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Adoption

What's New

February 18, 2011

Announcement:  Changes in Interview Procedures for Adopted Children’s Immigrant Visas

In our continuing effort to streamline visa processing and to provide better service to adoptive families, U.S. Consulate General Guangzhou's Adopted Children’s Immigrant Visa Unit (ACIVU) announces important new procedures for adopted children’s immigrant visa interviews.  

These changes are explained in detail below, but in summary, we are combining the document intake process with the oath ceremony, which will allow us to provide next day turnaround for visa issuance,  provide an additional day of consular appointments each week, and expand LSC/Article 5 drop-off and pickup days.

• Beginning Monday, February 28, 2011, interview appointments will be available on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday at 8:30a.m. and 10:00a.m.

• Approximately 12 appointments will be available at each time slot. 

• At the interview appointment, families will take the oath, submit their documents, and sign the DS-230 form.  Consular employees will verify the identities of the adoptive parents and children.  

o I-600 families will pay the visa fees as part of their scheduled appointment.  The consular employee accepting the application documents will direct the family to the Consulate cashier.  Payment may be made in cash (Ren Min Bi or U.S. dollar) or by US dollar credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diner’s Club, or Discover).

• Approved visa packets will be available for pickup by families or their facilitators at 3:30p.m. the following day.

• The interviews will take place in the American Citizen Services (ACS)/ACIVU waiting room, not  in the Immigrant Visa waiting room currently used.  As space in our waiting room is limited, we ask that families limit the number of attendees to those critical to the interview process.  Agency facilitators may assist families in preparing the case checklist and documents before the interview, but space does not allow for facilitators to accompany families to the interview.    We anticipate that the interview process will take less than one hour, and are committed to making the process as expedient as possible for waiting families.  A small play space is available, and diaper changing facilities are available in the restrooms.

o Families should allow 30 minutes to enter the building and clear security.    Because of space constraints, we ask that families with 10:00a.m. appointments not arrive earlier than necessary.

• These changes will allow us to provide expanded LSC and Article 5 drop-off/pick up services.  Effective February 28, LSCs may be submitted and Article 5s collected on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday at 3:00 pm.   Processing time for Article 5s will continue to be 10 business days.


Example of new Consular appointment timeline:

• Family arrives at Consulate in time to clear security and enter ACIVU in time for their scheduled appointment time. 

• The Adoptions Officer will administer the oath to the group, and then families will be called individually to the interview windows.

• Parent/s will go to the interview window with their adopted child/children and submit the required documents, including passports. Consular staff will verify the identities of parent/s and child/children. One parent will need to remain at the window while the consular employee reviews their file to ensure that all required documents are provided and filled out correctly. That parent will then sign the DS-230 form, after which the family may leave the Consulate. (I-600 families will pay visa fees at Consulate cashier and submit payment receipt to ACIVU before leaving.)

• Families or their designated representatives may collect the issued visa packets at 3:30p.m. the next business day.

o While the vast majority of visas are available at the scheduled time, it is always possible that problems beyond our control may delay visa issuance.  We recommend that families allow time for unforeseen delays when scheduling their departure from Guangzhou.

We will contact those agencies who have scheduled appointments for families in March to advise them of these changes and request their assistance in immediately notifying affected families. We are not changing the date of any already-scheduled appointments; the only change for these families is that they will appear at the Consulate on the morning of their scheduled appointment date rather than in the afternoon.   We believe these changes will provide for a more efficient process and provide better service to adoptive families, and we appreciate your cooperation and patience as we implement these changes.