Bill610051

We submitted DS-260 around July 29 and received email from Guangzhou with instructions to proceed on August 6 Hope this helps. Bill

We just finished the interview at Guangzhou today. I can offer you the following based on our experience... We arrived in GZ on Saturday 8-29. Prior to arriving, I had used a link from this forum to make an appointment for the medical exam http://www.gdwbzx.com/Booking/SelectModule.aspx Please note that one may only make an appointment for up to five days in advance... you will need to wait until you have planned your visit to GZ, then go on that page and make the appointment. That being said, the advance appointment was more or less worthless. We planned to go to the medical center on Monday 8-31 and we arrived at 7:20am, there were about 15 people in line at the time in the 5th floor lobby at the elevators. They opened the doors to the office at 7:35am and we all lined up at the reception desk, very orderly by Chinese standards. My wife was given a paper with the number 18, her "advance appointment" number had been 25, so we ditched the appointment paper. Make sure you bring all the confirmation emails you received from GZ, as I had to go back to our hotel and retrieve one I had not chosen to bring to the medical exam. We also had to get new "passport" photos because they said the head size was not correct, so another delay and short visit to a photo shop on the first floor. We got out at about 10am, and the paper they gave my wife said to pick up the medical report at 3pm on Wednesday 9-2. The interview at the consulate was scheduled for the next day, 9-3, so they wait until the last minute to give you the report, as mentioned elsewhere on this forum. The immigrant visa fee of $325 mentioned above can be paid at the interview, just make sure you have cash in rmb, they would not permit using any debit or credit cards, even UnionPay. The papers we prepared for the interview included wife's police criminal report, birth certificate, marriage certificate, prior marriage termination papers, and resume of wife's school/work history. These will all be in Chinese and you will need certified translations to English. You will also need a completed I-864 form with supporting documents. All of these are listed in an email from GZ with convenient little check off boxes. We also took copies of all these documents. Although she had many photos of us together, the visa officer didn't look at any of them. She also had the two required passport photos, but those were ignored too. I scheduled my wife's immigration interview following GZ's guidance and instructions. It was set for 8:40am on Sept3 and we arrived outside the consulate at 8:20am, walked right past the guards without them asking a single question or looking at her papers and lined up at the door to the CIS entry to the left of where all the other folks were waiting in line (see photos for clarification elsewhere on this forum). There were only six or so other people waiting and my wife's papers (the GZ and CGI Stanley docs) were checked and they attached a pre-printed sticky with her name, etc to her papers and she was admitted to the staging area, then on to the 3rd floor for the interview. Relatives are not permitted to accompany the applicant. There were two female visa officers present for my wife's interview, one to assist with translation apparently. She was asked about ten questions, almost all related to our relationship and family history... how many times had I/she been married before, how many children did I/she have, what did I do for a living, where was I born, how many years had we been married, how many times had I traveled back to the US during our seven-year marriage, etc. My main concern regarding her ability to get a visa centered on the I-864 sponsorship papers. I am retired and living solely on my SSA benefit check, which does not meet the US poverty level for a family of two. I also had not filed IRS tax returns for the past seven years due to income lower than the amount necessary to file a return. I hoped to overcome these obstacles by 1)submitting copies of an IRS worksheet for the past three years showing that I was not required to file and 2)bank statements showing we, together, had sufficient monies to make up for the shortfall in income. Since my wife had her visa approved, these explanations were apparently adequate. Regarding staying in GZ, there is an apartment rental building within two blocks of the medical center and three from the consulate that we booked for seven nights for 1836rmb. Name of the place is Huamei apartments and I booked it on Travelocity. Just make sure you show them a copy of the confirmation, otherwise they will try to jack the price up. We stayed there for both the June 11 visit when I filed the I-130, and this week for the visa interview. Sorry this is so long, hope it is helpful. You can email me at yazzart@yahoo.com if you have any questions. And good luck!! Bill

A little background first... My wife has her interview scheduled for September 3. We will arrive in Guangzhou on August 29 and plan to go to the medical exam on August 31. I found a helpful link in a previous post regarding making an appointment in advance to lessen the chaos at the entry to the medical exam. http://www.gdwbzx.com/Booking/SelectModule.aspx My problem is rgarding the address for the medical center in Guangzhou. The above-mentioned link, when clicking "make an appointment", pops up a notice that says the address is NO.207, Longkouxi Road, Guangzhou. However, other information on this website, and in a download from CGI Stanley, says the address is 5/F East Tower, Poly Bld, No. 59 Huali Road, Zhujiang New Town, Guangzhou. I'm hesitant to make an appointment due to this conflict in the address. Any advice would be appreciated. Btw, I filed the I-130 on June 11 in Guangzhou. Being able to schedule the interview for September 3, to me, is nothing short of remarkable. Bill