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| Guangzhou, China |  Review on April 22, 2015: |
jfrankli512
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I had done a lot of reading online about Guangzhou, and was expecting the worst: disorganized, lots of waiting, difficult interviews, etc. Surprisingly, things went very smoothly and went pretty quick too!
My wife was there for the interview. I traveled to Guangzhou to support her, but was not allowed inside to attend the interview with her. There was another couple there that suggested USC can still go inside to wait in the lobby, but after getting past the first guards (to get past the gate), the second guards at the security clearance area wouldn't let us in without an appointment. In the end, I ended up going to the Starbucks across the street to wait for her there.
From start to finish:
Her appointment was at 8:15am on April 14, 2015.
We stayed at the Grand Hyatt (very nice 5 star hotel, but quite expensive) nearby, and could walk to the consulate in the morning. We arrived outside the consulate at around 7:30 to find a great number of people already outside waiting. There are two lines: one line for immigration, and one for visas. This is a little confusing (since my wife is applying for an immigration visa), but we figured out the immigration line is for the K1 and CR1 interviews, and the visa line is for the temporary visas like B1 tourist visas.
The outside was a mixture of people lining up and people hovering around around the gate (typical Chinese fashion, some people still don't know to queue up properly) that goes through the big fence outside the consulate. After a little while of standing around, we figured out that they were calling out interview times, and would only let people through the gate within 30 minutes of their interview time. So queuing up in a proper line doesn't really matter at this point, since you can't get in until it's close enough already.
Once you go through the outer gate, you get in another line to prepare to go through the security clearance (like at an airport, x-ray machine and metal detectors...) Even though interview appointments started as early at 7:45am, they didn't open that facility up and start letting people in until 8:00am.
My wife got past the outer gate at around 8:00am, and didn't pass through security until around 8:30am.
The next part is from her description of the events. Once I saw her pass security, I walked over to Starbucks to sip on my coffee and wait the long wait. There were still a lot of people (mostly Chinese) sitting on the ledge outside waiting. I guess you could wait out there too, but it gets hot in Guangzhou, so be prepared for that.
My wife said that after she went inside, she drew a number and sat in a waiting area. The first time she was called up there, it was a Chinese lady asking for paperwork. Since we had submitted original documents to NVC, there wasn't anything we had to submit. The lady asked some simple questions, which made it feel like a pre-interview of sorts. They were pretty basic, although I can't remember any specific questions, but I think she was looking for any issues with our history that might need to be explored in more detail. She asked if my wife had ever been to the US (no), had she applied for a visa before (yes, a tourist visa, which was rejected), why was it rejected? (lack of evidence). Somehow the topic came up about us owning a house together, so my wife showed her the deed with both our names on it (which I had already submitted, but it was easier to show a copy my wife had prepared instead of wait for the officer to find it in the stack of papers she already had).
After that, she sat back down and waited some more, and was then called up to a window again for the real interview. It was conducted by a gentleman in his 30's or 40's. He was an American, but spoke Chinese. He asked some really basic questions too:
1. How long have you known each other? How did you meet?
2. How do you communicate? (Since her interview was in Chinese, they want to see how we can actually talk to each other. She said that I speak Chinese, which is true, and they didn't ask to see any evidence of it)
3. Then he asked questions about my previous marriage, which my wife knew about already and explained as best she could.
They didn't ask to see any extra paperwork. No new financial or tax information. After about 10 minutes, they told my wife congratulations and that she had passed. She was a little shocked that it was this easy (since sometimes you read online about horror stories), and kept asking them if they wanted to look at some of the things she brought. After politely declining a couple times, she finally understood that she really passed. Afterwards, she joked that all the preparation we did was a waste... but in my opinion it is better to be overprepared and not need it than to be underprepared and need something you don't have.
They gave her a white piece of paper explaining that she had passed and the next step of checking the status online and waiting for her passport. Other people in their reviews wrote that a positive response would give out a pink piece of paper, but hers was white. She went back and asked them if this was okay just to double/triple check, but things were completely fine.
She was done and back at Starbucks looking for me by 9:30am.
Just a word of caution on the CEAC status tracker: on 4/22 she got a call from the bank that her passport had been received and is available for pickup, but according to the online portal the passport is still at the consulate awaiting to be sent out.
Anyway, we are both so happy that it went as smoothly as it did, and we were able to enjoy the rest of the week for a happy vacation.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #16657