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My husband had already filed petition for me. We were then waiting for CC and PD to be current when I applied for B1/B2 (for business). The chances were very slim but I got approved.

You should give it a try as well.

Is wire transfer the only efficient way to bring big amount of cash from Chinese bank to US bank? Is there a cheaper way?

Western Union..cheaper way. Upto 10K => 30$

I didn't know about the wire transfer. FYI. I withdraw money from Ping'an Bank through UnionPay ATMs. The bank confirmed my golden card has no fee charges within five times. But don't know if the ATMs charge me fees or not...

I need to do more research about US banks...

Hmm. No experience on this and I will not be doing this way. I will be closing all my accounts before I leave China.

So, I will definitely do wire transfer.

we got our interview date after 1.75 months after CC.

It took about 1.75 months for us.

As I understand you are not allowed to take cash amount exceeding 5K $ from China and US do not allow cash exceeding 10K $

If your amount is under that, exchanging and taking cash is good anyway.

I was also looking for this information myself and this is what I have got until now. Hopefully it will be useful for you.

The best option is to do the bank transfer. For Chinese national, you are allowed to do money transfer of 50K US$ in one year from China

As I understand Bank of Communication has the lowest fee among all. 0.1% of the amount in currency to be transferred + 80 RMB per transaction => charge from your Chinese bank.

And most of the US banks will charge you about 15$-20$ per transaction at their side (If there is no intermediary banks)

  

I see... I have the CD and I wanna take the vaccine in the States. I was told it was more expensive...

I only needed to take two vaccination for my medical check up for immigration process, MMR and varicella, to which they said I have to the second doze for varicella after 4-6 weeks here in Beijing or in US. If I have enough time before going to U.S, I will probably get it done here.

Correct it at POE. Then make sure after about 2-3 weeks in the USA that the USCIS has your correct address by using your IOE number from your immigrant fee for the green card.

Thank you NLR. Yes, now I understand for GC that i have two ways to check the correct address, one at POE and one when paying the immigrant fee for GC.

Another thing is about SS card. Is there additional way to confirm the correct address for this as well apart from updating at POE?

Also please fill in your timeline or let me know if your profile is correct as F2A.

Timeline somehow is not working for me, but as my profile says, my visa category is F2A.

Than your last chance to change is the POE ensure to tell the officer there. The GC and SSN comes to the address you put on the DS-260. That's why either interview or DS-260 changes must be made. Good luck.

Thank you.

DS-260 is definitely updated. It has the correct address. We resubmitted with the correction.

It is the Immigration Document Summary sheet that came in the Visa packet does not contain the correct address. The updated address is not reflected in this paper...

Yes I had to correct my address and my place of birth. You do that at interview. I corrected on the DS-260 form I printed out the entire questionnaire and my husband handed over to the CO at interview.

No big deal. Correct at interview.

The problem is my interview is already done. I should have told him about the update in the DS-260..But I thought since it is already updated in DS260, it was not necessary...

And now as a result, the Immigrant Document Summary sheet that comes attached with your Visa packet has the wrong address...

BTW, since it was agreed in DS-260 to issue both GC and SSN, do you have any experience contacting them separately to confirm the change in address?

I noticed that on my Immigrant Document Summary, the Final address in the U.S. contains old address instead of the updated/new address.

We had the DS-260 updated with the new address but somehow this change is not reflected on Immigrant Document Summary sheet.

Did anyone had the similar situation? How can we correct this?

I have read in forums that we can update this information to the officer at the POE. For some it worked and for some it still turned out that GC and SSN were sent to the wrong addresses.

Are there any other ways which can confirm that GC and SSN would be sent to the correct/new/updated address?

   

Hmm... I got my passport, along with a packet that I can't open. Wondering if the medical report is within it...

I also asked because I saw Chris's new topic. He was asking about getting his wife's medical report from China translated. Don't know where did he get it...

I think he meant other medical reports from China, not the one that we specifically did for the visa interview.

The one we did for visa interview is inside that brown envelope. I have confirmed with VO.

However, the CD and the vaccination sheet should be with you already.

   

Nope, I only got a notice saying my visa is approved... Why are you asking?

I read somewhere that the materials were returned. Nevermind, apparently it would be inside your visa packet.

I never received a medical report at all so I assume it was in the package I handed in at POE. I did however receive my X-ray results on a CD on the day of the medical which I offered at POE and they were not interested in it.

Thank you very much D&B18, that's really good to know.

Everything you need at the POE is in the sealed brown envelope that came with your passport.

Thank you very much dwheels76!

They give you 1 or 2 sheets from the medical back, as well as the Disc with your X-ray images on it, but for China, you don't receive the entire report back.

Hey Chris!

Thank you very much for the confirmation! I was worried if I missed it.

The thing is my medical report came all separately (separate sealed brown envelope with medical results + separate sealed X-ray CD + 1 sheet with vaccination information + 1 vaccination certification).

During the documents intake, the officer only took what was inside in the brown envelope and didn't wanted the others and asked to keep it to myself.

Since I have read in VJ forms many times that they give back the medical report, I was confused if I was supposed to receive what was inside "my" brown envelop as well.

Seems like the one they didn't take from are the ones that were returned to you ? Was the sheet you have is vaccination?

Hello,

Do I need the medical report at the POE ?

The background is: After the interview, I got all my civil documents but I didn't get my medical reports back.

At that moment, I completely forgot to ask about this to VO as well.

But neither did he gave it back to me himself.

This was in GUZ consulate, China. So I am not sure if the consulate would keep the medical report by themselves instead or was it a mistake and they forgot to give it back?

Hey, Did you get your medical report back after the interview?

I am back from the interview and realized they did not return my medical report. I am wondering, they do not give it back, it is that keep it or VO forgot to give it back to me?

It only takes three days after my interview. That was unexpected.

Hey that is indeed unexpected! And that is indeed good news! I think I read one of the applicant who had interview recently got his visa status "Issued" also in three days.

Did you selected a EMS delivery or the pick up and how long did it take to have your passport in hand?

I had it print out and brought it with me. It's just two pieces of paper. But before entering the building, the stuffs only checked my passport and the confirmation letter. But I put P4 and appointment confirmation and DS-160 confirmation letter in one folder. Just in case.

Thank you Jonna!

BTW, how long did it take for your visa to be in the status "Issued" from the day of your interview?

Thank you for sharing your experience! My appointment is scheduled in two weeks. Hopefully it will go all fine as well.

I have a question, when you were waiting in the line before entering the building, which documents are checked. I know we need appointment letter(P4) and the the confirmation letter. Do we also need UID printout with the barcode?

Background:

I already had account on CGI Stanley when I applied for B1/B2 business visa few years back.

For my current F2A visa, my visa appointment has been scheduled by NVC. Hence I only needed to choose Document delivery location which I followed according to the suggestion : New Application/Schedule Appointment > Immigrant Visa - NVC Applicants only - Registration > Select Visa category > Delivery location.

1. After final step, it only shows me a printable page with only text with the information (No UID bar code which I remember there was when I first printed for B1/B2 visa)

2. Another problem is that it still contains DS-160 Confirmation number instead of DS-260.

I will have to call CGI to ask about this and get it fixed but meanwhile did any one had this problem as well? Please share your experience on fixing this.

Thanking you in advance.

I had the same situation. Luckily I was contacted by the GUZ Consulate to talk about something else in my DS260.

I had opportunity to ask about this exact problem with them and they told me that I should tell my VO during the interview about the address change.

So another update..............................................

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04-06-2016 - Case went Administrative Processing

04-08-2016 - Case went to Visa Issued (contact embassy if it is not received within 10 working days)

04-13-2016 - Visa stamped in passport has arrived. (Her Visa was delivered within 3 working days.)

It is now up to her to decide when she wants to move her. We will play it by ear. She needs time to pack her belongings, spend more time with her family and friends, to say her goodbyes. The easy part is now over, the hard part is ahead.

It is worth noting, we Paid for the special delivery service, instead of choosing a pickup location. She wanted to pay to have it delivered directly to her home, it is very likely that this sped up the process.

Hey Chris,

I hope you and Zhijia are having wonderful time together ! All the best for the future!

I noticed something regarding your comment above: " we Paid for the special delivery service, instead of choosing a pickup location. She wanted to pay to have it delivered directly to her home, it is very likely that this sped up the process."

Do you think special delivery is even faster than the pickup location? Even faster than the same delivery CITIC bank pickup location? (Thought it really should be "same" day to the CITIC bank, planning on choosing Guangzhou CITIC bank)

My next step is to choose the pick up location, your input regarding this would really solve my dilemma. Thank you in advance!

And...wow! Case went to Visa "Issued" in three days?! Didn't know it wast that fast ! Really glad to to know that actually. Hopefully, mine will go be that fast as well.

I hope you and Zhijia are having wonderful time together ! All the best for the

I will reply to everyone later when I am near a computer, but for now we are done, she was approved in 5 minutes.

Congratulations!!

Please share the questions that were asked and also the time that it will take for the passport to arrive.

My appointment is scheduled next month.

Nope - no clue as I only monitor / read / give advice about casefiles headed to Guangzhou China.

Hi Darnell,

Ours is F2A visa too, it's EP, GZO#.

CC was exactly two weeks ago.

No email/correspondence whatsoever regarding interview scheduling yet.

I learnt that GUZ consulate releases available slots to NVC a month earlier. Question is, do you know if Guangzhou Consulate only release dates to NVC once a month ? twice a month ?

Other visa category folks who can schedule their appointment by themselves could already schedule for April 2016 in GUZ.

It would really suck if we do not get visa interview date in April

What a wait for F2A category- first for priority date and now even for interview !

The appointment dates disappear within 20 minutes of appearing because of how many people are scheduling interviews. The NVC receives the appointments first, and then we receive them. GUZ has already sent the April appointment dates to the NVC. You will need to wait for the next batch to be released to the NVC. Unfortunately since you need the NVC to schedule for you, they have already used up all of the available dates provided to them by the Embassy.

Thanks for the info, Chris!

Do you know if it is like only once a month that GUZ releases appointment dates to NVC ?

I really hope, this is NOT the case!

That would mean, I should forget about appointment in April and that's really ...

Also, please fill in your timeline so we have a better understanding of where you are in your process, and which Visa you are applying for.

it's F2A