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| Beijing, China |  Review on October 26, 2018: |
Dongbei
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I was submitting my I-130 petition for my wife. The consular officer was very friendly, made lots of eye contact and smiled. He looked through my paperwork and noticed that I had incorrectly written "Beijing, China" in question #62 and had me cross it out and write "Guangzhou." I am thankful that he pointed this out as I am sure it would have led to an RFE! He briefly glanced at all of the forms and looked at the evidence I attached.
I told him that I did the translation for the attached evidence myself as I have studied Chinese for 3 years in China. He then switched over to Chinese for the rest of our time together, although he was obviously speaking as slowly as clearly as he could to make sure I understood everything.
He instructed me to pay the fee at the ACS section next door, which was a bit confusing. They have instructions posted everywhere that say you should wait in line for windows 6 or 7 first to check in, then pay the fee. I waited for maybe 10 minutes, went to the window, then she just told me I should not wait in line and go directly to window 10 to pay. Oh well! She was very friendly as well.
I paid the fee and then went back over so he could make a copy of the receipt.
He told me that it would be 2-3 months for the I-130 petition, then it would be sent directly to Guangzhou for processing if everything goes well. He asked if I had any questions and I asked how long the whole process takes. He said usually 6 months or maybe sometimes faster.
One note: there is no way to store anything and you can't bring any electronics into the Embassy. There is an area across the street that has bathrooms, overpriced food/drinks and storage lockers. The storage lockers are 50 RMB, so if you have someone who can hold your electronics for you, that is ideal. If you want cheaper snacks, there is a 7/11 about a 5 minute walk away from the Embassy, also on the same street. I would recommend buying snacks there and bringing them to the place directly across the street. It is free to sit there so don't worry about that.
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #24908