How to Cope With Guangzhou

We've received literally hundreds of phone calls and emails from folks who were delighted to see our firm's memo on the web. However, there was one unintended negative consequence of the memo as some people expressed concern that the situation in Guangzhou is so bad that they might never see their fiancée or wife again. Let me state emphatically that there is reason for hope; and this is true whether the Guangzhou Consulate changes its current policies or not. My office’s own experience over the last eight months will illustrate the point: we haven’t had a single full service case sent back by Guangzhou for revocation since August of last year (we had one case sent for revocation in December but it was a "Consulate Only" case; we realized only after the interview that the petitioner included documents with the I-129F petition that greatly damaged his case). This occurred during a time when all reports indicated that the Consulate had not changed any of its policies and that it was continuing to send a large percentage of it’s marriage-based cases back to the CIS with a recommendation for revocation. We’ve successfully completed 12 cases in this time period. What’s our secret? There is none. In fact we don’t believe there are any tricks, innovations or clever stratagems to beat this problem. There is just good, solid preparation. We improved our success rate through the following:

1. Increasing our understanding of what the Consulate was looking for in terms of red flags. The more cases we did, and especially after we started doing exit interviews of our Guangzhou interviewees, the more sophisticated we became. We have shared a good part of this knowledge with the world in my memo. Everyone who reads it has a better chance of avoiding a failed interview than they did in the past.

2. Careful issue-spotting from the outset of the case. In effect, we took what we learned in 1 above and applied it to our case intake, formulation of case strategy, and advice for clients about how to minimize any weaknesses or problems in the case.

3. Careful monitoring of the case as it develops and also of any changes in Guangzhou’s processing. In other words, it is essential to keep the benefits from 1 and 2 “fresh” throughout. Things can change over time.

4. Prepping the fiancee or spouse at length (and with a Chinese interpreter on the line regardless of the fiancee/spouse's Enlish fluency) to enhance her understanding of the potential pitfalls in the interview and to improve her confidence and calm going in.

Really, that's it.