Visa Drop Off Service

[Eric & Jin 10]

I posted my mother-in-law's recent experience with using the visa drop off service over on CFL a couple of weeks ago and since I really have never seen much posted on VJ about it, I decided to go ahead and post about it here as well. For those of you who may not know the U.S. Embassy & Consulates in China offer a visa drop of service when applying for most types of non immigrant visas (B, C1, D, F, J, M and O) provided that the person making the application has been issued the same type of visa in the past and that the most recent visa as not been expired for more than 4 years. The drop off service allows an applicant to apply for a visa locally without the need to travel to the Embassy or Consulate to attend a visa interview.

In my mother-in-law's case, she had originally received a B-2 in 2010 and several weeks ago received her second B-2 by using the visa drop off service - it was a very quick and efficient process. She did not submit any financial or property ownership documentation with her application this time, just the minimum requirements - Passport, DS-160 confirmation page, 1 passport sized photo, receipt for visa fee payment, plus an invitation letter from me. Her passport was received by Guangzhou and the visa was approved and sent back very quickly - her time line was as follows:

Monday: Dropped off passport & visa materials at a CITIC bank branch in Xiamen

Wednesday: Visa approved/issued by Guangzhou Consulate

Thursday: MIL received a text message from GUZ stating that her visa had been approved & was being mailed back to her

Friday: Passport/visa delivered via EMS in Xiamen

This is a great service which is much more convenient on the applicant than how things used to be. In many ways, it is very much like when we use a visa service to apply for our visas to China in order to avoid a trip to the Chinese Embassy or Consulate.

[unlockingsky 94]

may i ask about guidance on applying for a visa? my parent in laws would want to visit us in the near future.

[Darnell 8,478]

Jin - what's up ???? How's Eric these days?

[bigdog 376]

Hope you all are well.

[Eric & Jin 10]

may i ask about guidance on applying for a visa? my parent in laws would want to visit us in the near future.

Everyone's case will be different of course and I can only comment on my own in-laws experiences. Both my in-laws applied for and received their first B-2s in October of 2010. For a visitor's visa, the applicant can choose to interview at either the Embassy in Beijing or at any of the consulates in China which issue non-immigrant visas - they do not have to interview at the embassy/consulate which has jurisdiction over their place of residence as is the case with immigrant & 'K' visas. My in-laws were originally going to interview at the consulate in Shanghai but then decided to interview in Guangzhou after discovering that they could schedule a much earlier interview at GUZ. I filled out and submitted a DS-160 visa application form for both of them and had the confirmation page emailed to them - this is what they will need to print out and take with them to their interview, not the entire application. The DS-160 is suppose to be submitted by the applicant of course however assistance with this is allowed.

My in-laws took the following items with them to their interview: DS-160 confirmation pages, receipt for visa fee payment, passports, passport size photos, hukou (original & copies), copies of son's & grandson's National ID's (for proof of relatives still living in China), bank account statements, ownership deeds for multiple apartments, stock portfolio statement, proof of retirement income, I-134 (filled out by me),an invitation letter from my wife and I and a small photo album with photos of my in-laws with relatives still living in China. In the end, the only documentation asked for during the interview was the I-134 and my mother-in-law also showed the VO her photo album.

Here is what was asked and the answers given during their interview:

1. Why do you want to visit the US? To visit our daughter and her husband and to help them out whenever their baby is born in February.

2. How long do you plan to stay? We will go in February and stay 2-3 months - we need to return to China before the summer break starts because we will need to keep our grandsons in Xiamen during that time.

3. How did your daughter and her husband meet? They originally met online and then my son in law came to China to visit 4 times before they were married.

4. When did your daughter move to the US? July 2009

5. What company does your son-in-law work for? My mother-in-law gave the VO one of my business cards

6. How many family members do you have that live in China? My Mother in law had made a small photo album of family photos which she showed to the VO and briefly explained who the various people in them were.

The VO then asked to see the I-134 which I had filled out for them - she briefly scanned over it and then returned it to my in laws at which time she said - "No problem - you get the visa".

So they had a pretty easy interview and a good outcome for their first B-2s. And of course obtaining the second B-2 was a piece of cake, without the need to attend another interview.