Quick update

Found out today that our paperwork has not been received in Guangzhou yet. It's been out of our hands since 3/11, and they haven't received it yet. The U.S. Consulate needs to receive our immigration approval along with our Letter of Acceptance from China, before they can issue our Article 5. And we need our Article 5 before China will grant us our travel approval. And we need travel approval before our agency can schedule a consulate appointment for us. And we have to have the consulate appointment before we can plan our trip.

Sigh.

So many steps and we are in control of NONE of them!! There is absolutely nothing we can do. We are helpless.

But... like I said, trying to stay positive. Our official wait for Article 5 started on 3/4 when the National Visa Center cabled our immigration approval to the U.S. Consulate, so that's 22 days ago. The average wait for Article 5 is 28 days. So we are still below average. Maybe things are perfectly on-track and this is totally normal. It's just so disconcerting to hear "we don't have your paperwork yet" when we thought they would have had it for a week or more!

Positive thoughts... Positive thoughts...