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I think there's something about the medical forms that requires you to have the originals at the health check. Maybe some kind of bar code? I took printed copies to the medical check and they didn't accept them. Luckily I still had the originals with me so we got out ok. If we hadn't had the originals, we might have been screwed since the interview was the next day!

Yes, brown curly man is a good VO. ps. you should try eating at IKEA too, it's pretty good and not expensive for western food in China! They also have infinite free refills on milk tea, coffee, cappucino, or soda.

It seems like it's not a problem. I heard someone was there getting a medical test and it was that time of the month. They didn't do the urine test, but their medical exam was considered complete and they got the visa too. I suppose they have other ways of checking what needs to be checked with the urine test.

Just got back from Guangzhou, got a pink on Wednesday. Everything was very smooth, and the visa was delivered to the post office the next afternoon! Very fast and relieving to us, since some other people staying at Yang's had had their interview on Monday/Tuesday and still hadn't picked up the visa! The VO was long-ish curly brown hair guy. My wife said the interview was basically just a chat and then the guy gave her a pink slip. Thanks to Mr. Yang for advice and getting his friend to meet us at the Shamian medical place and help! details will follow later!

Thanks for posting your experience. We're going to be staying there starting tomorrow, so I hope we'll have a good experience with the Yangs too.

I have 3 folders. One is my info, one is my dad's(co-sponsor), and one is her files and info. The folders are the kind that have 30 transparent A4-sized pockets. I also bought some little sticky tabs and labeled each pocket. I put the things I thought would be the most useful on top, and the old stuff last. I'm just going to put them in a backpack for the plane, since I want all of it to be in my possession to avoid any chance of losing it. We also made a photo album with about 30 pictures. It's just a small album, because I don't think they'll have any doubts about our relationship since we've been living together for 2 and a half years! If you're separated, you might have to prepare more photos.

I've found that many college students and/or educated young people(in China) think that CCTV1 News is a joke. My understanding of Chinese is good, and I sometimes watch the CCTV1 News too. Maybe some news stories are ok, but I see many stories that are too fake sounding and overly-glorifying of the government. They often say stuff like "The military training exercise was a great success, Chairman HuJinTao was extremely pleased and he said it was a great testament to China's rising power in the world today! The soldiers worked hard and fought through many obstacles to give a great lasting impression of their courage and honor to fight for our great country." Maybe the news is still true, but they just overamplify anything and claim it as a great success for the country. It's like something too sickeningly sweet, and I usually can't stand it anymore and just switch to cartoons to get the bad taste out of my mouth. There is one channel called Phoenix TV that's based out of Hong Kong or Taiwan which you can get on digital cable that doesn't do this stuff as badly.

I think you can just do your medical/x-ray in Shanghai. There's one place in Shanghai that's on the official list of approved places: Shanghai International Travel Healthcare Center Find it here, along with Chinese version: http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn/up...-8_-_May_20.pdf

Thank you very much for the info. I wish your fiancee good luck in the interview!

Do you have to buy a drink on the 4th floor to sit in the "coffee shop" or are there other places to sit and wait?

Thanks for the reply. I actually have all of those forms already, but I was wondering if there was a certain way I should put the forms together to make the process smoother! The reason is we have to do the medical exam the day before the interview!

Well, only about 7 days til we go to Guangzhou now, and I've been looking at stuff about the medical exam. As we want to make the medical go as fast as possible, I want to have as much prepared as possible. I found a post which has a lot of info, but it's from a few years ago. Can anyone who has recently done the medical check+vaccinations comment on whether the info in this post is still valid? Also, if you've had a recent medical experience, it would be great to get some first hand accounts! Here's the post I'm referring to: http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...&hl=medical (I know this is from Beijing, but I'm assuming Guangzhou will be similar if this is still relevant) Thank you!

Xi'an

I'm not sure why, but the edit button isn't there on my other posts, so I've gotta make another reply here! I just found out that the United Family Clinic is not on the list of places you can get vaccinations that was sent to me! Therefore I'm going to go to the Shamian island place instead. I'm guessing the people who went to United Family Clinic were fiancee visa, since I remember reading they don't have to get vaccinations before the interview. If you are doing a marriage visa, I think the Shamian is the only approved vaccination place in Guangzhou!

If anyone's looking for contact info for that United Family Clinic: Tel./µç»°: +86(20) 8710 6000 Email/µç×ÓÓʼþ£ºgzumarketing@ufh.com.cn

3 and a half months? I think that might have been a DCF, which is a good option provided you are free to leave the US for a while. You can live with your wife, experience life in China, and the success rate and processing speed are all better than other visa types.

лÁË Glad to get info from another DCFer, since sometimes our stuff is different from the others.

I have used printed out forms for every single form so far, and I've had no problems. Some of them even printed a tiny bit crooked and had slight gray bands from a crappy printer. In the end, as long as it's the most current form and it's filled in properly, you will be ok.

As I was anticipating my p4 package, I did some research on times between p4-interview, and I saw that the time between the p4 and the interview is usually about a month. Also, in a majority of cases, p3-p4 was 1-2 months. I know this doesn't answer your question, but it can give you a basic idea of when your interview will be.

I love this show, especially the opening song. I mostly like it because of the way they tried to make living in New York so difficult and horrible. Also the random early 90s New Yorkers in the background making faces at the camera in almost every shot. Also how the main woman gets scared when they first arrive because a big black man offers to help her with her luggage. The Chinese in this tv show is also easy to understand.

I've been living in China for the past 2.5 years, and I can speak and understand Mandarin(also the local variant) relatively well, so I would say I have a decent understanding of what goes on. The police/law enforcement is very different here than in America. Firstly, many police seem to take their job a lot less seriously. I often see police and security guards with unbuttoned shirts, sleeping on the job, and chatting with each other on the job. Even the armored cars that take money from the banks in the morning are just lightly modified old vans which are filled with guys in their early 20s holding shotguns who love to shout "hello!" as I walk past their van. There are also lots of police/law who are really assholes and corrupt. There was a posting on XiaoNei, the Chinese version of FaceBook, which had a phrase: "The greatest enemy of fairness in China is the police station". There are these old trucks that drive around with some variant of "law enforcement" stenciled on the side. They are really assholes. These are the guys who chase the people with carts selling stuff on the streets away. Their job is still not 100% clear to me, but they seem to just pick on whoever they feel like. Once they just blocked this guy who was riding a scooter and pushed him off/confiscated the stuff that he was carrying (he was selling stuff on the street a minute earlier). Another time, there was some scaffolding set up by some workers so they could repair a shop sign above the shop's entrance. The "enforcers" came over and were ordering them to take down the scaffolding, saying it was blocking the street(it wasn't). The workers pleaded, but the enforcers insisted that they take it down. These enforcers are probably the people who beat that old woman selling ice cream or whatever. I think those enforcers are not actually police, but somehow are indirectly sanctioned by the police. I was also unlucky enough to be on a busy street market when those enforcers showed up on one end, prompting every seller to book it down the street in my direction, carts in tow. Another thing is that lots of things are put on as a show. For example, the police or health inspection would be coming to inspect a small restaurant. They would tell the restaurant before they came there exactly when they were coming. Then, the restaurant would put on their show of being so clean and perfect. The health inspector does his show of inspecting and approving the restaurant. He has to do this so the local government can boast about how all the restaurants in the area have a perfect health rating, etc. The funny thing is, everyone knows it's all a show, but they have to just go along with it so the people one level above them can be appeased. Even those "enforcers" don't really passionately oppose street sellers, they just have to be able to tell their boss that the streets are merchant-free. That's all I'll say for now. I don't claim to have 100% knowledge of everything that goes on, but this is some of the stuff I've observed while living here.

We didn't even start to get our police certificate until we had already gotten the interview appointment package! I'm sure they don't care, and they're probably aware that most people send the checklist without actually getting all the stuff first.

Our interview is two days before your interview. If I see you around, I let you know how it went. Cool, thanks. Good luck too!

Thank you for the advice everyone. We'll definitely use that medical clinic you recommended with 3 hour processing! By the way, it's a Cr-1/Ir-1 visa. We'll still be living in China for about 2 months after the visa interview anyway, so we could get all the vaccinations here hopefully. About the visa pickup time, I suppose we could delay our plane tickets and extend our stay into the next week if needed. I'll ask the Yangs about that stuff while we're there, I suppose! Thanks again for all the answers!

Hello, we'll be in Guangzhou July 13th(noon)-July 19th. Interview is July 15th in the morning. I was hoping to find some answers to my questions! 1. We'll be rush processing the medical check since we won't be able to go there until the afternoon on the 13th or the morning of 14th! Do you guys think there is sufficient time for the medical check stuff? I've heard of other people doing the medical check the day before the interview, but today I can't find any of the posts. 2. At the medical interview, will they fill out the forms in Chinese? Do I have to insist that they fill it out in English? Will they write it in Chinese and then I get it translated? Also, can the first sections(name, DOB, etc) be filled out by me before we go there? 3. I don't have much of a clue how the vaccination stuff works. Do they just give her all the neccessary shots in a day? Some of them need to be followed up by other shots. Will not having all the followup shots be acceptable at the interview? 3. We'll be leaving on the 19th early afternoon. Mrs. Yang (or whoever I was talking to when I called their place) told me that it usually doesn't take long to get the visa after the interview. She told me this because I originally told her to book a room until the 22nd, but she discouraged me (which was strange to hear from a hotel). Since our interview is on Wednesday morning, is there a good chance we will get the visa before we leave? If not, can the Yangs send it to us?