Just got off the phone with DOS

[JoeCool]

For those of you who have already received P3's, do they use regular mail or some kind of priority mail?  Is it the kind that you need to sign for?

 

 

Jerry

GZ IV sent p3 via EMS (priority). signature required.

 

Will find out about language used on Envelope and report back later.

Address was in Chinese on EMS envelop

[hypoclear]

Jerry

this was a real problem for my wife and I here in China. One letter from BCIS made it all the way over here right up to the housing complex!! but the mailman could not READ.. 1003 building 3..!!! duh duh duh f**** duh!!

 

The address was in English and no chinese or pinyin on it. So after that my wife called the post office and told them what our address was in both languages, explained a little about the problem as they were the ones to tell her what had happened.. the letters was returned to the states.

 

Now get this!!!!! it was only some time later that she found out. oh no... you have to talk to the over seas mail dept... now I'm not going to say people over here are dumb.. i didn't say that did i??

 

So I'd suggest your wife make a visit in person with her address both in chinese and english, very large and some info about what the envelope will look like.. usualy 8 X 10 with a window and blue offical symbol on it and the state dept etc on it. And tell them topost this on the wall so everyone can see it and perhaps as we have since than... she will recieve the mail with hand written chinese on it.

 

It just shows how hard it is to decide how much to micro manage this whole process??? I mean who would think a letter could get right to your door step so to speak and the person would give up???

 

Best of luck and I guess if you can think it will be a problem than find a fix for it!! heheeh

[JerryL]

Oh geez. It seems like such a shame that a letter can get so far and not make the last ten meters or so... It's very nice of the local postal folks to do this for you guys. Good thing our P3 is coming from the consulate in Guangzhou and I hope they will at least have pinyin on the envelope...

 

Jerry

[keelec]

she will recieve the mail with hand written chinese on it.

Does it make a difference whether an "American" or a "Chinese" person wrote the address?

 

My attempts to print in Cyrillic certainly look a bit crude, to say the least.

 

I can't imagine the confusion if I tried to copy the Chinese characters. It is even supposed to be important which direction each line was made.

 

--------

 

Actually, I have wondered why the US didn't require 3 self-addressed Legal-Sized envelopes to be added to every packet. (1 for P3, 1 for P4, and one extra). Or, perhaps put in a "scannable" address box somewhere in the application that could be scanned and printed on envelopes.

 

Then, if the letter didn't arrive where it was supposed to, at least they could point fingers at the person that wrote the application.

 

------ Clifford ------

[JerryL]

Jerry, if the GZ number says that your P-3 went out Nov. 5 and your wife has not received it yet, send an e-mail to GZ and tell them. This happened to us and we finally had to fax the address in Chinese Character. That is the only sure way the post can find the house. There system of EMS is a little different than here. the post over there handles it, but it has to be signed for. She could go to the post office of her area and ask if it is there. Your I-129 form asks for the address in Chinese Character. Don't wait do something or you could loss lots of time.

Great. Murphy's Law strikes again.

 

I just got e-mail from Guangzhou saying they sent the P3 last week, but we haven't seen boo. Their e-mail says to provide them the address in Chinese characters so they can send another. I already did that on the I-129F but I'm not gonna argue...

 

My question is, does anyone know if I can send Chinese characters over the GuangzhouIV e-mail form, or is it going to come out as garbage on the other end? Or would fax work better? It just seems with e-mail they at least have en electronic trail. With fax, it's just another piece of paper in the office to get lost...

 

Thanks,

 

Jerry

[Mick]

If there is any way to email it, I would go that route. Last time we faxed something to GZ, it took them over two weeks to get to it. Last time I heard, the computer system in GZ does not handle Chinese characters. So I think you would have to somehow make the character a part of the post itself. Some members have done this but, being fairly illiterate in terms of computers, I couldn't begin to tell you how. Something about jpeg...

[wolf]

Jerry, fax them the address and than send an e-mail telling them the time and day you sent the fax. Use GZ time, and fax the e-mail you just received from GZ first so they know what the fax is for.

[Eric&Yuhui]

If there is any way to email it, I would go that route. Last time we faxed something to GZ, it took them over two weeks to get to it. Last time I heard, the computer system in GZ does not handle Chinese characters. So I think you would have to somehow make the character a part of the post itself. Some members have done this but, being fairly illiterate in terms of computers, I couldn't begin to tell you how. Something about jpeg...    

Scan the Chinese address .. and embed the jpeg in the body of the email

That should work. Unless GZ system blocks those. But if they still use EXCEL to administer and track the visa program, I doubt it

[hypoclear]

she will recieve the mail with hand written chinese on it.

Does it make a difference whether an "American" or a "Chinese" person wrote the address?

 

My attempts to print in Cyrillic certainly look a bit crude, to say the least.

 

I can't imagine the confusion if I tried to copy the Chinese characters. It is even supposed to be important which direction each line was made.

 

--------

 

Actually, I have wondered why the US didn't require 3 self-addressed Legal-Sized envelopes to be added to every packet. (1 for P3, 1 for P4, and one extra). Or, perhaps put in a "scannable" address box somewhere in the application that could be scanned and printed on envelopes.

 

Then, if the letter didn't arrive where it was supposed to, at least they could point fingers at the person that wrote the application.

 

------ Clifford ------

Clif as someone else pointed out. make a jpeg of the address and attach and embed it in an email to the parties. And yes i'm sure it would make a difference if an american or chinese wrote it..

 

I had a chinese person fill out parts of my visa app in NYC when i first came over.. geeez it looked like more than magic as he wrote it! heheh

 

I guess it comes down to hand writting in either language but common sense says.. use the language of the country sent to.. i wonder how more more it would cost in printing fees to add such simple instructions to gov forms?? do you think as much as the spanish versions on the extra sheet of gov forms we now get???

 

Mark