March 11, 2003 - Guangzhou 3500 Clearances

[Guest Thomas B]

Dear Fellow K-1 Visa Petitioners out of the US Embassy in Guangzhou China, Applicants, Beneficiaries, Friends, and Supporters,

 

For some 3,500 people waiting for DOS (Department of State) name check clearances I may have good news. In an unclassified communication from Linda L. Donahue, Chief Consular Section of the United States Consulate General at Guangzhou China to my Congressman's office on March 13, 2002 following a request for a status updated on immigrant visas made February 13, 2003 a Linda Donahue wroteÉ

 

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I do have some recent news of potential benefit to you and constituent. This Consulate General has been advised by the Department of State of the transmission of 3,500 name check clearances for applicants at this post. Unfortunately the clearances are not received in the order in which we submitted them, complicating the matching of individual clearance cables with applicants case files. This matching process is currently underway and we expect to be completed shortly.

 

You and your constituent may be assured that the Immigration and Nonimmigration Visa Units are doing everything possible to process the visa clearances. When a match is made between the clearance and an individual case, visa information is entered into the automated case record, the visa is printed and a call-in instruction letter is prepared and sent by EMS courier services to the visa applicant advising that the visa is ready to be picked up.

 

You man wish to advise your constituent tat it will be helpful to have the current mailing address of his fiancŽe in Chinese characters. This can be faxed to the ATTN: Richard Adams Ð Chief, IV Unit at (8620) 8121-8341.

 

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I caution too much enthusiasm but bring you hope. Considering how short handed and the visa unit in Guangzhou you can imagine how long it will take to match, enter into case records, print and send via EMS courier 3,500 visas. My guess would be the last of these 3,500 might get there call-ins by the by the end of Spring 2003. But, we can hope. That is all that's been keeping most of us going. I would not look for any news of this or their progress since it has not been the policy of the Embassy to be very helpful. They are just focusing on what they can do a day at a time. I wish all of you waiting Gods speed.

 

Thanks to my Congressman and his people for continuing to try to drag updates out of DOS. But as you can see it took a month from the time the solicited an update to the time the Embassy in Guangzhou in China responded.

And, since most of computerized status check websites will not operate until data information is entered there will once again be not way to tell if your or your friends case is one of the 3,500 that have been returned to Guangzhou. In my experience the INS database out of the INS office we were approved at in June has had zero updates. Besides many of them will only function with your original INS 13 digit application clearance number. If you try to check status using this number you will not find it. Once Guangzhou get the file it changes the number to your GUZ 13 digit number. This appears to be the only number that DOS uses in there system. Yes, very confusing but that as someone else reported these data base are not linked and cross referenced.

 

Many thanks to all of our United States Congressman and their staff assistants who work so hard to help us get update information and to sustain our hopes. We would get now where without you!

 

Good luck and God Bless everyone,

Thomas B and Ann

K-1 FiancŽe Visa Petitioner and Beneficiary in the system now 10 months (300 plus days)

Chicago, IL

USA

 

Saturday March 15, 2003

 

[chinadave2001]

It seems to me that one way to interpret this data is that they have only cleared 3500 of the original 10000 in the backlog- or is it saying that another 3500 cleared in recent weeks in addition to earlier batches of clearances such as the 1200 of January? They have to manually match the GUZ numbers? What's next - an abacus? I'm sorry, but this sounds like the kind of response that one might give to a Senator in order to get them off you back for a while. "Yes, we are behind, but things are improving..."

Let's hope and pray that they really are.

dave

[Nicole]

I hope that was real. Let's hope and pray that!

Nicole

[Calvin]

I think this is the same batch that was sent back to GZ a few weeks ago. Someone already mentioned that 3500 cases were cleared and sent to GZ a while ago.

[Mick]

It should also be kept in mind that the 3500 may not all be backlogged cases. A number of them could also be current cases undergoing the pre-interview screening process now in place. When Owen and I visited there, Richard Adams told us that of the recent batch of around 1200, quite a few were recent pre-interview clearances. So, while I encourage everyone to be optimistic, I aso encourage you to look at the overall picture. Any batch of clearances now seems to contain both, backlogged cases and new cases. Perhaps it shouldn't be that way, but that is the way it is.

[Guest agl88]

you are right. now the clearance time is normal althought it may not be true for the specific case

[SBS]

How about case which put on hold??? i want visa too....

[Eric&Yuhui]

       

How about case which put on hold??? i want visa too....

have you found out anything at all about this hold calling CA?

[SBS]

       

How about case which put on hold??? i want visa too....

have you found out anything at all about this hold calling CA?

not yet... but we are trying. may thing will be changed in good...

[kkimm]

It should also be kept in mind that the 3500 may not all be backlogged cases. A number of them could also be current cases undergoing the pre-interview screening process now in place. When Owen and I visited there, Richard Adams told us that of the recent batch of around 1200, quite a few were recent pre-interview clearances. So, while I encourage everyone to be optimistic, I aso encourage you to look at the overall picture. Any batch of clearances now seems to contain both, backlogged cases and new cases. Perhaps it shouldn't be that way, but that is the way it is.  

I don't really mind if the batch contains both backlogged cases and more recent cases. My question is that they are still using a "MANUAL" process for these cases? Imagine giving a "string" and another 10,000 'strings" and you have to find a match between them ---

 

I will write the program for them, free of charge, if that will help?

[JonInDenver]

i tend to picture someone sitting on the floor with 3500 green index cards, and 3500 yellow index cards - all spread out around them in no particulatr order. like a big game of "concentration".

[kkimm]

i tend to picture someone sitting on the floor with 3500 green index cards, and 3500 yellow index cards - all spread out around them in no particulatr order.  like a big game of "concentration".

or a 3500+ pieces puzzle game!