Is anything mailed in China?

[dakelei 3]

I actually sent an email to the IV Unit in Guangzhou about this and they sent me an answer that leads me to believe they simply didn't understand my question or didn't want to answer it. My wife lives with me in one city in China while pretty much every Chinese legal document she has procured has a different one, from the city, around 50 minutes away, in which she was born, put on her family's hukou and where her parents still live. The police check, for example, has her hukou address on it. This is not really a big deal here because many Chinese live in places for years at which they are not 100% "legal" to live, migrant workers being the best example. I'm in the process of filling out my wife's DS-230 online. It asks for an address and it seems logical to put the one at which we are both now physically residing, even though she is not totally a "legal" resident of this city. However, her police check, since it had to be done in her hukou city, has a completely different address. My concern is that if I use the hukou address there is a chance the consulate will mail something there and we really don't want them to. When my wife's i-130 was approved we were informed via email and no actual documents were mailed to her. Is it safe to assume that this will continue and nothing will be mailed?

[LBeachey 45]

I would put down the mailing address you want the consulate to use. As you Said, it is quite Common for a Chinese's physical/mailing address to be in a different place then their legal address. The visa process is constantly changing so I am not sure if the consulate will actually use it. When they mailed my wife's passport and visa by EMS they had us self-address the mailing label.

[dakelei 3]

I guess I just worry too much. My concern is they'll see a different address on the forms than on the Chinese documents we're submitting and wonder what's up with that.

[Darnell 8,479]

you need a document delivery coverpage,

gotten at

http://ustraveldocs.com/cn

brought in on interview day.

other than that, no, not really, not need to think something will arrive at her hukuo address

as

you two are doing DCF and the interview letter will be sent to the address on the I-130 and G-325A, but some bright boy might note the address you use in the DS-260 when they mail out the interview letter.

Clear as mud?

[dakelei 3]

I may have sent this a bit too hastily. A few pages into the online DS-260 a question comes up: "Is your present address your mailing address?" Since the address where we're living now is the one I used I answered "yes." It is the same address I used on both the i-130 and the G-325 so there is no discrepancy. I used her hukou address as a "former address."

You'd think that folks here on the ground working in China for any length of time would know this stuff. Because of this insane "hukou" ####### half the folks in this country are living in a place where they are not "registered" to live and are therefore technically living there "illegally." My wife has lived, and worked, in this city for 3.5 years and is still, for all intents and purposes, living here illegally. I sent an email to the Guangzhou IV unit asking about this and got a 2 line response: "We can't offer advice on this. Ask the Chinese government for help." This is MY government telling me to ask the Chinese government for help! "Uh, excuse me, my wife has lived in this city illegally for more than 3 years. Can you help me?" Like that is going to happen. Where do they find these people who are working at the consulate? Do they have any training or what? I mean this is "China 101."

[unsmiley 111]

I think the consulate in GZO answers inquiries only with prefabricated form letters. It is absurd.

[dakelei 3]

You're right. I wish at the very least they'd provide a different email for actual US citizens. I can understand that they are swamped with requests from millions of Chinese seeking a US visa but they could attempt to be a bit, um, "nicer" to the few Americans who have to deal with them. When I went to the consulate in Guangzhou I was amazed at how it seemed no one there spoke (or understood) English. It was a crazy scene. Even the girl who interviewed my wife and I when we dropped her off i-130 was Chinese. I appreciate that most of what they do there they do for Chinese people but it would be nice to have at least one American lurking around to speak with folks like me when we show up. It was very different when I had to go the "America Citizens Services" section a few years back to get a new passport. Everyone there was professional, polite and efficient. My experience thus far with the IV Unit has been vastly different.

[Darnell 8,479]

don't sweat the hukuo address to be used as any mailing address.

restudy the link I posted, make an account there, as

she needs to generate and bring in (on interview day)

a document delivery cover sheet.

Things changed up since LBeachey went through it - now all visa packets are delivered via courier to a CITIC BANK LOCATION, one that you or her pick in the document delivery coversheet menu in that website.

GUZ IV not mail the visa packet to any address of hers after interview day.

What I'd be interested in, is how the appointment letter, packet 4, gets to her (postal or email) so when you get farther along in this process, post back, aye?

[dakelei 3]

The nearest Citic Bank to us is hours away. I'm at a loss as to why it's "easier" to do things though it. The option of having things delivered to your address is offered in theory but you can't really check it. It's bizarre. So I basically have no choice but to go to a bank several hours away. Just to drop my wife's stuff off there is going to require a bus trip of at least 3 hours. Heading to Guangzhou itself isn't even that much further. This is really beginning to annoy me. And when they send anything to her I'll again have to trek several hours to retrieve it. I really can't get out of this country fast enough. The regular mail is so damn untrustworthy that the consulate obviously doesn't have enough faith in it enough to deliver anything. Can't say I blame them. I do wish they'd at least use China Construction Bank or something like that. There's a branch of that on practically every corner in my city.

[Darnell 8,479]

I think it's time to really start complaining,

as

yer just at the edge of it.

more please!

[dakelei 3]

Whatever, bro. I'm annoyed. I can't wait till this ####### is over.

[Darnell 8,479]

I know, I know. I gots all kind of annoyed as well. click my profile, see my trail of annoyance.

[dakelei 3]

No thanks. I've got as much annoyance as I can tolerate. Don't need to read anyone else's.

When you drop off documents at the Citic Bank do you just sort of show up and do it or is there some kind of process involved? Is there a dedicated window or what? I'm planning on going there tomorrow.

[Darnell 8,479]

are you talking about dropping off the I-864 and civil docs? Isn't that done on interview day, at the IV Unit, for DCF'd casefiles, instead?

[dakelei 3]

We sent my wife's police check and birth certificate through the bank dropoff. I answered my own question. You can just show up and do it though there is a desk dedicated to the task and you have to ask around to find it. It was relatively painless though the pictures I included were the wrong size and I had to get them reprinted. The bank worker who handled the transaction just happened to be a very attractive young woman. Had I not been there for the express purpose of getting my wife's visa I undoubtedly would have flirted with her a lot more. It was a tad awkward attempting that while she was looking at pictures of my wife. One needn't pay to have the documents sent by courier to the consulate in Guangzhou,, which is cool at least though the trip to Xiamen wound up costing me hundreds of yuan.