Passed the Interview and On Her Way Here!

Well, Winnie did in fact pass her interview on June 30, and from the way she tells it she did well. Here is what happened to Weifang during her day-long interview process.

She was staying at a hotel only ten minutes’ walk from the consulate, she could not tell me which one as her English is too poor to translate. I assume it is a local hotel used by many women waiting for interviews as she mentioned other women’s visa ordeals while she was there this past week.

Weifang went armed with a 12 inch (30.5 CM) thick stack of documents, CDs, and pictures all organized and stuffed into clear plastic bags, as per the insane security restrictions now in place at our US consulate.

Her appointment letter said 8:00, so Weifang was at the consulate in line at 7:00. She was allowed into the consulate at 8:00 AM, and waited until 9:40 to pay her visa fees. They gave her a number (#64) and told her to wait. She sat until 10:35 when she was fingerprinted.

The consulate told her to go to lunch, come back at 1:00. WeiFang tells me that during the morning session, they were only interviewing “older women” and those women with children.

Weifang had lunch and was back at 1:00. She waited until 2:16 to be finally called. I don’t know what window she had, but it was a man and seems to be one of the decent VOs. Weifang did tell me that the interview was in English, but her spoken English is weak so I assume the VO was decent enough to speak slow with her. The VO went through her paperwork and asked her:

• How did we meet? (through the Internet)
• When did we meet? (Date of our first e-mail)
• What did I do for an occupation?
• When was the date of my divorce (first wife)?
• When was the date of her (Weifang’s) divorce (first husband)?

Then the VO inspected my income tax records. He asked how many times I had been to China, then asked to see our pictures together. Weifang had put all our pictures, along with pictures of my family that I and my mother had sent to her, in a little scrapbook. She had all the pictures labeled. She went through the pictures and explained who each of the people in my family were.

After she was done explaining my family members, the VO complimented *me* on the nice pictures, and gave her her “white slip” (the receipt that allows her to receive her visa).

The interview lasted about 15 minutes.

Weifang was in Guangzhou from Sunday morning till her interview Thursday June 30. She had gone there two weeks prior for her medical exam, so she had all her medical stuff done already.

From what she related to me during the week she was in Guangzhou, there is an older lady at window 12, and NO ONE who goes to that window seems to be able to get a white slip on the first try. (My wife explained that the rumor is this woman is too old to catch a man herself, so she wants to make life hard for all the pretty young ladies. Might be a bit of truth to this 😉 )

Winnie did receive her visa stamp The following Saturday (July 2), and bought her plane ticket the same day to arrive in Los Angeles on July 15!

So Winnie should be arriving this evening! I am presently visiting with Howard and Pam, Jeff has also come down for the weekend. Rodger will be coming over tomorrow (Saturday July 16) for a family dinner. We’ll all visit this weekend, then fly back to Mississippi Monday July 18.

So Finally There!