Is we or ain't we ... registered?

[johnandxiaoyan 2]

We just got an email from the consulate telling us to schedule an interview, but it began with this very confusing (to us) instruction:

• Once you receive this notice, please visit http://ustraveldocs.com and register a document pick-up location by selecting the “Select Document Delivery Address” option in the Immigrant Visas section of the website. If you have already registered, you do not need to register again. Failure to register prior to your visa interview will result in delay of your visa application.

Is this some kind of boilerplate that bears no relation to our situation? Didn't we "register" when we sent in our I-129f four months ago? And why the business about a "document delivery address"? Doesn't the consulate have our address?

Sorry if I sound peevish, but I am! Can you help us understand (or ignore) this instruction?

[Harpa Timsah 13,260]

?

You gave USCIS your address and now this is USDOS.

You can choose to ignore it and suffer a delay of your visa, as stated.

They want your help to make things go smoother across systems. This helps keep your costs down.

[Darnell 8,479]

sorry, the next step,

the visa application,

must be handled.

USCIS is done with the case, now the Department of State, Immigrant Visa Unit at Guangzhou, China, takes over.

GUZ IV has contracted with CGI/Stanley, who created a webportal for usage at ustraveldocs.com/cn and for further visa application processing and intake, one has to register an account there for the K-1 visa application stuff.

It's a slog, to be sure, and you have to pay the Visa Application fee at a CITIC Bank, but hey !

That notice is a good sign that they've opened the casefile.

When you get a moment, study a bit in the China sub-forum, from a PC, as there's topics there on what folks have done in the last 6 months.

FWIW, chasing after a K-1 visa is a multi-part process - you're done with the USCIS part, the I-129F petition was approved, now your beneficiary is allowed to apply for the visa based on petition approval.

Go Get Em, and Good Luck !

Edited April 2, 2014 by Darnell

[Darnell 8,479]

re: the document delivery address -

this is an easy thing (once you finish the registration process)

as

you two are picking a CITIC Bank Location that handles the visa packet delivery. Once the IV UNIT is done with the visa, a visa packet is generated, and is slogged over to the CITIC Bank location chosen in that portal. The coversheet actually is handed over on interview day, kept with the casefile, so the workers without computer access will know how to route the file.

CITIC Bank courier is fast, once it gets out of the IV Unit, and is one of the last things in this process. If you have a moment, study the K-1 visa flowchart in the guides section - that's the basis of stuff, with new, extra wrinkles thrown in by GUZ IV and CGI/Stanley/ustraveldocs