P3 Not Received

[JoeAndJing]

Hi All,

 

We received the approval notice in late September saying that the case would be forwarded to Guangzhou.

 

It is now three months and we have received no P3 at my fiancee's address in China. Today I called the consulate through their 54 RMB phone number and was told that they have "no record" of my case and that it "hasn't been entered into the computer."

 

Then the lady told me that it was NORMAL to wait up to 4 months between the case being mailed to the consulate and the P3 being received, which I know is not true. Her advice was simply, "Do nothing and call back in a month." She also specifically told me NOT to email or fax the consulate (which I am not going to listen to).

 

At this point I don't know what to do, I know it shouldn't be taking this long but I don't know how to find out what's going on.

 

Advice?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe and Jing

Edited December 20, 2005 by JoeAndJing (see edit history)

[Cerberus]

Hi All,

 

We received the approval notice in late September saying that the case would be forwarded to Guangzhou.

 

It is now three months and we have received no P3 at my fiancee's address in China. Today I called the consulate through their ripoff 54 RMB phone number and was told that they have "no record" of my case and that it "hasn't been entered into the computer."

 

Then the lady told me that it was NORMAL to wait up to 4 months between the case being mailed to the consulate and the P3 being received, which I know is not true. Her advice was simply, "Do nothing and call back in a month." She also specifically told me NOT to email or fax the consulate (which I am not going to listen to).

 

At this point I don't know what to do, I know it shouldn't be taking this long but I don't know how to find out what's going on.

 

Advice?

 

Thanks,

 

Joe and Jing

176936[/snapback]

Joe and/or Jing,

 

The "pat" answer that Yin (my wife) was given was also 4 months. She tried again about a week later. Acall center operator helped her out.

 

She also advised not to believe what the computers say. Boiled down, by the time that the exact status of your case is entered into the computer, it has already will be at another stage. Basically, your case becomes a moving target. It will move faster, than the exact status data can be entered on-line. I would suggest calling them again and follow the advice I gave in this post; Post #36, http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?...pic=14006&st=30. You sound like to have already done some of the things, so please don’t take offense at what I say in this post.

 

A personal observation by myself, and no offense is intended. If you are a K1 Visa then you are about are approximately 30days behind schedule. If you are K3 Visa, then you are moving very quickly. The post that I placed in the hyperlink above, elaborated another CFL member (suseig) I told him about the holiday schedule. On a side note, after I made the posting suseig received his P3 in about 10 days of my prediction! However, I digress. You may be caught in the middle of Christmas, New Years and Chinese New year’s holiday. GUZ will be attempting to clear their desks as much as possible. However, they will be talking time off for all three holidays (primarily due to Chinese staff). So really, in the advent of this season, your exact time frame will be very, very hard to predict.

 

These are just relevant facts to this time of the year. I know that you are very anxious, as is every member here. IMHO, you are simply a victim of time circumstances. That is hard to hear, but it is a fact. I personally believe that you will hear and/or receive your P3 either between Christmas and New Years, or shortly thereafter. I know that isn’t what you want to hear. However, I would suggest that you read the posting I made and calmly point out this fact to your SO. The extreme majority of Chinese women and men are very understanding when the facts are laid out to them in a logical order!

 

I should mention, that you begin reading the recent posting I made in Field report from GUZ that has been pinned in the General section. There are certain items you will want to know about. The data is less than three weeks old. The Links and Resources Section has FAQ about Visas and Interviews. This data is extremely accurate, with the exception of the location. Your P3 will come very fast. Yin and I were very surprised when the P4 interview was scheduled three weeks after she sent her P3 was sent back. I would suggest that you keep that FAX number handy with you and the SO. It is critical now!

[JoeAndJing]

Cerberus,

 

Thank you for your detailed reply.

 

My fiancee tried the call center today, giving it a "woman's touch", and got the same pat answer -- wait 4 months.

 

Yes we're a K1 so we are behind schedule and it's concerning us. I am concerned that there is a problem and by telling us to wait for 4 months to have passed before they even check into it, we are just wasting time.

 

I also sent in a fax yesterday, so let's hope for a positive reply to that.

 

I read through all of your posts and the FAQs and there is nothing discussed that we did not follow.

 

It seems like everyone on this site with similar timelines to us have received and sent back their P3 almost a month ago.

 

Let's hope your prediction is on schedule again. It would be a welcome Christmas gift

 

Joe

[susieq]

i would give myself 2 months of await for P3 to come from the date my case was sent to GUZ from NVC,any day beyond 2 months would have made me panic in hell!

I would suggest you find out the date of your case being forward to GUZ and use "I-730" reference to track your case status through DHL.It's not going to be precisely correct about what are your case are currently being ended up,but it gives you an general idea about whether it's been arrived in DHL GUZ site waiting for custom clearance or it's been sent to the destination which in this case is US consulate in GUZ. You just need to find out where the hell it is yourself as institutions such as NVC is not going to give you any info other than your case number and if it's been forwarded to GUZ.

Waiting for P3 is pretty a pain in the ass but we all need to go through it as there's no way they cannot process your case any further if they dont get your hardcopy of your case physically.Getting lost...?Less likely as I assume that they are good people with good working attitudes who are working at NVCs in the States..

As far as I know,there are quite a number of members from 001 who still havent got their P3 since late Sep.I guess you guys would be on the same boat and I really hope you get P3 as a Xmas gift this year.

Try to call DOS and ask if your case has been input into the system, once they tell you that the GUZ guys sent you P3 on a certain date,that would actuall be the date that they input your case into your system but the really date that you receive P3 would be within 2 weeks after that date they told you about.

 

yeah,and Cerberus you're real good,hehe,i'd appreciate if you could give me any prediction on my P4 date,would be awesome! hehe^-^

 

merry Xmas to both of you!

 

Susieq

[frank1538]

I know it's tough when the files are out there in limbo. I think susieq's suggestion of getting a general idea from DHL as to when the files may have been delivered to the consulate is a good one. While the time gap between NVC and GZ was shorter for me, I remember tracking the likely shipments from NVC to GZ. After I suspected my files were physically delivered to the consulate, I began sending periodic e-mails to get confirmation from the consulate. Eventually, I got that confirmation but then had to run the "P3 lost in the mail" trap. Procedures may be different now, but other than getting the right mailing address to GZ for the P3 and creating a paper trail of my involvement in the process, I doubt my inquiries did anything more than give me something to do during the wait.

[JoeAndJing]

I just checked the DHL website for tracking info on the whereabouts of my petition.

 

The package that went out on 9/30/2005 (the day after I received the notice from the NVC) was not delivered to the Guangzhou consulate until 11/28/2005.

 

The weird thing is that I also checked packages that left NVC on each subsequent day in early October, and they ALL arrived in Guangzhou much, much sooner.

 

So I'm going to speculate and say that my petition must have been in the batch that was not delivered until 11/28/2005.

 

Hopefully that means we should have P3 in hand pretty soon.

 

(It's depressing to see how fast petitions arrive at other consulates around the world -- it seems to only be Guangzhou that has this huge "black hole" delay.)

 

Joe

[JoeAndJing]

Unbelievably - our P3 just arrived today!

 

Just as soon as I was starting to get worried.

 

Since we spoke to someone on the phone at GUZ the day before we received the P3, and that person told us that they have "No record" of our case, this does verify what was said regarding the people on the phone who are just looking at the computer system: They do not have updated information at all.

 

Now the P4 wait begins...

 

Joe

[Cerberus]

Unbelievably - our P3 just arrived today!

 

Just as soon as I was starting to get worried.

 

Since we spoke to someone on the phone at GUZ the day before we received the P3, and that person told us that they have "No record" of our case, this does verify what was said regarding the people on the phone who are just looking at the computer system: They do not have updated information at all.

 

Now the P4 wait begins...

 

Joe

177345[/snapback]

Damn! I am good!

 

Joe, just a word of caution! Watch out for the holiday season. Like I said in a prior posting, it is very hard to predict the speed now. They could do the "bum's rush" to get it provessed before Chinese New Year (Best case scenario). Or, they could wait until after Chinese New Year (worst case scenario) I know that Yin's P4 interview was three weeks after she sent back the P3.

 

I would advise you to begin laying the groundwork and have some ideas about you're up coming wedding! I would alsombegin checking on airfares and see what the expenses would be for her leaving in February and March.

 

Congraulations on your P3 and upcoming wedding!

[Cerberus]

i would give myself 2 months of await for P3 to come from the date my case was sent to GUZ from NVC,any day beyond 2 months would have made me panic in hell!

I would suggest you find out the date of your case being forward to GUZ and use "I-730" reference to track your case status through DHL.It's not going to be precisely correct about what are your case are currently being ended up,but it gives you an general idea about whether it's been arrived in DHL GUZ site waiting for custom clearance or it's been sent to the destination which in this case is US consulate in GUZ. You just need to find out where the hell it is yourself as institutions such as NVC is not going to give you any info other than your case number and if it's been forwarded to GUZ.

Waiting for P3 is pretty a pain in the ass but we all need to go through it as there's no way they cannot process your case any further if they dont get your hardcopy of your case physically.Getting lost...?Less likely as I assume that they are good people with good working attitudes who are working at NVCs in the States..

As far as I know,there are quite a number of members from 001 who still havent got their P3 since late Sep.I guess you guys would be on the same boat and I really hope you get P3 as a Xmas gift this year.

Try to call DOS and ask if your case has been input into the system, once they tell you that the GUZ guys sent you P3 on a certain date,that would actuall be the date that they input your case into your system but the really date that you receive P3 would be within 2 weeks after that date they told you about.

 

yeah,and Cerberus you're real good,hehe,i'd appreciate if you could give me any prediction on my P4 date,would be awesome! hehe^-^

 

merry Xmas to both of you!

 

Susieq

177173[/snapback]

Suseig,

 

The same advice I gave to Joe. For your particular case, I would be placing very high odds that your's will definetly be processsed before Chinese New Year!

 

Like I said, watch out for the holiday season. Like I said in a prior posting, it is very hard to predict the speed now. They could do the "bum's rush" to get it processed before Chinese New Year (Best case scenario). Or, they could wait until after Chinese New Year (worst case scenario) I know that Yin's P4 interview was three weeks after she sent back the P3. If you have extraneous paperwork that she will need for the interview, I would get on the stick and start sending it immediately!

 

I should mention that on the day Yin was there, she told me that there were approximately 400 applicants. I don't have the exact breakdown. However, this is a lot of people for one day of processing.

 

Just a reminder do not forgot what I posted about the One Suite.com questions and the FAX number that was put in the posting.

 

Good Luck!

[susieq]

Thank you very much for your fantastic prediction,I'd very love to take your word,Cerberus!!! Because that's what i was thinking of the whole day today! I remembered that those who got their P3 a month ahead of me got their interview dates about 1 week after my P3 date.So logically,i shall have my date pretty much soon in about a week from now on which is the time that JoeAndJing just got his P3.youpi!!

 

Congratz to JoeAndJing and now you're in the P4 waiting list. P4 is not as much worried as p3 await so shall you have a bit rest now;) ...and also a lesson that you've just learnt...do not phone 4008 and listen to them bullshiting about your case,you'd get nothing but a sigh from them.Do DOS,they are more responsible for the answers!!

[frank1538]

Unbelievably - our P3 just arrived today!

177345[/snapback]

Not unbelievable at all - just the telepathic prowess of the CFL membership. Hopefully, the remainder of the process will run more smoothly. Good luck.