Scheduling the interview using CGI Stanley

[Q&R 1]

The Guangzhou embassy has received our case, we have received the package in the mail, we have sent the package back with the required documents. They have received it and then told us to schedule the interview using CGI Stanley. Same day we went to the China CITIC Bank to pay the fee and got the receipt.

Using CGI went smoothly until it got to the page where you actually have to set the interview date. When we get there it says:

"There are currently no appointments available."

And the calander is just blank.

On the previous page, the 'confirm receipt' page, it says:

"Please note that there could be a delay between the time of payment and the time that you can proceed to schedule your appointment. Please be patient and thanks for your cooperation. "

We have already waited a few days. Does anyone know how long this takes??!!

And one more question...does your "priority date" mean that the interview MUST take place before that date??

Any help will be GREATLY appreciated...thanks!!

[unlockingsky 94]

darnell suggested to 'keep hitting it' tactic.

http://www.visajourney.com/forums/topic/436041-should-i-be-worried/?p=6308515

"Please note that there could be a delay between the time of payment and the time that you can proceed to schedule your appointment. Please be patient and thanks for your cooperation. "

We have already waited a few days. Does anyone know how long this takes??!!

payments shouldn't take longer than 48 hours. i had recently help my parentinlaws with that site for b2 visa. i was able to help them schedule after 24 hours.

another suggestion is to email their support about this issue. doesnt hurt to ask for help.

[Darnell 8,478]

scheduling seems a problem at the moment - I don't know why.

I suggest you keep trying, several times, or tens of several times, each day.

[bigdog 376]

Dog them to get it done.

[DaLuoBo 3]

We are having the same problem. Called CGI Stanley and they gave me the same advice....just keep trying. It really seems there are quite a few kinks to be worked out with this system. I feel like once they fix it, those interview slots are going to get snatched up quick with all the backlogged people waiting to schedule.

[JustFred 0]

I have been trying for three weeks now. About a week and half ago, July 8 and 9 were open (too early, need end of July/beginning of Aug) but since that day, no appointments available. Not sure what to do . . .

[Q&R 1]

scheduling seems a problem at the moment - I don't know why.

I suggest you keep trying, several times, or tens of several times, each day.

The problem with that I idea to keep trying several times a day is that the CGI website is telling me that I will reach a maximum amount of times I can view the 'scheulde appointment' page and will ultimately kick me off if viewed too many times.

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?! I wish the embassy had some excuse or answers

[rawlsca 2]

I'm actually glad to hear that I'm not the only one seeing a blank calendar. I've been seeing it for 3 days now. When I first saw it, I was very frustrated because we have been urgently waiting for our P4 communication, and when we finally got it, we thought the end of our separation would be very soon. Desperate to find out if the blank calendar wasn't just a computer glitch on my end, I searched for a number to call and found one here: http://ustraveldocs.com/cn/cn-main-contactus.asp

I called the US number and, amazingly, a real person answered. "Jen" was her name. She went to the calendar page on her computer and said she saw the same thing. She was very kind in her speech, but I could tell she was not very knowledgeable about the inside information as to why there were no available dates. I hope there's no political "curtain" being raised in China causing this interview scheduling problem. The news about the stability of China's economy and the ill will between the US and China recently has me somewhat worried that this scheduling delay might be related. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but I can't live without my future wife, so I feel a little panicky about the whole thing. If anyone has any information that can rule out the political "curtain" possibility, please let me know.

Also, before we ever saw the blank calendar, my fiancee had a terrible time paying the visa fee. I don't have a Chinese debit card, so she had to pay it herself (with money I gave her during my fifth and last trip a month and a half ago). She has two Chinese debit cards and neither one of them worked when she tried to pay using their online method. She went to her bank to find out why and they told her there's nothing wrong, that she should be able to do online transactions. She doesn't have a printer, so printing the "advice slip containing CGI Reference Number" as instructed before going to a CITIC bank to pay in person would have been very difficult for her. So I suggested she just go to the CITIC bank around the corner from her home and explain her situation. Fortunately they went ahead and allowed her to pay the visa fee without the document, so she gave them the CGI REFERENCE NUMBER I gave to her and paid the visa fee. When she returned to our video chat , I went to the "Confirm Receipt" page, just before the calendar step, to enter the receipt number and found that the CITIC bank that she paid the visa fee to had already entered the receipt number for us. So I jumped to the calendar page and saw the infamous message "There are currently no appointments available". That started our multi-hour panic session. The worst 5 minutes of that time was when we decided to confirm that I had given her the correct CGI REFERENCE NUMBER. I had, in fact, given her the correct number, but here's what happened next. Since I was already on the calendar page, I decided to go back to the page that showed me this number. It showed no fee was owed and displayed what I thought was the same number it had given me before, 620114496050. But little did I know at the time, the number being displayed was 620014496050. The 4th digit had been changed from "1" to "0", but I did not know this number was different, so I told her the number I saw and the 5 minute horror began! It wasn't the number I had given her before, so she immediately screamed and started crying. We video chat 3 or 4 times a day, so we could also see each other. My heart was broken to see her crying like this. It was the first time I had seen her so unhappy. It was terrible for both of us. The bank had warned her several times that if the number was wrong, they could not give her a refund. In her view 1488 RMB is a lot of money and she had worked so hard to get this paid and, suddenly, we were faced with having given the bank the wrong number. After about 5 minutes of trying to figure out what to do, I decided to look at the screen shot I had saved earlier before she paid. That was when I found that the 4th digit was different. So we realized that she had given the bank the correct number after all and she began to settle down and return to normal, somewhat. She was very tired and stressed out over this whole fiasco of trying the get the visa fee paid. So was I. Being in America, all this was during the nighttime for me, so I was very tired.

Anyway, telling you VJers my story made me feel better. Again, if anyone has any information that can rule out the political "curtain" possibility, please let me know. Thanks all!

[Darnell 8,478]

i know of no 'political curtain' possibility, in China,

as cgi stanley is a usa company and the website is housed in USA.

otoh, something is INDEED broken at that website. PLUS there's stuff 'they' are not telling us about when dates are released for scheduling and that, in itself, is a huge problem.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Darnell

[Q&R 1]

Desperate to find out if the blank calendar wasn't just a computer glitch on my end, I searched for a number to call and found one here: http://ustraveldocs.com/cn/cn-main-contactus.asp

I called the US number and, amazingly, a real person answered. "Jen" was her name. She went to the calendar page on her computer and said she saw the same thing. She was very kind in her speech, but I could tell she was not very knowledgeable about the inside information as to why there were no available dates.

What is the phone number you called? I would like to also call

[Darnell 8,478]

click the link, the number is there.

[Q&R 1]

click the link, the number is there.

Wow...I'm stupid. Sorry about that.

I called them and they said that even they don't know what the problem is because its the embassy who makes the appointments, and it looks like CGI Stanley and the embassy don't even have any kind of communication with each other because no one at CGI knows why this is happening (or they know but they don't tell us). He also said that last week Thursday some slots were opened up but were taken really fast.

Is there any way to call the Guangzhou embassy and talk to a representative? I'm getting really sick and tired of this bull@#$%

[Darnell 8,478]

if a CGI Stanley rep said this -> its the embassy who makes the appointments

then that CGI Stanley employee is stupid - the appointments are made WITH CGI Stanley's website.

[Q&R 1]

if a CGI Stanley rep said this -> its the embassy who makes the appointments

then that CGI Stanley employee is stupid - the appointments are made WITH CGI Stanley's website.

I think what he meant is that even though CGI is used to make the appointments, but the embassy still has to free up time slots for the appointment. If they block all time schedules, like they are doing now, then i guess CGI has nothing to do with it. If the embassy doesn't want appointments, then they won't do appointments, and there is nothing CGI can do about it.

That's just my guess

[Darnell 8,478]

ya, i've another guess, it's similar, along the same lines... here it is...

historically, scheduling at GUZ IV has been done in batches.

when it's a scheduling day - slots are 'released' and things are scheduled at GUZ IV.

fast forward to EP casefiles (not k-1 visa chasers at all) and now NVC has to wait on GUZ IV to release slots to them for scheduling.

Now that CGI Stanley is involved, my posit is that GUZ IV still has to 'release slots' to CGI Stanley (in the same manner done for NVC) , then the available slots are 'viewable' back at the appointment calendar thingie.

But that's only a posit, for the moment - I've no hard facts.

Edited June 24, 2013 by Darnell