Pick up visa from Post Office

[BuffaloPaul]

Seems like folks should be grateful rather than ranting.

We need to rant. It's very therapeutic

If that was the case, then the ranting would stop ! It's more like adding fuel to a fire..

Actually my SO has convinced me of this. My ex would hold everything in and even after 20+ years she would dredge up old hurts. My SO wears all her emotions on her sleve. If she's upset she has a short outburst and 10 minutes later has forgotten everything. I don't think she has a clue as to what we have argued about in the past.

[david_dawei]

Seems like folks should be grateful rather than ranting.

We need to rant. It's very therapeutic

If that was the case, then the ranting would stop ! It's more like adding fuel to a fire..

Actually my SO has convinced me of this. My ex would hold everything in and even after 20+ years she would dredge up old hurts. My SO wears all her emotions on her sleve. If she's upset she has a short outburst and 10 minutes later has forgotten everything. I don't think she has a clue as to what we have argued about in the past.

I agree with this.. My SO is same way...

 

I was reacting and thinking more to how a 'group' of people will rant and how the group is ultimately not benefiting from it in some cases...

[Squid]

We are  not discussing London where petitioners whine about a three month wait.  We are talking about a country where major inequalities exist as well as having procedures as dictated by the US which are totally stupid!  No similarities exist here.

Sorry Squid. Your timeline of 243 days compares to my 483 days from NOA1 to interview. Your timeline of 246 days from NOA1 to visa compares to my 484 days.

 

Many folks are looking at a year. Seems like your very fortunate timeline isn't well appreciated as it should be.

 

Good luck on interview day to you and yours.

 

BTW - my point was.....GZ is not the only consulate to use the local mail service to deliver visas. In London, it takes about a week from the interview date; not three days to pick it up.

You attack me because my petition was faster than yours? Like I had anything to do with it? Start looking out for the good of the people on this website instead of your personal battles, please? Be a unbiased moderater who who helps provide information as your title implies!

 

As said many times, I wish a speedy process for everyone.

[frank1538]

I think it is a reaction out of fear of the unknown and is a typical human reaction.

Three cheers for the human race... we may not be perfect, but we're the best human race there is...

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."

 

-George W. Bush

[david_dawei]

We are  not discussing London where petitioners whine about a three month wait.  We are talking about a country where major inequalities exist as well as having procedures as dictated by the US which are totally stupid!  No similarities exist here.

Sorry Squid. Your timeline of 243 days compares to my 483 days from NOA1 to interview. Your timeline of 246 days from NOA1 to visa compares to my 484 days.

 

Many folks are looking at a year. Seems like your very fortunate timeline isn't well appreciated as it should be.

 

Good luck on interview day to you and yours.

 

BTW - my point was.....GZ is not the only consulate to use the local mail service to deliver visas. In London, it takes about a week from the interview date; not three days to pick it up.

You attack me because my petition was faster than yours? Like I had anything to do with it? Start looking out for the good of the people on this website instead of your personal battles, please? Be a unbiased moderater who who helps provide information as your title implies!

 

As said many times, I wish a speedy process for everyone.

Squid... chill.

 

He's not attacking. Your being defensive.

 

I think he's just pointing out that you are 'barking' at whiners of London with three month waits. Since they have less time than you, they have no reason to complain.. and so you must be justifed to belittle them.

 

The point is that you also have less time than others on THIS site..

 

So the proverbial saying goes: "don't tell your brother to pull out the needle in his eye while you leave in the log in your own"... It's like barking up the wrong tree...

 

I liked the one comment you made earlier... "Let's sit tight"...

[Guest fhtb]

I'm 100% with squid on this one. But I won't fan the flames beyond that.

[jgrier5]

blac bla bla bla bla lbahahaha bla bla

 

Too lazy and tired to rant, but you know how I feel.

 

We have to pay extra $$ for a change of flight....crappy GUZ

[Guest fhtb]

Whoa, didn't mean to start a pissing match.

 

I was merely making the point that an extra few days to get the visa in hand is fairly insignificant compared to the overall timeline and cost. IMHO, it ain't that big of a thing. Also, GZ is not the first consulate to us the local mail service to deliver visas. I used London as an example, but I'm sure many other consulates do the same.

 

I was also pointing out that you all going through the proces now have a much shorter expected timeline than those of us who went through a few years ago. Squid, sorry if it seems I singled you out, your's was the post that I had last read before deciding to respond and your timeline was handy. The same comparision would be true for most others currently in the process. No offense was intended.

 

If I had the power, I would cut the entire process to less than three months for everyone. I know what it's like to wait. I also know what it is like to see people filing their initial petition after we returned the P-3 get a visa before we got P-4. And I used to honestly and sincerely congratulated them on making it to the finish line.

 

My breakfast is getting cold. Good luck to all.

 

For someone who has already been through the process, or who doesn't have an interview scheduled for a long time, I'm sure this doesn't sound like a big deal. You have the luxury of sitting back and making academic arguments about relative amounts of pain. For people with interviews far in the future, maybe you have the luxury to "sit tight" and see how it all plays out.

 

For those of us with interviews in May, who already have flights booked and plans made and have to change them, the exercise is not so academic. We are having to scramble and it's a pain in the arse and in some cases costly.

 

My understanding is that in England, they will deliver the VISA to your home. You can travel to London from anywhere in England and take care of the process in one day, then go home and start packing or work or do whatever you want while you are waiting for the decision. If only it were that way in China!

 

In China, you may have to travel over 1000 miles just to get to Guangzhou. Assuming you want to give your fiance some time to rest and prepare mentally before the interview, this new policy means you will be stuck in Guangzhou for a full week. Now for all I know Guangzhou is the garden spot of the universe, but I still resent being held as a "captive tourist" for a whole week. We would much rather go home and pack. But I checked, and to fly home and back would probably cost us about $1000.

 

Also, unlike London, where VISAs are pretty much rubber-stamped for legitimate couples, in China there is no guarantee you will get the VISA. Which means your SO probably will not want to quit her job, and will want to maintain good relations with her employer, until she has the VISA in her hot little hand. But it's not easy to get a full week off in a country like China, where holidays are more or less dictated by national schedule. This change of policy strikes me as being very insensitive to the work situations of our SOs. It was already bad at 3 days. Turning it into 5 or 6 days is going to make it very difficult for some SOs, depending on their line of work.

 

Hopefully, over time, they will expand the courier system so that the VISA can be delivered anywhere in the country. Then the change would actually be positive - you could go home the day of your interview. I imagine this is the direction they are headed in the long run. But again, for those of us with interviews in May, the change is forcing us to scramble.

 

Now, someone may write that we are lucky stiffs for having our interviews so soon. Whatever. All I can say is, if someone came up to your door and told you that you had to pay them $1000, and this was completely out of the blue, wouldn't that steam you just a bit? Wouldn't you question why? Would you really console yourself with logic like: "Well, I've spent a lot more than $1000 in my life - it's no big deal! Here! Take $2000!"

 

Maybe our ten-month wait only seems like a walk in the park to Don, but that doesn't matter to me at all. I don't care what Don went through. I only care what I am going through. And for me, the closer I get to the end, the more nervous and more sensitive I get. Anything that might go wrong, or changes at the last minute, sets off a bunch of alarms in my head. I could go in for psychoanalysis or I could chastise myself but the practical reality is, I'm quite sure it's just human nature. In a little more than three weeks, my fiance and I will either be very very happy or very very very sad. The stakes are so high - of course I'm nervous!

 

So... I'm sorry if we May-sters have been driving people crazy with our panicky grousing, but... you may find we quiet down all the sooner if you can cut us a little slack. Especially because most of us are probably very busy right now re-finalizing all our plans...

 

For those who come after us, I hope guangzhou implements a reliable, national courier policy soon. Then you may be glad they made this change. I also hope that they open up some more immigration units, so nobody has to fly over 1000 miles for an interview anymore.

[Squid]

fhtb, very eloquently said! I agree with everything as you put my thoughts into the forum.

 

Now, let's stop the male "penis envy" arguements for timelines and get back to the regularly scheduled program of discussing visa application process strategies.

[Feathers268]

I'm still going to throw in here that I think this is not a big deal. I am one still waiting on a date, and Jen will travel a great distance to be in GZ. If they send it to her home, I think that would be a burden far more than waiting 3 days in GZ. Don't forget, if you have plans to leave right after the interview, you could be setting yourself up for hardship if you get a reguest for further evidence. Some have been burned by booking flights so soon after the interview, only to learn that the consulate required something else, and no visa was issued on a timely basis.

Please don't get me wrong. My only concern is that Jen and I are successful in getting her visa. I have watched others talk about getting interviews in 10 months, well, I'm at almost 14 months and no p4. Others are in worse shape than I. I have even watched people seem to pass me even though the are the exact type of visa sent to the same center 3 months after I filed. I could take that personally but I'd rather look at it as a blessing that the system is at least trying to improve.

I'm really hoping that I'll be flooding these forums this next week with our interview date, and I have that fear that I will wind up with a date that falls very short after p4. Making these plans is difficult, but then what so far in this whole process has been easy.

[lele]

Well I am certainly glad that we finished our business with the consulate a couple of months ago! This seems like a nightmare...

 

for those with 2-3 days on your hands I recommend going by bus/train to Xiamen and Gulangyu or the other way to Yangshou. If you have a hukou which allows you, go to Omen/Xianggang. Not too much to see in guangdong unless you know where in the countryside to look...

 

And what about others like my dear wife, who live really far away? This seems like more than an inconvenience...

[lele]

BIG CORRECTION.

 

As mentioned on another thread, if the visa applicant lives OUTSIDE Guangdong province they must come to Guangzhou to pick up the visa package at the designated post office. Only applicants who live in Guangdong have the option of picking up the visa in person or having it mailed.

I am *SO* glad that we are done with GZ! If we ever need to go to the US Consulate in China again, it will be at the Hong Kong Branch, I swear!

 

This is completely absurd. So my darling, if we were not already done, would have to shell out MORE MONEY to stay in the CRIME RIDDEN GZ, or to go and travel elsewhere. She and her parents spend so much time and energy just waiting the extra day to pick up the visa. How the hell could they have gone back to Qingdao and back to GZ again?

 

This seems to discriminate heavily against people who are poor, or who live far away, or who are both, unless they open up IV units in every consulate and let people use the one closest to them.

 

We are so glad that we are done (with GZ at least) and feel for the rest of you who are still waiting...

[Feathers268]

lele,

It seems to be six of one and half dozen of another,

At first, we were thinking of leaving straight out of CZ for the US, and then thought about returning her home to collect her things. Now I honestly don't know. Since I haven't seen her in so long I'll be happy to be spending time with her where eve that is.

[Keith-N-Min]

I have a q pertaining to this subject that my sweetie asked me...

 

Since both her and her daughter must attend the interview, does her daughter have to wait around to pick up her visa or can her daughter go back to her hometown (cause she is still in school) and have her mother pick-up her visa.

 

This is probably a GZ question for citizen hour I imagine, unless someone attending soon can ask..

 

 

Thanks

Keith N Min

[david_dawei]

If we could all take our name calling, expletives, accusations, and misunderstood defensive bitterness out of a thread trying to understand this new process, and take it to a psychologist or the LL, we'll all get along better...