This morning I came back from my run and an email from the National Visa Center was waiting in my inbox. Our petition has been forwarded to the US Embassy/Consulate General in Guangzhou! This step, called the NVC cable, only took seven days, which is pretty quick, and even quicker when you consider we had a holiday weekend thrown in there. A copy of the letter, along with some other official visa-related forms, will be dropped off at the embassy in Guangzhou on Tuesday. It will stay at the embassy for 10 working days. Usually this is the most predictable part of the process-- if you had it dropped off on a Tuesday, you'd have it picked up two weeks later on a Tuesday and brought directly to the CCCWA for Travel Approval. However, MLK Day and Chinese New Year will throw a wrinkle in those plans, so it will take three weeks for the approved paperwork to get to the CCCWA instead of the normal two.
After the paperwork goes back to the CCCWA, we'll wait for Travel Approval. This usually takes about three weeks, but I've seen it take as few as 12 days and as long as 35 lately. Families generally travel two or three weeks after TA, depending on the availability of consulate appointments.
For the last two steps (the I800 and the NVC cable) we could encourage the process along a little bit by emailing and requesting PDFs. It felt good to think that I could put some nice, gentle pressure on the people at the other end of the approval process. But from here on out, there's nothing for us to do but wait, enjoy the little milestones, wait a little more, chew our fingernails, wait, eat chocolate, and eventually, work ourselves into a frenzy of nesting, packing, and buying plane tickets.
If we work according to the law of averages, here's what our timeline might look like:
Article 5 Drop-Off: January 10th
Article 5 Pick Up: January 26th
Paperwork to CCCWA: January 30th
TA: February 20th
Leave for China: March 10th
Gotcha Day: March 12th
Home: March 23rd
I'm eager to see if my predictions are on target. Of course, maybe I'm too optimistic, but this is a case where I can't be blamed for wanting things to happen quickly!
And yes, I am trucking away at the novel. I think one more chapter might do it. Then revise, revise, revise, defend, go get Rose!
4 comments:
Hooray, hooray!! One step closer to bringing Rose home!!
Love, Grannie
I'm so glad things are humming along! You must have done something right, somewhere in the past ;-)
♥
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Congratulations on your little one. I'm not "on" RQ, so I couldn't post there, but I wanted to say my husband ran in Nanjing and found several great parks. Our travel mate's husband DID get lost once and he had a very LONG run trying to find his way back :-) Also, running in Guangzhou was easy, as well, on the island. He just ran in circles around the island several times.
I am enjoying your blog as I am a reader and "wannabe" runner...trying to increase my speed and actually enjoy half-marathons :-)
--Andrea
Thanks, Nat's mom! I need to scope out the park scene!
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