unknownusername

Thanks @thelocaldialect. The interview went well and they told my wife her visa was approved! We mailed back her passport via CITIC (we needed it to travel to Beijing) and are now waiting ("administrative processing"). We opted for EMS as I figured the courier would be less of a stickler for the rules than the teller at the bank. If it comes after I leave for the US she'll try picking it up using the photocopy of her passport. If they refuse then she'll ask a Chinese friend to come over with their ID and just write out a piece of paper authorizing them to receive it for her. We shall see.

Right. That's the illogical part. The instructions on the CGI website say: "To collect your passport you must present your original (not a photocopy) government-issued photo ID. We strongly recommend you also bring a printed copy of your appointment letter that contains your UID number." However, in the same breath it says: If a representative is collecting your passport from the document collection office on your behalf, even in case of family members, the representative must present: Their own original government-issued photo ID for identification;A photocopy of your government-issued photo ID; and,A letter of authority,So someone else can pick it up for her with only a photocopy of her passport, but she can't pick it up herself with only a photocopy of her passport?!? She has her Japanese birth certificate but it doesn't have a photo on it. The only other possibility is my FEC (Chinese foreign expert certificate / work permit) which is actually my ID but it has a page for each member of my family with photo, name & passport #. Logically, all that would suffice but was just checking to see what experiences others have had and how sticky CITIC or EMS is on this issue. Obviously it's not a problem for Chinese as they can just show their Chinese ID card. So it's mostly for foreigners who are applying from within China. (I think I'll just go to the CITIC bank and ask them what they'll accept. The main thing is I'm trying to decide whether it'll be less problematic getting the passport back through CITIC or through EMS, because I have to choose that before the interview.)

PS: In reading through the CGI site, it's pretty clear that you need a government issued ID to either pick up your passport from the CITIC bank or receive it by courier. Which does create a catch-22 situation if your only gov issued ID is your passport. :S My wife doesn't have any other gov. issued ID from her home country. She does have a page in my FEC with her name and photo, so maybe they'll accept that as a gov issued ID? (I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers, but I probably won't be here at that time as I need to travel to the US.)

My wife (not Chinese) will have her interview in Guangzhou on Monday. She's has to fly back to Beijing so we'll take her passport and then mail it back to GZ via CITIC as others have mentioned. Then they'll mail it back to her via CITIC as well. But something just dawned on me: How will she be able to pick up her passport from the CITIC Bank without a passport to identify herself to the bank? Does the GZ Embassy give you some sort of paper to use to identify yourself to CITIC to retrieve your passport? Just worried about winding up in a catch-22 situation here. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

Hi. This is just to update some information previously posted about doing the medical check in Beijing after I spent some time on the phone with the clinic. The procedure (and location) of the clinic has changed, and currently: - an online appointment is required. When I went to book one, they were booked out one week in advance. So plan ahead. Go here: http://tjyy.bithc.bjciq.gov.cn/en/Appoint_Center.html - it takes 5 working days to get results. There is no express service or way to get them sooner. You can receive the results by courier. - For foreigners: if your passport is in for Chinese visa renewal and you have the yellow paper from the Beijing Entry-Exit Bureau, the clinic will NOT accept it. You have to have your original passport. (On the other hand, the GZ clinic told me over the phone they would accept the yellow paper.) - full instructions here: http://www.bithc.org.cn/ithcweb/bithc/fwfw/fmymtj/fmymtjxz/7724.jsp - We're in a situation where the earlier appointment available is a week from now but we need to do the medical on Monday (because my wife's passport needs to go in for Chinese visa renewal). After some pleading on the phone, the clinic agreed to let us come in on next Monday with a print out of the appointment for next Friday (earliest available date) in hand. We'll go on Monday and fingers crossed that they keep their word. YMMV. They in any case absolutely require an online appointment so that your information is in the computer system.

I was just on the phone with the hospital in GZ as I'm also trying to find out whether I can get the results the next day (or same day). The lady categorically said that was impossible and the quickest I could receive the results was 4 working days. I told her others said they had received it the same day or next day, but she was adamant. Perhaps the policy has changed. She also said that it's not possible to come without an appointment. These are the numbers I called: 广东国际旅行卫生保健中心（总部） 020-87537322,87548300

Heads up for Mac users: I just discovered (through trial and error) that you can't fill out the I-864 form on a Mac using Preview. The barcode at the bottom of the page won't appear and some of the fields won't fill in correctly. You must you fill it out using Acrobat Reader.

Thanks! I was hoping this would be an option, and I sent a note asking if we could do that, but didn't hear back. I sent the question via the "feedback" option on the CGI site -- is that the best way to contact the GZ office?

So, we received the notice that we can go ahead and book an appointment, and when logging in, only dates for the next couple of weeks show as available. Actually, when I logged in this morning, the only available dates were May 4, 9-11. When I logged in again now, dates the following week now appear (May 17,18). There are no available dates in the months after that (all the way to the end of the year). It's great dates are available so soon, but we can't book an appointment until July (because we have to get a police report from my wife's home country and it takes 2 months to get it and her embassy wouldn't let her apply for it until she had the paper from the US embasy saying she needed it). So my question is, do dates become available later on? In other words, next week dates will "free up" one month from now, etc.? How does one book an appointment later than the dates that show now? It can't be that these are the only available dates until the end of the year. Screenshot:

Got it. I thought you were talking about my domicile in the US while living abroad, not my intended domicile once we move to the US (that I have sorted out already). Thanks again.

Thanks. Since I've been employed outside the US for the past few years, I don't have any W2s or 1099s. In that case, is it better that I get the official IRS transcripts rather than copies of my returns? I also haven't maintained a domicile in the US. That isn't a requirement, right? (It doesn't seem to be judging by form I-864). I'm in discussions about a job in the US when we move there from China (this summer, providing green card comes through). If that job comes through, I'll have a letter from my new employer. If it doesn't come through, then one of my siblings will be a co-sponsor. In either of those cases, my US domicile shouldn't be an issue, right? Thanks.

I'm trying to order transcripts of my tax returns from the IRS website, but the website isn't working. (I live in China.) I was wondering if for the interview I can submit copies of my original returns (the last 2 years I used TurboTax online and can generate a transcript from there), or do they require the actual "IRS transcript"? If the latter, do they have to be originals? My plan B is to order paper copies of the transcripts (which the IRS website allows me to do) and have them sent to relatives in the US and they would take pictures or scan and send them to me to print out.

My wife has no immunization record (and doesn't think she ever got any as a child anyway), so needs to get immunized. We'd like to get it taken care of ahead of the medical exam so she doesn't have to get so many done at once. We live in Beijing. (My wife is not Chinese.) Do the immunizations have to be done at a particular hospital/clinic in Beijing, or can we have them done at any government or foreign hospital, and simply bring those records to the medical exam? Anyone have experience with this in Beijing? Thank you.

And if you leave your passport in GZ, it takes about 2 weeks, right?

Thanks. In your reply, (2-12 months) are you referring to stage 4 (booking the interview after DS160 filing is approved) - or all 5 stages? You see, because my wife is Japanese, Beijing CIS told us we could do the process/interview there instead (fly there from Beijing for the interview). So I'm trying to see if the process is faster in Japan than in China (my hunch is that there are many more applicants from China so it'll be faster in Japan, but I have no data to back that up; I'm asking about Japan times on other forums.)