

Just a note about civil rights, i.e., constitutional rights, they are not limited to U.S. citizens, but are available to permanent residents and visitors and to a certain extent to illegals.