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| Guangzhou, China |  Review on September 14, 2011: |
jinmeili
Rating:  | Review Topic: IR-1/CR-1 Visa
I hope someone finds this useful as I found the other reviews very useful!
Things went just as we expected according to what my husband told me.
He arrived for his health check at the Guangzhou International Travel Clinic at 7AM. He was first in line  The clinic opened at 8 and within an hour he was finished with his exam. Within 2 hours he received his results. We had called in advance and paid 200 RMB more to ensure we would get the report before 12:00. The clinic was very helpful.
Then he took a taxi to the Visa Center where he said there were probably 100 people waiting outside to hand in documents. He got in line at 12:00.
At 12:30 they started letting people in. Then he went through the required security check and then had to get a number. He waited about 2 hours until his number was called. Our only surprise of the day was that we had to pay the visa processing fee of $400. We were not aware of this because we hadn't received any info about it in previous packages. After he told me I was a little worried that maybe they had made a mistake because we already paid the $300+ when we filed the i-130 petition. I immediately started googling and found that there was indeed an additional visa processing fee! They should tell you this somewhere in the process. We thought there was only the initial fee. Grrr...I love my country, but sometimes...
He waited 1 more hour to do the fingerprint. In total he finished the whole process in 3 hours.
The next day he arrived at the embassy at 6:15 but he noticed at 7:45, when they started letting folks in, that they seemed to let in older folks or people with children first and then those with business/travel visas. So if you have a green/blue sticker on your paper you will be first in. If you are applying as a spouse/fiance there might not be a need to get there too early as you won't be let in first regardless. it also seems like the order is already pre-determined so arriving earlier won't shorten your waiting time. my husband was the first in line in his group but didn't interview first.
after waiting about an hour his number was called. He was interviewed by a Caucasian woman, about middle-age. She began in Chinese but as my husband can speak English quite well he responded in English and she switched to English. He said she was not nice but not mean either He did notice there was a younger visa officer, blond, caucasian male who was not as nice as the other officers.
She asked first for photos of us together and he handed over our stack of about 20 photos from various trips, wedding and some family photos. Then she asked to see his passport with his previous US travel visas. She asked about his most current one and why he had gone to the US. He told her we went together to visit my family. Then she asked if my family liked him and he said yes and showed her the photo of him and my mom on a trip in Suzhou. She made lots of comments about the photos (good ones) then asked him if he was communist. He said no. Her final question was about his degree. After that she told him he passed! Then she gave him his "white paper", the interview letter with the mail guide attached informing him his passport will be mailed to our mailing address.
Overall things went more quickly than we expected! I hope you find this useful!
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Consulate / USCIS Member Review #8309