Our agency has been TRYING to make our child's VISA appointment with the United States Consulate in Guangzhou, China. This is the last step and necessary to get an expedited VISA to bring your newly adopted child home to the United States. EVERYTHING hinges from this date. Once you have your consulate appointment, that determines what day you will receive the child in his/her province and begin the Chinese side of the paperwork. So no plans can be made - and no TICKETS can be purchased - until we know our Consulate date.
The problem is apparently that the Consulate has repeatedly asked for different bits of information, and they are either not being received or they can't read them (or ????????). The RIDICULOUS part is that the Consulate ALREADY HAS ALL THIS PAPERWORK!!! I confirmed that they had received it all back in JUNE. But for some reason they are asking our agency to send copies, and that isn't working right. But they don't even NEED THE COPIES?? They have the ORIGINALS??? I just don't get it...
Our agency rep was able to call the Consulate last night (Thursday morning China time) and try to find out what the problem was. In the process she got a verbal confirmation of an appointment DATE of November 12 - BUT she STILL needed to FAX over YET ANOTHER COPY of our immigration clearance - that exact same document that the Consulate CONFIRMED RECEIPT OF back in June.
I'm tempted to just buy the tickets based on the 11/12 date. Surely the Consulate could fit us in on that date, ESPECIALLY since they should have been able to give us confirmation days ago.
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3 comments:
I know it is hard, but don't buy tickets. We had a similar scenario with the Olympics and they ended up bumping us a whole week. We would have had so many flight changes to make the fees would have been awful.
I hope they get the paperwork filled out. It sounds like you will be there very soon!!
Best of luck with your journey!
Fellow XingFu Mommy,
Tracy
Hi Kate,
I have heard of this happening with many people and different agencies. How did you confirm that the consulate had your paperwork? I am thinking I should do this now, giving the fact I hope to travel Dec/Jan! You are sooooo close to traveling! WOW next week is a breath away and you'll soon be holding your little guy! I am so excited for you. Blessings to you on your travel.
Elaine
email the consulate at GuangzhouA @ state . gov (remove spaces). Give them your GUZ number if possible, but at least your full names and ask for confirmation that they have received your VISA-37 cable from the United States.
They have been replying the next business day in China.
I HIGHLY recommend forwarding this confirmation email to your agency so they have it if there is a problem! Our old agency had this problem with a recent consulate appointment, and they re-faxed the information requested ALONG WITH a copy of the emailed confirmation and received a confirmed appointment in just a few hours. Our agency has faxed the same documents three times, now... and we still do not have a confirmed appointment.
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