A Formal Invite

By mid last week we really started sweating the timeline we were on, to this point we had already invested money into luggage, supplies, plane tickets and liquidated all of our home furnishings but still had no invitation from the Chinese Government or other documents for the visa process. In an effort to save money and plan ahead Andrew had to book a flight to Chicago for Friday August 19th, making this flight is pretty much do or die considering our flight is scheduled for Sunday August 21st . The paperwork arrived on Thursday morning via FedEx and at 3am Andrew was headed to the Atlanta airport, Chicago bound – Talk about a close call. ~side note: to date we have had only about 3 hours of sleep in the last 50 hours.

Everything went smoothly in Chicago due to Andrew arriving at the Embassy half an hour prior to opening. To his surprise there were already close to 20 people waiting in line. The setup is similar to the DMV, where on arrival you take a number and wait your turn. Since we paid extra for same day service he turned in all of the documents and was told to comeback at 2:30 (all of the workers take their lunch up to that time). Andrew says he enjoyed the city but due to exhaustion he did not have a chance to explore very much. As his facebook post read on Friday “…Breakfast in Atlanta, Lunch in Chicago, Dinner in Macon”.

For information purposes, in case you need to have a visa processed – Each person should complete a form and if everyone will not be at the Embassy during processing, have the absentee Adults sign a few blank extra copies just in case something needs to be changed – and if you are not sure of the answer on the sheet – leave it blank, it can be completed at the Embassy – just make sure it is signed. Take marriage certs, birth certs, passports and any documents that you even think may be relevant. Also make sure you get back before 2:30 because everyone who opted for same day service that day will also be back at the same time so you want to get in line early.