Only relevant documents can be carried, and they must be placed in a non-woven or paper bag. No bags, mobile phones, watches, electronic products, or wallets are allowed. Hotel room keys can be taken, so after passing the visa interview, one should quickly return to the hotel to retrieve their phone to report to family and friends.
Now, the sidewalk in front of the consulate is also closed off. Enter through the security checkpoint at the intersection of Huaxia Road and Huali Road (the security personnel here will just ask a question, no need to show anything), walk to the middle of the sidewalk in front of the consulate, and start lining up for the first queue.
PS: There is no need to arrive too early; arriving 20 minutes before the time indicated on the notification letter is sufficient. The left queue is for immigration visa processing, while the right queue is for non-immigrant visa processing.
The Chinese security personnel will require you to line up according to the next time slot for which you are scheduled. For example, if the next group is to be admitted at 9:20, only those for that time slot should line up; those scheduled for 9:40 should not. There is a time slot every 20 minutes, starting from 8:00 AM. After the consulate notifies, the security personnel will begin checking the interview notification letters and allow entry according to the time slots, which is why lining up outside of your scheduled time is ineffective.
Walk about ten meters to the entrance of the consulate, where you will line up again for a preliminary check by consulate staff. At this point, they will check your notification letter and passport. After the check, you will wait again.
Once cleared, you will enter the guard room for security checks, then exit the guard room and officially enter the consulate courtyard. Follow the signs to the right, enter through the side entrance of the main building, and take the elevator to the third floor to officially enter the "examination room."
Exiting the elevator on the third floor leads to the immigration visa interview hall, a narrow and elongated space that is quite compact and somewhat cramped, even smaller than the service hall of our local street office. One side of the corridor is the waiting area, which has only two rows of seats, while the other side has windows where consulate staff are seated, with their open office area behind them. There are about 20 windows, but only 7 or 8 of them are staffed. The waiting area is filled with people, with only a few empty seats.
Following the staff's guidance, we first went to window 1 (next to the elevator hall), where we only submitted the interview notification letter and received a number. Due to the child's young age, we were assigned a priority number, and there was no waiting throughout the process, which was very considerate.
After receiving the number, we waited in Area A (where Areas A and B are essentially just the front and back halves of the long interview hall, separated by a dividing strip), waiting to be called.
When our number was called, it was just a "ding" sound to indicate a new number was being called, and then we had to look at the displays above each window to see which window was calling which number. Since the waiting seats are very close to the windows, some distant windows have a very oblique view, making it a bit difficult to see if you are sitting at the edge. I suddenly miss the way numbers are called back home, where they announce, "Please go to window XX with number XX," or the glaring red number display screens that you can't help but look at. This also reflects the difference between the initial stage of immigration and the advanced stage, a difference in mindset: one is anxious and worried about delays, while the other is calm and does not want to disturb others. Immigration is primarily about adjusting one's mindset (voiceover: easier said than done).
Window 12 in Area A quickly called us, and we submitted our documents: including the interview notification letter, passport, two photos, notarized documents (the cover and back cover must be torn off in front of them), and the medical examination report (the sealed envelope must be opened in front of them), as well as the address confirmation letter from the Bank of China for passport collection. Other than that, no information regarding the project and funds was requested. Then they began asking questions, mainly about which countries we had visited and how long we had stayed in those countries. We answered truthfully. I believe they ask these questions to determine whether we have visited any countries that the U.S. considers sensitive and how long we stayed in those countries to see if we need to provide a certificate of no criminal record. After the questions, we were instructed to wait in Area B.
Just a few steps to Area B, and as soon as I found a seat, I saw our number was called. I suddenly thought the child was very cute, and it was not easy to benefit from him; even crossing the street to the consulate while holding his hand did not cause any cars to slow down.
It was number 21 displayed at the window. When I approached, I saw a young Caucasian man. After a brief exchange of glances, I felt there would be no issues. Indeed, the questions were all standard: the oath, whether I was a member of the Communist Party, the project name, whether I was aware of the risks, the source of project funds, and what my occupation was. Then, they asked for fingerprints. After that, they asked the co-applicant about their education level, and then they took fingerprints again. Finally, they asked the main applicant to provide fingerprints for the child, then handed us a white slip and congratulated us on passing. The entire process took no more than 10 minutes, with a significant portion of that time spent reviewing our documents.