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Note that this thread is dated 2017, except for the Most Recent Posts Hello all I filed IR1 DCF for my husband on March 23rd. Turned in the DS260 the following week, and got an email last week that we could schedule the interview. The whole thing happened extremely fast, much faster than either of us were expecting! We scheduled his interview for May 25th, which makes the process for the whole thing just a bit over 3 months. My main question is regarding the trip to Guangzhou and the interview process. I keep seeing references on this site to "document intake date" etc., but am I correct in surmising that this was the old process, and now we do not need to schedule a separate appointment for document intake, that it will happen before his interview? How about paying the fees that need to be paid before the interview? Are those also paid just before the interview itself? He will go to Guangzhou and do his medical exam this week, which should give him enough time to get the results in time for the interview. Presuming the interview goes well and they ask for his passport, any idea currently how long it will take before he has a visa in his passport? I'm sure this has been asked loads of times already, so apologies in advance if I'm being redundant, and thanks for any clarity you all can provide!

So I have a question for people who can remember the time they were scheduling the interview in Guangzhou - I'm looking at the calendar right now and see quite a few open dates for December. However I'm still waiting on getting an I-864 sent over here from a relative in America, and this calendar is a bit worrisome. Basically, it has a lot of days for December open but January and February say "unavailable" and are un-clickable. I"m not sure if this is just because those dates haven't opened yet, if the website is just coded very poorly, or if the office is closed during that time, or all the appointments were taken or what. When you were scheduling, were future months available/ clickable on this interface? Does it appear that January and February are all booked? Here's an attachment for what I am seeing just for reference: http://imageshack.com/a/img924/5120/NKIoxg.jpg

Here is the process of documents hand-in and interview which happened on my interview day. Hope it helpful for you. I will post my interview details later. The Day of Documents Hand-in. 1. Get into a line in front of the building where Guangzhou Consulate locates. At about 12:20pm, start to go inside the building. Security guards check your passport and visa appointment letter, and give you a greenblue card. 2. Get up to the fourth floor by elevator. There are security guards who check your passport and visa appointment letter again, and take away the greenblue card. 3. Get up to the fifth floor by elevator and turn right. Here is security check. Turn off all electronic devices and hand them to the guards (they will keep them for you and return them to you when you leave. You can bring purse, backpack, food, water and even luggage into the consulate). Take off your shoes and belt, and pass the security door. 4. Turn right (there is a direction sign on the wall). A person there takes away your visa appointment letter and gives you a number. 5. Be seated and wait your number to be called. The number is not called in order. It is called according to your visa type based on my observation. How do they do it? Remember they have your visa appointment letter. 6. There are 14 windows open to take documents at the beginning, then 12 and another two for fingerprint. All officers are Chinese and they speak Mandarin and Cantonese. They are nice and patient. Documents hand-in may take 5-10 minutes. Some may take more time especially for elder applicants. Besides taking-in documents, the officers also ask some questions. At the end, they give your visa appointment letter back with the number nailed on it and a stamp telling you come back for interview on the next day at 7:30am. 7. Be seated and wait your number to be called for fingerprints. Fingerprint is at window 17 and 18. After fingerprint, it is done for the day! The Day of Interview 1. Get into a line in front of the building where Guangzhou Consulate locates. About 7:15am, start to go inside the building. Same as the process on the day of documents hand-in and get into the consulate. The only difference is that no number is assigned. 2. Be seated and wait. About 8:30am, all stand up and swear an oath to tell the truth at the interview. Then the interview starts. 3. Wait your number be called. The number is not called in order. Applicants with little babies/children and elder applicants are called first based on my observation. It is very thoughtful!! 4. There are 8 windows open and all officers are Americans. If there is a difficulty of communication between officers and applicants, there will be a Chinese officer as interpreters. It is typically for elder applicants. 5. The interview averagely takes about 10-15 minutes. Some may take less or more time. In my case, questions they ask are point-to-point because all cases may have been reviewed before the interview and some information was collected at the day of documents hand-in. I think it increases efficiency and accuracy of the interview. If you get a blue slip and have questions you can go to window number 30 to inquire. Good luck with your interview!!

Greetings: My Wife's son (step-son) is going through the final stages preparing for his interview on 23rd of June for his CR-2 Visa. The process has changed a lot and I've searched the forums here for any recent information pertaining to the consulate process for CR-2 Visa. So far he's getting his medical scheduled at which time he is required to bring the Following: 5 Visa Style Passport PhotosThe Guangzhou IV Appointment letter received via emailShot RecordsPassportQuestions: Is he required to bring the DS-260 Confirmation Page ?Appointment Confirmation Page?Finally I've heard of a "document turn day" what is that ? I've tried to find this information within any of the documents that we have received from the consulate, I've also tried to find any information on the CGI website, (http://www.ustraveldocs.com/) but yet found no information about a "document turn in day". I'll be traveling to his interview but my wife will remain in the US. Any other information would be appreciated. Dan Seattle

My wife will have her interview July 10. Will I be allowed inside the consulate? We will have her medical exam on July 3. So we should have everything ready. Thank you

Checklist for Interview 1. I-864 2. I-864 Dad 3. Affidavits a. Mom b. Dad c. sister 4. My Passport 5. My Chinese wife’s Passport 6. My Chinese wife’s Police Certificate 7. My Chinese wife’s t Birth Certificate 8. My Chinese wife’s marriage status 9. My Chinese wife’s marriage certificate 10. My marriage certificate 11. Seven passport photos of my Chinese wife 12. Emails from Guangzhou a. April 14, 2017 email I-130 and I-130a approved Complete DS-260 b. April 18, 2017 email DS-260 has been submitted c. April 25, 2017 email Immigrant Visa Instructions 13. DS-260 confirmation page 14. Relationship Letter 15. Collage of Pictures Is this good? Thank you.

Hi...Is anyone aware of any extraordinary situations right now in Guangzhou that may be affecting Wait Times for K1 Visa Issuance? I know that each case is different but after my fiance was told that she was approved during her interview her visa was held up in Admin Processing for a month as shown on the CEAC site. It turned to Ready over a week ago but hasn't changed. I emailed them and was told that computer issues had slowed down the process but my fiance is acquainted with others who interviewed later than her and they have already received their visas so our concern is growing. Plus I really can't find any good information on what 'Ready' really means for those who already interviewed. Does anyone have any insight? Thank you.

I have a question about DCF in Guangzhou. I have talked to the people that work at Guangzhou. They have told me my wife who is a Chinese citizen can come in the building with me when I file our I-130 form. I always thought a Chinese citizen could not come in the building until it's time for the interview. Thank you

Good day, My interview day is coming up soon and there are couple things i am not sure about, so please tell me if i understood everything correctly: 1) Security regulations says that its not allowed to bring your mobile phone with you, but if my memory is fine, i remember that at the entrance of the Consulate there are some lockers where i could leave my phone and bag, can anyone confirm if i am right? 2) if i understood correctly, i do not have to pay anything at the Consulate on the day of the interview, but later, when the visa is in the pasport( but i am not yet at the USA) i must pay the USCIS immigrant fee, is that correct? Thank you for your help, Natalia

Some Pictures of the New Consulate The New Consulate of the United States in Guangzhou is located in Zhujiang New Town, along Huaxia Road, Zhujiang New Town, (near Exit B1 of the Zhujiang New Town subway station, Line 3 and Line 5), across from the Flowers City Square. This area is highlighted by the small blue oval roughly in the center of this map The Flowers City Square is outlined by the red highlighting, the consulate compound by the blue highlighting to the lower left of the Flowers City Square, and the "Great Hall", where most (if not all) of their business with the public (visas and ACS) is conducted is highlighted in green in the northeast corner of the consulate compound (click on the image to see a larger version).

I noticed that on my Immigrant Document Summary, the Final address in the U.S. contains old address instead of the updated/new address. We had the DS-260 updated with the new address but somehow this change is not reflected on Immigrant Document Summary sheet. Did anyone had the similar situation? How can we correct this? I have read in forums that we should update this at the POE. For some it worked and for some it still turned out that GC and SSN were sent to the wrong addresses. Are there any other ways which can confirm that GC and SSN would be sent to the correct/new/updated address?

So I've looked around the forums, and I see that it is possible to directly go in for the medical, you don't even need an appointment, though it is recommended, and do the medical. My question is as to this process. My wife has absolutely no records of any vaccines or anything. Will they be able to do the blood work and give her everything she needs to pass the interview right then and there? Like, will it be one visit, we pay for every vaccine and test, then get the results a day or two later then take them to the interview? I saw that part of the blood test is to check for cumunicable deseses, It says if they have it but show something from a doctor that says it has been healed or tho medication has been started it will be fine. However I'm worried about false positives as it is something she contracted years ago but received medication for and doesn't have. Sometimes it still shows up in the blood work because the antibodies remain. What should we do about this? We plan on going to a local hospital first, getting a test. If it shows up, we plan on starting the medication and getting a note saying she did. But what should it say? Would any hospital and doctors note work for this? I just haven't found much information on this subject. We plan on going in for the medical on Monday or Tuesday morning, and have her interview scheduled for Thursday. I think this should be enough time right? Also, what kind of questions should my wife prepare to be asked in the interview? It can be done in Mandarin right? Our language of communication is Mandarin, but she has some basic English. I'm afraid she won't be able to pass any of the questions or understand, especially if she is nervous, if they use English. This should be it for questions. I can't believe everything has been so quick! Paperwork submitted on April 12, interview on May 19...we have been blessed! Hoping our luck doesn't run out!

Eventually, my spouse will be interviewed in Guangzhou for IR1, and will bring all of the originals and photocopies necessary. Our case number begins with GUZ. We both reside in China. I'm the sponsor and putting together the Financial Documents aka I-864 aka Affidavit of Support. My immigrant spouse is gathering the Supporting Documents aka IV aka Immigrant Visa packet. All of the above will be organized and delivered together at one time. Looking at the NVC website below, it appears we have a choice of processing, or we can decide how to submit our documents: email or mail I haven't noticed this question being addressed, so I wanted to check to make sure I'm understanding it correctly. To me, it seems that organizing and submitting PDFs by email will be easier than mailing printouts. I want to double check that DCF really can do email processing. Step 6: Submit Documents to the NVCAfter you collect your Affidavit of Support form(s) and financial evidence in Step 4, and supporting documents in Step 5, you must submit all of your forms, financial evidence, and photocopies of your original civil documents inONE package to the NVC. Your case may be significantly delayed if you fail to submit all of your documents in one package. Review the methods below, and choose the one that applies to your case. Method 1: Email processing If your NVC case number begins with one of the following prefixes: AKDAMMDMSGZOMEPSAAScan and email your financial forms and evidence, supporting documents, and translations to nvcelectronic@state.gov. Please place your case number in the subject line of the email and keep your attachments below five megabytes (MB). If you have more than one case, use a different email message for each case. For more information, review our Document Scanning FAQs. Method 2: Choice of processing If Your NVC Case Number Begins With And Your Visa Category Is You Can Choose Either MTL Any immigrant visa category Email Processing or Mail Processing GUZ CR1, CR2, F1, F2A, F2B, F3, F4, IR1, IR2 or IR5 Email Processing or Mail Processing BNS, FRN, HNK, RDJ, or SYD IR1, IR2, IR5, CR1, or CR2 Email Processing or Mail Processing Important: Once you select a method, you cannot switch methods later in the process. Method 3: Mail processing If neither Method 1: Email processing nor Method 2: Choice of processing applies to your case, mail your financial forms and evidence, supporting documents, translations, and photocopies, with the Document Cover Sheet included with your NVC Welcome Letter, to the following address: National Visa Center Attn: DR 31 Rochester Ave. Suite 100 Portsmouth, NH 03801-2914 NVC cannot accept documents saved on any form of electronic media, including CDs and memory cards. If you send any electronic media to NVC, we will return it to you unopened. Please allow 30 days for NVC to review your forms and documents once they are received. We will let you know if there are additional items required or if we have received all the requested documentation. http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/immigrant-process/documents/Submit_documents.html

Hey everyone! We just got back from Guangzhou so I figured I'd share our experience over the past few days to help those going through the process now... The perfect hotel for us We decided to stay at the Leeden Hotel just off of Huasui road. When I booked it I figured the walk would be 20-30 minutes to the medical exam center, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was actually less than 10 minutes, with the consulate under 15! I guess I'm just used to the huge city blocks of Shenyang... Anyway, the hotel was very nice with my only complaint being the daily room cleaner ignoring our "do not disturb" sign twice while we were out. I drew a map of the correct hotel, medical exam, and consulate locations since none of the map services I used got them all right: http://imgur.com/b21Dw09- The medical exam office is located on the 5th floor of the "Poly building" which is right on Huali Road. The left door goes to a Guangzhou tax office while the right leads to a variety of businesses including the medical exam location. Here's a Tripadvisor link for the hotel for anyone interested: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g298555-d1459913-Reviews-Leeden_Hotel-Guangzhou_Guangdong.html Medical exam The day before my wife's medical exam we gave the Guangdong International Travel Healthcare Center a call to do a last minute check/verification of the process. During the call we were notified that there was a new system in place for setting an appointment for the exam. You can read my play-by-play here: http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/46807-guide-to-ir-1-dcf/page-2?do=findComment&comment=621321- Long story short, we had to fill out and email a one page document to the center then call them to verify it was received. Be sure to bring a printed copy as well. On the day of the exam we arrived a little after 7AM and five women were already there and waiting. Over the next half an hour the fifth floor lobby slowly increased to maximum capacity until the center finally let us in to get tickets. Here's where having submitted the above mentioned document seemed to expedite things: Those who didn't email the document had to go to the side and fill it out on their own before they could get a queue number. My wife was #3, we got in at around 7:45, and we were out of there by 9:20. The exam consisted of an X-ray, blood test, eye/ENT exam, and vaccinations (MMR, Varicella, and Influenza). Even though we set the appointment, arrived early, and got an "expedite" stamp on her file, they still told us to come back the next day at 8AM to pick it up. If you've scheduled your visa interview for before 10AM I highly recommend you plan the exam two days in advance just in case of delays! IR-1 Interview We got up bright and early again and walked through light rain to the Poly building only to find 2 of the 3 elevators out of service. We decided to take the stairs to the fifth floor where we got my wife's exam documents after a ten minute wait. We were able to catch the elevator down and walked to the consulate for her 10:20 appointment. As you can see in the thread here: http://candleforlove.com/forums/topic/47726-ir-1-interview-final-checklist-and-questions/- I made sure my wife had everything I could possibly provide. This turned out to be overkill in our case. The Chinese document intake worker straight up refused to take any of our relationship stuff and only took one white book (the "Marriage" one) and all of the support/financial documents. Next she paid the fee and waited for her interview. She was called up by a middle-aged guy who was very friendly to her. The interview went something like this: Interviewer: So tell me why you married your husband? Wife: (Tells him my positive traits and explains how our relationship started) Interviewer: You should tell him I gave you a hard time. Wife: I can say that you denied me... Interviewer: Don't do that, you'll give him a heart attack! And that was pretty much it! All in all, just 2-3 minutes of light conversation. At the end he even gave the photo album we provided in July's I-130 application back. My wife came out and showed me the paper he gave her which says "Congratulations! Your visa has been approved." Surprisingly, it's just a standard white piece of paper. My wife said she didn't see anyone receive anything blue/pink so perhaps they've scrapped that system? We celebrated for the rest of the day/night and flew back the following morning (today). Closing thoughts 1. Stay somewhere close by. Being able to walk from our hotel to the consulate in under 15 minutes was just so convenient! 2. Schedule the medical exam appointment. You don't want to be #50 and have to spend more time waiting for your turn than the actual exam. 3. Bring all of your relevant documents. Whether the consulate wants them or not, it's always better to be safe than sorry in this journey. Finally, I want to give a big thanks to the fine folks who have helped me so much over the past year! Especially Randy and Dan, you guys deserve recognition for the countless people you've helped through this difficult process. It takes a special group of people to devote so much time to selflessly helping others Let me know if you have any questions or want more details!

I am a foreign national currently living and working in Beijing. I am currently waiting for the further process from NVC. but my immigrant visa interview will be held in Guangzhou. In order to plan my trip to Guangzhou for my visa interview as I cannot travel out of Guangzhou without my passport, I'd appreciate if anybody could share some information on the following: 1. When the application is approved, normally, how long does the process take in Guangzhou before returning the passport and visa to the selected pick-up location/CITIC bank of the same city? 2. Is there express delivery/process so that I can get my passport and visa earlier? 3. Could it be possible that we get the passport back on the same day of the interview and the visa packet should be picked up later from the pick-up location? Please do share your experience. I'd really appreciate. Thanks in advance!

Happy New Year everyone. My wife will have her IR1 visa interview in Feb. and I was wondering about a rumor I heard that it was possible to have same day or next day visa delivery to a Guangzhou Citic bank. Is this true?

I'm still surprised at how fast the process has moved along. I filed the I 129F in the middle of June '15 and her interview was Nov. 5. I was with her for 4 weeks in May and we did as much paperwork as we could at that time and got her birth, divorce and police documents. The interview came up so quickly that I didn't have time to return to China to bring her the documents for the interview, so I made up 2 identical packages of documents, each one about 3/4" thick. I send each package from the post office on different days as a precaution to try to make sure she got at least one. It cost $63 each (FedEx wanted $103) and they were well tracked and both arrived in 4 days. I always thought it was unnecessary to send the women to the interview with kitchen sink thinking, 2 suitcases of documents, evidence and 6 photo albums, not to mention how difficult all of this would be for them to move this from place to place. I was right about this, at least in my case. I know other people have different situations, but this worked for us. Here's how it went: She went to the first window and gave a Chinese man the medical report, her divorce, birth and police papers, passport, l-134 w/2 attachments, 2015 payroll stubs, 2013 &2014 w2's, 2013& 2014 tax transcripts. The man asked her my name and if she will speak English or Chinese . Ten minutes later she went to another window and it was an American man with good Chinese skills, but they spoke English. He asked about our divorces and how long since divorced, He asked her my name and without thinking she said "Master" and the man raised his eyebrow, smiled and said "Oh" and she quickly said my name. We are still laughing about this. He ask about my children, where she will live, if she was a party member and about her job. He then looked at the pics. I provided about 12 pics that were different from the ones that were sent with the I 129F and we had NO pics with her family. There were two pics of us on the beach in Beihai and she was in a little bikini and the man seemed very happy about this. Maybe because she is hot, but maybe because it showed we traveled together and would dress this way together. Something that probably wouldn't happen in a fake relationship. They did not take most of my financial information and they did not want duplicates of anything that they already had or that she brought to the interview. There was no hesitation or question about giving her the visa after about 10 minutes with the interviewer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

http://ustraveldocs.com/cn/cn-niv-securityinfo.asp This page says the following are prohibited inside the consulate. Sealed envelopes or packagesHowever the instructions for the K1 visa as listed on ustraveldocs states the medical examination report must remain sealed. What's the deal here? Thanks

My wife just received her CR-1 Immigrant Visa interview letter for the US Consulate Guangzhou, but when I signed on to CGI to schedule her interview, when I finally got to the last step to schedule the interview, it is showing “There are currently no appointments available”. My wife actually already had an interview appointment for July 7th, but I was not allowed time off from work for that time so I emailed the US Consulate Guangzhou and they replied back and said that they would send instructions on how to re-schedule the interview and we just received that letter this morning stating: "Dear Applicant, Petitioner, or Agent of record: This office is ready to begin final processing of the immigrant visa applicant(s) named above in this case. Please follow these steps to schedule and prepare for your visa interview:" And following the instructions the letter provided, I signed on to CGI, (where I had already created an account and selected a delivery address for the Visa), but after getting to the last step where I confirmed our case number, it is showing “There are currently no appointments available”. Because of the available times my company will allow me to take time off from work here in the United States AND I will need to apply for a Visa to go back to China again AND I will need to book airline tickets, we were hoping to schedule an interview appointment for the 3rd or 4th week of August. MY QUESTION IS: Will we able to schedule a CR-1 Visa interview appointment 7 or 8 weeks in advanced once dates become available? Would we be able to choose a specific date like August 24th or 25th? I will be going to China for about 2 and a half weeks, but I know we will need time before the interview for the medical exam and time after the interview to wait for the Visa to be delivered, so I was trying to have the interview date so we will have a week before the interview and a week after. Thanks for any information that anyone can provide. Mark Jacksonville, Florida

I'm not sure how this manifests itself at Guangzhou, but here it is from the Dept. of State Consular Affairs Technological Systems Issue June 15, 2015

"WASHINGTON (A.P.) — The State Department is issuing passports and visas again at overseas diplomatic missions after encountering a significant problem with a computer database earlier this month. Spokesman John Kirby says 45,000 visas were finalized Monday, a third of those in China. He says 33 U.S. embassies and consulates are back online and that visa interviews will restart Wednesday. The department hopes to get all its facilities back online soon and must work through a backlog of hundreds of thousands of applications. The U.S. announced the hardware failure June 12, causing delays around the world for foreigners and some Americans needing travel documents. The failure didn't affect domestic passport issuance. It was the second major glitch in the consular database in a year."

After 2 years and 2 months of battling the snails pace of NVC, everything was finally sent to GZ and we have an interview date for Jie's parents. We're getting ready to ship original documents and I'd like to clear up a couple of questions. GZ is asking for 2014 taxes as well as originals of 'financial evidence'. I assume 'financial evidence' means completed/signed I-864, I-864a, 2013 tax transcript, taxes, employment letter, etc. 1) As for the I-864, I emailed those last year based on 2013 tax returns. In the interview letter GZ is also asking for our most recent tax return (2014). If I am providing the 2014 tax return, do I need to update the I-864 and I-864a to reflect 2014 or just send the original we did last year for 2013, and just supplement it with the 2014 return? I don't care either way, my main concern is screwing up GZ up by changing something already in the system. 2) As for the 'original documents' of the 'financial evidence', since Jie's parents will be at the interview together, do they need a copy of everything for each person, or will GZ accept one copy for both people? I know they each need their own I-864, however do I need to send duplicates of my paystubs, employment letter, taxes, etc? Hope that makes sense. Thanks!

K1 case filed in December, 2013. Case approved early May, 2014. Case arrived GZ, May 2014. No P3 ever issued. GZ repeatedly states they returned case to USCIS. Explanation. None. Directed to contact USCIS for explanation. Dozens of written and telephone contacts to USCIS state: "We don't have the case. Case is at the consulate. Contact them." Repeated contacts to NVC produce same result. Repeated contacts to the consulate achieve increasingly belligerent replies that include, "Do not contact us anymore. Your case was returned to USCIS, contact them. Today, more than 491 days have elapsed since filing for K1. No interview was ever provided. No explanation was ever provided. Two senators and two members of congress have been unable to learn what happened to the case or why. Case still appears on the NVC website as: Note, that daughter's number rolled off after her 21st birthday in 2014. Torture of American citizens at the hands of American immigration is permitted.

My wife and I used digital photos which were printed on to paper for the i-130 petition. I've heard a million times to bring original copies of everything for the interview, but I'm wondering if I need to print out all of the photos we used again. I also (stupidly, I know) wrote on the back of each page the approximate month and location each photo was taken without making copies of the backside where I wrote that info. Anyway, just wondering what advice anyone may have. Separate question from the photos... should I basically re-create the entire i-130 package to bring along to the interview? Like absolutely everything- table of contents, affidavits, forms, etc... Thanks

Hi all. So my wife's interview is scheduled for Tuesday morning at 8:30 am. We live in Shenzhen and my thought was for us to go to Guangzhou on Monday to complete the medical exam. Now I'm wondering if we would have the results in time for the interview. I've read that if you get to the medical office first thing in the morning you can get the results the same day, but since we're travelling from Shenzhen I was wondering if we were to get there later in the day would it still be possible to get the results before the interview the next morning? Thanks!