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Picking up passport from CITIC Bank after interview


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My wife (not Chinese) will have her interview in Guangzhou on Monday. She's has to fly back to Beijing so we'll take her passport and then mail it back to GZ via CITIC as others have mentioned. Then they'll mail it back to her via CITIC as well. But something just dawned on me: How will she be able to pick up her passport from the CITIC Bank without a passport to identify herself to the bank? Does the GZ Embassy give you some sort of paper to use to identify yourself to CITIC to retrieve your passport? Just worried about winding up in a catch-22 situation here. Anyone have experience with this? Thanks.

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PS: In reading through the CGI site, it's pretty clear that you need a government issued ID to either pick up your passport from the CITIC bank or receive it by courier. Which does create a catch-22 situation if your only gov issued ID is your passport. :S My wife doesn't have any other gov. issued ID from her home country. She does have a page in my FEC with her name and photo, so maybe they'll accept that as a gov issued ID? (I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers, but I probably won't be here at that time as I need to travel to the US.)

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PS: In reading through the CGI site, it's pretty clear that you need a government issued ID to either pick up your passport from the CITIC bank or receive it by courier. Which does create a catch-22 situation if your only gov issued ID is your passport. :S My wife doesn't have any other gov. issued ID from her home country. She does have a page in my FEC with her name and photo, so maybe they'll accept that as a gov issued ID? (I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers, but I probably won't be here at that time as I need to travel to the US.)

 

 

They'll have the passport at the bank when she goes to pick it up - it can easily be verified against the copy. I wouldn't think it would be a problem, unless they can't open the package without seeing it first or something like that (lol).

 

Even picking it up in Guangzhou raises the same scenario - we haven't heard of any problems. You say "I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers" - this indicates the photocopy is acceptable. Even so, of course you would want her to take any other ID she can.

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You say "I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers" - this indicates the photocopy is acceptable.

 

Right. That's the illogical part. The instructions on the CGI website say:

 

"To collect your passport you must present your original (not a photocopy) government-issued photo ID. We strongly recommend you also bring a printed copy of your appointment letter that contains your UID number."

 

However, in the same breath it says:

If a representative is collecting your passport from the document collection office on your behalf, even in case of family members, the representative must present:

  • Their own original government-issued photo ID for identification;
  • A photocopy of your government-issued photo ID; and,
  • A letter of authority,

So someone else can pick it up for her with only a photocopy of her passport, but she can't pick it up herself with only a photocopy of her passport?!?

She has her Japanese birth certificate but it doesn't have a photo on it. The only other possibility is my FEC (Chinese foreign expert certificate / work permit) which is actually my ID but it has a page for each member of my family with photo, name & passport #. Logically, all that would suffice but was just checking to see what experiences others have had and how sticky CITIC or EMS is on this issue. Obviously it's not a problem for Chinese as they can just show their Chinese ID card. So it's mostly for foreigners who are applying from within China.

(I think I'll just go to the CITIC bank and ask them what they'll accept. The main thing is I'm trying to decide whether it'll be less problematic getting the passport back through CITIC or through EMS, because I have to choose that before the interview.)

Edited by unknownusername (see edit history)
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You say "I know I could pick it up for her with my passport and a photocopy of hers" - this indicates the photocopy is acceptable.

 

Right. That's the illogical part. The instructions on the CGI website say:

 

"To collect your passport you must present your original (not a photocopy) government-issued photo ID. We strongly recommend you also bring a printed copy of your appointment letter that contains your UID number."

 

However, in the same breath it says:

If a representative is collecting your passport from the document collection office on your behalf, even in case of family members, the representative must present:

  • Their own original government-issued photo ID for identification;
  • A photocopy of your government-issued photo ID; and,
  • A letter of authority,

So someone else can pick it up for her with only a photocopy of her passport, but she can't pick it up herself with only a photocopy of her passport?!?

She has her Japanese birth certificate but it doesn't have a photo on it. The only other possibility is my FEC (Chinese foreign expert certificate / work permit) which is actually my ID but it has a page for each member of my family with photo, name & passport #. Logically, all that would suffice but was just checking to see what experiences others have had and how sticky CITIC or EMS is on this issue. Obviously it's not a problem for Chinese as they can just show their Chinese ID card. So it's mostly for foreigners who are applying from within China.

(I think I'll just go to the CITIC bank and ask them what they'll accept. The main thing is I'm trying to decide whether it'll be less problematic getting the passport back through CITIC or through EMS, because I have to choose that before the interview.)

 

 

 

Someone may yet come along who has done this before, but I would think that the U.S. spouse would be the one who picked it up.

 

But it sounds like you have two options that I expect will work - ANY family member with appropriate ID's, or EMS. EMS generally requires only a signature, but if they also require an ID for these packages, then the family member option should work as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks @thelocaldialect. The interview went well and they told my wife her visa was approved! We mailed back her passport via CITIC (we needed it to travel to Beijing) and are now waiting ("administrative processing"). We opted for EMS as I figured the courier would be less of a stickler for the rules than the teller at the bank. If it comes after I leave for the US she'll try picking it up using the photocopy of her passport. If they refuse then she'll ask a Chinese friend to come over with their ID and just write out a piece of paper authorizing them to receive it for her. We shall see.

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