blue.rock

Seems like they are telling us a different message than what is on their website. Our message is you MUST pay before you go to USA. On the website it says it's encouraged.

Ok here is the exact text from ours FYI, I am typing it up so everyone can see it. I Also here are the images: http://i58.tinypic.com/14b81fo.jpg http://i60.tinypic.com/2501hj7.jpg U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services USCIS IMMIGRANT FEE Your "A-Number" and "DOS Case ID" are printed on the immigrant data summary on top of your issues visa packet. As a recipient of an immigrant visa from the U.S. Department of State, you are required to pay $165 USD to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The USCIS IMMIGRANT Fee covers the costs USCIS incurs to process, file and maintain the immigrant visa package as well as produce and issue documents, including the Permanent Residence Card (commonly referred to as the Green Card). You must pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee online using the USCIS Electronic Immigration System (USCIS ELIS) AFTER you receive your immigrant visa package from the Department of State and BEFORE you depart for the United States. You will not receive your Green Card until you have paid the USCIS Immigrant Fee. You may pay for yourself and for members of your family who will live with you in the United States. If you pay for other family members you must have their Alien Registration Number (A-Number) and Department of State (DOS) Case ID available. FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO PAY THE USCIS IMMIGRANT FEE ONLINE: 1. Go to www.uscis.gov/uscis-elis Log on to USCIS Elis and select "Create New Account" Fill in the applicable fields completely and accurately. 2. Select Benefit Type Select USCIS Immigrant Fee from the drop down menu on "Step by step online application " page Enter your name date of birth and country of birth exactly as it appears on the immigrant visa in your passport. Enter your "A-number" and "DOS Case ID" 3. If you are paying for additional family members please fprovide A-number and DOS Case ID as well as their name date of birth and country of birth as it appears on the immigrant visa in their passport. 4. Enter payment information and authorize payment. YOU MUST PAY BEFORE YOU TRAVEO TO THE UNITED STATES. YOU WILL NOT RECEIVE YOUR GREEN CARD UNTIL YOU HAVE PIAD THE USCIS IMMIGRANT FEE. For more information visit us on twitter, youtube, facebook or our blog.

We got the visa in hand, and it came with a note saying we must pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee Online BEFORE we go to USA. We went online, did a lengthy registration process, and paid the fee. It shows up now as Case Status: Draft, Submitted, accepted, but hasn't been "optimized, nor closed" yet. Also it says Status Details: Your application/petition has been submitted and is pending review. For Case Summary it says: Status: case received Payment: Submitted. is this enough? Can we go ahead and buy her ticket to come to USA now? she wants to come ASAP (like in 2 days) But we wanna make sure we have done everything correctly and it seems their information on whether we have completed this step is not clear. The note says "You must pay the USCIS Immigrant Fee to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Using ELIS after you receive your immigrant visa package from the Department of State and before you travel to the United States" In other reports I heard you could pay the fee after going to USA but I guess maybe that's different now.

now 18 calendar days later we have visa in hand! thanks all!

Does anyone know how long this part takes?

It was under administrative processing (probably because she was CCP member?) for just over 180 days (they said contact us again after 90 days if you haven't heard anything, when we contacted them after 90 days then they again said contact us again after 90 days if you haven't heard anything!) I guess her health check and police report expired by now? Anyway now we got this e-mail below, requesting her passport, a new police certificate, and a new health check, and 2 passport style photos which we sent in yesterday through CITIC Bank. We assume this means they are approving the visa and we should have the visa within about two weeks? Are we assuming correct and is that the approximate timeline? We'd love to spend x-mas in USA together, and we're trying to make tentative plans. Any info or tips about this would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Immigrant Visa Unit, U. S. Consulate General, Guangzhou Our authorized partner, CGI Stanley, provides a number of services to visa applicants. If you haven’t already done so, please follow the instructions at http://ustraveldocs.com to select a document delivery address. Dear Applicants, Under the section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Consulate General is unable to issue you an immigrant visa at this time. If you have already submitted yourpassport to the Consulate General, we will keep your passport with your file pending the issuance of your visa. Further consideration will be given to your visa application after you meet the following requirement(s): Please submit the following documents and this letter through CGI’s designated agent CITIC Bank. For instructions on how to submit the required documents, please refer to the “Application Pending Further Action” page in the Immigrant Visa Section of http://ustraveldocs.com . For All Applicants: Please submit a passport (with at least 8 months validity) and two new visa photos taken within the past 6 months. For All Applicants: Please submit notarized Police Certificate. For All Applicants: Please return to the panel physician for a new medical examination and medical report and then submit the medical report. Please do not submit the chest X-ray.

Update? How long did it take?

We submitted the application, and she received what I imagine is the blue slip (am i right?) Which states: "Your case requires additional processing, We will contact you and inform you of our decision. You may want to contact us every few months to check your case's status via the online form available" it says CCP with the box checked requesting explanation about her party membership affiliation. Also, it said it has insufficient information about my (I am the american) residency in USA, and asked me to submit evidence of job search and residency in USA. (they hand wrote "job search" on to the form). They also requested an I864-A and tax returns. Anyway, we submitted these about 65 days ago, and I have contacted them by the "online form" several times, but every time they just say "if you haven't heard back from us within 90 days then contact us again" What is the average wait time for people in my situation? Is there anything I should be doing in the mean time? Did I get the "blue slip"? how common is it and what does it really mean? My wife is worried and doesn't understand the situation very well, I try to console her, but I don't really understand the situation well myself. Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks blue.rock

I got a Q2 Visa to visit my wife and her family (My wife is Chinese) and stay there for 2 years. The problem is I have to leave every 90 days. someone previously mentioned that there's was for 180 day entries. Am I destined to leave to Hong Kong every 90 days? Is there anyway to change this to 180 days? Or I heard I can possibly get a resident permit in China? Or I also heard After the first 90 days I can request an extension? I don't wanna have to go to Hong Kong 8 times over the next 4 years, and I am wiling to request a new Visa and pay the fee again in order to avoid the 90 day limitation. Any advice?

I got a notification via EMS today (sent to my wife's name for some reason) they requested some additional documents: 1. Marriage notarial from the appropriate local authorities 2. A copy of the marriage registration application from the proper local authorities I'm not sure what these are, but they want us to send them back to them via EMS. What are these documents? Thanks

Yeah we did walk in on October 4th, they were very not busy, maybe 1 other person there at the time (about 9am, they opened at 8:30 am). Didn't get approval yet, they also mentioned that they wanted my wife's ORIGINAL birth certificate, we only had a copy.. they said they might approve it anyway, if not they'll request it ot be sent via EMS. I am pretty sure that for initial I130 filing I read that only a copy of birth certificate was required... also they didn't want 90% of my evidence that I had provided to prove bona fide relationships. They didn't accept any of our emails, or airplane stubs, but took our passport stamps of travel together.. it was strange. they said expect an EMS either way in 1 to 2 weeks

FYI everybody's information, I went and did DCF without having gotten the long term residence permit, and it was no problem. They saw I had years of Chinese visas, made copies of those, and moved ahead with the DCF. Quick and painless.

FYI We exported a chat log report using a 3rd party program my wife found. We turned in the exported chat log SUMMARY showing how many messages have been sent, and since when. We turned this in along with other evidence to support a bona fide relationship during the I-130 filing DCF.

Thanks for all the help everyone. It really sucks that guangzhou is closed oct 1-3, I emailed them though and they said they'd be open Oct 4 a friday, but it seems like lthat will be a hassle, and long lines, i might just come back Oct 8 if I can get an infopass apointment (I'm checking multiple times all day long). By the way, Andelu also congrats on being first at guangzhou! More power to ya man.

Unluckily though, tuesday and thursday coming up are their holiday days, so the next "tuesday walkin" would be October 8,.. or I could go October 4 on friday.. but until then I'd just be in a hotel for a week being bored out of my mind.

Thanks for all the help Andelu. I'd like to file my I-130 through an appointment made through "infopass" on a tuesday or thursday as opposed to taking my chances on a friday, as per their website it seems tuesday and thursday are much faster and easier: " . I-130 filing appointments may be made Tuesday and Thursday afternoons via our InfoPass website. Alternatively, petitions may be filed on a walk-in basis during our customer service window hours of 8:30 - 10:30 a.m. every Friday. Please be advised that scheduling an InfoPass appointment is the more expeditious method of filing your I-130 as you will be afforded an individualized appointment and wait times will be considerably less than filings made during our general customer service window hours." But as I go to make an appointment on infopass it says "At this time, there are no information appointments available for the office in your area. Please try back again later." I wonder if this is because next week is national holiday week. How far ahead could you see to try to schedule? We are near Guangzhou right now and were considering trying to hang around till the next time we could schedule but we can't make it by Sep 27 friday morning, and it seems like the next info pass date wouldn't be till about October 8 but I can't even confirm that cus infopass says no appointments available. So frustrating.

I have been a student in China for 9 semesters in a row (4.5 years) but I have recently come back to USA for summer holiday, and I'll be flying back through Guangzhou and would like to stop there and submit my I-130 application without first going back to my school to get my residence permit (I'm entering on a student visa). Is it really 100% necessary to have my residence permit before submitting the I-130? Do they even check? I'm going to be living in the same dorm that I've been in for over 4 years. It would be annoying and time consuming and costly to have to go back to my school first, get my residence permit and then fly back to Guangzhou. Below is their official wording: If you do not have a long-term Chinese residence permit, you must file a petition at your local USCIS office when you return to the United States. http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/acs_married.html

Hi everyone, I have already married once and gone through this whole process, back in 2010 (through DCF in Guangzhou). I since divorced and am now marrying my Fiancee soon. It is my understanding that sometime within the past 90 days or so the Guangzhou Consulate changed location and added the CITIC bank process. I have a few questions. 1: I remember reading somewhere that Guangzhou used to be the slowest and most difficult places in the world to get the marriage visa processed, then some ambassador went to Guangzhou directly somewhere around 2009 and things really sped up, does anyone know anything about this? I have two friends who in 2011/2012 both got through in under 3 months. and now it seems to be down to 6 weeks?! are there any charts, or graphs, that show trends through out processing times through different consulates over the years? 2: Why did they add the CITIC bank process? Where does CITIC bank send the documents they receive, surely they don't pass them back on to the Guangzhou Consulate, that would slow things down, not speed them up right(just adding a middle man)? 3: to me it seems like they have revamped the process recently as per this post on CFL, it seems that now the whole thing could be done in about 6 weeks?! 4. Can I translate my old divorce document (which is in Japanese), and my marriage book all by myself? will that be fine for the entire process (certifying marriage ability, and for submitting to CITIC bank)? or do I have to have them officially translated? and lastly, a kind of side note: 5. Has anyone ever included pictures of themselves and their wife having sex? it seems like that would be strong evidence to support a bona fide relationship Thanks a lot.