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Pink-blue Blues, sitting in the Heartbreak Hotel

Peter&Miao

By Peter&Miao,
in Interview Results

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Peter&Miao

Peter&Miao

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For others who follow us, it might be worthwhile setting out our particular experience with this wretched Guangzhou consulate (GzC, hereinafter). First, though, a little background.

 

On October 15th, 2007, the NVC stated it was (at last) sending the cases of my wife and our daughter (by her first marriage, of course) to the GzC. They welshed on that, though, and there followed a harrowing month of Administrative Review, as unwelcome as it was unexplained.

 

Between mid-November, when the cases were actually sent, and mid-March, when we were notified that the interview was set for April 9th, the GzC was a black box to us. Emails went totally unanswered, despite drivel on the site about ¡°5-7 business days¡±. Paying 54 RMB for 12 minutes of banter with the Visa Unit was a waste of money and time, as the employees who answer are apparently taught only one English phrase: ¡°I don¡¯t know¡±.

 

Calling the Washington Visa Unit, in January, helped a bit, because they told me that the Admin Review had been a Name Check, and that my wife¡¯s background check had come up clean on December 8th. (Tip: call 202-663-1225, then press 1-4-3-0 in quick succession, each time the voice starts yapping, and you will then be told how long it should be before a gov employee will come on the line, much as with NVC).

 

I have no idea what part, if any, the intervention of my Congressman, who wrote emails to the GzC, or my own increasingly irritated emails to them, played in the timing.

 

We put in a big documentation effort for the interview. After waiting over 4 hours inside the building, my wife and daughter seemed to do very well at the interview. The docs seemed to have done the trick, because it was all smiles and banter, and within 10 minutes, my dear charges found themselves outside the door with a pink paper in hand. It told them to wait 2 days for the passports to be returned, with the visas stamped

 

After 2 days, in which we were all ecstatic, and much liaising with the postman, the passports were duly delivered. No visas. Only a piece of blue paper, with 221(g) checked, and no demand for new documentation. We slumped again into the same anxious, semi-depressed state we had been in before. My calls to the WVU elicited only the information that it was a Name Check. The computer had intervened, right before the visa-printing process. Not expecting any joy, I wrote another clenched-teeth email to GzC. To my amazement, they answered in 2 days, the first time I had ever heard from them. ¡°We are calling your beneficiary in again.¡±

 

So, having trekked across China once again, my wife showed up at the GzC, on Tuesday April 22nd at 2.00pm, as instructed. Again, the passports were taken, and she was told to wait 2 days for the miracle to occur. Back she came on the Thursday, this time having elected to pick up at the consulate you ju (Post Office). Without any word of explanation, she and all the others were given a pink paper (our second, then), which told them to go away again for another 2 days. Since she had now been told to return on a Saturday, my confidence that she would get even the passports back, let alone with visas, was not that high.

 

After another excruciating 2 days, she went in, and ¨C mirabile dictu ¨C the passports were there and visas stamped in them.

 

Believe me, I well know that our luck was infinitely greater than that of the poor devils on this forum, whose emotional lives remain forfeit to the whims of this government agency, and for whom I grieve and wince inside ( because I sense the injustice done to them, and can almost feel their suffering).

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tsap seui

tsap seui

Posted
Posted

Peter, looks like it was a pretty rough month, but you guys made it through successfully and the dreram can start.

 

Great news buddy!!!!

 

tsap seui

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Peter&Miao

Peter&Miao

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Just wanted to thank everyone so much for their kind words. I am astonished by this outpouring!

 

I am guessing many on this site are like me - a bit traumatized by the strange experience of applying to hidden strangers, for permission actually to live with our wives or fiancees, in our own countries. We spend so long (I registered the I-130 with USCIS in Nov 2006), jumping so many hoops, and seeming to have so little control over our own fates ¨C it¡¯s maybe no wonder there¡¯s such an emotional outpouring when the whole frustrating, draining process is over.

 

I admit there have been times I have wondered which was the free country.

 

I¡¯ve been in China 10 separate times since 2004, when we met, to see Miao. At no time, did the Chinese authorities make any difficulty for us, granting and extending the visa. In 2006, I even went to live in China with my new wife and daughter. I have to admit that neither the company I work for in the USA, nor even I, could hack it at that time, and I came home after 3 months. But, my point is that I could have stayed forever as far as the Chinese were concerned. I couldn¡¯t even get a visitor-visa for Miao, before we were married, let alone after ¨C the Yankees just said ¡°no¡±.

 

On reflection, it¡¯s not that it¡¯s taken so long that I mind. It¡¯s that the USA treats us as distantly and arrogantly as is possible, given that it is supposed to be operating within a framework of law. Getting information about case status is often unwarrantably hard.

 

P.S. How do I get our picture to appear on the left-hand side of posts like all you old-hands' beautiful pics do? I uploaded the pic to our new profile...thanks.

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