Bizarre, bad interview experience...

[unsmiley 111]

What the Consulate instructions actually say is:

(3) from all countries where the applicant has resided for at least one year,

Yes, and she was in HK for only 9 days total and they are asking for it.

[unsmiley 111]

Of course! Yes! If that doesn't clear it up, though, make a REASONABLE (and documented) effort to get the police statement from HK - unless YOU think it's easier to just get the statement from HK. Your choice, here.

The four possibilities are:

1) GUZ admits their mistake, and withdraws the request for a HK police report - YOU'RE DONE!

2) They INSIST you get one, but HK says No, that they can't give you one. Just document the date and time of the contact, what you asked for, and what they said - submit that in lieu of the police report - you're probably done (they can't demand the impossible)

3)They INSIST you get one, AND HK complies - YOU'RE DONE!

4) You just go ahead and get the HK police report, if you decide it's easier than trying to deal with the Goons at GUZ - YOU'RE DONE!

It turns out that getting a police clearance from HK is not onerous, and can be done via mail with a $205 HK fee. So we are applying for such a clearance (it takes a few weeks), and at the same time, we will be sending an inquiry to the Guangzhou embassy to ask them if a mistake was made by them asking us for a clearance in the first place when my wife has only spent a total of 9 days in HK.

[DJ&L 83]

Apparently they think she was in HK longer...otherwise I don't think they'd ask for the Police Certificate.

Good luck!

[unsmiley 111]

To follow up: We went through the process of getting a police clearance from Hong Kong, after we decided it would be easier than questioning the GZO embassy's demand. HK says they mailed it out on 12/11/13. I emailed the embassy the other day to ask whether they have received it, and got back the annoyingly useless canned response below:

Thank you for your email.

The Immigrant Visa section has either not received or has not processed the documents recently mailed to us. Due to the large volume of mail that the Consulate receives, we are unable to immediately process such documents. After the documents have been reviewed, the applicant / petitioner should receive a result. If a response has not been received after three months, we ask that the applicant or the petitioner contact us again.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at http://guangzhou.usembassy-china.org.cn//immigrant-visa-unit-question.html if you have further questions. Thank you.

Sincerely,
Immigrant Visa Unit
U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou

So we are just supposed to wait? Although I understand waiting for them to process it IF they got it, I don't want to wait three more months only for them to tell us they did not receive it. What, if anything, can we do??

[Darnell 8,478]

call the DoS Hotline, when they are open - they can read the notes in electronic record of the casefile. Usually other docs coming in after the interview date are noted in the casefile, and the DoS Humans can read that bit.

OR

keep checking ceac.state.gov

noting the DATES as they change, for status.

IMO, 2 date changes within 7 days is a good sign the thing 1] hit the door and 2] got added to the casefile. It's still iffy when the actual review is done..

[unsmiley 111]

call the DoS Hotline, when they are open - they can read the notes in electronic record of the casefile. Usually other docs coming in after the interview date are noted in the casefile, and the DoS Humans can read that bit.

OR

keep checking ceac.state.gov

noting the DATES as they change, for status.

IMO, 2 date changes within 7 days is a good sign the thing 1] hit the door and 2] got added to the casefile. It's still iffy when the actual review is done..

Is the DoS Hotline you are referring to the Public Inquires Division of Visa Services (202-485-7600)?

Also: ceac.state.gov says we are in the dreaded "Administrative Processing."

Edited December 27, 2013 by unsmiley

[Darnell 8,478]

Yup - that's them !

as to ceac - so what? I was writing of the 'last updated date' that's visible to you. it changes, when a human touches the casefile, even the status not change from AP.

Keep a log of the date changes.