Rumor

[Guest Flora_713]

water and fish, I was the one who planed to pick up the visa on Monday and booked the airline tickets from Beijing to GZ on Sunday. I thought the delivery was about to reach my office. I was fortunate that the travel agency delayed isuing the ticket by erro. And I just could have the time to cancel it.

 

But another girl had already bought the tickets because she was asked to return to the GZ consolate on Tuesday (March 25)for submitting more documents before picking up the visa. She has to go since she was requested. Why not GZ put up a notice on their website? It's hard for me to understand.

[Guest alex062872]

I got the news from MSN or CNN.com (this morning), there's a list of closed consulates, none of china's on the list. However, the news says that the consulate general is the decision maker, not DOS, on this issue. Maybe they want a day off, or watch CNN, or whatever.

[Guest Flora_713]

My fiance asked Ms. Maura Harty about this question On March 19 :

 

my fiancee xxx plans to travel to Guangzhou this weekend to receive her visa on Monday.Will current world events (barring any extreme emergency of course, Godforbid) have any effect on the schedule of operating hours of the U.S.Consulate in Guangzhou, China?

 

And got a reply on the same day as below:

 

As regards your question, I must admit that I can't answer it right

now. The reason is that it is a bit speculative. We have a long standing

policy that allows any given post to close immediately if the security

situation so dictates. We have no current warning that is Guangzhou-specific, but I simply can't rule out the possibility that any given post, Guangzhou included, might decide that it needs to close at some

point. I urge you to continue to reach out to them by phone before your

fiance goes to the consulate.

 

I am sorry that I can't give you anything more specific than that.

 

Sincerely, Maura Harty

 

I checked with the GZ website for holiday schedule, and today is not on their holiday schedule.

[lori&dave]

It's so funny that I finally got thru the phone to GZ, they told me my background check began today. So GZ does work today!

[Guest Flora_713]

I called the GZ consolate operator and asked her whether their office is open on Monday so that I could go to pick up the visa, She said I need to ask the visa section and transferred me to 83992000. But I could not got any one on the line for this number, only provide automatic information.

 

One gal from 001 did go to the consolate today and it was closed. It is said, " the office is not open to the public." This may indicate that their internal office is still working.

[Robert S.]

I called the GZ consolate operator and asked her whether their office is open on Monday so that I could go to pick up the visa, She said I need to ask the visa section and transferred me to 83992000. But I could not got any one on the line for this number, only provide automatic information.

 

One gal from 001 did go to the consolate today and it was closed. It is said, " the office is not open to the public." This may indicate that their internal office is still working.

The days for visa stuff are Monday thru Friday so this girl's situation today, Friday, is not an indication of anything.

[danswayne]

They might not be open to the public today on Friday, but I just got an e-mail from a nice lady telling me that our case was finally over. We should be getting P4 real soon now, hopefully.

[Guest waterandfish]

tk u very much flora, i just read ur msgs. u know? my gg did call the no. that gz gave to u nd it worked. he didn't wait very much at all. i'v posted his words on 001 already, i do hope it is like what the man told us. anyhow, i am like bess, the girl who bought the ticket already, so i hv to nd will enjoy my trip to gz. every time before i making a decision, i am wondering too much. but after i choose one of them, the only thing i would like to do is to walk ahead happily nd productively. :)

 

i suddenly remember my dad's words. when i asked him if i could get visa on monday, he said, "i don't know. but no matter u get it or not, remember that visa is not all of ur life." hehe, yes, it's true. now i feel relaxing more. i know maybe my gg will read my words here, so my best gg, pls don't worry abt me, i'll try to take care of myself, fr both u nd me.

 

good luck to u flora. i got ur email, i do wish we will meet in gz.

 

waterandfish

[randxuej]

I talked to my fiancee, this morning. She had just got off the phone with GZ. They, was opened today.

[blennon]

When my fiancee and I spoke with my Guangzhou contact last Monday, we asked about the war's impact on their services. We were told that public office hours would be restricted (scaled back, but not eliminated) and that visa processing efforts would continue.

[owenkrout]

This is exactly why the consulate warns people not to finalize travel plans until they actually have the visa in hand. Things do come up that can delay the issuance of the visa. Get your tickets after they have issued the visa, not before.

[Guest agl88]

The problem is not the ticket for US but the ticket to GZ for the interview. we have the interview date and don't have the notice that the interview is postponed.

[owenkrout]

That is a risk that we all run or have already ran. Everybody in the black hole group thought that they would be receiving their visa on their interview trip and were surprised by the delay. The fact is that the consulate themselves can't say for sure what the situation will be on Monday. I posted a notice from the Shenyang Consulate earlier where they mentioned that they would have to make decisions on whether the consulate was open or not based on the most current information and situation. Things could take a turn for the worse or they could perceive some sort of threat by Monday and elect to alter their schedule. We don't know because at this point they don't know.

 

This is really hard on those scheduled for interviews right now, but I do thing that GZ will try to maintain normal operations. Based on the current situation in China, I would say that things will progress as normal right now.