Late Pick-Up for Passport

[Mitch0526 1]

My wife needs to pick up her passport in Guangzhou, China. She would like to pick it up after the 15 days it will be at the CITIC Bank. On the website, it says "Please note that CITIC will hold your passport for only 15 days, after which it will be returned to the Embassy/Consulate. You must collect your passport within 15 days." Does this mean it will be a problem if we pick it up after the 15 days at the Embassy or will it just be normal, just at a different location?

Thanks

[Darnell 8,478]

I always read that to be:

CITIC bank will hold it for 15 days after it hits that bank location.

When I read yer stuff, I am confused.

I do note most CITIC banks are open Saturday and Sunday, so that's a plus.

[Mitch0526 1]

Yeah, but it says it will be returned to the embassy. Is it a problem to be returned to the embassy and pick it up there? If it's a problem, we can surely find a way to pick it up within the 15 days.

It's just confusing it says "must pick it up within 15 days" yet it will be sent to the embassy after that.

[Mitch0526 1]

Can someone please tell me if it is ok to do a late pick up at the embassy? It says it will be sent there after 15 days. Will they not like it if it is picked up late or have a negative effect on the visa? We would rather wait 2 or 3 weeks because we don't live near this city.

[Darnell 8,478]

what was the closet city that CITIC courier delivers to ?

[Mitch0526 1]

The closest city is Huizhou which is 4 hours away from me. Guangzhou is 5 hours away. It's already set to go to Guangzhou, so we will just deal with that. If we must pick it up within the 15 days, we can definitely do it, but we just have more free time to travel after that 15 day mark.

[Darnell 8,478]

I guess I coud understand this more if you give me some dates (as yer timeline isn't indicative of whats going on now) :

--date of interview

--date CEAC website changed to 'ISSUED'

--date ustraveldocs.com/cn website status changed to 'Origination Scan'

[Mitch0526 1]

The date of the interview was March 10.

I just went to this website: http://www.ustraveldocs.com/in/in-niv-passporttrack.asp

and it says

Passport Status : There is no status update available for the passport number submitted

I checked it 2 different times before and it showed the pick up information. I know it was ready for pickup at least by March 14.

On this website: https://cgifederal.secure.force.com/applicanthome

it says Passport is ready for pickup.

Why would the ustraveldocs website say there is nothing available?

[Darnell 8,478]

ustraveldocs is stupid.

what is CEAC status and date? [not ustravedocs.com/cn]

[Mitch0526 1]

Can you please send me the website for CEAC that I can use to check it, please? I searched around the site for a while yesterday and couldn't find the exact place you look up the status and update.

Sorry I'm helpless at times...

[Darnell 8,478]

https://ceac.state.gov/CEACStatTracker/Status.aspx?eQs=WwjqOlbeRYzCYubaSQI+RA==

[Mitch0526 1]

This is what that site says...

Case Creation Date: 10-Mar-2014 Status Updated Date: 11-Mar-2014

Your visa is in final processing. If you have not received it in more than 10 working days, please see the webpage for contact information of the embassy or consulate where you submitted your application.

I had no idea it would get processed that quickly. If we need to pick it up before March 26, we can. We would just prefer to do it beyond that time

[Darnell 8,478]

ok - that was helpful

movement triage (from me to you)

Once CEAC changes to 'ISSUED' -

expect another wait, from 2 days to 2 weeks,

as the visa has to be printed, then glued into the passport, and the passport plus some other documentation bundled into a mailer, then the mailer shove over into the mailroom, where it then waits for 1 to 3 days for the CITIC Bank Courier to retrieve it.

AFTER CEAC status changes to 'ISSUED' - start checking ustraveldocs website - once you see (if you see) 'Origination Scan' then it was picked up by the CITIC Bank Courier. Reporting updates are usually batched, so expect 1 to 2 days of delay from actual event. Still, Origination Scan is a good thing, that means it left the NIV Unit at Guangzhou.

[Mitch0526 1]

I got an automatic email from ustraveldocs saying " The current status of your passport is Ready For Pickup." Same thing when I log in to the website.

On normal website, It still says "there is no status update for this passport number" when I type in her passport number to track her passport. So, I still can't see the "origination scan".

I'm thinking my wife will just go and make a day trip there on Monday, since I still haven't heard from you or anyone else it's ok to wait longer than 15 days. By Monday, it will be 13 days from status update change. We want to wait at least another week after that, but we don't have to. We can go earlier.

[Darnell 8,478]

ready for pickup? no 'origination scan'?

Man, i'd be calling into that bank, asking if it's there, before making travel plans.

i've written of this movement in the china forum, set up a topic to track what's what,

but

I'll mention that it's possible to get a human, via telephone, at the ustraveldocs helpdesk, punching through their AVR thingie, then asking them to review exactly where the passport is today. they might have to get a boss to do further research, but when I was doing this, the boss turnaround time was less than 10 minutes.

Edited March 21, 2014 by Darnell