josephsli

Thanks both for your response. I did not make it clearer - I'm not a US citizen and we are on EB-5 (greencard by investment) program, IR5 immigrant visa. The 800 page or so are mostly our filing to USCIS. Randy - I checked with CITIC expedited service staff in Shanghai (in fact I went upstairs to their back office to find how documents and packages are handled). While they say one way transit to GUZ is about 2-3 days, they don't know how soon the consular staff can handle my request as this package will be mixed with the pool of other 'normal' immigrant AND non-immigrant visa applications. When the GUZ Chinese staff called me, he said he cannot give an estimate at how soon they could handle my repackaging precisely for that reason. It took them from Dec 24 (date of visa issuance at GUZ) to Jan 5 (arrival notice at CITIC Shanghai) one way for about 10 days. And we're 11 calendar days away from our departure. I asked the GUZ guy if I could take the package to GUZ in person for repacking, the answer is NO! My attorney as well as the airport Customs and Border Protection Officer I spoke to both said it should not cause a major issue if we enter the US as-is - they will just interview us and examine docs at Secondary Processing (the 'little room') and most likely let us in. Now my question is - have you experienced/heard of similar cases where people have been turned back by airport CBP just because of a broken envelop? Inconvenience in the form of a few hours is not an issue for us, but the potential risk of being denied entry is. thanks! Joe

Hi, IV issued (thank God) but now with a pressing administrative issue. My wife's immigrant visa was issued in late Dec and I went to pick it up a few days ago at the local CITIC. Both the bank staff and I immediately noticed that the 'visa packet yellow envelop' was badly broken (one long side was completely ripped most likely during transit - our document submission to the USCIS was 800 pages thick, and the consulate apparently used a large (but not large enough) paper envelop to bag it but unfortunately it was broken before I saw them. I have decided not to sign for/pick up any of the family's passports and packages, and wrote a statement in Chinese and English and had the bank staff provide their corporate chop to verify that I did not temper with the package. Now I'm very torn - I know the safest way is to send it back to GUZ for repackaging, but we do have a confirmed ticket to leave for the US in less than 15 days as I have a series of scheduled business meetings there. Checked with both the consulate and CITIC and it usually takes 2-3 weeks for the package to travel to GUZ, be repackaged and shipped back from GUZ to my home city. I called one of the CBP customer service hotline stating the situation and they said they would normally send us to Secondary Processing for review but it is not a major issue. Our US immi attorneys said the same thing. However, the consular Chinese staff with utter certainty told me that we will be denied entry with a broken envelop. GUZ is also not allowing us to personally carry the packages back to GUZ for repackaging (this way we would have better control over lead time in transit). Any similar experience? Any advice? thanks! Joe

Hi, IV issued (thank God) but now with a pressing administrative issue. My wife's immigrant visa was issued in late Dec and I went to pick it up a few days ago at the local CITIC. Both the bank staff and I immediately noticed that the 'visa packet yellow envelop' was badly broken (one long side was completely ripped most likely during transit - our document submission to the USCIS was 800 pages thick, and the consulate apparently used a large (but not large enough) paper envelop to bag it but unfortunately it was broken before I saw them. I have decided not to sign for/pick up any of the family's passports and packages, and wrote a statement in Chinese and English and had the bank staff provide their corporate chop to verify that I did not temper with the package. Now I'm very torn - I know the safest way is to send it back to GUZ for repackaging, but we do have a confirmed ticket to leave for the US in less than 15 days as I have a series of scheduled business meetings there. Checked with both the consulate and CITIC and it usually takes 2-3 weeks for the package to travel to GUZ, be repackaged and shipped back from GUZ to my home city. I called one of the CBP customer service hotline stating the situation and they said they would normally send us to Secondary Processing for review but it is not a major issue. Our US immi attorneys said the same thing. However, the consular Chinese staff with utter certainty told me that we will be denied entry with a broken envelop. GUZ is also not allowing us to personally carry the packages back to GUZ for repackaging (this way we would have better control over lead time in transit). Any similar experience? Any advice? thanks! Joe