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After 3 phones calls to the CITIC Bank yesterday, they were able to track the package and told us that the package should be arriving today. We called again today and it has in fact arrived! We checked online and see that the status has not updated online, so I would encourage other people who need to get their visas as fast as possible to check with the bank that they put down for pick up to see if the package arrived (or when it arrives). We saw online that sometimes banks wait up to a week before calling or telling you that your package has arrived! Thank you all for the help! I hope everyone else has as smooth a process as we did!

Hi everyone, just wanted to update everyone on our situation. My wife got her visa status changed to issued on 9/17/2015! We started the application process on May 7, 2015 I believe (I handed in the materials in person in Guangzhou), and she went to Guangzhou for her interview on June 8, 2015. Since she is a CCP member she was told that further administrative processing was required. During our wait, we emailed the embassy once a month with a question about the process and also asking is there was any update (each time they just told us that further processing was required and that there was nothing else we needed to do but wait). Finally in early September they asked her to send her passport over to the Embassy, and on September 17 the status of the visa changed from "Administrative Processing" to "Issued!" Overall, this was right in line what we had heard on the forums here, about 3-4 months of administrative processing. Right now we are waiting on the visa to be sent out. How long does it take after the status changes to "Issued" for the passport to be ready for pick up at the CITIC Bank? We bought our flight for October 6 thinking it would be more than enough time but now we are still waiting and the status online says "Passport has been received from the consular section and is currently being processed for delivery." We are afraid because the mid-autumn festival and national holiday are coming up that we won't get the passport back in time for her flight!

Thanks! Just what I was hoping

We are about to go to the interview next Monday but realized we didn't bring our original marriage certificates, just the notarized copy. Do we need the originals? It doesn't say it is necessary on the list of documents they list. Also, do we need the original No Criminal Record slip that we got from the PSB? We have the notarized copy but again left the original Chinese slip at home.

Thanks again for the help! My current income is $5,000 over the guidelines but I will be starting a new job in the Fall that is over twice the amount necessary. However, I don't know if they will take this into consideration. We've decided to get a joint sponsor just to be safe, especially since my income in the previous 2 years was not over the guidelines. So my joint sponsor fills out another I-864, and then if I am reading the instructions correctly her spouse would need to fill out the I-864A? We squeezed in the medical exam today, so that we don't have to worry about timing later on. We will be flying to Shandong to have our wedding this weekend and want to spend a few days there. Since we got the medical done in Shanghai today, we can stay in Shandong until Thursday and then pick up the results before flying to Guangzhou on Sunday (interview is Monday)! It will be an extremely busy two weeks (not to mention I am also switching jobs right now and will need to move to a new location after her interview) but we want to get the interview done early on so she can get to the U.S. as soon as possible.

We are assembling all of the materials now and we have some follow up questions: - Is it true that it is beneficial to have a joint sponsor even if my income alone is above the poverty guideline?? - For the I-864, I am filling one out as the petitioner, and I have asked my father to be our joint sponsor. My income alone is above the poverty guidelines ($19,000 for a household of 2) but we have heard it is safer to have a joint sponsor. For him to be our joint sponsor, does he need to fill out an I-864 form of his own or an I-864A form? - Should I list my assets even though my income is already above the level necessary? - Our plans have changed and we will be getting the medical exam done in Shanghai. We made the reservation online and they said that it takes 4 work days to get the certificate. Has anyone had any luck getting it faster than 4 work days? Our timing will be really tight since my wife's appointment is June 8 and we are doing the medical exam on June 1. Is that enough time to get the medical exam and vaccinations done?

Thank you all for the replies! We are using the instruction form that they linked to but I think it is always better to over prepare. For example, they do not ask specifically for the CCP membership statement or for 3 years of tax returns (the instructions just say 1 year) but I doesn't hurt to have this stuff all prepared in addition to what was asked by the instructions. Our timing is going to be so that I will return to the US first and then she will have to wait for her visa before coming over, so we want the process to go as fast and smoothly as possible.

Hello! My wife is applying for a CR-1 visa. We are preparing to schedule my wife's interview and wanted to hear your thoughts about the documents she needs to bring to the interview. Marriage Certificate - The Immigrant Visa Instructions say that she needs to bring a notarized copy of our marriage certificate. However, when I went to the consulate in Guangzhou to submit the original I-130 application, the officer collected the notarized copy of our marriage certificate and said that he needed to keep it. Does this mean that we need to get our marriage certificate notarized a second time? - Do we need ti notarize both marriage certificates or just one? Birth Certificates - The instructions also saw that her notarized birth certificate "must state the date, place of birth, and names of both parents," but the notarized copy we got (got it done before seeing these instructions) doesn't include the date and place of birth of her parents. It just includes their names and Chinese ID numbers. Do we need to get another notarized birth certificate with the exact information or will the one we already have be fine? - Does she need to bring my US birth certificate? I am her husband and petitioner, a U.S. citizen. Police Certificates - We are a little confused where to go to get this and what it is called in Chinese. If someone could provide the Chinese for where we need to go and what to tell them we need, that would be great! vs ֤ vs ֤ We are in Hangzhou if that matters. - I assume we need to get this notarized as well? Medical Examination - My wife will likely need to get all of the vaccines required, since she has no records of previous vaccinations. Is it possible to get all of them done at once or does she need to wait a day between getting vaccinations? - We will be in Beijing for around 4 days, will that be enough time to get the medical examination done and receive the sealed medical report? Evidence of Support - I am filling out the I-864. Part Two (Information on the Principal Immigrant) requires us to fill in a mailing address, but it does not allow us to put in a Chinese address (for example the zip code box is limited to 5 numbers but the zip codes in China are 6 numbers). Am I supposed to fill out my address in the US for this? - The form asks for her A-Number, but I do not think she has an A-Number. Are we supposed to have one by this point? - The instructions say that she should bring my most recent Federal income tax return, but I see here that people suggest bringing the returns for the past 3 years. Does it make a difference? Also, would it help if she brought my employment contract for a new job I will be starting in August in the US? Thank you so much for the help, we really appreciate it!