Guangzhou, China - My experience

[SVH 0]

Hi all. My first post here, but have learned a lot browsing the forums, so thought I'd share my experience submitting our I-130 in Guangzhou.

A little background on us. I've been here in China 7 years, married for 6. After completing my current employment contract, my wife and I decided to go through the process and move to the USA.

Here goes:

Because I’m in Hangzhou, I decided to take the sleeper train to Guangzhou. I arrived at 7:30am and quickly jumped in a taxi to the USCIS, which only took about 20 minutes and cost 30rmb. There was a couple long lines outside the building for VISA services. I asked a guard where the USCIS was, and bypassed that line and took the escalators up to the 3rd floor only to find yet another line. Asked about it and was told to continue on up to the 4th floor. Got in a much shorter line there. The USCIS is indeed on the 4th floor, while the website says 5th.

After waiting about 30 minutes, I made it through the security checkpoint and looked for where to go. I found that things weren’t labeled or signed, so I had to again ask. To the left in the office there are 3 rows of chairs against the wall. That’s the line.

To my dismay, there were about 30 people already waiting, most older Chinese, and about half a dozen foreigners.

At 8:30 the first person was called into the “interview room”. It took a LONG time for that person and I started to worry that I wouldn’t be able to put the app in. Most of the business the Chinese people had only took a couple minutes, so the line started moving. I was finally next person at 10:20.

I was well prepared and had 2 plastic document holders ready to go. In the first was my entire I-130 application packet, and in the 2nd all of the supporting “original” documents. I put the application in the tray, and after she took it, put both of our passports and marriage books (red books) in the tray.

The girl working there was very impressed with how organized everything was and commented to that effect about 10 times. She mentioned that many bring an envelope with loose documents, and it takes a long time to sort through everything. She started looking at my passport copies and I knew what she was looking for. I told her to look at the next item in the packet which was additional copies of my current and previous residence permits. Again she commented on how organized my packet was and mentioned she wished they were all as such. Haha.

I was done in less than 10 minutes and sent to pay. I paid with cash (RMB), but they also except USD or credit cards. Once I paid, I went back and handed her the receipt (you just walk into the interview room without waiting), she stamped my copy and I was on my way.

[Bumbero 130]

Good luck to you on your journey!

[Darnell 8,478]

Hey ! Welcome aboard, and thanks for the write up !

Please do up a timeline when yer able, soonish?

[SVH 0]

This is from my cover letter. When I put the package together, I stapled each as an individual "item" and hand wrote the "ITEM 1, 2, 3, etc" at the top of each (with the exception of obvious forms). It was really fast and easy for her to find things she was looking for by referencing the cover letter.

Contents of the package includes:

1. Cover Letter.

2. Form I-130: Petition for Alien Relative

3. Copy of all pages of the Petitioner’s US passport.

-Yes, I copied ALL pages including blank pages

4. Copy of petitioner's current and previous Chinese residence permits (from passport).

-Even though I already had copies of this for the passport copy, I made additional copies for this item. I have a LOT of visas in my passport, and this makes current residence permits super easy to find

5. Form G-325A Completed and signed by Petitioner.

- Photograph of Petioner.

-I attached a blank piece of paper to the 325 form, and to that attached a small plastic envelope containing the photos. The girl taking the application loved this!

6. Form G-325A Completed and signed by Beneficiary.

- Photograph of Beneficiary.

7. Copy of the Beneficiary’s birth certificate.

8. Copy of the Beneficiary’s Passport information page.

-Even though it is supposedly not needed, I added it anyway

9. Copy of Marriage Certificate.

10. Copy of Beneficiary’s Divorce documents.

11. Evidence of Bonafide Marriage:

a. Photographs

-For the photos, I created a word doc with 2 pics per page and labeled each pic with location and year. We submitted 12 pics

b. Copies of Apartment Rental Contract, Police Registrations, and Petitioner and Beneficiary’s Driver’s Licenses indicating joint tenancy.

-Pretty straight forward. It was mentioned that the driver's licenses with same address are useful

c. Copy of joint credit card statement.

d. Copy of receipt for joint purchase of automobile.

e. Copy of various emails between Beneficiary and Petitioner’s Mother.

f. Copies of receipts of gifts purchased for Beneficiary.

Edited October 28, 2012 by SVH

[bigdog 376]

Thanks for the time and write up, welcome.

[Pitaya 2,577]

Thanks for the time and write up, welcome.

it helps everyone that uses this site.

Good luck on your immigration journey.

Edited October 29, 2012 by A&B

[shekoujay 0]

Guangzhou Consulate can be confusing. Here are my tips: First of all, make sure you go to the right place. They now have an office building separate from the place where they meet the public. Go to the one in Tianhe. When you arrive to do a DCF of your I-130, ignore the lines in front of the building. Those are for people with appointments for tourist visas or interviews. Go inside the building. There are two sets of escalators. The central one is for the tourists. Take the one on the right side up to the 4th floor. Head back to the center of the building and you will see metal barriers at the top of the central escalator. If you are going to USCIS and you got there before 8:30, there will be a line starting from the barriers and going down the hallway. We got there at 7:45 and were 7th in line. So go early. The consulate will not allow you to enter with electronic devices or bags of any kind, so there are some ladies from the coffee shop that will offer to store your things for you. As long as they have a badge, they work there and you can pay them 100 RMB to store your stuff if you weren't smart enough to leave it in the hotel. While standing there, you will see a steady stream of people going up the central escalators to the 5th floor for their tourist visa applications. Don't worry.

At 8:25 to 8:30 AM, the security guards will start letting people from your line up to the 5th floor. My wife/beneficiary was not allowed to go with me, so she waited in the coffee shop. After you take the escalator to the 5th floor there is a door, you go through and turn right, walk a short way and there will be another door on your right. Then you have to pass through a metal detector security point. You will be asked to take off your shoes and belt and put all your documents on the xray machine. After that is where it gets really confusing. go through the door and turn LEFT and enter a room full of people applying for tourist visas. on the LEFT side of that room there are two small rooms with a USCIS sign. In front of those rooms are three rows of chairs. I was instructed by the security guard to sit in the first chair against the wall. (I guess the 6 people in front of me got lost on the way). I waited there until about 8:50 when an American consular officer came out and asked if anyone was there to file an I-130 please stand up and make a line in front of this one office, anyone there for anything else, stay in the chairs. I waited in that line for another 2-3 minutes before someone came to the window inside the room, then i stepped in and closed the door and started the process of handing in documents. After the document checking, you will be given an invoice to pay at window 16. Window 16 is on the other side of the same big room, but it can be difficult to see how to get there because of all the lines of people. You have to leave that big room and head toward the exit and then you will notice that behind the left side wall of the corridor to the exit you can get to Window 16. After paying go directly back to the room where you left your documents, go inside the small room (even if there is someone in there presenting their documents) and give the consular officer your payment receipt. They will give you back part of the payment receipt and tell you to wait 60 days for a reply. Then you can follow the signs for the exit, go back to the 4th floor coffee shop and meet your loved on or collect your stored items.

The place is chaotic, and some Chinese will think of any reason or way to cut in front of you, but the security officers are fairly conscious of maintaining order, and are good at shooing people back to the end of the line. So don't loose your cool !