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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.)

Thanks, Randy. Whew, I was really losing a lot of sleep over this ("denied" nightmares), so I'm glad I asked. As for "bonefide", we've been married for 5 years and have 2 kids (US citizens) so the relationship has definitely been "consummated" (I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw that listed as a requirement on the US site somewhere.) We'll just leave the G-325A as is (rather than risk delaying by resubmitting it, if that's even possible), put "teacher" "self" on the DS-160 as a second occupation along with "homemaker", and if they ask about the diff with the G-325A we can explain and bring the updated G-325A at the time of the interview in case they want it. Thanks for the heads up about the new form. I'm pretty sure we used the "old" I-130 because while we filed on March 1, I downloaded the form from the site 1-2 weeks before that. They accepted it without questions. Thanks again for taking the time to respond not only to me, but all the others you've helped on this forum.

My wife is non-Chinese, we live in China (I am employed here). For various reasons we have to plan out the timetable for our application process as best we can. So I wanted to confirm rough time frames for what I understand to be the various stages: Stage 1 - We filed the I-130 in Beijing and were told it takes "3 months" for them to process it and send to Guangzhou. But I saw a post online from one applicant that had it processed in 10 days. Another person online said 1 month. So is the "3 months" the standard answer and actually it's more like one month? Stage 2- Once GZ receives the case, how long does it usually take for them to issue a case number? Stage 3 - Once we have the GZ case number and can submit the DS260, roughly how long before we're told we can book an interview (assuming no problems of course) Stage 4 - After we are approved to book an interview, how long does it usually take to get the interview? I read someone said 3.5 months - that was a year ago. Any recent experience? Stage 5 - After the interview, how long does it take to get the passport back (I read 2 weeks). Thank you!

I'm referring here to the interview in Guangzhou. My wife (beneficiary) is non-Chinese, so she needs her passport to travel back from GZ to Beijing after the interview. So I'm wondering how long she'd have to plan on staying in GZ to get her passport back after the interview. I read on this forum that apparently you can take your passport back after the interview and then once you travel back home (ie. Beijing), then mail it to GZ for final processing. Any idea how long that takes and if it delays things? I'm trying to figure out the whole timetable in advance due to various other factors. Thank you.

First of all, I want to say thank you for this forum! I just came across it and it's invaluable. In fact, I wish I had known about it earlier. My wife is non-Chinese, and we live in China. We have two young children. I'm employed in China, my wife is not. We have two young children so she's busy with that. On the G235A form, employment record, for the period we've been in China, we put "none", as technically she's not employed. However, in addition to homeschooling our preschool son, this has evolved into a class of children of Chinese friends and neighbors who are the same age, who she teaches together. It's grown into an informal business of sorts that she wanted to turn into an actual registered business but could never get the legal paperwork sorted out to make that happen. Over the years, she's also privately taught classes to children of different friends off and on. She's never taught at a school or ESL center or anything like that (legally or otherwise), just privately with friends/friends-of-friends. So on the one hand, she's not employed, but on the other hand, she's self-employed, depending on how "employment" is defined. So under "employer" we put "none" on the G325A, but now I'm thinking that's a mistake and we should have put "self (teacher)". What got me thinking about this was the DS260 it asks for Occupation, which is more clear that in her case it's teacher (she worked as a teacher before coming to China and was going to work at a school here, but got pregnant almost right after we got here and had 2 kids since, so somewhat ironically never worked as a teacher at a school in China). So on DS260 I think we should put "teacher" and "homemaker" as her 2 occupations, with "self" as the explanation under teacher, and say she's done private classes. But then the DS260 and the G325A wouldn't match up, so that's when I realized we should probably have put "self" on the G325A instead of "none". (As an aside, in China, her teaching other children, even informally and privately, is technically illegal, or at least a legal grey area, much like doing any kind of freelance work in China, even if legally employed, is technically illegal or at least grey. At least that's my understanding. But I doubt if that's of any concern to the US CIS. My main concern is that our application is truthful -- I wouldn't want her application to get denied for "false information". And in the interview she wants to be truthful as well, of course. I mean sure, these are private lessons, there are no legal records of any employment by anyone, etc., and yeah, she could just say she's a mom that homeschools her children (all true) and leave it at that. But if they ask for more details we don't want her to lie. We just filed the I-130 (with the G-325A) last week, but I'm thinking we should correct it and submit a new one. My questions are: - how to correct the G325A? Do I bring an updated version to the CIS office? Do I submit the corrected version with the DS160? Bring it to the interview? - any advice on the correct answer to "employer" ("self" or "none") - am I overthinking this? Thanks in advance.