llamagatekeeper

???

There is no fee payment at citic for DCF.

Current time lines seem to be about 2-3 months, but 2 months seem the norm if you fill out everything correctly the first time. Longest part of the process is awaiting approval of i-130 and then finding appointment as soon as possible.

Just show up to the citic bank of your choice. They should know how to send it to the consulate, but if they don't (like they didn't for me) have them figure out what branch knows how to do it. The branch I went to only knew how to do Chinese tourist visas and not immigration visas...

Just go with the documents in the email (confirmation letter, pictures, etc) and they will put it in envelope for you. My branch made an extra copy for their own purposes as they requests 2 copies, but you'll be fine with 1 copy as they will make copy if need be.

The system is dumb and won't let you do drop-off as there really isn't such a thing as DCF.

Should take less than 1 week to get confirmation and email back on next steps. Good luck!