djkasumi

September 22nd, 2015 - Passport is ready to be picked up.

Thanks all. The visa and passport went to "Processing for delivery" yesterday. We think it'll be ready to pickup maybe by Wednesday this upcoming week.

DCF Guangzhou Timeline: August 14th, 2015 - Filed I-130 at Guangzhou Consulate (DCF) August 19th, 2015 - I-130 approved August 31st, 2015 - I-130 Approval Letter received September 1st, 2015 - Received e-mailed from Visa Unit / State Department September 1st, 2015 - Completed DS-260 and turned in documents to the CITIC Bank in Guangzhou just before closing September 4th, 2015 - Received second e-mail in response to documents being received and directing us to schedule appointment, etc. September 8th, 2015 - Completed medical exam in Guangzhou September 11th, 2015 - Picked up medical packet September 15th, 2015 - Went to interview, approved September 16th, 2015 - CEAC says "Visa Issued" , now waiting to go pick it up at the "fast" CITIC bank in GZ! So we went from filing an I-130 to "visa issued" in a little over one month. It was nice to see things going quicker than expected Originally we scheduled the wife's interview in October, but got lucky by stealing another date earlier in September. Don't give up checking the CGI website if you in a rush for earlier interview dates. I might even suggest creating a second account so that you can check available dates without hitting the "Reschedule Appointment" page refresh limit (yes, there really is a per day limit). Interview Items: FIRST, the ones that the consulate actually TOOK, the most important docs! Interview Appointment Confirmation E-mailWife's PassportAmerican Marriage Certificate"White Book" ֤ Police Certificate"White Book" ֤ Birth CertificatePetitioner's I-864 with 1040-EZs and letter explaining why I had not previously filed taxesCosponsor's I-864 with W2s and 1040sCosponsor's Proof of Citizenship (Passport Copy)Medical Packet SECOND, all other docs we took were not taken or EVEN LOOKED at by the doc intake people or the officer, including: DS-260 Confirmation Letter (this was taken in the first document drop-off at CITIC, don't know why they say bring it again)Wife's resume (Eng & Chinese)Photos and proof of relationshipLetters regarding plans in the US"Proof" of domicile, which I had used my student ID and credit card information, along with supporting letters from my familyMy (petitioner's) own passport I surmise that the reason they didn't care about this stuff was that because they still had some of these documents that came from our I-130 packet... Interview Day: Arrive at GZ consulate at 8:35 AM, appointment time on e-mail is 8:40 AM Immediately go through the 1st line past Chinese police CGI Workers only checked my wife's appointment letter because she was "late" or "just on time" for the appointment Spent only 5 to 10 minutes in security line, my wife then went through to the consulate building and headed up to the 3rd floor She took her passport and appointment e-mail again to the 1st window to get her # in line Wait for her number to be called for document intake, the person asked her to give the docs one by one Asked my wife to go to 2nd floor and pay, so she did, and then came back Went back to the same window where doc intake person was, gave them the receipt Go wait in area B for her number to be called again Go to new window for interview, first take fingerprints Raise both hands and party... just kidding, my wife didn't realize she was asking her to swear Officer talked to her and asked questions (English) -- my wife also notes that if you even say "hi" or "good morning" the officer will probably automatically assume your English is good enough for the entire interview "When did you get married?" (Last year)"Where did you meet your husband?""Do you live in Guangzhou?" (Because my wife mentioned we met in Chongqing, which is her hometown)"What does your husband do?" (my wife suggested the CO comes to play ultimate frisbee with us...)"Have you been to America before?" (Yes, my wife attended Kansas State University before)"Where will you live in America then, in Oregon?" (Yep)"Who is your co-sponsor?" (My father in law)"Here, you're approved" (Thanks!) And then she was all done and left. She walked out of the consulate probably around 9:50. A grand total of 1 hour 10 minutes approximately. Other Random Comments (NOTE: this all applies to Guangzhou specifically, can't speak for other places) My wife thinks the medical is a complete sham and was super disappointed with that (I agree)... she says the yearly university medical exams are even more rigorous and cost 1/100th of the price. Medical center people are more picky about visa style photos, even more picky than the US consulate people themselves (re-printed 8 photos) Definitely fill out the medical forms BEFORE you go to the medical center and get a number ... and GO EARLY! No need to make an appointment online Notarization can be a pain in China, often times it will NEED to be done back in your spouses hometown. Do it early (but not TOO early, the police one is only valid for a short period of time) -- or be ready to have family do it for you (with appropriate documents left behind for them, such as ID card ) Good luck to everyone else! Thanks for all the help we got reading posts here!

If you / your wife are ready for the interview, be sure to periodically check back on the CGI website - you can always secure an earlier interview date! Tell her to go do the medical ASAP and prepare other things just in case you can get an earlier date! My wife and I originally got one on Oct 6th or something, but eventually switched to today, Sept 15th. The CGI website shows the earliest appointment right now is the 19th of Oct, but I bet some September dates will open up again. Yesterday I saw availability for the 21st (next Monday). So, these opportunities exist, just gotta look out for them as other people cancel and/or switch dates.

Wife's interview was approved today! Was pretty confident it would be no problem going into it and my wife reports that it was very easy. We'll write a "full report" in the interview results forum later on this week maybe. After arriving at the consulate, the full process took about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Her actual talk with the officer was 5 to 10 minutes, like most other people report. Hope to see that passport with the visa soon

Guangzhou notary refused and said no matter what it was impossible. We only need the birth certificate and police certificate, because we got married in the US. Anyway, so we mailed the docs back to Chongqing (Kaixian) for my mother-in-law to get the notarization done for us... and the people there want to charge 1600RMB for translation and notarization. Pretty sure they're just trying to cheat my MIL, because others on Baidu and such claim that the price should be in the range of like ~400-500 per document (including notarization fee and translation fee). But, nothing can be done about that it seems. In case anyone needs to know -- and as others have said on this forum -- if you have someone go do notarization on your behalf, then you should write a letter explaining that you allow them to do so and provide your Chinese ID / passport as well. Anywho, looks like we'll be able to get it all mailed back here in time before the interview. Wife's interview is currently set for next week.

Ok, so our latest problem is this: my wife got her police certificate and birth certificate from home in Chongqing, but we live in Guangzhou... We went to one of the local Guangzhou Notaries (Gong Zheng Chu) and heres the issue: the "registered" translation company can translate the documents and then the notary people can stamp it, but according to my wife who went there today (I was at work so I didn't hear this personally), this is NOT the same as an official "gong zheng" notarization who will write a separate document or something that explains the content of the birth certificate (or other document). In contrast, the translation people would simply directly translate any words on the document, then the notarization place will stamp it and say their translation is approved. Are both of these methods ok? Because they said if we want them to write a separate statement (that style), then we have to take them or mail them back to Chongqing to do that...

Thanks for all the info!!! And congrats on the successful interview! We live in GZ anyway, so dropping off the DS-260 and part 1 of documents at the CITIC Bank on Tuesday evening resulted in an email from the consulate that arrived today around 3pm China time. Not too bad. This e-mail was the confirmation that we can now schedule an interview and such. So we rushed to the CGI website and scheduled an appointment initially for Oct 6... super disappointed because we saw that Sept 9th was available only less than a day ago! I called CGI and asked about it and they confirmed that Oct 6 was currently the earliest available... the only choice was to refresh the page and wait for someone to cancel. And luck would have it that someone cancelled on Sept 14th, so we took that immediately. We'd still like to "steal" an earlier date, but the CGI Reschedule Website actually warns you that you can only view the Reschedule page a limited number of times. Who knows if we'll be able to pick up something earlier. So now that we've got the appointment good to go, we'll be heading off to do the medical next week Monday or Tuesday. My parents (co-sponsors) documents from the US will also arrive at that time, next week Monday most likely.

Thanks again guys. So, I should be a little more patient. The email from IVU came at 11am China time. We immediately got to work on the DS-260 and finished all of the first step, then took those documents to the Zhujiang Xincheng CITIC Bank 20 minutes before closing for drop-off. Initially the DS-260 system gave an error about unmatched case numbers and invoice numbers, but after a few hours, it was fine. Also the IVU people actually got my wife's last name wrong too, but after using the e-mail form on the website, they responded and fixed it within 1 day. Looking forward to the response and next step after DS-260.

Thanks for the help! So, we've just today received the letter from USCIS in Guangzhou that the I-130 was approved! It was approved within 5 days (filed on August 14, approved August 19), but the notice only came today. Of course, it says that the DoS people will contact us, but we've heard nothing, no e-mails or anything yet. Even with a signed G-1145 e-notification paper they never sent a text message or e-mail... Can't call the consulate today, so I'll try and call them tomorrow. It's nice to see that the I-130 part went quickly, just hope that means the DoS or Immigration Visa Unit guys will be fast too...

So I filed my wife's I-130 in Guangzhou a few days ago. So I have a few questions about what will come next. Can the medical exam be done in advance? I've read some conflicting information. First, I read that you don't need an appointment to do the medical for starters. But, while this may be true, I also read that you must have your interview with the IV unit scheduled before you can go do the medical. Then on the "US Travel Docs" website it says that the medical must be done 2 weeks before your interview. So... what's the real situation? Can my wife go do the medical now even though the I-130 is still being processed? Next up, we have read that she will be asked to provide documents such as criminal history, birth certificate, hukou, etc. Is this info still up to date? She already got the criminal history letter from the police at her registered hukou, and she got a copy of her birth certificate... but is she really gonna need to notarize/translate the hukou sheet as well? Anything else besides these 3 documents? The I-864 stuff I'm feeling ok about, I'm filling out my copy and my parents who are joint-sponsoring have already done theirs. When my parents mail their I-864 over here to China, they will just need the original signed form, copy of their passport(s), and copies of tax returns, yes? Thanks in advance! EDIT: One last quesiton, what are the other fee amounts we should be expecting? I know of the 1100 RMB medical, the visa fee of 160 USD, what else is there that I'm missing?