Today we were absolutely caught off guard! We received Packet 4 from Guangzhou only 8 days after mailing the OF-169 checklist back to the consulate. And the interview is scheduled for 12/15, less than a month from now.

This seems like uncharted territory for the Guangzhou consulate. I'm not sure how or why our case got processed that quickly. Maybe it has something to do with the priority date (March 9). But, others have had similar priority dates and their processing took a lot more time.

Anyway, we're hoping some of this good luck rubs off on the other Guangzhou-ites!

Probably has to do with if the beneficiary is a Chinese national or not in your case your beneficiary is German, they may be doing the actual visa processing in Germany, and just using Guangzhou to handle your interview.

Guangzhou is notoriously slow when handling domestic cases, they have to deal with the Chinese government for background check, and you know how painful that is.